Last year, I tested out the Louis Vuitton of planners in a timeless, minimalist design and couldn’t have been happier! The paper quality alone was so luxurious, my pens thought they were heli-skiing on an untouched, snowy mountain range.

This year, we’re no longer heli-skiing, much to the dismay of my pens.

This year, I'm going to need a personal assistant to help me. Someone who is:

• Organized (this should go without saying), with a natural capacity to keep track of my appointments, tasks, content ideas, and goals

• A yogi of the mind - a high degree of flexibility & adaptability when it comes to changing schedules, needs, and style is a MUST

• Fun, positive, and motivating

• Creative! An extensive knowledge of stationery is an ASSET

Putting these qualifiers out there for when I start adding to the WTF Team, but for now I have…

MY FIRST HAPPY PLANNER!

Really, it’s like having a trusty paper assistant.

I have the Classic 18-months, 9-disc system (7” x 9.25”) Happy Planner. She’s roomy! When she’s a stay-at-home planner (SAHP), she’s adorable - lounging on my desk like she’s perpetually poolside. It’s the commute to work in September or the trek to grad school, that makes me wrinkle my nose. I’m slowly embracing the ‘clunk’ of these discs. So much so, that I’ve replaced the original plastic discs with metal ones.

But her disc-bound system is what makes her so incredibly customizable!

Design Advantages

Embracing the disc-bound planner system offers me the freedom to tailor and adorn my Happy Planner to my liking.

1. Planner cover - While I wasn’t able to include my WTF Bride or Mimu Crafts branding on the cover like I did with my Erin Condren planner, the snap in covers for the Happy Planners are interchangeable!

2. Interior layout and design - I’m a vertical layout convert! No more wasting time colour-coding my tasks when I can categorize them under one of my three daily categories: To Do, Learn, and Content.

The page designs in the Happy Planner are simple, which I prefer. That way, the pages don’t compete with my own design of washi tapes and stickers.

The monthly dividers balance out this clean design with adorable cats and blurbs of positivity to inspire cuteness and creativity throughout your day.

3. Disc Colour - Discs come in different designs, colours, and materials. Take your pick!

The degree of flexibility a Happy Planner offers is amazing. The discs allow you to tailor your planner to suit your distinctive organizational style and creative flair by simplifying page additions, removals, and reordering. This helps you “downsize” your pages or customize sections in your planner for school, work, personal life, content creation, fitness, etc. The Happy Planner is really your one-stop shop.

4. The Happy Planner Classic Punch - Are you telling me I don’t have to stick my custom dashboard pages to existing planner pages?!

Lifechanging.

Setting Up My Happy Planner

1. Life Dashboard

This is my planner’s control centre! I’ve designed these pages to match my Happy Planner’s Whimsical Whiskers theme.

These pages live at the front of my planner and lists my weekly tasks, monthly tasks, and includes a calendar of birthdays and anniversaries.

They’re the reason I get a lot of things done! They’ve helped me hardwire simple tasks into habits.

Send me an email at submit@wtfbride.com, if you have questions about custom planner pages or how these pages help automate my life.

2. Blog Calendar

I use this yearly calendar to content plan and keep track of blog traffic.

3. Goal Setting

Okay, what’s the secret to downsizing your possessions?! And is it possible with a toddler?

These pages will chronicle my continuing goal of purging my things. It’s challenging when everything is cute, you know?

4. Monthly Dashboard

This monthly dashboard comes right before each month’s calendar spread. Mine is a work in progress.

It can be used for monthly reflections, goal-setting, and tracking delegated tasks or packages in transit.

Other ways you can use this section include: event countdowns, habit tracking, meal planning, brainstorming, record keeping, or as a place to jot down tidbits of inspiration.

5. Monthly Calendar Spread

The monthly calendar gives me a sense of how busy my month will be. It also prevents me from double-booking anyone!

I usually have sticky notes of appointments, events, and reminders if the dates are a month + in advance. The items here have space to breathe before they get finalized in the weekly planning sections.

6. Weekly Planning Spread

This section melds organization with creative expression. No matter how busy things get, I’ll always carve out time to sticker plan!

Something different between the Erin Condren and Happy Planners’ vertical layouts is that the Happy Planner doesn’t have title bars above each box in their weekly spread.

For details of my planning tools, click here.

7. Snap In Sticker Page Protectors

As a sticker lover, where have these been all my life?

8. ‘Notes Section’

Financial Goals - Finances are my favourite area for goal setting! I have two copies of this Financial Goals page in the ‘Notes’ section of my planner.

The first Financial Goals page helps me plan for tuition payments (yes, I’m going back to school!), buying back my maternity leave, and going back to working part-time. The other is dedicated to managing my TeachersPayTeachers storefront.

The Happy Planner is a fun way to stay organized and inspired in your daily life. Get ready to plan the life you love!

If you have questions about where I curate specific products or the planner pages from my Life Dashboard, let me know.

Happy planning!