15 Beautiful Self Care Ideas For Your Planner
Looking for some fun, functional self care ideas for your planner?
I’ve rounded up some great self care ideas that are not too hard to implement in your planner or journal, and that are really beautiful. They’ll make it easy to keep on track and prioritize your self care.
The first time I invested in a high-quality planner, I had no idea what to do with all the extra notes pages. I filled them up with just list after boring list, not pretty.
Then, I discovered a whole huge world of planner artists, creating spreads and using all sorts of fun tricks to add beauty and function to their planners.
Take some inspiration from these self care ideas to get the ball rolling, and even inspire you to make one of your own!
Here are 15 Beautiful, Functional Self-Care Ideas For Your Planner:
Daily Self Care Checklist
Daily trackers and checklists are perfect for self care habits that you do once a day.
For example, you may want to track:
- daily exercise schedule
- hours slept each night
- vitamins or medication
- daily reading time
- daily positive self talk/affirmations
Here are some daily self care checklist ideas:
My favorite self care trackers are the ones that fit an entire year on one page.
I know I’m probably not going to try to track five or ten different habits every day, but two or three are absolutely doable!
And, if I can fit one or two year-long trackers on one page, I’m in Heaven (I love saving space).
Here are some examples I found on Pinterest:
Self Care Icons For Your Planner Spread
Little icons can be super fun to stick onto your planner’s daily or weekly spread.
You can print them out, or doodle them in if you love drawing!
I have a set of daily planner printables that have a bunch of self care icons that you color in each day as you do them:
(The last icon is floss, lol!) You can buy an undated daily planner printable here for $2, or buy the whole daily planner set right here for just $9.
A 30-Day Self Care Challenge
30-day challenges can be a great way to get the ball rolling on implementing a self care habit full-time. The more you do something, the easier it is to keep doing it.
Some of these are printouts to tape inside your planner or journal, and some are cute spreads:
Instant Gratitude Journal – Planner Hack for Monthly Layouts
Here’s an easy self-care idea for your planner that doesn’t require any additional supplies, just your planner and pen.
In an effort to stop the days from flying by this year, I tried something new with my planner. It’s helping a bit to not make the time go TOO fast.
I’m using the Month spread in my planner to write in one great thing that happened each day. Makes it feel like the days aren’t just wasting away:
Instant gratitude journal! Try it out, it’s not always easy to put into words, but it helps me pick out and remember the good stuff.
You can also use a tracker like these, and fill in a short word or sentence each day:
A Doodle Art Page – Blank or Coloring Pages
There are times when focusing too much, or for too long, can lead to burnout. Sometimes, we just need to zone out for a few minutes.
It’s great to have a few pages nearby, either blank or with some cool designs or pictures, to get lost in. Your planner is the perfect place to stash them!
Check out this video from Start a Mom Blog, she teaches you how to make your own coloring book for your kids, but it’s easy to find beautiful images online that are more grown-up, to print and stick into your planner or journal:
You can also grab some free coloring printables from these awesome sites:
- Free Coloring Pages: 21 Gorgeous Floral Pages You Can Print And Color, by Teal Notes
- 5 Free Coloring Printables Because Coloring Is the New Meditation, by Brit.co
- Free Adult Coloring Pages, by Art Is Fun
Life Balance Wheel
The life balance wheel is REALLY cool. It’s a super easy way to make sure you are working on all the parts of your life that are important to you.
Each time you do something positive toward one of your life goals, you color in one of the layers of that goal.
After a few days, you’ll be able to see which parts of your life you are working toward, and which parts are falling behind and need more attention. The idea is to do one thing towards each part of your life, to keep all parts moving forward together, in balance.
Self Care Stickers
I never knew how many beautiful grown-up stickers there were in the world until I started snooping around on Etsy. There is literally something for everyone on that website.
When you find a set that speaks to you, that calms or motivates you, it makes a huge difference in your mood as you flip through your planner or journal.
I grabbed these Gratitude stickers from Erin Condren:
Etsy also has a TON of absolutely beautiful handmade sticker sets, they are just stunning. Here are my favorite ones.
Daily Mood Tracker
Days can sometimes fly by so quickly. It’s hard to keep track of how we are feeling when we are constantly moving from one task to the next.
But, by monitoring your mood each day, you may be able to catch patterns when you are feeling down. This can help you find the negative or toxic influences in your life that you can choose to let go of, and have more happy days!
There are beautiful fill-in mood trackers you can draw into your planner like this:
Or, you can use some small mood stickers to quickly tack onto each day on your planner, if you don’t want to use up a whole page each month:
There are some absolutely adorable tiny mood stickers here on Etsy.
Mini Vision Board
I can’t think of a more perfect place to tuck away a few inspirational pictures & phrases than in something you look through every day.
Self Care Menu Page
Keeping a running list of self care ideas comes in super-handy when you have a few extra minutes you weren’t planning on having.
Just skim through your list and pick one or two self care ideas that jump out at you!
Self Care “Not-Do” List
This is one of my favorites to include in my planners or journals. Negative self-talk is real, and it is easy to fall into a pattern of either putting yourself down, or putting others first at the cost of your well being. I love these gentle reminders that I can turn to when I’m feeling down for whatever reason.
“What I Love About Me” Page
Every journal or planner should have one of these! You can take an afternoon to put one together with some favorite colors, images and thoughts:
Or, you can even dedicate a page to filling in a short word or sentence each day, that says something you love about yourself.
Stressful Day To Do List
Who hasn’t been here, right? Some days are just tough all around. But, we can let that stress simmer and affect the rest of our life, or we can take a few minutes to reset with a calming or fun activity.
Feel free to add in anything that feels fun and relaxing to you!
Bucket List
Writing out a bucket list helps you focus your attention on the things, people and experiences we truly want to explore in our lifetime. It can be a springboard to setting the goals that really mean something to you.
When you have a bucket list, you have your hopes and dreams right in front of you, and you are more likely to take some steps in the direction of making them a reality.
This can be a list of:
- experiences,
- achievements,
- places to visit,
- people to meet,
- mountains to climb,
- foods to eat, etc.
Bucket lists can be monthly, seasonal, for the year, or over your lifetime.
I personally like to make a “summer bucket list” with my family every year. This way we can all share in a little bit of each other’s interests.
Habit Tracker
Habit trackers can be for literally anything at all that you want to turn into a habit. They can be for:
- exercise,
- reading,
- waking up early,
- eating your veggies,
- writing 500 words a day (that’s mine!),
- drinking enough water, etc.
Habit trackers come in all shapes and sizes, and as long as you have enough check boxes for the month, you’re good to go!
Self Care Ideas For Your Planner
I hope you enjoyed reading through these self care ideas for your planner! What’s your favorite way to practice self care? Let me know in the comments, so we can all learn from each other!
Hugs,
Mina
P.S.: Here are some other blog posts you might find helpful:
How to Turn Self Care Ideas Into Habits That Actually Stick
