Hello Cocoa Daisy fans, this is Simone here today, sharing with you how I set up my planner each and every month using the beautiful Cocoa Daisy kits. I have switched to a pocket ring planner in the Spring and it seems as if I have found planner peace (for now). And yes, I know, the lady who was so convinced that traveler’s notebooks are her planning jam is now using a pocket RING planner. Every month, I go through the same steps when setting up my planner for the month, I start when I get my kits and spread it out over several days often working on it at night on the couch. This month we received this beautiful owl bag with our kits and I had it hanging on my chair for the time I set it up.

Cocoa Daisy doesn’t offer an insert that fits into pocket ring planners, that is why I cut down the Mini Daisy Dori insert which is a tiny bit bigger than pocket ring pages. The paper on top of my insert shows the size difference, as you can see it is really just a sliver to cut off. In the past months I have acquired several pocket ring planners, they are just so tiny and cute, I can’t stop myself from getting more. This one is a leather planner from Mystics Litte Gifts. Besides their cuteness, having more than one planner gives me the option to set up a whole new months without interfering with my current planning system and I enjoy this luxury very much. Since I’m not only using the Mini Daisy Dori in the planner, I will also choose, print and cut all the other inserts that I will use this month. There are several online shops that sell printable inserts for this size as well as share free printable inserts.

Then I start looking through all the papers (planner paper, dashboards, paper from pocket memory keeping kit, specialty papers) that I received and choose some of them to make dividers. As you can see, I love them to be minimally decorated and no actual tabs on them. I rather use die cuts or one of the pocket cards to hang over slightly. Going from top to bottom this is what they are made of:

• Vellum with foil accents from the Planner kit with a sticker from the Sticker kit,
• personal dashboard cut down from the Day Planner Dashboards,
• moon paper from Memory Keeping: Pocket kit with card from Planner Add On kit,
• personal dashboard cut down from the Day Planner Dashboards,
• personal dashboard cut down from the Day Planner Dashboards,
• wood grain paper from Memory Keeping: Pocket kit with die cut and sticker from Planner kit,
• vellum from stash and washi from Planner kit, Planner Add On kit as well as Memory Keeping: Classified kit,
• tribal paper from Memory Keeping: Pocket kit with die cut from Planner kit,
• floral paper from Planner kit with die cut from Planner kit.

Some of these dividers are included in the planner simply for decorative purposes others will divide different sections in my planner. Some months I completely redo all of the dividers, some months I only exchange a few. It all depends on various factors but having the option to have a planner that matches from start to finish is amazing!

Once the dividers are all done and dusted, I move on to setting up my daily planning section. Each day consists of one Mini Daisy Dori paper and one timed printable insert. I add the date stickers and day of the week to my pages. This month, I used the weekday stamps that came in the Memory Keeping:pocket kit. And I also added some washi to the timed pages, I mostly used the washi strips from the Sticker kit and I’m proud to say that I already used up that sheet completely. This is all I do to my daily spreads before the month starts. I will be adding more when I plan my weeks. This usually happens every Sunday or Monday.

Then I move on to the bling: page markers, pocket, washi card, sticky notes and charms.

• Page Marker: For September I chose these epoxy bobby pins as page markers for my long to-do list and meal planning section.
• Pocket: I clip a clear pocket to the front of my planner and decorate it with items from the kits. This is just for decorative purposes and often will also hold my stencil from the July kits that I cut down.
• Washi Card: I use playing cards that my children purged to hold washi samples from the current kits.
• Sticky Notes: I cut down the acetate that was included in the Planner: Classified kit to create a sticky note dashboard. I pull off a small amount of sticky notes from the pad and glue them onto the acetate. I can easily rub of the residue and exchange the sticky notes as I please.
• Charms: I’m not sure if this conglomerate of three charms will be what hangs out of my planner for the whole month, but I love all three of them together, so I’ll try. Since I don’t have an elastic to attach the charms, I’m going to add the black loop to the bottom two rings. The owl charm I made myself using one of the puffy clip toppers and -yes, I admit it freely- a felt ball that I took from an older charm. I love repurposing pieces from older charms.

That’s it for the bling. I usually post a flip through my planner at the end of the month, let’s see, if the big charms make it all the way through the end of September!

Then I use more washi tape, stickers and stamps to decorate my monthly spread. Since the Mini Daisy Dori doesn’t come with a monthly calendar page, I use a free printable from Peanuts Planner Co. I only add appointments, birthdays and things that don’t occur on a regular basis. This helps me visualize my month and see what other things I have going on besides the usual.

Lastly, I set up the front page of the Mini Daisy Dori as my goals page for the month. This is an ongoing learning experience: how many goals should I set? How do I make these goals attainable? What are realistic goals? I have come to the conclusion that three is enough for me and also that I can set my goals once I have an overview of the month and know what is important that month. And then I pick my goals in lieu with everything else that’s happening.

If you have read this far, I congratulate you! I poured my whole setup strategy into this post. But it’s not done yet, once I’m done with all of this, I set it aside until the last week of the old month. Once I filmed my planner flip through and shared all the things that worked and didn’t work, I’ll move the last four or five days of the month and all the regular inserts that just come along every month into this new setup. I then flip through all the pages and take not of unfinished tasks, decide whether they still apply and move them onto my big to-do list in the front of my planner. Then the new month begins and I plan.

Thank you so much for reading, I really appreciate your time and hope you have found this to be helpful for your own planner setup strategy! If you want to see some of my daily pages and how this planner evolves over the month of September, please follow me on Instagram: @seemownay. I will also share a video on youtube towards the end of September where I’ll walk you through my September planner, I hope to see you there!