Hi friend! Elizabeth here from @thejoyfulsojourn on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, to share with you my favorite 20 minute weekly layout that scratches the creative itch and gives me lots of functionality for planning. I hope it’s one you’ll try in your Archer & Olive notebook, and if you’re looking for a friend to plan with, hop on over to the A&O YouTube channel where I set this up in real time with you!
Supplies
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- Any notebook you use for planning, or that you enjoy trying new things in! Today’s example is in an A5 notebook.
- Decorative elements like pens, stickers, and stamps are excellent for creative play. I’ll be using washi and stickers from the 2025 Advent box, and Duo Tone pens from the 2025 winter subscription box.
- Don’t forget your Tools! Stencils, scissors, tweezers, and glue were used today.
The Quad Layout
The quad layout is one of my favorites for seeing a week on two pages. Its short and squat nature makes it ideal for journaling and stickering, and there are still enough lines vertically for list-making. Let's take a look at two different decorative styles utilizing the same layout!
The first thing you'll want to do is outline each page - 3 lines down from the top, and then the last dot grid line on sides and bottom. I've found that framing out my pages makes my planner spreads look more polished and clean. After that, I split the page into 4 equal sections.
Decorative Dating
Decorative Dating is an excellent way to add creative elements to the page without cutting too much into your writing space. Getting your weekly layout setup quickly doesn't have to be at the expense of form, simply place down a strip of decorative tape, and layer days of the week stickers (pic above) or alpha letters (pic below) on top of the tape.
Adding Decorative Elements
Identify the days that tend to be a little lighter on to-do's, and have fun! For me, that's Saturday and Sunday (aka Family days). In the example below, I ran a 'scene' of houses along the bottom of the weekend. I also added small decorative stickers around the dates.
If you have a lighter workload in a given week, utilize the 8th box for additional decorative elements! In the example below I placed down a larger decorative sticker, then added functional boxes on top for the week's priorities.
In the example below, I opted for a nice long to-do list using a bullet-tipped pen called a Duo Tone, new in the winter 2025 quarterly subscription box!
Sometimes the hardest (and most time consuming) part about creating a weekly layout for new folks, is figuring out what the weekly layout will look like. I hope that seeing two different ways to style a quad layout inspires you to try this particular layout as a starting point! Once you settle on a weekly layout you enjoy, you'll get faster at creating it each week, and you'll be able to play more with the decorative elements!
If you'd like to try one of these layouts with me, head over to the Archer & Olive YouTube channel where we create one of these spreads together unedited and in real time!
Printable
If you’d like to try planning in the quad layout before putting it into your notebook, check out the printable below and try it for a week!
We would love to see you get creative and functional in your notebooks, so be sure to share your pages on social media by tagging myself and Archer & Olive with your project using: @archerandolive @thejoyfulsojourn @archerandolive.community #AOShare #archerandolive
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