23 March 2018

Free For All Friday No 488 by Laurie

One of the many glorious things about using a ring binder is adding whatever pages you like for planning, tracking, forms, etc. There are so many pages to choose from! The options really are limitless.

In fact, there are so many options sometimes it can feel overwhelming. Below I have outlined planner pages possibilities, in approximate order from simplest to most complex.

~ You can buy "off the rack" planner pages from brands like Filofax, Franklin Planner, Day-Timer etc.

~ You can buy pre-printed pages in a wide variety of formats and designs from individual sellers, on Etsy for example. The seller prints these pages and mails them to you.

~ You can download pre-made pages and print them yourself. These pages have been designed by someone, and you download the file to print on your own printer or take to a print shop to have printed for you. Sometimes the downloads are free, others cost money. Philofaxy has a wide range of free printables. Etsy has loads of printables you can purchase and download to print yourself.

~ If you have the patience, skill, and equipment, you can design and print your own pages. This is a great option if you are able, because you can make your pages exactly how you want them and tweak/ change them whenever you want.

You can also do a combination of these. For example you can buy pre-made planner pages, and design and print your own trackers or budget forms.

Do you buy pre-made pages? Do you download and print? Do you create your own (and if so what software/ apps do you use)? Please leave a comment so others can be inspired and informed on where to get pages!

And as always on Fridays, feel free to discuss and/ or ask anything ring-binder organizer related.

6 comments:

  1. I reverted to designing formats on the computer this year after buying and using inserts years ago and drawing structures with a pencil and a ruler on paper. I generated various weekly structures in Word. I prefer my latest weekly format with a large space of the day on my approximate A6 sheets. I also print lined and grid pages thereby eliminating the need to buy such paper.

    I use my large binders in addition to my small notebook with the approximate A6 sheets. However the binders are not large enough for letter sheets. I dislike folding currency, letter sheets, A5 paper, etc. On one of my weekly layouts there is a crease on the sheet. I did not use it because of the crease.

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  2. For 2018 using a combination of:

    A. Franklin Covey Compact inserts

    B. Lined, graph, dot grid pages from HandyForms.com

    C. Extra Tabbed Dividers with GTD related headings on tabs I made. Made from a pad of heavy cardstock paper with old period images on them and small stick-on letters called idea-ology. Both by Tim Holtz.com bought at a local store.

    Quite content with these pages now.

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  3. For my calendar, I buy preprinted inserts, but use a combination of plain, ruled, and graph paper for everything else.

    I have designed my own inserts in the past, but I prefer the pre-printed inserts I can get. I've gotten lazy.

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  4. Since I try to use all Tomoe River paper, I make all my own forms, it really doesn’t take that long, and I have exactly what I want using half the ring space.

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    Replies
    1. Perfect reason to use that wonderful paper.

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  5. for myself, it is so easy for me to overthink the problem and overengineer the solution, so I try to stick with simple insert designs, pre-printed from major suppliers. It just makes life easier. My planner is not perfect but when I add more complex pages to try to fix the remaining issues, I just find it gets too complicated.

    That said, I am very interested in crofter's use of Tomoe River paper, for the same content in less space.

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