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This is a walk-through on how I create a Monthly Calendar Layout in my DIY Planner. Every year, since 2015, I’ve been making my own planners by hand. The biggest reason is because I could never find a planner that embodied everything I needed and wanted for the year.
In the beginning, my custom planners were inspired by and adapted from the Bullet Journal Method. If you love planners and pens and you haven’t gone down the Bullet Journal rabbit hole yet I highly recommend it! There are so many amazing people out there creating these amazing bullet journals every year.
Over the years, my planner has evolved into a flexible structure that I found incredibly supportive. I won’t lie, it’s super practical and NOT artist, but it’s helped me get shit done.
Monthly Calendar Layout
This is the 7th post in a series of videos in which I walk through how I create “the bones” or layout for each section of my custom, hand-drawn planner. In the last video of this series, I will do a complete walk-through of the entire planner and talk a little more about how I use and adapt each section. If you create your own planners too, please feel free to cherry-pick, adapt or improve upon my basic structure.
Note: I do use a XL Moleskine Classic Squared / Grid notebook soft-cover (paid link) (7.5” x 9.5”) for my planners. It is important to mention this because I have a system of counting dots or squares to make sure things turn out how I want them. If you were to follow along with a different kind of notebook your results may not be exactly the same or you may need to adjust.
In the video above, I show how I create a monthly calendar view for my planner
Ideas for the monthly calendar view:
- Habit tracking
- Bill tracking
- Word of the month
- Intention for the month
- Meal planning
- Affirmation(s)
- Water tracking
- Fitness tracking / planning
- Daily gratitude
- Daily memory journaling
- Inspirational Quote(s)
Other videos in this series
- 1st Video – Reflection & Inspiration Layout – Link
- 2nd Video – Vision & Goal Layout – Link
- 3rd Video – Year at Glance View – Link
- 4th Video – Future Log Layout – Link
- 5th Video – Quarterly Planning Layout – Link
- 6th Video – Monthly Goal Setting Layout – Link
- 7th Video – Monthly Calendar View – This post
- 8th Video – Mid-Year Review Layout – Link
- 9th Video – Another Simple Future Log Layout – Link
- 10th Video – End of Year Reflection Layout – Link
- 11th Video – Budget Tracker Layout – Link
- 12th Video – Travel Log Layout – Link
- 13th Video – Complete Planner Walk-through – Link
In this video I am using the following items
- XL Moleskine Notebook (squared/grid) 7.5 x 9.5
- Morefone Calligraphy Pens (No bleed)
- Crayola Supertip Markers
- Zebra M301 7mm Mechanical Pencil
- Kuretake Zig Calligraphy Pens 12 Colors
- Phone Ring Light Overhead Mount
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