My Experience with The Happy Planner after 6 Months
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I distinctly remember the day over the summer where I posted on my InstaStory about debating which planner I should get and how I was tempted to get the Happy Planner. Seconds later, I received a text message from the one and only Kayla from Kayla Blogs with some exclusive info about her planner for the semester… She chose the Happy Planner.
If the planner queen herself raves about a planner and actually chooses to use it, I knew I had made the right choice.
I took a long lunch, hurried over to my local Michael’s and picked up my very own Happy Planner.
I published a planner reveal back in August, but I hadn’t really had the chance to fully experience how the Happy Planner functions for me.
Do I still love the Happy Planner as much as I did in August??? Keep reading to find out!
❤️ What I’m Loving
- Ability to add and remove pages as needed
- Expansion packs. I don’t own any, but for people who need accountability with finances, cleaning, fitness, etc., they seem to be great!
- The Happy Planner Instagram. It’s beautiful and inspirational.
- Sticker books 😍
Durability of the cover. It’s super sturdy & not likely to fall apart if you’re shoving it in and out of your bag all day every day- Customization on all levels. They make a hole punch so you can create and add your own pages, and they also make a
box punch so you can create stuff that will fit perfectly inside one of the daily boxes.
👎🏼 What I Dislike
- Feeling the need to own every sticker pack out there because they’re all so beautiful
- Having to do some research to know what the colors/features are inside that you want. Each of the planners has a different layout and design. Make sure you flip through the planner before you buy to see if it has everything that you want. Some have a vertical layout, some have a horizontal layout. Pages before the start of the month vary between planners. Double check before you
check out. - All of the planners aren’t available at every location. For example, JoAnns and Michael’s have different planner selections.
How I make the Layout work for me
The layout of the Happy Planner is so versatile, but can be super overwhelming. I dove head-first into Happy Planner videos on YouTube to see how other people were making their planner work for them.
Turns out, most of the people on YouTube are making their planners look like a perfectly put together scrapbook instead of a daily planner…
The Monthly Spread
I use this as my “editorial calendar”.
I put that in quotes because I don’t 100% stick to my editorial calendar, but it gives me a place to jot down blog post ideas and a rough idea of when I want to publish them. This is the only page I use pencil on, and it’s for a good reason. Things are always changing with the calendar, so I don’t want it to be filled with
I absolutely LOVE having my editorial calendar with me at all times in paper form. I used to have one pinned to the wall in my office, but I would never stick to it… Now I can work on things when I’m not home and still see exactly when I want content published.
The Weekly Spread
This is where things get exciting because there are so many different ways you can use the three vertical boxes.
I started out doing: Morning, Afternoon, Evening
It made the most logical sense to me, but after a while, things got a bit jumbled and it made me realize I needed to try something different. I am not only using the planner for my school and personal life, but it also has blogging/business stuff in it as well.
Top & Middle Boxes: Daily to-do lists and appointments/reminders/activities
Bottom Box: Blogging & Podcast stuff
Other Fun Stuff
To keep things super organized, I color code everything… well, almost everything… using my Zebra Midliner highlighter/marker/pens. I love the look of black ink with muted highlight tones. It makes me so much more likely to actually get stuff done!
Stickers and washi tape are a super duper fun way to spice up your weekly spreads if you have the time. I notice that I used to do the whole weekly spread thing more in the fall than I have now. It’s a lot of work, and it’s super easy to start comparing my spreads to other people’s spreads on Instagram.
And in regards to being able to add your own custom pages, I’m still waiting to get that Happy Planner hole punch…
Overall, I truly love my Happy Planner. It fits my needs perfectly, and it’s the best $$$ I’ve spent on a planner in a long time.
If you’re someone who wants a cut and dry planner where you don’t have to do anything to make it function the way you want, I wouldn’t recommend this to you. It takes a little bit of effort to figure out how to use the Happy Planner to best fit your needs.
What planner have you been using over the past year? Is it the Happy Planner? Or are you a Happy Planner fanatic? Let me know in the comments below!!
~abigail gray
