The Planner Layouts We Can't Live Without 📙

What are your must-have planner layouts? Join Mark and Jess as they each countdown their top 5!
📙 We want to hear from you!
Send us an email at [e-mail]
Send us a message at / plannerpalspodcast
📙 Want to find us elsewhere?
Jess: / jashiicorrin
Mark: / @markyourpages

[@VioletPhoenix922]

I love that your lists were so different based on your different lives, jobs, and needs! I get exactly why what you presented would work and be important to each of you, but maybe not as applicable to the other person. It was great to see the contrast of different styles, areas of importance, etc. presented and how something that might seem “silly” or “boring” to one person could be an absolute necessity to another. It’s a good reminder that all systems and setups are valid, they just need to work for what you need and want.

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Thank you! That was my favorite part too! -Mark

[@thenubianreview]

My first page in my set up page is IMPORTANT INFORMATION and MATTERS. This has been a game changer for me, it's a constant reminder of things that are important to me to address which has a deadline.

[@BNris]

"Dopamine hit, NEXT!" is essentially my life mantra 😂

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

I think a lot of us can relate 😂

[@ElizabethRBain]

LOVE the pen swatch pages! I don't have the patience to do that.

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Yeah it's a great page for sure! -Mark

[@AdyGrafovna]

I actually love a pre-printed planner! That’s the planner that sits on my desk at work because it’s perfect for a weekly/daily plan. I can fill it out Friday afternoon for the next week and glance at it every morning for a quick overview of what needs to be done today. But I also like carrying a notebook with me for everything that is not part of a “day planner”. I like having a place to take notes, log certain things that are important to me, and store certain collections that I reference a lot. That one is more customized and goes with me everywhere.

[@ethan-lyn]

I love the conversation about having different handwritings. I have multiple I can switch between, and one of them I stole from a classmate in 11th grade.

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Glad we're not alone with this! 😄

[@PlanetShannonTV]

I'm only halfway through the podcast, but I had to stop by and say YES TO MONDAY STARTS for monthly spreads. The weekdays and the weekends are separate mini units within the week, and it's so much easier to see them when they are side by side, not split up over different rows/lines.

[@BMad-we6qf]

And you can color block Saturday and Sunday, even with a light gray highlighter, to see that the 5 days of the work week are separate from the two days of the weekend.

[@septemberbells]

I can't live without a seasonal dashboard! They don't always have the same elements but I usually have a seasonal bucket list in there. It helps me understand the passage of time.

[@ShaunaStory]

I keep a master packing list for travel. Start with a packing list for a trip and with each subsequent trip add anything that wasn't already there. It really helps me with that am-I-forgetting-something anxiety. (Content warning: menstruation 🙃) I have a rather unusual period tracker that's a separate stacked bar chart for each period, where each filled grid square represents a product used with crosshatching indicating the absorbency level. I note how many days it's been between cycles next to the chart as well as the total counts for each absorbency. This not only helps me see patterns like when my heavy day hits, or if those patterns are changing, but also predict if a period will hit on an upcoming trip and how much product I'll need to pack. I used to do something more year-in-pixels-like, but I realized that view wasn't that helpful in getting the info I was actually looking for. My most successful layouts are those where I first think about what question I want to answer, and then think about whether a given layout will effectively answer that question.

[@mousegrey6747]

For Mark’s calendar/future log problem, Jess got you most of the way there, but if the numbers being the wrong way would stress you out, number stickers over the page numbers? That way they could be oriented to the calendar

[@BrightVioletArts]

This is such an interesting episode, thanks guys. Very inspiring!

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Most welcome! Glad you liked it 😊

[@DistanceTraveled]

Right now, I have a crazy list of apps that I use for dailies and trackers that I couldn't live without. However, in my printed planner that I decorate with *all* of the stickers due to inspiration from Jess, the must have is the monthly goal write up and review spread. I got into yearly themes (CGP Grey/Cortex) several years ago and started doing level 10 life yearly, but my planners insistence on review to goals and then it pairs weekly goals with weekly thankfulness is such a life changer! I feel more fulfilled as I am living more intentionally and have healthier levels of expectations for myself. The honorable mention fun page is my yearly list of first bird sighting by species for the year. I have this list in chronological order, but I also have a special symbol if they visited my bird feeder and if they had baby birds.

[@SheilaSanchezblog]

In addition to my weekly and monthly spreads and my future log, which are essential to me, my must have collections are my reading collection (where I track the books I read, my reading goals and challenges, my series, etc.), what I call my Lupus Tracker (which I use to manage my chronic condition and keep track of symptoms,, treatment, etc.) and my Check this Out page (I have separate spaces for food, events, places and other). Thanks for another great episode!

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Thanks for sharing all your helpful spreads and ideas - Mark

[@mousegrey6747]

Currently, my ride-or-die is a weekly dashboard, with space for an overview of events and major date-specific tasks, an Alistair tasks and habits list, a tiny space for shopping, a lot of space for entertainment (mostly books), and some overflow tasks and highlights. I conceptually love but rarely use health trackers of all kinds. I’m working on setting up a reading journal in a B5 because my bullet journal is A6 and I read too dang fast, but I keep changing my mind on what collections to include and how. Honestly, at this rate I might go back to the idea of a long term reading journal for series and authors and TBR and Wishlist and books listed by sub-genre/trope and beloved books, and another for straight chronological mini reviews and monthly stats. I have family with chronic health and I’m typically the ‘ambulance’ driver for late night hospital trips, so I’m putting together a little overview of their meds, conditions, etc to make it easier to fill out the intake paperwork and repeat it all to the Dr/nurse. I highly recommend this if it sounds at all useful to you. Packing master list- I don’t travel often, but whenever I do, the assist for things like making sure I have charge cables, batteries, any required adaptors, bottled water, mini first aid kit, and one or two items for unexpected weather changes… the kinds of things I usually forget. Getting to my hotel last year with a vicious migraine, taking my meds with water that was so chlorinated that I think it was worse than just not taking the meds >_

[@JannekeK]

An absolute must have for me is a two page weekly spread, 1 page voor meetings and event and 1 page for an Alastair method tasklist. In a vertical spread I divide the upper and lower half of the pages for it.

[@carrienoyes2785]

I don't consistently do it but I enjoy using my monthly calendar for no-spending tracker in my personal life (When did I last buy a book or that fancy coffee); bills and paydays. Boy did that help me see where all the extra money went to! 😧 I also keep a research journal. One spread is a list of all the things/person/event I want to research but don't have the time to just then. I don't reference them often but I enjoy filling up one more notebook.

[@skadig]

Super helpful episode, I love hearing and seeing all your favs! I'm fully blaming (😜) you two for me deciding to jump off the bridge into full on bullet journaling next year (along with Archer & Olive releasing LS dot grids with this fall collection). I finally figured out what I need for a catch-all planner, and I'm already making enough edits in my predated planner that I might as well just go the BuJo route. Wish me luck!

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Good luck! 🤞 but really that’s super exciting 😄 hope you love it 😊

[@KimShelly-r8u]

After this episode I went to Apple Music and put on Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Love Their Country. It’s been a fave for years. 🤠 Fun episode, you two!

[@jhess9627]

I have been using the future log in the calendar form as well and it has been very helpful for me because my company that I work for plans a minimum of 3 weeks ahead and sometimes months ahead and it is easier for me to make sure I am not overlapping events. The list view type of future log just didn't work for me.

[@Siferiax]

Oh lol. As I've been using 6 week cycles, my "calendar" has been top to bottom, so I can have 3 columns on each page and it just works out better. And somehow that also turned out to feel really natural. I seem to default to working top to bottom for some reason lol. I did have to add the day names though... cause I kept getting confused. I was like I have this appointment on this Wednesday.... so what box from the top is that?! 😅 that extra mind gymnastics was not needed in my opinion. 😂 (also because I have 8 boxes, with the row at the top being for week goals.)

[@katharinawichmann8284]

My top must haves are the weeklies, to pay list, wishlist, chorelist, Kindergarten closing times, period tracker, reading tracker, and the cover page 😊 when I started bullet journaling I haven't had a cover page, because I thought it was uneccesary 😂 This year I only read one book so far 😅

[@hanagara1907]

after my weekly overviews, I give each day a page and I write (in the same order coz I'm boring) time (as in when it's being filled), current location, currently listening to (maybe a tv show or yt vid or maybe just music), today's weather, mood, health, best thing, worst thing, gratitude (okay sometimes that is the same as "best thing" but I do try to be different), and then I have space to just write a bit for the day or whatever else (right now, I have an upcoming trip so writing a countdown for that)

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Love that structure for yourself! Gives you all the good memory bits without having to think about what to write each time 👌

[@olympianagel9379]

43:16 i feel EXACTLY the same as Jess with the handwriting - my bujo is all caps, v small, excessively neat, bc i like it looking nice. my uni notes however. i use my normal handwriting and the very beginning of the lesson they are neat and it deteriorates the longer the lesson is, linking, italicising, getting all over the place. and i would never want my bujo to look like that.

[@olympianagel9379]

also ‘then on the fifth week you’re like ‘hate this layout, its boring, want something different’ HAHAHA speaks to my soul

[@mechudoba]

I was so excited to see this topic! My top must haves-future log, monthly calendar, monthly dashboard, and my weeklies. Nothing too exciting, but I refer to these pages daily. Love you guys!

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Thanks for sharing!! -Mark

[@susandollinger7965]

I love the one-on-one page idea (Mark) and the pen swatch in a collection book (Jess). I have a pentest in every journal because I keep switching journals. My number one is a Monthly grid: Prayers/Gratitude/Big Rocks/Highlights-Lowlights/Playlists/and Important dates. I don't always check the dates, but I really like seeing how my playlists change (and I add in books, videos, special songs) and what the big rocks were.

[@Sam-lw5sh]

Woohoo! Calendar future logs!! I definitely did that this year because I love the idea of bullet journals, but wanted to be able to have a calendar to plan future events on throughout the year! I felt like I needed the bigger calendars to plan with. I put each one sideways on a single page in a B5 size and that worked nicely. I think they're 5x5 boxes? Maybe 4x4? Then I did a little bit of a larger 2 page calendar each month and just propagated stuff over. But it was nice to be able to actually look at calendars as I planned ahead... will definitely keep this up next year!

[@jennrecord2784]

You're Brilliant Mark! I'm naming my future me problems lists.....Dopamine Hits! LOL

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Glad you like the name! 😄

[@suebateman4480]

Some of my favourite cover versions, some show my age! Faith No More - Easy, The Ataris - Boys of Summer, 99 Red Balloons - Goldfinger, various covers by Reel Big Fish and a mash up of the Ghostbusters theme/Nine Inch Nails Hand that feeds.

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Yes!!!!! Those are so good. - Mark

[@kathywerebwrites]

The absolute musts for me is my "Into His Word" spread to track my daily devotionals, a Memory page, and my daily journals.

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Great set of must-haves 💪

[@DistanceTraveled]

Mark: for the calendar future log, what if you had the page open up like an old paper map? Like a tipin.

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Oh that could be really cool! -Mark

[@michelleherald9619]

I have never been able to do habit tracking...little colanders or like a coloring page; however, I use my habits and routines in an Allistair method chart for each week and then just add tasks on my weekly or daily lay out. So I will put my 5 daily tasks in the chart but only something like clean the laundry room on the daily list.

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

I know the “colanders” was just an autocorrect thing (or at least I suspect) but I love the idea of calling it that because it’s like the habits just fall through the gaps 👀! Totally using that working for months where habits didn’t really happen 😝

[@michelleherald9619]

@@PlannerPalsPodcast most definitely an autocorrect but that is what it feels like lol.

[@dancooper-jones]

mark, if you want to figure out how your future log/calender will look in your next journal with it being a different size, you should totally use the excel bullet journal spread planner from Jess 😂😂!! theonly problem I have with digital swatching is that screen colours differ between devices, and I just can't get an accurate representation, whereas I can on paper.

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

That’s my issue with digital swatching too! That and if you’re photographing a swatch done on paper already, along with the sentiment of “may as well have done this is a permanent journal location”, you’ve also got the issues of accurate photograph lighting 😝 - Jess

[@dancooper-jones]

@@PlannerPalsPodcast exactly! There are so many factors that mean the swatches could look totally different. Amd yes, if you're already doing them on paper to take photos/scan them, just keep the hard copy😆. Saves time for us!

[@WillWorkForBooks]

For me, it's my Daily Log, Reading tracker, Workout Log, and Monthly. Fun to read through the comments to see what everyone else can't live without.

[@melnorman350]

At the moment my top 3 essentials are 2 page monthly, one page weekly and pre set up daily pages sometimes half pages sometimes full pages depending on what I am doing and of 4th would be my future log

[@Cora68]

The only spreads I repeat every month are a 2-page calendar, trackers (daily steps & sleep) and a to-do-list. Must-haves in my yearly collections: voluntary work dates and hours (so I can easily make my expense claim), Formula One, weight

[@robinmanly7381]

I have a million notebooks, so I wrote a very important scheduling note on the back of a Target receipt today. Go figure. Time + opportunity.

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

HAHAHAHA Love that. Just gotta remember to bring it into a notebook, any notebook -Mark

[@robinmanly7381]

@@PlannerPalsPodcast Oh - that for sure didn't get done! LOL!

[@risepandora]

yeeesss punk goes pop albums are amaziiing! love that and thank you for reminding me of those :D

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Haha most welcome! 💪

[@majsakowicz3533]

Great episode! My must is definitely monthly - I could have only that and be ok with planning :) Also on the same page as monthly I have sections for loving, watching, listening, reading and overall that I fill out over the month - specially when I consume a lot of media I like to see and remember what I was watching months/years before :)

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Sounds like a great summary of each month! 😄

[@daniellebutler1036]

I did a pen/color swatch page for the first time this year and I go back to it pretty often. I also live on my weekly’s

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Heck yeah for the pen swatch love 💪 glad to know others find it useful too 😄 - Jess

[@Mongoly8]

I know you probably already know this as I see mark is not in his typical background but the audio quality is kinda grating. I only got part of the way though, but I look forward to the next episode where hopefully this isn't an issue.

[@markyourpages]

Thanks for the feedback. This was our first time with remote recording and probably never doing it again 😅 we were literally just talking about how the quality was way off for us.

[@Mongoly8]

@@markyourpages Life happens and you try new things, sometimes they work great and sometimes not so much. Your guy's content is 10/10

[@olympianagel9379]

(soz for commenting so much lol but not really, i wanna be part of this convo) 5. Daily review (kinda same reason as the memories spread, i like to see what happened in a day) 4. Habit tracker (have i taken my meds? when did i last water my plants? how about read for fun? idk, but u know who does? my habit tracker) 3. Memories spread (i really like keeping track of all the little but good things that happen throughout a month that might get lost otherwise) 2. Weekly log (altho it’s not quite working as well for me now as it has been, i’m gonna switch to dailies next year i think, with weekly dashboards, so ig stay tuned lol) 1. Future log (if i had nothing else i would keep this, it’s the main reason i started bujo’ing in the first place)

[@lorraineb5991]

I have to have a meal log of dinners I have eaten otherwise I forget and have the same 2 or 3 on constant rotation.

[@CrisOnTheInternet]

That's a good idea

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Good way to ensure more dinner variety for yourself 👌

[@rschmidt25]

“Try cold brew coffee” ♥️🤣✨ 5:58

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

One day I’ll get to it 😝 - Jess

[@sheemapatel]

Its really interesting about what Jess said about putting tasks on a monthly log. It was a constant flop of a spread for me. I might include it next month and schedule in tasks. Maybe. Another flop is putting a habit tracker on a monthly basis. Weekly. Yepp.. im on it. Monthly, dont work out. Does it stop me from occasionally setting up one from time to time. Ill let you guess. A must have is a spending yracker. I do like using that information to set a loose budget for the following month

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Great must have 👏 and totally feel you on the habit tracker thing; mine works better on a weekly too 😄

[@monieksvideos]

I have a kind of 1 on 1 page, but I worry about others getting to see what I’ve written. How are you managing this?

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

I don't let anyone else look through my journal. Esp at work. -Mark

[@jeaninehaakt]

Heej in mine very first planner i can not go without the future logs and daily logs. For my health at this point are my trackers to figure out what works for my fibromyalgie.

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Sounds like a good set of essentials 👌

[@chfr1967]

I love the the pen swatches. I am going to take it a step further and include all my pigments. Also do a section where I put in all my stamps and Stencils. So I have one place to see what I have and not just store and forget. Christina 🦝

[@PlannerPalsPodcast]

Always good to have the handy reference 💪

[@KimShelly-r8u]

After this episode I went to Apple Music and put on Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Love Their Country. It’s been a fave for years. 🤠 Fun episode, you two!