DIY Planner

First, a little background.  I am way too into my planner.  I love it.  I love the planner...I love to plan. Finding the perfect planner each summer is something that I both forward to and dread each year.  And I know I am not alone, there are others (who shall remain nameless) that also celebrate the planner as I do.  

Everyone's perfect planner is different.  For me...I prefer spiral bound.  I have tried working with the various binder style planners in different sizes with all the cool page inserts...they never work for me.  They are too bulky, the metal rings hurt my hand...they just don't do it for me.  I don't like any color on my pages because I do all of the color coding and also if I erase it makes the color look all faded.  And I love tabs, even if I have to make my own.  A few years ago, I made my own planner and it worked great for me...but it was hard for me to figure out how to put it together...it took me forever.  Plus, I made it specific to a time frame so if I were to reprint the pages I would have to go in and individually changes pages then print.   So I started from scratch for this new DIY creation.

For this planner...I wanted to create pages that I could reprint from year to year without having to stress about dates.  I wanted a planner with big boxes in my monthly and weekly views, and lots of room everywhere for to-do's, doodles and dreams.  So here is what I came up with, shown step by step with pictures and descriptions and links to the PDFs I created.

NOTE:  The pages are already set up in the right order based on printing them front to back.

1. First Pages...print once, front to back
   
2. Monthy/Weekly...print as many as needed, front to back
3. FINAL Month...print this Monthly/Weekly template so it will 'end'
4. Add front/back cover pages (see below)
5. Take to Staples/Kinkos etc to get a spiral binding (see below)

Here are some additional pages that you could print out and include in the back of your planner;

• A-Extra Pages- 2 vertical, rectangular boxes (2 pages, print F/B) 
  
• B-Extra Pages- 2 horizontal, rectangular boxes (2 pages, print F/B)  
  
• C-Extra Pages- 1 large, rectangular box (2 pages, print F/B)  
  

---

Just to let you know, this did take me some time because I was creating the templates and figuring out how to put everything together, but it should not take you long if you are making your own, as I have done all the work for you (lucky you!).  

And cost?  Minimal!  I printed the pages front/back on our (laserjet) printer at home, so that just cost paper and ink, which luckily we already had. (score!).  I already have a ton of papers and collage items here from making art, but you can get a good selection of scrapbooking papers for under $5 from Michael's or your local art/craft supply store.  I used the glue, paper cutter and scissors from Kinko's.  The laminating and spiral binding were less than $10.00, also at Kinko's. So this endeavor cost me personally less than $10, but if you have get the pages printed and buy some decorative papers it might cost you $15-$20.  Totally worth it.


Special thanks to my husband for pretending to share my enthusiasm for planners, going to Kinko's with me and taking pictures for my tutorial...you're off the hook, until next year!


If you want the original Word documents to edit them, please email me and I will be happy to send them to you.  And if you read this post and make you own planner, please email me a picture- I would love to see it!  (jll1203@hotmail.com)