I recently received a DM from a customer that stopped me in my tracks. She had just purchased a monthly planner insert from us, and, while she loved it, she wasn't entirely sure how to use it. And honestly we get it, not everyone is a planner by nature, and staring at a blank spread (especially if you lean Type A) can feel more paralysing than peaceful.

Most people default to filling it with birthdays and dentist appointments, yet it never quite feels like enough. The monthly view is actually one of the most versatile pages in your planner; it's like a blank canvas. Once you start thinking of it that way, it will become one of the pages you return to most.

So we pulled together 15 of our favourite ways to use a monthly planner insert. These systems go beyond the standard calendar view and help you show up for your own life with more intention.


15 Monthly Planner Insert Ideas Worth Trying

There are many intentional ways to use your monthly planner. You might use it to create a visual checklist of mini goals to hit throughout the month, or as a way to track your wellness. Regardless of the methods you incorporate into your daily planning, here are 15 ways to make use of the blank space in your monthly planner.

1. Monthly Bingo Board

Create a visual checklist of mini goals to hit throughout the month. This method is fun, functional, and genuinely satisfying to fill in as you go.

2. Mood Tracker

Assign a colour to each emotion and watch your emotional landscape take shape over the course of the month. It sounds simple, but it's surprisingly grounding, and you might even find it a little addictive.

3. Highlight and Lowlight Log

Write down the best and worst moments of each day. This practice, rooted in honesty, is designed to ground you in a way that helps you process your days - not just get through them. This method is also very useful as a reflection tool for the end of the year.

4. One Line a Day Journal

One line a day, to ease the pressure you might feel when you think about traditional journaling. At the end of each day, write a memory, a quote, or a thought that captures the theme of the day. These can be really funny to look back on, and your future self will thank you for it.

5. Track Your Wins 

This method is a really beautiful way to applaud yourself. Writing your wins, big or small, will let you see your growth throughout the year in real time. It can be as simple as a good hair day, a scary email you finally sent, or a boundary you held. Wins count regardless of scale, and seeing them on paper is empowering.

Black agenda cover with July cover page shown.


6. Symptom Tracker

Perfect for cycle tracking, sleep patterns, chronic illness, or simply learning what your body is trying to tell you. It's so easy to go through the year not paying attention to what's happening internally. This use of your monthly planner gives you a moment to slow down and notice the early signs of things that could be life changing.

7. Gratitude Calendar

Write one thing a day you're grateful for. This method is especially powerful on the days when it feels like a stretch. You'll find yourself appreciating the small moments.

8. Reading Log

Note when you start and finish books, or track how often you actually read versus scroll. Keeping track of this tends to inspire positive change on its own.

9. Content Calendar

One of the most practical ways to use your monthly planner insert is as a content calendar. Use it to plan posts, launches, and marketing ideas. This is perfect if you also run a business. Keeping it inside your planner, rather than a separate app, means it lives alongside everything else you're managing.

10. Meal Tracker or Planner

This is perfect if you enjoy planning your meals out each week or want to understand your eating habits. Log what you ate, or plan what you want to eat. It's particularly helpful for weekly grocery planning, and for those weeks when feeding yourself feels like a full-time job.

11. Wellness Tracker

Track the health items that are so easy to forget. Your water intake, vitamins, movement, therapy, the basics that quietly hold everything else together. Mark them off and notice what changes when you show up for yourself consistently.

12. Energy Levels Tracker

Rate your energy from 1 to 10 each day. Over a month, patterns emerge that you would otherwise miss entirely, and those patterns often explain far more than you'd expect. If you couple this method with a monthly planner insert that gives you room to track wellness or meals, you might find some interesting trends. 

13. Finance Glance

One of the more practical ways to use your monthly planner is as a financial tracker. Track spending, no-spend days, and bills due at a single glance. Rather than a full budget overhaul, use the monthly view to understand your spending habits and watch the flow of your money.

14. Life Admin Scheduler

Assign one or two personal "admin" tasks per day, maybe you need to call the doctor, cancel that trial, or clean the microwave. Keep track of these small tasks so the mental load doesn't quietly pile up in the background.

15. Creative Project Tracker

Are you planning an event for your friends or crafting a new project? It can be easy to watch a personal project you were excited about slowly disappear. Instead, use your monthly planner to break down any personal project with the rest of life's deadlines in view. 

Monthly planner insert traditional cell spread for July.


Why Your Monthly Insert Deserves More Than Appointments

The monthly view gives you the space that weekly planners can't, allowing you to see the whole shape of your month at once. This is where reflection and intention-setting happen. When you use your monthly planner insert as a dedicated space for one meaningful practice, whether that's tracking your energy, logging your wins, or simply writing one grateful thought each morning, it transforms from a scheduling tool into something far more personal.

Your planner should work for your life, not the other way around. May Paper Co.'s monthly planner inserts are designed to be clean and spacious enough to hold whatever each season of your life needs.

If you're not sure what to do with your monthly spread, consider testing out some methods from this list. Browse our full range of monthly inserts at maypaperco.com and find the one that fits the methods you want to incorporate.