A few weeks ago, I gave myself the time and freedom to play with a couple of Simplified Planners I had in my office. I was preparing for a photoshoot the next day and wanted to showcase new and fun ideas for page layouts. The Simplified Planner was designed without a ton of bells and whistles on the page so that you can make it your own -- whether you'd like to use it as a budget planner, a meal planner, or even a fitness tracker. Most of our customers use it as an agenda -- to keep track of a schedule and to-do list (and fit other things like meals and fitness onto the pages as well). But, over the years I've heard so many stories of women using TWO planners -- one as an agenda, one for something else.
To me, this sounded like more work. But once I started trying things, I fell in love with a few ideas! And now, I'm using a Daily Simplified Planner as my agenda and a Weekly Simplified Planner for meal planning. And, guys, it's life changing. I'm not even kidding. It makes the whole process SO MUCH SIMPLER. I also played with a few fun other ways to use a secondary planner!
MEAL PLANNER
On Sundays (sometimes on Fridays, when I have time), I sit down to plan meals for the following week. Meal planning is HARD for me. I don't have a ton of time every evening and I honestly just don't love cooking as much as some do. So, I started using this Weekly Simplified Planner as my sole place for keeping all this together. In the 4 notes pages at the front of my planner, I have a Go To Meals list. Here I keep names of dinners that are easy, healthy, and loved by my family. On the left side of each daily space, I write down that evening's dinner. On the right side, I write down the ingredients needed. I take my planner to my pantry, fridge, and spice drawer and mark off what we already have. The rest goes onto a grocery list. Here (in this photo), I've used our weekend space to note a few other groceries I needed, but you can repeat what I've done on the weekly spaces (on Saturday and Sunday) by writing the name of the dinner on the lines and adding ingredients to other days of the week (so they make it onto your list). I've used some of our Variety Stickers here (colors match the days of the week) just to set my dinner names apart visually.
Products used here: Signature Weekly Simplified Planner | Variety Stickers | Happy Stripe Pilot Precise V5 Pen Set
FITNESS TRACKER
Here, I've used our Signature Weekly Simplified Planner's month spread to color code and note exercises for that day. Man do I wish this was actually my exercise schedule! This inspired me to get back on that Peleton, though! On the weekly spread pages, you could write notes from your workout, track water intake, or even track foods you ate that day.
Products used here: Signature Weekly Simplified Planner | Color Coding Stickers | Happy Stripe Pilot Precise V5 Pen Set
MONTHLY MEAL PLANNER
Ok guys. Get ready to have your planning minds blown. My mom plans meals MONTHLY. Yep. And she refers back to past months to create future months. Isn't she a beauty! I may give this a go when school is back in session in August.
Products used here: Signature Weekly Simplified Planner | Color Coding Stickers | Happy Stripe Pilot Precise V5 Pen Set | Also shown: Simplified Recipe Binder
And I'm going to leave you with this beautiful image of a Signature Weekly Simplified Planner used as an agenda. Simply because it's BEAUTIFUL. We'd love to know your planning ideas. Be sure to tag us in photos of your pages @Simplified on Instagram! We'd love to see and share!
