395 My 2013 Daily Planner!

This year I decided to stick with regular Jen fashion and create my own daily planner vs. scouring online shops and stores until I found the one that fits my daily needs perfectly. 

I have tried all sorts of different planners and I often switch things up from year to year since our needs are always changing.  Last year, I decided to go the digital route, but I found that I was less organized than usual with our daily schedules and planning.  I would go into the calendar to input dates, but it wasn't my cup of tea when it came time to do my weekly planning and look at my Day at a Glance.

What can I say, I simply like to write things down, carry my planner, and be able to open it up and jot goals and notes and meal plans all on one happy and colorful place. 

So, I created a 2013 planner pages printable, which you can find in my Etsy shop here.

Here is a look at what the printable includes:

Personalized Planner Cover

Special Dates Page

12 Dated Monthly Calendar Pages

52 Weeks of Daily Dated Pages

Notes Page

Weekly Meal Planning & Grocery Shopping Page

The pages can be printed {I have them set up to easily print front/back duplex style}, and used within a binder, professional bound {like I did with my blog planner}, or used with the Discbound system from Staples, which is what I ultimately went with.

Ready to see her all up close and personal?

As I mentioned, I decided to ultimately go with the Discbound system {found at Staples}.  You all actually introduced it to me and thought it would be something that would tickle my fancy, and boy have I been smitten since!  So THANK YOU!  I love that I can easily mix and match items to insert, reuse everything from year to year and just swap out pages that need updating, and basically customize it to fit my personal needs!  LOVE doesn't begin to describe it.  New baseball schedule?  Just punch it and pop it in!  Mess up a page?  Just reprint and pop it in!  Special notes and reminders?  Punch and pop.  Fantastic.  And I also adore that it makes it smaller than the typical binder. 

Inside the cover makes me grin ear to ear every time I open it!

On the left, I have color coded stickers, a sticky note pad for quick note jotting, calendar stickers, page tabs and some of my business cards.

And on the right is my coversheet, which I laminated like a pro....

Inside, there is a clear pocket to hold things such as important notes, birthday cards, invites, etc... along with our Special Dates printable.

I used sticky tabs combined with my label maker to divide each month.

And decided I would try the color coding method, so each family gets a special color inside.

Behind the monthly calendar, is where the magic really happens.  I printed everything two sided to save paper and for ease of use.  So, the next pages are a side by side view of the entire week:

Each week is pre-labeled with the specific dates.

And since we are big meal planners, I wanted to jot down the meals for the week inside each day.

On the other side, I included a spot to set some goals/to dos for the week.

And in the back, I printed off a bunch of blank note pages since I am always thinking up things that need a place to live.

Oooh la la lovely right?  Keeping a family of five on the same page can be a challenge, so here is hoping this planner will act as our glue this year.  And all of the colors keep me excited to clutch it day after day!

Cheers to the New Year and happy planning!!

Personalized blog planner printable pages can be found in my Etsy shop here.

Updated Planner FAQ's:

• The paper I printed on is standard letter size, 8 1/2" x 11.  98 bright & 32 lb from Staples.
• When printing, be sure to print a few test pages ahead of time to be sure to understand your printer setup.  Unfortunately, every printer is different and has different settings and options.  What worked best for ours was to select "double sided printing" and to be sure that the "Auto Rotate Pages" box was selected since some are portrait and others are landscape.  Our printer settings allows us to print different page sizes, but it requires us to feed the paper of that size in manually.  
• The pages are designed to be printed on standard letter 8.5" x 11" paper.  The files are in PDF format which open best with Adobe Reader which can be downloaded for free here.
• Here is the link to the binder cover I purchased {I removed the sheets from the inside and replaced with my own}.
• Here is the link to the discbound paper punch I purchased and used {yes, it is compatible with both the Martha Stewart discbound system and the Staples Arc system}.  A reader mentioned that a less expensive option that also worked for her was this Levenger punch.
• Here is the link to the notepad in the front cover.
• Here is the link to the sticky tabs.
• Here is the link to the calendar stickers.
• I use Papermate Flair Porous Ultra Fine Point pens and I love them.  Great writing and no bleeding.  
•  Since I plan on reusing the cover year after year, the title was added with vinyl I cut with my Silhouette {the vinyl can be removed}.
• The planner is 129 pages of prefilled dates/calendars.  Plus a Special Dates, Notes & Meal Planning doc.  I printed double sided so I used half that in paper.
• Staples does offer a printing service and binding service {or you can print at home and just have staples bind it for you}.  You would have to contact your local Staples to confirm their services as they may vary from store to store.
• Here is the link to my label maker.
• In the front cover, the stickers slide into the pouch and the notepad was originally stuck there, but didn't stay so I may try a command strip to hold it better.
• I am not affiliated with Staples in any way to share their services/items, I went there based on your recommendations and my love for the Martha Stewart line.