DIY Planner

Back to school is right around the corner, and it's time to start getting ready. So, in this post, I'll be showing you how to make an awesome and easy planner to keep you organized and ready for school.

What you'll need:

A spiral bound lined notebook (this is what I used, but you could also use a spiral bound graph paper notebook). Mine also had a little pocket just inside the cover, which is really nice.

You'll also need:

A pencil

Gel Pens (You can use regular pens but colorful pens are much better.)

Washi tape, stickers, or other decorating materials

Instructions:

The first thing you'll probably want to do is decorate the cover. I used washi tape, but you could cover it in a piece of colorful scrapbook paper, paint it, or whatever you want.

I left some spaces because I thought the brown added a nice touch.



I made sure to cover up the logo,
and other stuff I didn't want on the cover of
my planner.

Once you've decorated the cover, it's time to start laying out the inside of your planner.

I used a ruler, and every eight columns, I used a colorful pen to highlight one of the lines. This created four sections. You will notice there is a little extra space on the top and bottom, but you can just decorate that area. Now, your notebook might be a different size then mine, so you'll just have to experiment and make adjustments. I had to do a lot of experimenting.

Next, I wrote the month at the top and the dates in the columns.

The next step was making some vertical lines to split the columns into three sections.

Basically, what I did was use a colorful pen to draw the line that separates the dates from the squares. Then, I measured 6cm from that line and marked it with a pencil. The next thing I did was line up my ruler with that mark, and make a line through all the columns with my pen. I then repeated that step once more to accomplish what you see in the photo.

Again, for your notebook, it might be different.

You probably saw in the last photo, that I had three things written at the top of my planner.

Well, those are just the things I wanted to put. I'll explain:

The "Schedule" section is kind of like a checklist. I write down what I need to do everyday in the Schedule section and check it off when I'm done with whatever I had to do.

The "To Do" section is pretty self explanatory. It's a to-do list. But, this is different than my routine section because it's stuff I need to do that doesn't happen everyday. Like,  write blog post or clean room. It could be pick up books at library or download photos onto computer.

The third section is "Events", which by the way, you could just title "Calendar", because that's basically what it is. I'll be writing stuff you'd write on a calendar, such as appointments, outings, gatherings, etc. You get the point.

 Of course, you can make your categories anything you want. These are just the three things that I wanted in my planner. This way, when I open my planner, I can know what I have to get done, what I should get done, and what I have going on that day.

Add some washi tape on your pages to bring a lot of color!

Now that you have the basics of making a planner down, you just have to keep making pages and writing things in. Of course, you don't have to write in a whole year (or however long you want your planner to go on) in one time period. A good time to do this might be while watching TV or listening to music. I love my planner so much because I can customize it however I want.

You could also add in pages that have inspiring quotes on them or have some photos on them.

Have fun!

P.S. I have tons of cool ideas for more DIY posts, so stay tuned if you like them! :)