I had a really hard time finding a planner that worked for me, so finally I just put together my own in a mini-binder. I use half-page (A5) printables which are super easy to find online. At the beginning of each month, I print out what I’m going to need for the month, hole punch them, and put all the pages in the binder. If you’re using a mini-binder/half page, you will want to have a three-hole punch just for this, as you need to move your….um, what are they called? Posts? Puncher metal things? Anyway, you have to move them to align with the rings of a mini-binder and while you can move them back for regular-sized paper, it’s annoying and much easier to just have a three-hole punch just for your planner.
The first thing I do, every single month, as soon as she has them posted, is download the new monthly printable from Sheena of the Journal. Pictured above is her journal art from August 2020, which I reused for this month. You need to sign up to get the password for the free printables, but it’s easy and so worth it. She has two options, the free version and the paid version. I recommend the paid version, as it makes life easier, but if you’re like me and cheap, the free version is also great.
The free version comes with a monthly calendar and goals page. I don’t punch the journal art or the calendar and goals page. I use sleeves, but you can punch them if you want to. It’s your planner. Punch or don’t punch to your heart’s content.
Then I print my seasonal living page for the month. I have created a set of seasonal living pages that have all the national days I want to celebrate with my family, as well as tasks I want to get done for the month. National days aren’t always the same every year, so I update as needed for the current year, then print my seasonal living list for the month. I’ve included a picture of my August one as an example.
You can copy mine (I have other months available if you need some ideas) or you can create your own. These work for our family, but everyone has their own traditions, so do whatever works for you! I just made mine in Canva, so they are nothing fancy and definitely nothing you can’t do yourself. If you’re doing the mini-binder thing, you’re going to want to select the option to fit two to a page when you print. Not because you need two, but because it will only take up half the page. You can just fold it in half and it fits perfectly. (Let me know if you need help with this one.)
Then, I print my weekly and daily organizers. You’ll want to head over to Scattered Squirrel to get these the first time, but you can then save them to your device, if you’d like. Or you can go back and try out new ones – she has a bunch.
I use this one for weekly (print two) and this one for daily (print 15). I’ve linked to the half-size ones, which print two per page.
Then, I decide what other printables I need for the month. I always print meal planners. I sometimes will print book trackers, water trackers, fitness trackers, weight trackers or some other fun thing, but they’ve never really become part of my routine. (Speaking of routines, I keep a copy of my morning and evening routines in a sleeve that comes right after the monthly journal art sleeve. It’s handy to have for reference if, like me, you should have it memorized, but don’t.). I really want to get more into bullet journaling, but for my current situation and time constraints, this works best for me.
After this monthly set up, it’s pretty easy to just fill-in the weekly and daily planners. I do weekly planner set up every Saturday evening. It’s also when I do my meal-planning and grocery orders, but I will cover that in a different post.
If you have any good suggestions, links, questions, or comments, please feel free to let me know!
