How to Make Your Own Agenda Planner

Keep yourself organized with a homemade planner.

If you are a forgetful person or if you have difficulty managing your time, you may need an agenda planner. With a daily agenda planner, you can write down assignments for school, business meetings, doctors' appointments, or other important events that you do not want to forget. Purchasing day planners can be costly and you may not be able to include everything you want. Make your own agenda planner and get yourself organized.

Things You'll Need

• Templates (downloaded or made)
• Printer
• Printer paper (8 1/2 by 11 inches)
• 3-hole punch
• 3-ring binder
• Scrapbook paper
• Organizer tabs
• Pen
• Fabric
• Measuring tape
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• Other decorations (ribbon, stickers, etc.)

Instructions

1. Decide how you want to organize your planner. You may want one page for a whole day or you may want multiple days on one page. Think about your daily schedule and how much space you think you will need to jot down your activities for each day. If a small box is insufficient, allow one page for each day.

2. Find page templates to download online or make your own, using Microsoft Word, Adobe Photoshop or InDesign. Some websites that offer free templates are diyplanner.com and office.microsoft.com.

3. Print your pages on double sides. If you have a PC and a printer capable of printing both sides of a page, click "Print"; go to "Properties," click "Page layout" and select "Double- sided printing" or "2-sided printing." Click "OK" to print. For a Mac, click "Print"; under "Copies and Pages," select "Layout" and where it says "Two sided," select "On." Click "OK" to print.

   If you do not have a printer that can print on double sides of a page, go to "Properties" and print the odd pages only. You can manually enter the odd pages like "1, 3, 5, 7 ..." or you can choose "Odd pages only." Remove the pages from the printer and put the pages in the correct order, starting with page 1. Put your paper back in the printer with the text side up and the letters upside down and print the even number pages the same way.

4. Punch holes in your pages with a 3-hole punch. You can punch about three pages at a time.

5. Insert your pages into a 3-ring binder. Make sure that all pages appear sequentially.

6. Separate each month with a piece of scrapbook paper. Choose any paper you like and punch holes in it. Insert it between the end of one month and the start of another.

7. Stick organizer tabs on your separating pages, so that you can flip quickly to the beginning of any month. Label the tabs, using a pen.

8. Insert other pages that you want at the end of your book. You may want to include a section for addresses, phone numbers and a few blank pages for note-taking.

9. Measure the width and height of the binder when it is open, using a measuring tape. Add 1 inch to each measurement and cut a piece of fabric based on your measurements.

10. Measure 1/2 inch from a corner of your fabric and mark it with a washable marker. Measure 1/2 inch in the other direction and mark it. Measure 1/2 inch into the fabric from both marks to form a 1/2 inch square in the corner. Use a scissors and cut the square out of the corner; repeat this process in the other three corners. These will create tabs that you can fold over your planner to produce a clean finish.

11. Lay the fabric onto the binder and fold over the edges. Use hot glue to attach the fabric.

12. Allow the glue to dry completely.

13. Decorate with scrapbook stickers, ribbon or other embellishment.

14. Fill in all of your important dates.

References

• Collegiate Times; DIY: Planner; Sarah Watson; Aug. 2011
• PBS Kids: Time Management: Make a Weekly Planner
• IG Help Guides: Print Double-Sided- Mac
• Microsoft Office: Print on Both Sides of the Paper (Duplex Printing)

Resources

• DIY Planner: Templates
• Microsoft Office: Planners — Templates