Back to School: DIY planner tutorial

I'm a planner. I find some comfort in carrying a planner/calendar where I can capture my fixed commitments. I was never very happy with the planner options in stores. Every year, I'd check Staples, Target, Walmart, Office Max, etc., in the hope of finding the exact planner for my needs.

• I wanted a monthly view and a weekly view.
• Within the weekly view, I needed the hours of the day listed. (Many business planners did have this, but the hours included were 8-6. I need evening hours too.)
• I did not want something heavy or bulky.
• I did not want pages with excess pages like time zones, international calling codes, or places to list the shirt and shoe sizes of my nearest relations.
• I did not want to pay a lot of money.
  

A few years ago, it occurred to me that I could create my own. I've used this for 3 years and I'm very happy with it. It's cheap, it's lightweight, it's flexible to my exact needs.

Want one?

Here's how to make your own:

Gather materials:

• Clear-front report covers (I get mine from Staples- 5 for $6.49)
• Hole punch (a 3-hole punch is easiest, but you can make do with a single hole punch)
• Weekly calendar template (I've posted a basic version in Google Docs--I'm working on uploading the Excel file so it can be downloaded)
• Monthly calendar template (2010, 2011- I had to tweak settings to print 2 months per page)
  
• Paper
• Optional: small sticky notes (I like the 1 3/8" x 1 7/8" notes and the 1/2" flags).

1. Print off the monthly calendar
2. Customize the weekly template to fill in all of the fixed time commitments (i.e. class, weekly meetings) for the term. Print off enough sheets for the number of weeks in the term (10, 15)

Here's an old page that shows my fixed commitments in shaded gray boxes. I use sticky notes for flexible demands.



Note that I write in the each day's date at the top of each column.

And another old page-- note how flexible this can be!



3. Punch holes in all of the calendar pages
4. Insert weekly pages first (will be at the back of the planner)
5. Insert monthly pages on top of the weeklies
6. Fold down the closures



7. Viola! Customized planner!

Another benefit of this system is that it's very easy to keep old calendars just in case I need to look up something. I keep them in a file folder, but they could also be kept in a binder.





If you like this kind of organizational info, my posts on organizing a course binder and creating a lesson plan template might also help you.