The last major divider in your planner is for the planning pages. Label your fifth divider "plans." If you keep yearly goals or resolutions, then a good place to keep those written down, is on sticky notes, adhered to the back of your Plans divider.
A great first page in the Plans section is a yearly overview. There are various free printouts all over the internet, where you can print out the yearly overview calendar. I am using one that came with a Franklin Covey planner pages set that I got last year. It shows the yearly overview for the years 2015 through 2020. It is a half sheet size paper, originally made to go into a seven ring binder.
I just put washi tape over the punched binder holes, and then re-punched over the taped edge for it to fit into my discbound planner. I re-punched this page with my Happy Planner punch. The Happy Planner punch I have punches for a nine-disc planner, but my planner is the Arc Junior size, which is a standard eight disc system. To punch for an eight disc system with a Happy Planner punch, simply line up your half sheet of paper under eight of the punching pads (they are visible), and make sure your paper isn't under the cutting part of the ninth punching pad. Practice on a few extra sheets of half-size paper, before you punch any of the pages you are going to put into your planner, so that you can get the hang of it. It's pretty simple, and quite handy.
If you like yearly overviews for one or more year, then either print one of the many free printouts online, or use a half sized one for another planner, etc.
The Monthly Calendar Pages
You can do the following, which is fun, or you can just buy all the planner inserts pre-made, for your discbound planner, and just pop them in. If you want all the planning inserts pre-made, you can get some for Arc Junior and the other Arc sizes at Staples, or the same sizes by other companies, such as Tul at Office Depot, or IQ 360 at some Walmarts. Or, you can get a Happy Planner, as briefly discussed earlier in this planner series. Happy Planners come in different sizes. Currently, the only Happy Planner size that is the same size as other discbound companies is the "Big Happy Planner," which takes letter sized paper.
Meanwhile, if you'd like to save money, and have some fun in the process, then instead of buying all inserts, try the following:
This is one of most fun parts of putting together this planner. The first main subsection in the Plans section is going to be monthly calendars for each month of the year. For 2016, I've been using Daytimer Flavia, month on one page sheets, for their Desk sized planners, which is a half sheet of paper. These pages were originally designed to fit into a seven ring binder, but I washi taped over the edges and holes, and re-punched them, so that they now fit nicely into my discbound planner.
I recently purchased the monthly calendar pages that I am going to use for 2017, and they are DayTimer Kathy Davis, month on two page sheets, originally designed for a seven ring binder.
I then put some washi tape over the holes on the edge of each page, on both sides, to cover the punched holes, since I will not be putting these into a binder, but rather into a discbound system:
Then, I used my Happy Planner punch (Arc punches will work very nicely for this, too) and punched each page, over the washi tape. If you do not have a discbound punch, you can also punch each hole with a regular hole punch, then use scissors to snip little channels to each hole. This is how I generally punch when I make laminated covers, because they are usually too thick for my small Arc punch, and my current Happy Planner punch.
Once my pages were taped and punched, they were ready to be put into the discbound planner, like so:
If you would like to put in monthly pages similar to mine, click here to view some Daytimer monthly pages that are the right size to fit your eight disc planner. When you get these pages, just remember to tape and punch, then they will go right in, and they are pretty, fun, and functional.
What to do With These Pages
Now you have your monthly planning pages in your planner. Write down appointments, special events, reminders, etc. Some ladies also put down when certain bills are due, and when trash pick up is, as well. You can get cute little functional planning stickers and colored dots and labels, and use those to assist you in your planning, and it makes it a bit more colorful and fun.
Further, when you see or think of something that needs to get done, some day, immediately turn to your monthly calendar and pick a day to do it on and write that in on that day's calendar square. Do this immediately, so that you don't forget.
The beauty of having this planner, is that you don't have to keep retaining reminders in your head all the time. You simply write them in your planner, and then your mind isn't as cluttered, and you are more free to think upon more important things, such as serving the Lord and your family.
We will set up the rest of your Plans section in the next installment of this series.