Staying organized is critical for productivity. For many, a daily planner is an indispensable tool to plan days, track habits, and ensure tasks don’t fall through the cracks. But the pre-made options may not suit your unique needs or style preferences.
The good news? Printing your own customized daily planner pages is totally doable from home. With a bit of effort upfront, you can create planner pages that seamlessly fit into your life.
Read on to learn how to design and print daily planner pages tailored to your lifestyle. As a professional custom planner printing manufacturer, I’ll cover everything from choosing planner dimensions to finding printable templates so you can start organizing your days your way.
Why Print Your Own Planner Pages?
Before we dive in, let’s look at a few solid reasons to print your own daily planner pages versus buying a pre-made planner:
Complete Personalization
Store-bought planners stick to set formats that appeal to the masses. But when you DIY your own pages, you can include any sections, features or visual elements that serve you. Like breaking your day into 30-minute increments or adding a weekly menu planner.
Cost Savings
Pre-made daily planners range anywhere from $10 into the $50+ range. And if it doesn’t work for you, that’s money down the drain. Printing pages at home slashes costs since you only print what you need.
Flexible Format
Don’t love the layout you created? Simply tweak the design and print fresh pages. With a store-bought planner, you’re stuck with the same format all year.
Environmental Reasons
Choosing to print pages at home prevents another mass-produced planner from hitting landfills once the new year rolls around. Reusing page designs year over year is a greener choice.
How to Print Your Own Daily Planner Pages?
Step 1: Pick Your Planner Size
With endless options, selecting a planner size may seem tricky upfront. But identifying how and where you plan to use your printed pages helps narrow suitable dimensions.
Here are top sizes for DIY daily planners to consider:
Half Letter (5.5” x 8.5”)
The half letter size slices standard 8.5” x 11” paper in half, creating a compact planner perfect for tossing into purses or backpacks. Since it’s smaller, half letter planners encourage listing only vital tasks and events.
Classic Letter (8.5” x 11”)
This spacious size offers ample room for extensive scheduling, note taking, project planning and more. Letter-sized DIY planners are ideal for desktop use to map out days in great detail.
A5 (5.8” x 8.3”)
Just a bit longer than half letter, A5 hits the sweet spot between portability and providing sufficient space for daily planning activities, notes and task lists. It’s an excellent on-the-go option.
Once you select dimensions, print guide sheets to visualize sizing differences. Place contenders inside your bag to confirm chosen formats travel well and fit where you need them.
Step 2: Craft Your Layout
Now for the fun part – mapping out your ideal daily planner format! Reflect on how you currently organize days. Which elements help you stay on track? Do you carry a notebook for reminders? What’s missing?
Use this intel to sketch page layouts, noting must-have sections. For instance, indicate where you’ll pencil in calendar blocks, goals, AM/PM task lists or inspirational quotes.
Remember, anything goes when DIYing, so don’t limit yourself. Daily, weekly and monthly views can happily coexist within planner pages you print at home.
Sample Planner Page Sections
If you’re feeling uninspired, here are common daily planner page sections to spark layout ideas:
- Prioritized daily task lists – Designate space for listing must-do and nice-to-do items. Add checkboxes for ticking off finished tasks.
- Hourly schedule – Block out chunks of time for appointments, meetings, exercise classes, etc so you visualize open pockets for getting work done.
- Goal tracking – Carve out a spot to pen 1-3 daily goals. Review if you met them at day’s end.
- Gratitude journaling – End each day on a positive note by jotting down things you felt grateful for.
- Menu planner – Sketch a weekly menu grid to plan healthy homemade meals.
- Habit tracker – Create a simple chart for tracking cups of water consumed, daily steps or other repeating actions.
For even more ideas, browse daily printable templates online. See elements you may like to integrate into your own pages.
Now loosely sketch 2-3 different page layout options. Highlight must-haves vs. non-essential nice-to-have sections in each. Review and narrow to your number one design that melds absolute essentials with nice extras.
Step 3. Locate Daily Planner Templates
You have page layout in hand – awesome! Some may relish recreating planner pages from total scratch. But for most, adapting pre-made templates saves massive effort.
Online DIY daily planner templates serve as “fill-in-the-blanks” foundations, having underlying structure in place. Simply tweak template text, fonts and colors to your taste, add your tailored sections from step two, then print and watch your customized daily pages come to life!
Places to find stellar daily planner page templates:
Basic Microsoft Programs
Many overlook basic software already installed on their computers for crafting printable daily planners. For instance, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Publisher boast handy templates under Built-In categories like Calendars and Planners. Adapt to your specifications using built-in editing tools.
Etsy
Creative Etsy sellers offer magnificent daily planner pages for sale in their online shops. Search Etsy using terms like daily printable planner templates, editable planners and DIY daily pages. Purchase sets then customize further with design software like Canva (more details below!).
TeachersPayTeachers
Originally created for educators, this site brims with clever printable planners and organizing printables. Browse their Daily Planner selection seeking formats suiting your needs. Many cost under $5, with options to tweak using Canva, PDFescape and more.
Blogs/YouTube Channels
Do a search of “free daily planner printables” and discover a wealth of templates shared by blogs and YouTube DIYers. Often available as instant downloads after subscribing or entering email addresses. I recommend Jenn Pinto and Print Planners 101.
Step 4. Edit Templates
You’ve found templates brimming with potential. Time to roll up sleeves and customize so pages fulfill your daily planning vision.
Assuming you don’t already own premium software like Adobe InDesign or Illustrator, excellent DIY design apps include:
- Canva – User-friendly interface with pre-sized document templates, photos, illustrations and adjustable text boxes ideal for creating printable pages. Canva’s free version works great.
- PDFescape – Completeonline PDF editor allowing you to add/delete/modify text and images, tweak colors and download PDFs ready for printing. Free and paid tiers available.
- Word/PowerPoint – Perfect programs for applying format changes like colors, fonts and inserting daily planner elements like calendars with built-in editing tools.
Spend time personalizing and testing how added components function. Fine tune page formatting prior to finalizing printable PDF versions. Don’t forget to save emptied premade templates should you need fresh page foundations down the road.
Step 5. Print Pages
This is it! Time to watch your customized daily planner pages materialize via home printer magic.
A few key pointers for flawless prints:
Preview – Once templates are polished, visualize final versions using your PDF reader. Zoom in confirming text, images and elements print clearly without cutoff edges or alignment issues.
Print Setup – Access print dialogue boxes to define essentials like page size matching your template’s dimensions, paper source/tray, single vs. double-sided printing preferences and print range if creating multiple planner volumes.
Paper Choice – Print a test sheet first. I advise card stock paper or premium 24+ lb printer paper for durable daily planning pages. Align paper grain direction properly to prevent unwanted creasing.
Hole Punch – Using a standard hole punch evenly spaced holes suiting discbound notebooks or planners keeps printed pages neatly filed. Some printers offer integrated hole punch extensions like Epson WorkForce models.
Binding – Now, bind your loose printed sheets into a planner notebook using mechanisms like disc, coil, post, wire, plastic comb or screw posts available at craft and office supply retailers. Or use binder rings to hold pages within simple 3-ring binders.
Protective Covers – Slip newly bound planner pages inside vinyl, fabric or laminate covers to safeguard your precious pages from rips, spills, fading and folds as you transport daily. Some opt for printable PDF cover templates bringing themes full circle.
Get Organized Your Way
Congratulations – you did it! Now enjoy your fully custom daily planner flowing with freedom of pages genuinely serving your style and needs. Revel knowing you have an efficient system for organizing priorities, mapping days, achieving goals and tracking meaningful progress.
The effort invested to craft and print your own daily planner pages pays continuous dividends allowing you to show up as your best, most prepared self no matter the day brings.
Now flip open fresh pages…and dive into creating your most organized days yet!