Welcome to another post here on the blog. I wanted to share with you all how I merged together two planners to create my work planer. Another planner added to my 2017 planner rotation? Yup. Well for good reason. Instead of going out and buying a 6 ring planner from Michaels, which I really wanted, I took a planner I wasn’t using and added leftovers from a system I previously used.
As always be sure to click the highlighted links throughout this post for related posts and links to purchase items/similar styles featured.
Materials used:
- Purple Trail planner
- Staples Arc system refills (to-do, note paper)
- Hole punch
- Scissors
- Tape
- Sticky notes
- Tabs
With a new position at work, I needed a dedicated space to keep track of all the projects I was working on. So, to save money and use what I have, I took a part the Purple Trail planner and pulled out leftover items I had from the Arc system.
While I had all the materials and taking a part the planner was easy, it was pretty time consuming to hole punch the pages since I don’t have a discound punch. The Happy Planner line does have one, Levenger sells a great one, and Walmart sells one as well. I had a Levenger punch once upon a time, but I lost it and when adding to this planner in the future, I’ll definitely need one.
As for the cover, I just cut the cover off the purple trail planner and hole punched it. The back cover I left as is, but for the front cover I inverses it so that the Harry Potter design would be on the inside and the plain design on the outside.
The sections I created:
- Planner
- Notes
- To Do
The dividers are the Staples Arc System dividers minus the notes section which was from the Purple Trail planner. The planner section are the sheets that I ripped out from the Purple Trail planner and hole punched for this disc bound system. I decided to break the weekly pages up on a trimester basis so this planner only holds February to April for now. Hence why I’ll need a hole punch to add the additional pages when that time comes. The notes and to do section are filled with the Staples Arc System refills.
One of my favorite features of the Purple Trail weekly layout were the lined sections. With the spaces in between each day, I mimicked a hourly design that I saw CoffeMonsterzCo on Instagram implement in her Erin Condren. In setting up the weekly pages, I spaced my work hours between the lines I used colorful washi, well washi that I don’t typically use to mark off chunks of time. In between the weekly pages I add a to-do list for the week.
When it comes time for me to take the pages out, I have highlighted the important notes from projects that I’m working on in my detailed to do lists. From there I will write notes in my note section, each month having a separate page.
I took the pocket out of the Purple Trail planner and made a designated spot for my pay stubs and the back folder holds washi and stickers. While this is my work planner, it’s still nice to mark off what I need to get done in a fun colorful way. As noted, the washi is washi I don’t typically use and the same goes for the stickers. For the dashboard, I pulled in sticky notes that I have in my abundant sticky notes collection, used tape, and taped them down to the dashboard.
The best feature of using a discound system is all the pages that you can add in. The discs vary in size and while my planner is smaller, you could easily make one that’s 8.5″ x 11″. If you are comparing length sizes to what the Happy Planner line sells, their mini has 7 discs, their classic has 9, and their big one has 11. If you’re going based off the staples Arc system, the size I’m using is their junior size which has 8 rings. You can easily scale down the pages for however many discs.
Check out the links below to recreate a similar style planner:
- Levenger | Circa Punch
- Levenger | Circa Discs
- Levenger | Refills
- Staples | Expansion Discs
- Staples | Arc System Accessory Kit (dividers, 1.5″ rings, notebook paper)
- Staples | Arc System To Do Refills
- Staples | Arc System Top Bound Dividers
- Martha Stewart Discbound Collection
- Me & My Big Ideas | Daily Sheets
- Me & My Big Ideas | Extension Packs (six month, budget, fitness, etc.)
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