Plan With Me – Monthly Layout

How I Use My Monthly Layout In My Planner

As I’ve mentioned before I use an Erin Condren Life Planner that has both a weekly and monthly layout to help maximize my productivity. By using this combination it gives me an easy overview of important events, practices, and tasks that I need to complete. I start with the monthly big picture goals and plans and then break those down into achievable, smaller weekly and daily tasks. Here is an overview of how I set up my monthly layout for success.

 

Start With Monthly First

I begin working in my planner by thinking of the year as a whole. I use page flags and mark down all important dates, anniversaries, holidays etc. in my monthly view. Before the month begins (towards the middle of the prior month), I will go in and decorate and fill out my monthly view the way I want it to look (more on that later). I plan out 2 months at a time so that way any future plans that come up I can put it right into my planner.

 

Decorate, Personalize, Make it Yours

This is my most favorite part – the decorating. You can check out my earlier post about ways to prettify your planner here. But for the monthly layout, I plan out and decorate the next 2 month’s spreads 2.5 months ahead of time (so if I am in July, September and October will be done). My page flags are already in place, I double check my calendar and the kids school calendar and get to work. Some months I use a monthly kit purchased from an Etsy shop, like I did for September. The kit I used for September is from Two Nine Sticker Co and can be found here. It was $11 for the full kit or $3.75 per page – which is not bad at all. I don’t do this all the time, but September is my birthday month and wanted to splurge and make it look pretty. Buying a kit is kind of a no major effort needed way to decorate and it makes things a lot easier (and prettier) If I don’t have a kit, I use the stickers from my Erin Condren planner, washi tape, and/or other Etsy stickers or just write in my important plans with colorful pens.

 

Use it For All The Things

I keep track of everything in my monthly layout. From appts, bills, school functions, work events – everything gets stored in my monthly planner. If using a kit, I will take quarter boxes to mark off important events like birthdays or school functions. I use functional icons to mark different bills I have to pay during the month and I mark down my pay days (only mine because my husband’s is weekly). In the sidebar I keep track of monthly orders that I make, special events, and major bills.

 

Notes Section

I use this section of my planner for my blog and for to-do’s around the house. I keep track of my social media stats from the start of the month to the end of the month to see the progress. I then use one of the notes columns to list all of the upcoming blog posts or ideas I have to write about for that month. On the opposite side in my to-do column, I write all of the major projects that I want to accomplish in the house – major decluttering, cleaning, or goals for that month. On the bottom I have been outing inspirational quotes to motivate me for the month.

 

That pretty much sums it up for my monthly spread. How do you plan your monthly spread? I’d love to hear – comment below! 🙂

 

*This post contains a referral link for $10 off your Erin Condren order. By purchasing through this link, I receive a $10 credit as well.