how i made my own planner

At the beginning of every year I have big plans. And always, the biggest plan of them all is to be a better planner! And with that in mind I've been reading books and blogs, writing up lists and pretty planner pages as well as dreaming up all the projects that I can possibly fit into one busy year! I've only been using a daily planner for the last 5 or so years - before that life just went with the flow - but I've become rather attached to having one and seeing things set down on paper rather than rattling around in my head!
For the last two years I've made my own and Ive been quite happy with them……but I do like a change and I feel I'm going to be busier than ever this year with extra activities and study as well as keeping track of children's work and play! So I've expanded and reworked and I think I've come up with one I will like.

Here are the previous years versions - I repurposed pretty Country Style and Vogue Cooking magazine covers (truly, there are often the most gorgeous pics on there as well as cool words!) and I printed the pages from Leonie Dawsons Create your Amazing Life Planner. As you can see, it has hour times, the Most Important Tasks for the day and a space for some words of wisdom to ponder over. And it was good. But I wanted more!

Can you see what I mean about pretty pages and good words? In Full Bloom and Celebrate Spring - just what I like to think about! (Excuse the two lousy pics - wrong time of day!)

So, on January 1st, I started trawling through Pinterest for some ideas, preferably with free printables. There are lots but I soon realised that there aren't any that are really me - colourful, A4 size (I have lavish sized writing!) and with  categories that are just suited to my life. Whats a girl to do? Well, me? I just make my own!!! I did model mine loosely on the pages found on this site and have also used some of them as is for now but the ones I use every day I wanted brighter and slightly different. 

I simply drew up a master copy using a thick black texta for the lines of the boxes. Then, after finding a couple of nice colour schemes, I traced those lines onto fresh papers which gave me 5 different looks. Yes, it took a while to rule all the smaller lines into each box but I was on a mission. You can see a plain sheet at the top of this post. 

Then came the fun part - words, colours and washi tape! With not too much effort, I had five personalised, pretty planner pages to use as master copies. I like the different categories although I have found that I run out of room in the 'to-do' section and have extra room in the 'time block' section. Hmm, maybe some more tweaking….!

I also drew up a Goals for the Year page which Ive not done before, having only used a vision board, so I'm hoping this works just as well or even better! Notice the wishful thinking about Christmas gifts? I've never yet finished Christmas gifts until December 24th but I am an eternal optimist!!

Theres a page for each month (not pictured) one for each week with three goals broken down into smaller actions and I've also printed out a ready to go page to use for the weekends when the schedule is a little lighter (and have I mentioned that I like a change?)

There are five sections separated by art works from my children, complete with homemade tabs. Yes, it all looks very official with 'menu' and 'blog' tabs but …ahem….those sections are still empty although I do have grand plans….!!

The cover is from a large children's board book and I've bound it all together using the same rings that I use on my Etsy journals. I'm not sure yet how much I like using these rings as opposed to the sort that come in a ring binder and open with one 'snap' as I want to change the pages daily so I can always see the complete weeks actions as well as the current day and thats a bit tiresome undoing all three separately. The rings work really well for my journal where I may just want to add more pages now and again but not move any around. For this planner, I'm considering how to deconstruct an old ring binder and reconstruct it with a completely different cover style. Will keep you posted. 

 So there it is - my very personalised planner! I did have a lot of fun creating it - although I used quite a few brain cells working it out to my satisfaction - and so far I'm finding it good. My only dilemma is that I'm using a lot of paper and I'm not sure how to fix that. The pages are all only printed on one side -  although I do use the other side to jot down thoughts and random writings that spring to mind every so often and I will possibly use it next year as an art journal by gluing pages together and slapping on paint with joyful abandon!! Any other ideas?

 Oh and if you have a chance to borrow this book, do so! Its fascinating. Although geared towards executives and office workers, it has some amazing tips and techniques and a whole new way of being organised. Highly recommended.

Do you have any planner ideas that I may like to implement? Any books that I may need to read? I'd love to hear from you!