Staying Organized

I'm trying to be proactive by creating a cute and functional planner for my school courses and extracurricular activities for this upcoming semester. I'm hoping that this method of staying organized through to-do lists will work for me so that I can use it in the future along with a lesson planning book. I created my own customized planner by purchasing a $0.25 composition book from Walmart, and it is completely perfect for everything I need right now - so I figured I would share it with you!

This is the front of the planner, which I decorated by using Mod Podge and pretty scrapbook paper (Public Service Announcement: It has never, and will never, be called "Modge Podge"). I love how sturdy composition book covers are, and I know that they tried to make the covers cute by adding colors on them, but I am still not impressed. I followed this tutorial from Amy Bayliss in order to put the scrapbook paper over the covers of the book.

Since composition books have such flimsy / thin pages, I decided to bind 3 pages together at a time using some of my Washi tape from the collection that I have hoarded since I began my SMASH Booking addiction this summer. Not only did the thicker pages prevent my gel pens from leaking onto the next page, but the Washi taped sides look really cute and personalized! The different colors of Washi tape represent a different month; complete with a full calendar and weekly spots to fill in my to-do lists.

The first page of each cluster of matching Washi taped pages is a monthly calendar which is color-coded between my college's academic calendar and the school district's academic calendar. I'll also write in any important dates or appointments in the monthly view.

This is an example of the weekly planner view I created. I'm taking 3 courses this semester, so they are sectioned off and highlighted in green on the left-hand side of the page. That's where I'll put my assignments for the week for each class. The right side of the planner has one of many favorite quotes on the top and lots of available space for notes, to-do lists, extracurricular activities, and other little things I may need to remember for the week.

Since I will be in the classroom almost every day during the 2014-2015 academic year, I had to print out a cute school district calendar, which I adhered to the page with a tape runner and some of my pink polka dot Washi tape.

Finally, here is the back of my planner, which was also created with Mod Podge and cute scrapbook paper. I have always loved cute things that keep me organized, so obviously, I'm wicked excited to start using this planner this year to keep all of my lesson planning unit to-do lists organized.