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06 July 2017

Tell us about...... 14

Have you ever designed or created your own inserts?

When I say inserts they don't have to be diary inserts. I have created a lot of my own every day inserts from packing lists to specialist information pages, some of them are just a single or a couple of pages.

If you haven't what has stopped you? Need, ability? What precisely, let us see if we can help you in future.

Tell us in the comments below.

12 comments:

  1. I have previously recreated the 13 column spreadsheet mentioned in the Franklin Covey Advanced Day Planner User Guide. It is suitable for most kinds of annual record, with a wider text column and space for associated data over 12 months, with enough rows for daily records if desired. This was as a single sheet, but I think it would have been better as a double. Actually it could have been called a 15 column spreadsheet, because there are extra columns for day number and row total. I also added an extra row at the bottom for column total.

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  2. Since 2013, I've produced all my information pages using Ray Blake's excellent templates. Although the ones I use most are designed to be made into booklets (for Midori Traveller's Notebooks) they work just as well for ringed inserts with a tweak of the margins. Indeed, they would probably be more widely used if these templates were adapted for the different sized Filofax pages and listed under "other free inserts". They really are excellent for making packing lists, anniversaries, passwords, regular events lists, personal data (encrypted) etc. etc. Thanks Ray! See My Life All in One Place

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  3. I find the boxes in the yearly foldouts to be WAY too small (especially when you're in a pocket size!) I was inspired by a video by Kent From Oz to design a tri-fold insert which has three months on either side, with the dated boxes listed vertically instead of horizontally. I just change the months at the top so I have two inserts with 6 months on each. There's a lot more room. If anyone is interested, I have available for download in Excel in the blog post I did on it https://weekendwife.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/yearly-fold-out-for-pocket-sized-planner/ Keep in mind that it's designed for a pocket size, but you can certainly adjust for personal. You may also have to check the dates as I think I either skipped or doubled days in one or two months and have not had the chance to edit the link.

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  4. I always create my own diary inserts and would recommend it for anybody who is computer literate and for whom pre-printed inserts just don't cut it. By creating my own diary inserts, I have the freedom to create my own layout (e.g. I can allow Saturdays and Sundays to be the same size as other days and not the smaller second-class citizens most pre-printed inserts make them), and I can user the colours I want, and only print on one side of the paper so that I don't have to negotiate the rings when I make a diary entry, and so on and so on. And I can also make sure I see what is relevant to me in terms of national holidays for where I do business, birthdays of people I know, etc. It means my diary is there to serve me and suit my needs, and I don't have to change my way of working to fit somebody else's setup. Yes, it takes a bit of work to set up, but it's certainly worth it in the end.

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  5. I've always purchased inserts. Too lazy to create my own. Lol. Maybe I will try to create my own one day.

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  6. I designed formats and charts on the computer long ago. In the past few years I conceived and drew layouts on lined and grid pages because I do not want to print, cut and bind the pages. I trimmed the sheets of bound notebooks for my cover with pockets. However I am not creating other inserts or trimming much paper. I assembled a bound notebook with the correct size and number of sheets without cutting paper.


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  7. I've created my own and modified ones I've bought to suit my needs.

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  8. I make my own inserts, not calendar ones however. Not that ambitions. I have set up an etsy store but I am not a very good business woman apparently. I enjoy it though. Hoping to find a good program to use to create better ones.

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  9. My oldest insert, still in use is my grocery list. I started that one in 1992. It's not organized/sorted very well but mostly contains all the items that I regularly buy.


    Travel insert & packing checklist. During 1993-2001, I worked for a government contractor and we traveled more that any other job I ever had. For me that came to about 30-50 trips a year, anywhere from back home the same day up to a week away from home. I created a travel insert to keep up with travel reimbersment expenses. This was necessary because I might have several trips at the same time waiting for reimbursement. For the overnight or longer trips, I had a packing checklist insert. I most often prepacked toiletries for my next trip the day after or weekend after I came home from my last one.

    Bill payment calendar. There was a time when I worked a full time job for the government contractor mentioned above and a part time job for two evenings most weeks. I created an insert to pay my bills. This was necessary for a couple of reasons. The full time position paid twice a month and the part time job paid every two weeks. I needed a special calendar to determine when I got paid for both jobs and especially when I would be home to take time to pay the bills. I made a yearly calendar & color coded it to the three expected dates each month so nothing slipped through the cracks when I sat down for two monthly check writing sessions.

    Ha, now that I think about it, it was during those years that I needed the grocery list to be especially up to date. You see I was a single mom of a teen young man who was Always Hungry.

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  10. Oh yes, most of the pages I use are now selfmade inserts.
    I started with downloads from here but soon realized they didn't fit my way, my needs.
    For example: I use a shrinked-down version of the 2ppd-version (personal size), because I don't need 2 pages per day but I wanted all the "areas" of 2ppd-inserts.
    I've learned a lot by using the downloads from Steve and Ray, like automatically printing days, month and dates, I even inserted birthdays and national holidays in my version (I always forget to transcribe birthdays from last years calender to the new ones, now exel is doing it for me)

    If I think I need a new layout for anything, first place to look for it is: here, Philofaxy. Either it's a direct hit or an inspiration to come up for my personal solution for it.

    So, a big thank you to Steve and Ray and anyone else who has contributed so far to the collection of files

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  11. I made my own A5 insert for tasks, divided into home, work and at the bottom dailies. A tracker didn't work for me, for it was discouraging to see the things I had missed, or hadn't had time to do each day. Positive is much better, it's there and listed, if I do it great, if not the world doesn't end!! This page is so useful and lives on the right hand side of my binder and the week on one page on the left. xxx

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