Are you looking for ways to be more creative in your planner?  Perhaps you have one you love but are stuck for inspiration on how to use it?  Have you found a way to keep memories or track habits that works for you?  Maybe you have an abundance of washi and stickers that you would like to use in your journals more?

Take a look at these ideas using an Archer & Olive pre-printed planner.

Hello, it’s Alex (@TheJournalCorner) from the Archer and Olive ambassador team.  Today I am going to share how I use my planners for memory keeping, tracking and even daily lettering practice.  I will give you some examples of different ideas to try and also include a printable you can access later in this blog.

Daily Journal Supplies

You can keep the supplies simple or include stickers and washi, it’s up to you!

• Archer & Olive pre-printed planner
• A black ink pen for writing
• A selection of coloured pens like these spring calliographs 
• Washi and stickers  - I love these from the spring release

If you are looking to purchase anything from Archer & Olive, please use ‘Alex10’ to save 10%. This is an affiliate link, so it allows you to support creators like me too.

How is a planner different to a Bullet Journal?

I have been Bullet journaling for years but also love the excuse to use a planner alongside my Archer & Olive journal.  When the Amy Tangerine dated planners were released, I wanted to find a use for them alongside my Bullet Journal.  Archer & Olive have dated and undated planners and because these are pre-printed, it saves a huge amount of time.  There is no need to set up weekly layouts or calendar spreads.  You can focus on using them for productivity or, as I will share today, some other creative uses.

Memory keeping in a planner

I have been using one of my planners as a memory journal.  With a section already allocated to each day, this has allowed me to make time for some brief notes or a more detailed update on what we have done that day.  I try to include smaller things I have enjoyed too, and use the brush calliographs to accentuate key words.  This is also a fantastic opportunity to add in decorative stickers, either if relevant to your memory or to fill in some unused space.  

Take a look at the printable later in this blog for an idea on how to add photos into your memory planner too.

Using a planner for tracking

A pre-printed calendar page at the start of each month can be invaluable for tracking something to refer back to or recall.  I have used it for keeping a note of the weather for that month but you could track no spends days, exercise routines, sleep, moods etc. The note section at the bottom is ideal for additional comments too, in this example seasonal wildlife observations.

Archer & Olive planner stickers include dates so setting up the calendar page in a undated planner can be quick and easy too.

Using a planner for daily lettering

When I was looking for ideas on how to use a planner earlier this year, I came across the idea of a commonplace journal.  This is a notebook dedicated to knowledge-making and writing down information you may want to return to later.  

I also loved the idea of having space to practice and widen my range of lettering. I therefore started to use my planner to note down a quote each day.  These included quotes from a film we watched or a book I was reading, perhaps even song lyrics.  I started to include notes on key news events and things I was grateful for too.  

The notes section could be used to add positive affirmations for the week or keep a list of what you have listened to, watched or read.

Other uses for a pre-printed planner

Using your planner in a non-typical way can save time and allow you to be creative not just productive in this type of journal.  

I have also used the Archer & Olive pre-printed planners as a social media content planner, with space to plan ahead and week by week.

You could even use it for:

• Adding photographs into each box of the calendar to have daily photo memories for the month.  See this blog’s printable to help with this!
• Track daily reading goals and reviewing chapter by chapter.
• Draw some doodles each day
• Use the space for completing online challenges e.g. lettering challenge
• Create sketchnotes of your days
• Stick in mementoes, tickets etc from days out

Video - creative inspiration for your planner.

You can watch me go through these examples in more detail in my video here.

Planner inspiration printable 

If you would like to add photos into your planner’s calendar, please take a look at this printable to help you with the sizing.

Summary

I hope you have found some different ideas to try in your planner today.  Perhaps you have a planner you haven’t been using that much and can pick up and start with again. For more journal inspiration come and say hello @thejournalcorner. We always love to see your creations, so please tag @archerandolive and @archerandolive.community or use #aoshare on Instagram.

For more journal inspiration for your planner take a look at this blog on travel memories or more details on how to use it for managing social media. Perhaps you are a teacher and want to try using it as a planner for work, take a look at more ideas here.