Customized Librarian Planner

Well, I received and accepted my first job as a library media specialist! This, of course, means that I'm trying to get organized months in advance. What better way to do this than to create my own personal planner?

I'm a HUGE Happy Planner lover; however, it's been hard to find one that fits the needs I have. They're usually the perfect size, but filled with about 50% of unneeded items. I also wanted to create a planner that was laminated so I could reuse the pages. It's super simple: use wet erase markers instead of pens and the planner will actually last forever. So, without further ado, here's what I came up with:

Materials

• Happy Planner rings (I found mine at Jo-Ann)

• Happy Planner hole punch (I found mine at Michaels)

• Cardstock Paper (I found a scrapbook packet that I really loved at Jo-Ann, but then I had to cut each page to size... so do at your own risk)

• Laminator and pouches (I used 3m for the pages and 5 m for the cover - be prepared to hole punch before laminating and then again after because it'll be a little too thick to do all at once)

• Glue stick

• Scissors

• Tabs (I found my month ones here and my category dividers here)

• Optional: Templates to help plan. You could make your own, I just didn't want to. I found all mine from this Etsy store.

• Printer

• Creativity!

Instructions

1. Without buying an editable template, this can get tricky. The Big Happy Planner is essentially the size of normal paper, so keep that in mind. I used Google Docs to create the template I wanted. I created my cover first. Once I printed my design, I cut some scrapbook paper to size and glued it how I wanted it to look. Then, I hole punched it before laminating with the 5 m lamination paper.

2. I divided my categories into the following: months, weeding, class lists, notes, budget and miscellaneous. I wanted to do a favorite children's book character/characters for each section. Of course, Harry Potter was the theme for months because I had a lot of images I wanted. Just as with the cover, I printed the image I wanted and then glued it on some cut-to-size scrapbook paper.

3. The next part was super easy because I bought the templates. I simply printed the templates on colored paper and then laminated them. For those that I couldn't find a template for, such as the display case page, I just used Google Docs and added images in the drawing section. It made for a really easy design!

4. Like I said, I laminated these so that I can just switch them each month and waste less paper and less space.

5. Once I put all the papers in the order that I wanted, I added the tabs. I ended up doing the category tabs on top and the month tabs to the right. It's a great way to be organized and look cute!

6. Now that my planner was done, I could use some wet-erase markers to begin the planning process!

What I love most (aside from looks) about this planner is that I can easily edit things as I embark on my first year on the job. It's such a customizable thing that I'm not worried at all about organization. I've even gone ahead and made quite a few other planners for other aspects of my life! Of course, there's also other options with this one. You could buy a Big Happy Planner and add/remove some features for a shorter and easier process. The nice part is it's all about what you want. Enjoy!