Life is starting to get busy again, I’ve been chosen to be the program coordinator for a local charity and I wanted to make sure I do this job justice. I decided it was time to set myself up with a proper planner again. Pre-COVID I always had a journal planner of some sort with me to keep thoughts, appointments and lists together but when everything went digital and remote during the pandemic, a full planner became a waste of paper.
I think I missed it more then I realized. Having a place to keep my thoughts straight. I’ve noticed it helps my brain relax once there’s a plan on paper I don’t think about it as much.
I’ve always struggled to find a planner template I like. I gravitate to bullet journals for the freedom it allows the writer and no commercial journal planners that I’ve seen have bullet journal paper.
Throughout the years I’ve collected a few book making tools so I decided if companies aren’t making what I am looking for it’s time to make it myself.
Another benefit of making something myself is the flexibility of the start date. Most planners from stores start in Aug/Sept or Dec/Jan. I didn’t expect to find anything that would start in the middle of the summer.
For the cover I used a Little Golden Book from the thrift store. I felt a little guilty about destroying the book but after reading through it I felt marginally better- it’s a book on dinosaurs from 1956- at this point in history we didn’t know yet what killed the dinosaurs.. So I flipped my thinking and realized this was a great new life for this cover, and also plan to utilize the pages for junk journaling. There’s many more up to date books on Dinosaurs for kids to check out then this one.
The Monthly page is portrait and one page with a selection of journal prompts and trackers on the left. I intentionally made the lines grey in case one month I wanted to do something different- my main goal was to design something that could be ever changing.
The weekly pages fully embraced the bullet journal flexibility while creating a consistent weekly outlook template. The right side brings structure while the left is ready for whatever the week throws at me whether it’s meeting notes, doodles or a task list.
Custom weekly planner pages with bullet journal pages
Yes, I realize my google calendar and phone can do all this as well but I really love the physical act of writing and the digital alternative is just not the same feeling.
For the notes section, I found an old Hilroy notebook with blank pages left, ripped them out and cut them to size to fit the planner. This was another exciting moment of bringing something back to life.
I printed the pages on regular 8.5x11” printer paper, returning the pages to the printer reversed to print on the back to create the double sided pages
Using a Cinch Book Binding machine I punched the holes and installed the binding wire.
Someone could also opt to print the sheets full size and get a tiny binder for them if book binding equipment is out of reach.
I am so happy with now this turned out, it encompasses everything I need to keep grounded and organized throughout the day with a style that matches me.
If these pages speak to you as well I’m made them available below for $0.99. It will arrive as a digital download in a zip file.
Happy Planning!
A digital copy of my custom planner pages! Monthly page, tracker page, weekly page and a bullet journal page.
