My Favorite Planner Accessories (And How I Use Them)

Using a planner DOES NOT (and should never be) complicated, overwhelming, or stressful.

When it comes to planner accessories, I believe in…

KEEPING THINGS SUPER SIMPLE!!

This might be an unpopular opinion, but if you’re spending all your time and money DECORATING your planner rather than DOING what’s in it, you’re doing it wrong.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in USING planner accessories to enhance your planning practice!! In fact, I really hope you do. 🙃

Photo via Simplified

(This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase using these links.)

BEST, FAVORITE, AND NECESSARY SIMPLIFIED PLANNER ACCESSORIES

I’m a girl who LOVES office supplies and planner accessories.

I often tell people (somewhat jokingly) that office supplies are my love language and planner accessories are my middle name. 😍

Which is why I wanted to take the time today to share my best, favorite, and necessary planner accessories to help you accessorize and use your planner in a simple way!!

In this post, I’m sharing EXACTLY what planner accessories I use in my Simplified Planner and HOW I keep things super simple (including how I color-code minimally, use stickers sparingly, and actually USE my planner to do EXACTLY what I bought it to do: keep my life and business organized, focused, and on track)!!

PENS

I am EXTREMELY PICKY about what pens I use in my Simplified Planner. First and foremost, I only write in black ink. It’s probably just a quirky, personal preference, but I really think black ink looks cleaner than blue 🤷🏼‍♀️. But I do love using PINK PEN for checking off my to-dos. (This is so I can easily see what’s been done and it looks like a CELEBRATION!! 🎉)

I also only use pens that I KNOW won’t bleed through the page. Over the years, I’ve tried and loved Le Pens, Pilot G2 pens, Pilot Precise V5 pens, Simplified (gold dot, happy stripe, and happy floral) pens, annnnnd (my forever favorite) hotel pens. I don’t know how or why, but hotel pens are like the best pens ever created. I may or may not collect them!! 🙊

Side Note: I know many people use different color pens (like the Happy Stripe Pen Set) to color-code their tasks and to-dos. But that makes my eyes and brain go crazy 🤪!! I much prefer using stickers to color-code (more on that later) and use black pen to write everything down. That’s just how my brain works though. You do you, boo!!

PAPER CLIPS

I love using paper clips in my Simplified Planner to mark pages I need to refer back to and will occasionally use them to clip important papers (like coupons, letters, or notes) to certain days or even the monthly spread.

My favorites are the Simplified flags, hearts, and pineapples. Gold paper clips, in general, make me pretty happy though!! 🥰

PAGE MARKERS

Simplified’s magnetic page markers are one of my all-time favorite planner accessories. For years, I bought a best day ever page marker in a complementary (to my planner) color. I loved attaching it to each daily page in turn and seeing the best day ever reminder every time I looked at my planner.

Last year, I decided to change things up and bought patterned page markers (one that matched my planner and one that was my other favorite pattern) and LOVED it!! I also picked up fresh start and more coffee please because they’re adorable and I like variety!! 😉

STICKERS

Stickers are a GREAT way to personalize and have fun with your planner and planning process.

But the thing I want you to remember about stickers is that they’re BEST when used in a way that works for you, but doesn’t distract you. Use them to attract or draw attention to something (like certain tasks or specific dates), but don’t use so many that you can’t see what you wrote down for tasks and to-dos each day.

I don’t use a lot of stickers in my planner, but what I do use, I use very intentionally.

COLOR-CODING STICKERS

might be my FAVORITE planner accessory to play with and the one I use the most. It took me a while, but I finally figured out a system that works for me:

Fuchsia Pink for business meetings and appointments
Medium Pink for my morning routine
Light Pink for business education and self-development
Yellow for my email/social hour and related tasks
Green for client work, meetings, and related tasks
Light Blue for tasks related to The Systems Shop
Medium Blue for my evening routine
Teal for exercise and other self-care activities
Navy for personal events and appointments

This system (obviously) may change (especially now that there are new happy stripe colors), but for now, it works, and I’m really happy with it!!

My best tip is to make sure you stay consistent with your color-coding so you don’t become stressed out or confused. I highly recommend you make a chart on a post-it note or index card and keep it in the front of your planner for easy access. (That’s what I do!!)

FLAG STICKERS

Before the came out, I used the to make my top 3 to-dos of the day stand out from the rest. One flag sticker fits perfectly over the checkmark circles of three lines, so you can easily do this on the to-do side of each daily page.

These days, I use the for time blocks that are longer than my usual one-hour or two-hour time blocks. Events, meetings, or projects that will take up my whole morning or afternoon get a flag sticker instead of a color-coding dot.

WASHI TAPE

I only use on the monthly spread when I want something to stand out in a BIG way—like events or vacations that last several days. (I especially like using yellow for my Florida vacation in May/June. It doesn’t follow my color-coding chart above, but it reminds me of sunshine, and I’m allowed to break my own rules!! 🙃)

MINI NOTEBOOKS

I love keeping a in the front inside pocket of my planner for referencing my daily schedule blueprints, color-coding chart, and other important notes. I also like keeping a handy during the day for brain dumps and those really random but really good ideas that hit me when I’m working on something else.

STRETCHY BANDS

Stretchy bands are perfect if you keep a lot of loose papers, sticker sheets, or even mini notebooks with your planner and want to keep everything together. I particularly use mine when traveling. (When purchasing these, make sure you are getting the correct band as there are different sizes for the daily and weekly planners!!)

PLANNER + PENCIL POUCHES

Simplified Planner and Pencil Pouches are INCREDIBLE!! I’ve ordered pouches from other companies before and been really disappointed in the quality, but Simplified knocked it out of the ballpark!! They’re super sturdy (not stiff or flimsy) and can hold A TON of stuff!!

The Planner Pouch can easily fit a daily or weekly planner with a bunch of accessories or a daily and weekly planner together (I checked)!! And the Pencil Pouch can hold quite a few pens, pencils, and highlighters in case you want to keep those things separate.

I mostly use my pouches to keep my planner safe and my planner accessories corralled at home or when I travel. They can also easily be used to hold various odds and ends in diaper bags, gym bags, backpacks, etc. They’re even cute enough to be used as an everyday clutch!! (I mean, have you seen that pineapple zipper pull?! 😍)

Like I said before, using a planner DOES NOT (and should never be) complicated, overwhelming or stressful. When it comes to planner accessories, you can obviously use as many or as few as you want. But I hope this post inspires you to keep things super simple.

Now, tell me: what planner accessories do you love to use and why? Any questions about the way I use mine?

P.S. You may have noticed that most of my planner accessories come from Simplified. That’s because everything is coordinated in the colors of Happy Stripe 🌈, which makes color-coding super consistent and easy!! 🙌🏻

SAVE THIS POST ON PINTEREST

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. All opinions are my own. I only share about the products and services I personally use and love most and think you will too!!

The Productivity Zone

Menu