Stardew Valley Digital Planner Setup for GoodNotes
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To set up a Stardew Valley digital planner in GoodNotes, download the ZIP file, unzip it in the Files app, then import the PDF into GoodNotes using the "+" button and choosing Import. The hyperlinked tabs only respond when GoodNotes is in read-only mode, so turn the pen tool off before tapping a tab. Setup takes about five minutes, and this guide covers the import, the hyperlinks, the sticker packs, and a seasonal planning rhythm borrowed from the game itself.
One note before we start: our cozy farm planners are independent fan-made designs, created by us and inspired by the look and feel of farming and life-sim games. They are not affiliated with, licensed by, or endorsed by ConcernedApe or any game rights holder.
What Is a Stardew Valley Digital Planner?
It is a PDF planner with a cozy pixel-farm aesthetic, designed to be written on inside a note-taking app on a tablet. The covers and page borders borrow the visual language of a farming sim: seasonal palettes, wooden textures, crops and animals in the margins. Underneath, it works like any other digital planner, with monthly calendars, weekly spreads, daily pages, and hyperlinked tabs.
The appeal is not just that it is pretty: a planner you enjoy opening is a planner you open, and that is the only metric that matters. New to digital planning altogether? Start with our beginner's guide and come back here.
How Do You Import It into GoodNotes?
The whole process is five steps, and only the unzipping trips people up.
- Download the file after checkout. You get a download link on the order confirmation page and by email. Tap it on your iPad; the file lands in Downloads inside the Files app.
- Unzip the folder. Our farm planners arrive as a ZIP bundling the planner PDF with sticker PNGs. Find the ZIP in Files and tap it once to extract. Do not skip this: GoodNotes cannot import a ZIP directly.
- Move the PDF somewhere sensible. Inside the extracted folder is the planner PDF and, usually, a stickers subfolder. Drag the PDF into iCloud Drive, and keep the original extracted copy as your clean backup.
- Import into GoodNotes. Tap the "+" button in the top corner, choose Import, and select the PDF. GoodNotes opens it as a new notebook. The alternative route works too: tap the PDF in Files, hit Share, and pick GoodNotes.
- Rename and file it. Tap the notebook title and name it something clear like "Farm Planner 2027". Then add GoodNotes to your dock, so the planner is one tap away.
That is the setup done. For GoodNotes-specific settings worth changing, such as scrolling direction and the toolbar layout, see our GoodNotes 6 digital planner setup guide.
Why Are the Hyperlinked Tabs Not Working?
Because you are in writing mode. This is the single most common question we get, and it is not a fault in the file.
GoodNotes has to decide what your tap means. With the pen or highlighter selected, a tap means "make a mark here", so tapping a tab draws a tiny dot instead of jumping to March. With no writing tool selected, a tap means "follow the link".
The fix, in GoodNotes 6:
- Find the toolbar at the top of the screen.
- Tap the read-only toggle, the pencil-with-a-line icon on the right, to leave editing mode. Some versions label this as turning the pen off.
- Tap a tab. You should land on that section instantly.
- Toggle back when you want to write.
In practice you develop a rhythm: tap into read-only, navigate, tap back into writing mode, write. It sounds fiddly written out, and after two days it is muscle memory.
One related problem that looks like a broken link: if tapping a tab jumps you to the wrong page, you probably imported the planner into an existing notebook, which shifts the page numbering the links depend on. Import it as its own new notebook instead.
How Do You Add the Matching Farm Stickers?
Digital stickers are PNG images with transparent backgrounds that you place, resize, and move as often as you like. GoodNotes has a tool built for exactly this.
- Find the sticker PNGs. They are in the stickers subfolder of the ZIP you extracted, or they arrive as their own download if you bought a sticker pack separately.
- Load them into the Elements tool. Open the Elements tool, create a collection called something like "Farm Stickers", and add your PNGs. Do this properly: from then on every sticker is two taps away instead of a trip through Files.
- Drag one onto the page. Tap the sticker in the Elements panel and it drops onto the page. Drag the corner handles to resize, the middle to reposition.
- Copy and paste for repeats. For something you use daily, like a habit marker, select it, copy, and paste rather than going back to the Elements panel every time.
Our farm sticker packs sit in the Stardew Valley collection and start at $0.99. The holiday set is seasonal and the sticky notes set is the more everyday one.
How Do You Plan Around the Four Seasons?
This is the part that makes a farm-themed planner more than decoration. The game's structure of four seasons at 28 days each is a genuinely good planning frame: short enough to stay motivated, long enough to finish something. Try running your year as four 28-day seasons instead of twelve months.
- Spring: plant. Start things. Use a monthly page as your season overview and write down three things you are beginning. Accept that not all three will survive.
- Summer: tend. No new commitments. This is the maintenance season, where the habit tracker and weekly spreads do the work. If Spring's three things are still alive, they are real.
- Fall: harvest. Finish and ship. Use the daily pages hard, and close things out rather than starting anything. A budget tracker earns its keep here, because autumn is when annual costs land.
- Winter: rest and plan. Low-output on purpose. Use the journal pages, review what worked, and sketch the next Spring. In the game you stop farming and go to the mines: change the kind of work, not just the amount.
Two smaller ideas that map well:
- A daily "energy" check. The game gives you a finite energy bar each day. Noting roughly how much you have before planning the day is a surprisingly honest scheduling tool.
- A weekly bundle. Pick three or four small tasks that belong together and finish the set. Completing a group feels different from ticking scattered items.
Which Stardew Product Fits Which Use?
We sell several farm-themed files, and they are genuinely for different jobs.
| Product | Best for | What you get | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stardew Valley 2026-2027 Digital Planner | Your main dated planner through December 2027 | 128+ pages, 28 templates, dated monthly and weekly spreads, self-care journal, budget tracker, book log | $7.35 |
| Stardew Valley Digital Journal | Undated journaling and note-taking alongside a dated planner | 15 inner page templates, monthly section, budget tracker, cover variants for each season | From $5.79 |
| Vintage Stardew Valley Notebook | A calmer, aged-paper look for general notes | Undated notebook pages with hyperlinked tabs, muted vintage palette | From $5.79 |
| Stardew Valley Digital Sticky Notes Vol. 2 | Everyday page decoration and quick labels | 24 sticky-note PNG styles | $0.99 |
| Stardew Valley Holiday Stickers | December pages and seasonal spreads | 40+ cozy farm PNGs | $0.99 |
If you are buying one thing, buy the dated planner. If you already have a planner you like and just want the farm feeling, buy the journal or the sticky notes and keep your existing setup. Prices above are sale prices at the time of writing.
Browse the full Stardew Valley collection, or compare it against everything else in the planners collection.
FAQ
Is this an official Stardew Valley product?
No. These are independent fan-made designs created by us, inspired by the cozy farming-sim aesthetic. They are not affiliated with, licensed by, or endorsed by ConcernedApe or any game rights holder. You are buying original artwork and layouts made in that visual style.
Do I need GoodNotes, or will it work in other apps?
It works in other apps. The planner is a standard PDF, so it opens in Notability, Noteshelf, Xodo, Flexcil, and Samsung Notes too. Hyperlink support is good across all of them, though each has its own way of switching between reading and writing mode. GoodNotes is simply the most common choice on iPad.
Why did my download arrive as a ZIP file?
Because it contains more than one file, usually the planner PDF plus sticker PNGs. Tap the ZIP once in the iPad Files app and it extracts automatically, then import the PDF from inside that folder. GoodNotes cannot open a ZIP directly, which causes most "the file will not import" messages we get.
Can I use the dated 2026-2027 planner if I am starting now?
Yes, and that is the point of an 18-month file. It runs through December 2027, so buying in autumn gets you the rest of this year plus all of next. Tap through to the current month and begin there.
Will my writing be lost if I re-import the planner?
No. Your writing lives in the GoodNotes copy of the notebook, not in the original PDF, so re-importing creates a second, blank notebook rather than overwriting anything. That is why keeping the untouched original in cloud storage is worth doing: import it again whenever you want a clean copy.