Anyone saw Rouge One yet? I’ve seen it four times now and I feel like I’m going into this new year like Chirrut chanting “I’m one with the force and the force is with me”. I’m already stressing over the spring semester and it hasn’t started yet! You know what always helps me feel a little less stressed during the school year? A planner! The only problem is whenever I buy one at the store I never use it. I always would end up just using notebook paper to plan stuff out. Well, to solve this problem, last fall I decided to make my own planner!
I bought a cheap small binder at Target in their dollar section and printed out my own pages to use. I found that the Scattered Squirrel has hands down the best printable planner pages! I also found tons of cheap planner accessories at Target as well! I don’t think I paid more than 1 dollar for anything other than my binder which was 3. In total, I think my overall planner only cost me $10 and I use it so much that I beat the first one I made up!
I thought I would go through and share each element of my planner and how I use it to give you some ideas for creating the perfect planner for you!
On the cover of my binder, I attached these two sticky notes. What I love about the weekly/monthly notepad is that it is perfect to log in my workouts! Rather than giving myself a set amount of workouts I must do each week, I find it easier to fill in the days I did work out and then at the end of the month compare how much I actually accomplished.
I also keep a little blank notepad at the front so that I can write something down real quick and then later when I have more time, I can fill it in more detail on a different page. And of course, the binder clip is there in case I ever need to attach something or clip some papers together. I also have paper clips inside my pencil pouch I have on the front page.
My planner begins with my monthly section. Inside of this, I have pages for monthly goals and calendar pages. The monthly goal pages are perfect for me to put down important dates, and really list out my main focuses for the month. I feel that if I put down the information in these pages onto the calendar pages I would never pay much attention. Doctors appointments, deadlines for scholarships, or things I need to pay are typical items for these pages. Oh, and I apologize for my oddly cut page below, it was late when I was cutting these out.
In the calendar pages, I mainly put down events, assignments, and upcoming birthdays. I feel that it’s important to remember people’s birthdays. One of my new year’s resolutions is to write letters for every person birthday I can remember to help them feel important on their special day. Marking them in my planner helps me with that.
The following section in my planner is the Weekly section. This includes pages to help me organize the things I want to accomplish that week (i.e. what to buy, goals, things to do, places to go, and people to see) and daily pages that I typically go into more detail with my week plans on.
The next section is food. Not going to lie, I don’t use this section too much during the semester because I typically eat on my campus due to hardly leaving the studio. But during breaks, this page helps me so much! As you can see below, the school week meal plans I provide myself are very vague.
Also in this section is a shopping list for all the items I need to pick up the next time I run to Walmart! Have this in the planner is very helpful when I think of something I need to get randomly in the day.
I’m a poor college kid, so managing what little money I do make is essential! The finance section of my planner helps me with that! I can keep track of what I’ve spent, my current balance, and how much I should allow for certain items. I highly recommend including a financial section in your planner!
This next section is one of my favorites: Goals. I have pages for both long term and short term goals. I’m always developing new things I want to accomplish and having and organized list of these with descriptions and plans to help me reach these goals is both inspiring to me and helps to keep me focused with life gets me down.
Finally, is my notes section. In this section, I just have blank pages that I use to take notes in my classes or jot down ideas. I love this for school because It allows me to have all my notes and schedule in a uniformed place making it easy for me to refer back to things! And I can doodle when I get bored!
I have an additional zipper pouch in the back where I keep a plethora of planner accessories I may need. These include stickers, cute notepads, colorful pens, and washi tape! These items all help the planner to be more personal and add a touch of fun and life too!
I hope this gives you some ideas of how you want to create your own planner and I hope this year is the best year yet! “Today is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one”.
