Do you have a planner that came with planner stickers and you’re not sure what to use them for? Or if they even provide any benefit at all? If you’re struggling to use your planner on a daily basis, planner stickers may be just what you need.
Planner stickers are a tool that are used in planners to make them more functional and beautiful. There are different types of stickers to track tasks, habits, reminders, bills, events, goals, and more. Stickers make important tasks more visible so you are less likely to forget that task.
What Are Planner Stickers?
When you think of stickers, you may be thinking of your childhood. Where you wanted to get the biggest, most beautiful sticker to add to your sticker collection.
Planner stickers are very different and provide much more value when planning your time.
Their sole purpose is to help you plan out your day, week, and month, in a way that will make you more likely to complete and remember everything. This will lead to being more organized, less stressed, and ultimately more successful.
Stickers can help you quickly identify what you need to complete. If you write directly in your planner, everything just blends in and you may miss important details. Where planner stickers provide a pop of colour so that you are more likely to see what you have written.
There are also some cute decorative stickers included in most packages for visual appeal.
Types of Planner Stickers
There are many types of planner stickers to choose from and sometimes it’s hard to know what to get and how to use them. The list below will help identify the different stickers that you could receive in a planner sticker kit.
1. Functional planner stickers
Functional planner stickers are exactly as they sound. They help you to organize your time and your life in a way that you can easily identify what tasks need to be completed.
This can include appointments, meetings, what bills need to be paid, when your kids need to get to their sporting events. Plus a whole lot more!
Stickers go beyond just being attractive. They look nice but also make it more likely that you will remember everything you need to get done.
2. Event Stickers
Event stickers can be used for specific events, such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, baby showers, important meetings, and more.
They are often a basic coloured strip that you can write directly on. Sometimes there is a box on the left side of the sticker to write in a date or time and then use the larger area for the event name.
3. Habit Trackers
Habit trackers are also common. These are often broken down by the days of the week.
Otherwise, they will have blank circles or boxes so that you can decide how you want to track the habit. Just write down the habit at the top of the sticker so you know what you are tracking.
The habit trackers are typically left uncategorized. This is so you can use them to track whatever habits are important to you.
4. Sidebar stickers
Sidebar stickers can include the habit trackers mentioned above. It can also be a simple checklist sticker to keep track of your daily tasks.
Many planners come with a section on the right and/or left side of the monthly and weekly spread that is lined for general note-taking. However, using sidebar stickers adds more colour and function to these sections.
I used stickers in the sidebar of my planner below to track tasks for this week, next week, and important notes.
5. Date Covers
This can include the numbers but also the days of the week.
It usually is not necessary to cover these, but it adds a beautiful touch to the weekly/monthly spreads.
Date covers also allow you to change your planner from the standard Sunday to Saturday spread to a Monday to Sunday spread.
6. Budget Stickers
There are also budgeting stickers that allow you to track your expenses (fixed and variable), savings, and financial goals.
In addition, you can track when a bill is due by using a sticker. These stickers have a space to write which bill is due and the value of the bill. Then just put that sticker on the date that it is due. There is often a checkbox on the sticker so you can check off when the bill is paid.
Using different coloured stickers based on the expense type can make it easier to see what expenses happen frequently at a quick glance.
7. Checkboxes or Dots
Often checkboxes or dot stickers are included so that you can add checkboxes wherever makes sense and is useful for you.
8. Flag Stickers
Flag stickers (sometimes in the shape of an arrow) are helpful in pointing out certain dates or times that you have an important task that you want to draw attention to.
9. Washi Strips
You may have also heard the word washi. Washi is mostly for decorating along the edges of your weekly or monthly spread.
However, if there is a plain washi strip included, this can be divided into several parts to use as a more beautiful header option for the day and you can then write directly on that washi strip.
Thicker washi is often used along the top and the bottom of the pages to provide a more beautiful spread, as most planners are fairly bland.
The decorative, thicker washi is often placed under the month or the days of the week.
10. Decorative Stickers
There are also stickers that are just for visual effect, such as characters, quotes, hearts, smiley faces, flowers, etc. Usually, these will not work as a reminder but just make your planner more inviting to look at.
11. Monthly planner stickers
There are also kits made to track a whole month. These can be made to fit a theme; such as, hearts in February for Valentine’s Day or presents and Christmas trees in December for a Christmas theme.
All of the types of stickers mentioned above would be included in a monthly planner sticker kit, but they often include extra decorative stickers and additional functional stickers for tracking more on the monthly calendar spread.
Why Use Planners Stickers?
Planner stickers are great because they not only make your planner look great, they make it more likely that you remember important tasks and events. If you just write directly in your planner with a pen, you are more likely to gloss over notes because it all blends together.
If you use planner stickers, you can create a colour coded system where you can have different colours based on the task, such as meal planning, work tasks, school related, sporting commitments, your different spending habits, etc… so you won’t have to spend time scanning through to find those particular tasks.
Adding more colour to your planner will make it more fun and therefore more likely that you will review your planner each day.
People often buy a paper planner with great intentions, but they get overwhelmed or just bored with it and stop using it. It can’t help you if you’re not actually putting in the time to plan out your day/week in advance and coming up with a system that will work for you.
What Can You Do With Planner Stickers?
Aside from actually tracking your to-do lists, events, habits, appointments, etc.. you can use planner stickers as a creative outlet. Stickers can be layered to make them more beautiful and unique.
Planners can be used much like a scrapbook and can be kept for years to look back on. You can include pictures of your family to show fun things that happened that day and use the decorative or washi stickers to create a frame around it for more visual appeal.
Stickers can also be used on the extra notes pages in your planner to create your own trackers or you could use them in a regular notebook.
I created a weight loss tracker with Erin Condren stickers that I have shown below. This is a visual tool for tracking how much weight I have lost each month.
Stickers can also be used to create a fun bucket list, books to read, movies to watch, brain dump and so much more.
You are not limited to only using stickers on the weekly and monthly pages. Get creative with your planner and make it something you enjoy looking at each day.
Made a mistake with pen in your planner? Use a planner sticker to cover up your mistake!
Often planner stickers are thought of as a physical product that we use in paper planners, but did you know that they can be used in digital planners as well?
As long as you have individual PNG files or a tool that can lasso a sticker file and insert it into your digital planner, they can be used.
The digital planner stickers are used the same way that the physical stickers are. They also come with functional stickers that you can layer and then digitally write on them.
Where to Get Planner Stickers?
Planner stickers can be purchased at many different stores, such as Erin Condren, Michaels, Walmart, Staples, Amazon, among others.
They can also be found on Etsy and Shopify by many different sticker shop owners.
Many planners come with some stickers and have the option to buy more for that specific planner.
If you are interested in a planner sticker subscription, Erin Condren now offers this service for United States customers. You will receive sticker packages 4 times per year to use in your planner.
In Summary
Planner stickers may not be for everybody, but they are more than just a cute decorative piece in your planner. They truly provide function and help you stay organized and on top of every task and event that is happening in your life at any given time.
There are so many sticker options available, that it is worth looking through them to see if there are any sticker kits that will you help you stay on track.
