Free Planner Pages

I have to say it, I LOVE planners. (The old school paper-pencil kind. No icalendar for this girl!) I’ve always had an affinity for planners, but lately I have determined that they pretty much qualify as a necessity…because, let’s face it, this mama will forget if something isn’t written down. Raise your hand if you are in the same boat, sisters. (Don’t leave me hanging, I’m over here raising my hand and waving it around like a crazy lady. I’m even getting to the age where my “mommy muscles” (aka my droopy biceps) are starting to “wave” a bit too. Oh joy. [wink] 

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I have gotten on a bad cycle. Because of my love (ahem NEED) for a planner, I have to write down dates when I hear about them. Now, usually this isn’t an issue. I just open my planner up and pencil in the date. BUT there are two times a year when this doesn’t work. This recently was one of those time….

You see, the planner I was using ended in June and with summer on the horizon and dates needing to be written in (so I wouldn’t forget them), you guessed it, I was going to have to buy another planner. This bad cycle means I usually end up buying TWO planners a year. CRAZY TOWN! I have been wondering about switching to a notebook planner that uses refillable pages, but they typically cost more. UNTIL….I saw one on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $10. I took it as a sign to snag it and some insert pages that were on sale and give it a go. But when I got home I realized I had accidentally bought daily page inserts; I would have to buy another whole pack next month…um, no.

But this accident actually turned into a good thing because it got my frugal wheels a-turning (maybe a little creakily at first….Ha!). I realized I could just make my own! That way they would be the vertical format I was having a hard time finding, they would be free (such a beautiful word), AND after I made them, I could share them with YOU! That sealed the deal! SO, after lots of late night computer hours, they are all ready! Ta da!

Planner Features

Let’s look at these a little closely for a sec. You’ll notice that each day has a small box at the top. This is to put your top 3 priorities for the day (and then a circle to check them off when they are complete. Because, surely I can’t be the ONLY one who likes to check off tasks when they are done?) I put numbers down the sides. These are hours (starting with 6:00 in the morning and ending with 8:00 in the evening). There is a spot for menu planning at the bottom of each day. There is even a place to cross off water intake (yep, those recommended 8 glasses). One simple feature I like is at the top of the 2-page spread: the “Reminders” area. This is a great place to put upcoming birthdays you might need to shop for, groceries you need to pick up, or a Bible memory verse for the week. 

Putting the Planner Together

To make these fit in an “A5” planner, simply print them and cut them in half. I purposely made them so they would print on standard 8.5 x 11 inch copy paper. To make the holes, I just traced the holes from another planner page I had and used a single hole punch. (Or if you prefer, you could just print out the one sheet and not cut it. This would be great to hang on the fridge!)

You will need to print these front and back. You will probably have to play around with your printer to see how the paper feeds; all printers are different, so unfortunately I can’t offer help with this. (I always forget and end up printing a couple “practice pages” with my own printer, so don’t fret if it takes you a few tries.) 

To keep your pages collated correctly, it will help to have a “half page” for the first printed page (a page that will print on a standard piece of paper, but only take up the right half of the paper. This will make it so that the weekly spread will line up correctly). Having a monthly planning sheet for this purpose seemed to make sense, so you will find this along with the weekly schedule in the Printable Resource Library (link below).

Using Your A5 Planner

I love that you can print these ahead of time and have them ready for the year. That way when you have an idea for a gift for somebody’s birthday, or a great project that comes to your mind, OR you just want to jot down where the “safe place” is that you put the remote for the Christmas tree lights (ahem)….yep, just turn to the monthly page and write it down. Trust me, your brain (and sanity) will thank you! 

My last planner (the one I mentioned that ended in June) was one I picked up from Target. I had heard good things about using a vertical schedule (apparently they help lots of people be more productive). I’m not sure if my productivity level escalated using this new-to-me-format, but I did find it helpful to be able to schedule things in “blocks” of time. This visually lets me see how many things I was trying to knock out in a certain amount of time. Before using this method, I would just list everything I would “like” to get done for the day, but not really thinking about how feasible my to-do list may (or may not) be. Having the times included on the left-hand side makes my chances MUCH higher of actually getting everything crossed off by the end of the day. And this sticky-note, planner-loving nerd girl feels like she won the lottery when that happens. (It might not equate to Jesus turning water into wine, but some days, getting my to-do list done TOTALLY feels like a miracle. We have to take our victories where we can, right?) 

Another thing to point out: see that quote from Mother Teresa on the bottom of the picture above? This is a reminder to me that everything I do, no matter how little or menial it might seem, can be done to bring glory to God (it just depends on my attitude). 

I hope you find these printables encouraging and that they are helpful to you! I will be adding more planner pages in the future, so if you have any requests for other types of pages, leave them in the comments! 

While you’re in the Printable Resource Library, check out the 2020 printable calendar and the goal setting page I have. It goes along perfectly with the planner sheets. It’s called “Mama’s Got Goals”. I’m going to print one for myself too. These are great to do every 3-6 months.