Another Homemade Planner

Last year I decided to create my own homemade planner. I wasn’t willing to spend $50 on a calendar/planner/life organizer but I wanted something more customized than what I could find on the shelf at Target. 

I loved my homemade planner. My cat notebook made me happy, I had plenty of space for notes, I could see the entire month at once, I had a second calendar for blogging. It was great..until my three-ring binder started falling apart. Apparently three-ring binders with cute cats on them aren’t made to be opened and closed multiple times a day. My homemade planner couldn’t take the beating I served up every day. 

At the end of 2015 I decided to go back to a traditional calendar so I bought this Cambridge calendar at Target. It was less than $10 so I was willing to try it out. After two months I knew it wasn’t for me. It is meant to be used by the week rather than seeing the entire month plus, it didn’t have any extra pages to make notes. I tried to jazz it up with my washi tape, but like every shopping trip to Cato, it left me disappointed and wanting more. 

It wasn’t long before I found myself, once again, in the journal aisle at Target looking for a new notebook to replace my three-ring kitty-cat binder. The problem is that because it was January (and not the beginning of a school year), all of the binders were boring. Not a kitty or puppy or even a unicorn in sight. There may have been a Frozen notebook but I’m not that desperate. As I mulled over the notebooks, planners and journals, I remembered my friend Mari who uses a composition notebook for her calendar. She draws in her own calendar each month and has lots of pages for notes, journaling, inspiration boards, etc. I found a beautiful journal for only $9.99 and decided to try Mari’s method and attempt yet another homemade planner. I spent all afternoon figuring out just the right measurements for my calendar then carefully tracing out the month of February. 

This is probably way more information than anyone needs about a homemade planner but I’m happy to report that so far I’m very pleased. I can, once again, see the entire month at one glance. I’ve realized that going week by week will cause me to forget about something coming up and be surprised and unprepared for an event or appointment or I double book myself. If I have ever had to cancel on you because I’ve tried to cram too much into the day or have been late to something because I’ve unknowingly scheduled appointments too close together and then try to convince myself that I can get across town in 5 minutes when it really takes 20; I’m sorry. I hate being late and promise I’m not a flake. Or at least I try really hard not to be.

Back to my new planner. There are no shortage of pages for note taking at meetings, goal setting or journaling. I even found some unique paper clips on clearance so I can keep past months separate from the current month. I’ve also ditched the idea of needing one calendar for everyday life and another calendar for blogging. Blogging takes up such a big part of my life that everything needs to be integrated into one calendar. Now, I won’t let a deadline sneak up on me.

I’m curious, what type of planner to you use? Are you happy with it? I am on my third planner in less than a year. Clearly, I need a planner intervention.