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All About Planners

Printable planners to organize your home, business and life!

November 25, 2019

Weekly Planning with Happy Planner Inserts and no weekly spread

This week was my first week back from almost 7 weeks away in Europe. Since the whole week would be nothing but lists and crossing things off a to do list, I didn’t even bother with a weekly spread, I just used lists the entire week. I categorised the things I needed to do then grabbed some Happy Notes refill pages.

  • Life admin
  • Blog & Shop to do list
  • Photo book setup
  • Black Friday Wish List

This post contains affiliate links. 

Life Admin

For my life admin I did a big brain dump of everything from the minor things like unpacking to the bigger things that are due soon or which popped up while I was away and had to deal with once I got back.  Since I wanted this to be a brain dump (i.e. a fast list) I opted for an already colorful Happy Planner insert (this list one). That way I could just use black pen and the page would still look pretty.

monthly planning setup checklists categorised work and personal rainbow lined notes pages

I like to coordinate the colors of the stationery I’m using each week, with the colors of the planner. Looking at these colors I immediately thought of the Stabilo Boss highlighters. So I opted for black pen and then highlighting when done instead of a checklist.

What a difference highlighter makes!

color coded checklist using the stabilo boss pastel highlighters weekly spread layout ideas checklists mambi happy planner refill inserts

The Happy Planner paper is thick – no ghosting or bleed through on the back side of the page. Depending how hard you press with your pen there may be some small indenting:
happy planner pen ghosting bleed through paper quality discbound refill inserts checklist

Related: Planner pen testing in the Erin Condren Life Planner, Plum Paper, Happy Planner by MAMBI and Limelife Planner 

happy planner rainbow weekly spread inserts refills

Blog & Shop to do List

I got back to Australia at the end of a month which meant I could incorporate monthly planning with this weeks spread.  I always do a monthly checklist but since it looks almost the same every month (not many ways you can do a checklist differently… ) I never post it here on the blog.

I always use either my Happy Notes or ARC notebook so I can remove and rearrange the page with whatever weekly spread I’m using that week. Or if I’m using a planner made by someone else e.g. coil bound, sewn bound etc, I can remove the page and keep it out with that planner.

I used the MAMBI checklist stamp rather than hand-drawing checkboxes.

monthly planning in my mambi happy planner how to set up a new month in your planner agenda diary organizer insert refill checklist self inking stamp categorised task list

After I did the brain dump I added numbers to the left of the checkbox for the week within the month that I planned to do that task.

monthly planning using happy planner checklist inserts refills self inking stamps list categorised by week parkoo erasable pens frixion

Blog Planning

I knew I wouldn’t have much time to write blog posts when I got back so I had some already drafted before I left and published those, so didn’t need any blog post planning pages this week. If I did, I’d probably have used a MAMBI half sheet weekly spread like this one or this one that I used for this spread.

Photo book

I make photo books of my trips and like to get started sorting photos right after I get back! I was going to use the teacher attendance / report card insert from Happy Planner but the space wasn’t long enough to write my tasks and I only needed 12 columns (1 for each country I visited).

happy planner teacher attendance record grade tracker rainbow workflow insert refill

So I made this printable (click here to download a copy) in 5 minutes in Photoshop (here are my tutorials if you want to learn how to make your own).

When I printed I just chose custom page size and entered the Happy Planner dimensions then trimmed the page and added to my Happy Notes.

See this post for a tutorial / screenshots of what settings to select in your printer.

how to plan a travel photobook free printable worksheet workflow printable making a photobook with blurb color coded all about planners

I’ll be doing an entire post on how I plan and make travel photobooks make sure you subscribe to be notified when that post is published.

Since I needed 12 colors and I wanted to try my new ParKoo erasable pens, I used a mix of the Frixion erasable and the Parkoo erasable (as each brand doesn’t have 12 rainbow colors).

Wish List

I made this printable which you can download for free here. If you’re an existing subscriber you can login to the printables library here. I record the lowest price I’ve seen (thanks to a website I use called Price Hipster). Then I know if it’s actually on sale / a good deal on Black Friday, Boxing Day sales etc.

The printable is editable (type your text before printing) but I decided to print a copy and just add to it with pen as I found new things to buy.

I resized the tutorial to fit the Classic Happy Planner. See this post for a quick tutorial on how to do this.

free printable wish list rainbow resized for happy planner quick simple black friday shopping list planner insert download

Supplies Used

  • Stabilo Boss pastel highlighters (see the rest of my favorite pastel highlighters in this post)
  • ParKoo erasable black pen
  • Smiggle tri grip ballpoint pen (dries fast so it’s great for use with highlighters)
  • MAMBI self inking checklist stamp
  • Classic size Happy Notes Notebook
  • Classic size Happy Planner checklist with pastel dots
  • Classic size Happy Planner rainbow lined notes page
  • Photobook printable (download for free here)
  • Wish list printable (download for free here)

mambi happy planner weekly spread checklists simple quick easy minimalist functional rainbow stabilo boss pastel highlighers lined insert refill ideas stamps erasable pen

Would I use this spread again?

Yes! I love the Happy Planner inserts but I do wish there was even more styles / color options to choose from.

I used the classic size Happy Planner (7″ wide x 9.25″ high) which is my favorite page size to plan with – not too small and not too big.

Using inserts and lists combined with black pen (instead of my usual rainbow colors) meant the week was quick to setup.

More Happy Planner spreads

  • Happy Notes Half Sheet Review + DIY Half Sheet Printable Inserts
  • Using MAMBI inserts and Carpe Diem planner stickers for a colorful weekly spread!
  • Happy Notes Half Sheet Review + DIY Half Sheet Printable Inserts

Happy Planner Reviews

  • Happy Planner Super Mom
  • MAMBI Happy Planner horizontal dimensions & measurements (classic size) for making planner stickers 
  • MAMBI Happy Planner Recipe Organizer Review

Liked this post? Pin it!

weekly spread using mambi happy planner refill inserts functional checklist to do list classic size happy note

weekly planning without using a weekly planner checklist only simple minimalist quick alternative spread happy planner

alternative to traditional weekly planner happy notes classic spread checklist functional quick simple planning ideas

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Posted In: 52 Planners in 52 Weeks, Happy Planner (MAMBI) · Tagged: alternative to traditional weekly planner, alternative weekly spread ideas, best happy notes, best happy planner, checklist ideas for your planner, checklist spread ideas, favorite happy planner, happy planner ideas, happy planner inserts, happy planner refills, happy planner review, happy planner spread ideas, list weekly spread ideas, planning inspiration, planning tips, weekly planner ideas, weekly spread ideas

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Welcome to All About Planners! I’m Rachael, a 20-something Aussie addicted to graphic design and all things planning. On the blog you’ll find more than 1,000 posts about all things planning including planner reviews, tips, favorite supplies and some of my past weekly spreads.

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