The Creative (and Fully Functional) Day Planner: 47 Random Ideas

1. When you come across a quote that you like, jot it down on a random calendar page where it can surprise you just when you need it.
   
   
   
   
2. Want extra storage space? Make folders for your planner out of cardstock. Cut the cardstock to a size just as wide but about one and a half times as long as your page size. Fold one end up and use glue, double stick tape, or decorative stitching to hold the relevant edges together. Punch holes in one side and use the folder to hold receipts, stickers, etc. Or,...
   
   
   
   
3. Punch holes along the bottom of an envelope and use it for the same purpose.
   
   
   
   
4. Use plastic business card sheets to hold a variety of writing prompt cards (make your own!). Whenever you have a few minutes, pull one out and write away. Or,...
   
   
   
   
5. Print or hand write prompts at the tops of blank sheets of paper and put those in your binder for those spare minutes.
   
   
   
   
6. Use the new watermark stamp pads with your rubber stamps to create background images for your pages.
   
   
   
   
7. I used Adobe Photoshop, my color printer, and full sheet sticker paper to make custom stickers for my planner. I scanned pictures of friends and family, resized the images, and added colored borders. I then printed these onto the sticker paper, cut them out, and put a picture of each person on the appropriate calendar page for their birthday. You can use I-zone pictures for the same purpose.
   
   
   
   
8. Create a reference sheet for emergency situations. Include information on the nearest evacuation shelters (be sure to note ones that accept pets, if you have any), emergency contact numbers, and instructions for things like first aid or how to purify water.
   
   
   
   
9. Use clip-on bookmarks or decorative paper clips to mark the day's page. Or,...
   
   
   
   
10. Make your own page separator out of cardstock or transparency paper. Make the separator half the width of your planner page size and add one inch to the length of the page size (so that it will stick up above the planner pages) and punch holes along one side. Decorate as desired. Tip: you can get transparency paper that can be used in a printer or a copier; print your dreams, values, goals, or favorite prompts on your page separator. Make one for every month!
    
    
    
    
11. You do not need a computer in order to make custom forms for your planner. Use your favorite pens, markers, rubber stamps, and collage elements to make forms to your heart's desire. If you have the patience, you can even draw your own calendar grids.
    
    
    
    
12. Get into the habit of validating your planner. Develop some kind of notation system so that you can easily tell at a glance which appointments, meetings, and events you actually attended and which ones got cancelled, ignored, etc. (I always write my appointments and tasks in ink, then cross through completed ones in colored pencil or a lighter color of ink so that I can easily read the original writing.) Then, for the events that you do attend, take a few extra seconds to jot down a word or two about it. Do this as soon as the event is over or as soon as you get home so that your memory is fresh. Don't spend a lot of time thinking about what to write; the idea here is to capture the essence. For example, a note after a particularly intense aerobics class may simply read, "Whew!!!" Did you attend a boring seminar? The note might read, "BORING! Didn't learn a thing; complete waste of time!!!" After a dinner date, jot down what you ate and whether or not you enjoyed it. Rate movies, plays, concerts, etc. These little details turn a day planner into a life record.
    
    
    
    
13. Use the blank space on your tabbed dividers! I use mine for ongoing collages. I paste stickers, Chinese fortune cookie fortunes, fruit labels, notes, and anything else I can think of on mine. Try to add something to it every day.
    
    
    
    
14. The space on the tabbed dividers is also a good place to put static reference information that you use often. For example, one of my dividers holds a printout of the Dewey Decimal system.
    
    
    
    
15. Don't have the time, energy, or inclination to keep a "real" diary or journal? Those calendar grids provide ample space for writing just the bare bones of each day. Choose the most important thing - the highlight (or "lowlight", depending on what kind of day it's been) - and jot that down. Or,...
    
    
    
    
16. Write a haiku that sums up each day. Or, for the truly lazy,...
    
    
    
    
17. Jot down one word that aptly sums up each day.
    
    
    
    
18. Those tiny squares are also good for wannabe artists who get intimated by huge expanses of blank space. You can do miniature sketches, paintings, and collages for each day.
    
    
    
    
19. When it comes to due dates and deadlines, always give yourself some wiggle room. For example, when I get my phone bill, I make a note on my calendar of the due date. Then, I count back 5 days and make a note on that day to mail the bill. This serves as a reminder of the due date and allows a grace period of a day or two in case I don't actually get it in the mail that day. If you are the type who works best under pressure or always waits until the last minute to do things, you might want to trick yourself and write the deadline on your calendar a few days before the real deadline. Then count back a few days (or weeks) before that and jot down a reminder.
    
    
    
    
20. Most time management gurus suggest that you color code appointments and tasks in your day planner so that you can easily tell which ones are personal, for various family members, for work, etc. If you like this idea, consider getting one of those fat pens that delivers a different color of ink at the click of a button. You should be able to find them at any office supply store, and that way you won't have to lug 5 different pens around all the time.
    
    
    
    
21. Do you like having Post-It notes and flags at your disposal? Make a note holder for your binder out of a small piece of cardstock. Punch holes on one side and stick your own notepads on it.
    
    
    
    
22. Whenever you come across a good gift idea for a friend or relative, immediately go to the address book section of your planner and write it down next to the person's name. Include information on where to buy the item or where to find instructions to make it, if applicable. Also make a note of everyone's favorite things - colors, musicians, motifs, etc. This will save you a lot of time during gift giving seasons.
    
    
    
    
23. Attach a self-adhesive photo sleeve (found wherever scrapbook supplies are sold) to the cover page of your planner. Use it as a rotating gallery of favorite photos and postcards.
    
    
    
    
24. I am constantly making new forms for my organizer or printing information off of the internet to put in it. To save time, I have a blank document template set up in Microsoft Word. I have the page size and margins already set up so that all I have to do is start typing. When I am done with each new form, I use the Save As option to save it as a new file. That way, my template is always ready to use.
    
    
    
    
25. Along the same lines, I always have several colors and types of paper already cut to the right size for my notebook. I go ahead and punch holes in them as well. I store blank pages and forms in a separate binder (I grab extra three-ring notebooks whenever I see them at thrift stores) so that they are ready to go.
    
    
    
    
26. Scan or make color copies of: artwork from greeting cards, letters, photos, etc. Print them onto sticker paper and use them to illustrate your planner pages.
    
    
    
    
27. Flat-backed rhinestones, buttons, wood cutouts, name plates, and charms can be used to personalize and embellish the cover of your binder - simply glue them on.
    
    
    
    
28. Print out or copy crossword puzzles and/or word searches onto pages to fit your binder. These may save your sanity when you have a long wait at the dentist's office.
    
    
    
    
29. Print coloring book pages for a similar distraction - for yourself or for children you may be traveling with. There are tiny boxes of crayons and colored pencils available that you can carry around with you.
    
    
    
    
30. Keep a section in your planner specifically for longer journal entries. Make margin templates the same size as your planner pages and punch holes along one or both sides so that you can secure it in the binder. The benefit of keeping a journal in your day planner is that wherever you are, you can write. You can decorate the margins later when you get home. You can also remove the journal pages from your planner and archive them to a storage case.
    
    
    
    
31. If you are a writer, you can keep information for several ongoing articles in your day planner. I use transparent Post-it flags to keep everything organized. I write the subject of the article on a flag and put that on the first page of notes for that particular article. This way, when inspiration strikes, I can go straight to the notes for the subject I want and add the new information. I can keep the ideas in my binder for as long as necessary, and when I am ready to write, all I have to do is open my planner and type away. This method works well for harvesting all types of ideas - projects to make, story ideas, lists of good character names, color combinations to try out, etc. I even have a page for rubber stamp ideas that I want to carve. Since there is usually a long stretch of time in between my having an idea and actually developing it, I need to have an easy way to capture and find my brainstorms.
    
    
    
    
32. Start collecting and making rubber stamps that can be used in your planner. Stickers are good, too, but because stamps are reusable, they are perfect for developing a consistent coding system. All Night Media makes a set of 16 tiny stamps called Datebook, which is a good collection to start with. A graphic coding system adds visual interest to your planner, is fun to use, and can be as obvious or as obscure as you want it to be (there may be things that you want to track on you calendar that you don't necessarily want a casual observer to be able to decipher).
    
    
    
    
33. If you don't want to use rubber stamps, but you still want to use certain words, phrases, tasks, or clip art regularly, print several pages of each one onto clear sticker paper. With clear sticker paper, it won't matter if you cut the stickers out neatly, since the edges will be transparent, and these will be ideal for using on various colors of paper.
    
    
    
    
34. Get into the habit of really using your planner. Get rid of all your other notebooks and slips of paper. Have it somewhere accessible at all times. Get into the habit of writing everything down. At the end of the year, you may be surprised at how many memories these random jottings and notations bring to mind.
    
    
    
    
35. Want a lazy way to do your address book? I tape business cards and return addresses (torn or cut from mail I receive) directly onto the contact pages under the appropriate letter. This makes for a colorful, collage-like effect.
    
    
    
    
36. Speaking of the address book section, be sure to flesh this section out with notes as well. For example, next to the address of a former favorite restaurant, I made a note that I stopped going there because I saw the cook sneeze directly over the food. When I paste in business cards, I make a note of who the person is and/or why I have their card. Write the number and price of your favorite combo next to the phone number of the take out joint. When an address or telephone number is no longer good, I cross it out, noting the date. All of this helps me to stay organized and provides interesting records for future perusal.
    
    
    
    
37. I never write down confidential information. I know that lots of time management gurus suggest that you keep a listing of things like social security numbers, driver's license numbers, or credit card information, but I think that is just a disaster waiting to happen. I do not even write down the passwords to my e-mail addresses or online communities that I belong to. What I do record is my username (helpful, since I use different ones for different message boards) and a cryptic note that will help me remember what my password is. In addition, since it is a good idea to alter your personal information whenever you register for anything online, you may also want to record that on a page in your planner, as well. This is a good way to track where spam and junk mail are coming from.
    
    
    
    
38. I buy extra binders whenever I see them so that I can use them as storage cases. The outside surface of the binder can be decorated with stickers, postage stamps, collages, faux fur, fabric, or a wide variety of other materials. Customize the outside to correspond with the year. Or, if you change the format and colors of your planner pages every year, you can make storage binders to match.
    
    
    
    
39. At the end of the year, I plan to buy an automatic numbering stamp (you should be able to find one at an office supply store) and number each page of my planner. This is useful for two reasons: 1) since I use a loose leaf binder, if I remove a page, I can put it back in its proper place (even if there is no date on the page); and, 2) I can then develop an index for the year. Since a day planner contains all sorts of information that I may want to access at a future date, an indexing system will come in handy.
    
    
    
    
40. If you are working on any kind of goal - fitness or otherwise - treat yourself to a package of shiny, metallic stars or a star shaped rubber stamp and a metallic ink stamp pad. Put a stamp on the calendar page every time you work out or don't smoke or whatever. Watching those stars accumulate is a simple but powerful motivator.
    
    
    
    
41. Day planners are good for keeping you on track with spiritual needs and goals as well as worldly ones. Transparent Post-it notes are good for writing down prayers and affirmations; you can easily move them from day to day, and they allow you to read whatever is underneath them. You can also write or type these on vellum or tracing paper and punch holes along both sides (so that you can re-position them as needed). Make these pages thinner and shorter than your regular planner pages.
    
    
    
    
42. When I travel, I make an itinerary page that fits inside my binder. All flight info, hotel and car rental confirmation numbers, and driving directions are all neatly typed and in one place. I have a separate page of addresses, telephone numbers, hours of operation, and prices of any points of interest that I want to visit. I use a different color for the itinerary page than I do for the regular planner pages so that it will stand out.
    
    
    
    
43. I always keep return address labels (the kind that charities like to send during the holiday season) in the vinyl pouch in my binder. I use these whenever I have to provide my name and address for anything from entering a contest to special ordering a book. You can also make some of these to use instead of business cards. That way, the other person can easily put your info directly into his or her own address book.
    
    
    
    
44. Whatever type of dayplanner you use, there is no need to limit yourself in terms of the type of paper you use. Watercolor paper, origami paper, and handmade paper can all be used in some way. Just cut them to the correct size and punch holes on one side. Do whatever you can to take your creativity on the road.
    
    
    
    
45. Give yourself something to be happy about - jot down one good thing that happened every day.
    
    
    
    
46. Whenever I get special coupons or gift certificates that I want to use, I always write a reminder in my day planner on the date that the certificate expires. There is nothing worse than missing out on a free box of doughnuts or a free movie because you forgot you had the coupon tucked away!
    
    
    
    
47. I like to use masking tape or removeable correction tape to cover the grid part of my calendar pages and use rubber stamps to stamp borders around the edges. For each week (or day or month), use colors and/or stamps that are relevant.
    
    
    
    

These are just a few ideas to get you started. If you have some favorite techniques that you use, please let me know, and will add them to the list! Check out the urls below for templates, printable calendars, and coloring book pages:

If you use Microsoft Outlook for your calendar pages, be sure to check out http://www.calendar-updates.com/. The site provides a variety of events such as moon phases and schedules of your favorite sports teams that can be downloaded and imported directly into your Outlook calendar.

Free printable, plain calendar grid (you write your own dates in):

http://familycrafts.about.com/library/spdays/blcalplain.htm

A daily planner page to print out:

http://www.digital-women.com/daily-05.htm.

This site offers many other printable pages as well:

http://www.digital-women.com/daily-planner/

A printable, monthly Sanrio calendar:

http://www.sanrio.com/main/calendar/calindex.html

Organized Home: Tap the Power of Planners

http://organizedhome.com/time/planner.html

Organized Home also has several planner forms that you can print, including calendar pages. You could always use Word or some kind of image manipulating program to customize these (colors, page size, etc.):

http://organizedhome.com/notebook/forms.shtml

Here are some Adobe Acrobat files of printable planner pages specifically for half-sized binders:

http://donnayoung.org/frm/planner5x8.htm

Be sure to check out some of the other links at the top of the page. There are lots of good printable pages there.

A huge list of calendars available for web and print use:

http://www.calendarzone.com/ (main page)

http://www.calendarzone.com/Interactive/ (lists of other pages with printable calendars of all kinds)

Printable Checklists (print or just use for ideas):

http://www.printablechecklists.com/

Powerpuff Girls coloring book pages (main site has other characters as well):

http://coloringbookfun.com/powerpuff/index.htm

Sesame Street coloring pages:

http://www.sesameworkshop.org/sesamestreet/funtogo/

Well, we are one week into 2006; do you know where your New Year's Resolutions are?

If you are anything at all like me, you lost your fresh new resolve the first time you woke up to freezing temperatures and realized that you would rather spend the next half hour burrowed under the new quilt that you got for Christmas than flinging yourself about under the tutelage of the crazed-cheerleaders-on-crack featured on your "Buns of Steel" DVD. In the majority of cases, this lapse in willpower is no big deal. Those lofty goals were more akin to wishful thinking anyway, and they usually represented somebody else's agenda. However, what about the goals that we really do want to keep? Where do we find the motivation to make the changes that we want and need to make in our lives? The answer, unsurprisingly, lies within. Each of us is our own impetus for change.

As with most things in life, keeping the focus necessary to modify behaviours, routines, and habits is a lot easier said than done. We have good intentions, but quotidian chaos acts as an effective smoke screen, causing us to lose sight of our dreams. Fortunately, those of us who keep diaries and journals have some ammunition against this phenomenon. We have at our fingertips a powerful tool for uncovering the shape we want our lives to take and channeling our actions toward this effort. Our goals can be big or small; idealistic or pragmatic; humanitarian or personal. Whatever they are, we can use our private writing sessions to help us achieve them. Through writing, we can clarify our intentions and remind ourselves of our motivations.

In this article, we will focus on creative aspirations. Why? Because I have found that when I do not tend my creative garden, all other areas of my life suffer as well. Creativity is not limited to the act of drawing or painting or putting words on paper. When we exercise our imagination and flex our creative muscles by designing a costume or by playing the guitar, we sweep the cobwebs off of our brain cells and develop mental agility that can be applied to every other aspect of our lives. Cultivate your creative self and you will have more inner resources with which to deal with anything that comes your way.

The Creative Manifesto

Simply put, a manifesto is a declaration of your motives and intentions. It is not the same as a goal, although the two concepts do feed each other. Goals are concrete; they address what we want to do. A manifesto addresses the issue of why. While it is certainly important to have goals and to take practical steps toward achieving them, it is equally important to know why those steps are worth taking in the first place. Let's say that you are a dancer and that one of your dance goals is to perform an entirely improvised piece. To that end, you have decided that you need to set aside one hour each day for your dance practice. For the first few days or weeks, you dutifully put in your time in the studio. Then, one day you come home after an exhausting day at work and realize that the absolute last thing that you want to do is to put on your dance shoes. At that moment, it feels as if the only activity that you have the mental energy for is collapsing into bed. How do you find the discipline to change into your leotard instead? Along similar lines, what if you do manage to consistently log your one hour of dance time per day, but find yourself practicing set choreographies or relying on instructional videos instead of experimenting with new combinations? How do you ensure that your efforts are aligned with your goal? The answer is: direction.

In his books, cleaning and time management guru Don Aslett always stresses the importance of having direction in one's life. His philosophy is that when we have a specific target, we produce better results. The creative manifesto provides us with that target - a reminder of how we want to use our creative efforts to enrich our lives and why. It becomes the funnel by which we gather our scattered energies and focus them on the activities that will get us where we want to be.

So, how does one go about writing a creative manifesto? All it takes is a willingness to answer a few questions. Grab your journal and spend a few minutes (or a few days) in written exploration of each question. Your answers can be as detailed or as abbreviated as you need for them to be. Whether you do them in list form or freewriting style, the important thing is to identify what you want and why you want it.

Step One: Reflect on your creative life as it is right now.

• What is working in your creative life? What is not?
• What activities and/or people continue to inspire you?
• What activities and/or people previously provided you with inspiration, but now do not? Why are they still in your life?
• Is there anything in your life that serves no purpose (timewasters, unfulfilling activities, busywork)? Why do you engage in these activities?
• Are you putting your talents to good use?
• Do you express yourself creatively on a regular basis? Do you have ample time to indulge in your hobbies and interests? If the answer to these questions is "no", why not?
• Do you have adequate time for reflection and contemplation?
• What are your creative accomplishments from last year?
• What areas of your particular creative interests would you like to explore this year?
• Are you happy with your current level of creative activity?

Step Two: Uncover your motivations.

• Who are you doing this for?
• What, ultimately, is the point of your creative pursuits?
• What is your objective? What personal benefit do you want to gain from creative activity? (Note: "benefit" can be anything from financial gain to spiritual enlightenment to increased self esteem and much, much more.)
• Why is creative expression important to you?
• What is the big picture? What role do your particular creative interests play in your master plan for your life?

Step Three: Put it all together.

After you have finished steps one and two, put your answers aside for a few days. Go on with your life, and let your subconscious take over. This ruminative period will help to crystallize your creative vision. When you are ready, go back and read over your answers. You should then have a clear idea of your creative intentions and aspirations. Highlight or underline the major themes. Then, on a new page, write them out in sentence form. Continuing with the previous example of the dancer, let's say that your work in steps one and two reveal that you view creativity as a spiritual practice and that dance is your particular brand of spiritual expression. You realize, then, that although you recognize the importance of learning techniques and practicing drills, preplanned choreographies will not feed your soul. Your creative manifesto might include something like this:

I dance in gratitude. I use music and movement as an expression of praise, and I want to share my gratitude with others.

What you want to do is to articulate your intentions and to state the reasoning behind them. You want to "state your business", so to speak, so that you can effectively get down to business. Your manifesto may end up being one sentence or twenty; whatever the final length, it will serve as a reminder of your creative purpose. As such, you will want to copy the final version in a format that you will refer to often: type or handwrite it onto pretty paper; create a collage around it; create a simple html page for it and make that your home page for your web browser; make a page for it in your planner; post it on the door of your studio. Put it in a place where its filtering influence can be felt.

Bonus Step: Take action.

Once you have your manifesto, put it to some good use. It is not enough to merely know what we want; we need to take action toward it and/or prepare ourselves for receipt of it. With that in mind, here is my challenge to you for 2006:

Do one small thing.

Using your manifesto as a guide, identify one creative goal that you would like to accomplish for this year. The goal should be something concrete and attainable - there should be a clear point at which you can check it off as done. Now, figure out what one thing you can consisently do to work toward achieving that goal. For example, if your goal is to perform an improvised piece, then your "one thing" could be to spend ten minutes each day doing freestyle dance to a piece of music. If you know that you won't have time to do it every day, you can do ten minutes every Tuesday or every Saturday morning. Length of time and frequency are less important than consistency. The point of this exercise is for you to actually do it every Tuesday or every Saturday morning in 2006 - no matter what. Perservence is the key. Just think of it as compound interest in your creativity account. At the end of the year, let me know your creative net worth.

I hope that I have given you some good tools for developing your own creative manifesto and your creative self. For your inspiration, here are a few creative intentions and resolutions from people just like you. In keeping with the true spirit of a manifesto, I would like to use this page as a place where we can all publicly declare our creative motives. If you would like to participate, simply send your declarations to me and I will add them here. Let's make 2006 our most creative year yet!

Dawn V.

My motto for 2006 is "Just Say No". Last year, I realized that most of my creative energy was spent for the benefit of other people, leaving little time for the projects that I wanted to do for myself. The result was creative exhaustion and resentfulness. My creative manifesto reflects the fact that I am happiest when I use my artistic skills and talents to create "my life as art". As such, I have declared a moratorium on doing creative projects for other people. This year is all about me, and my creative efforts will be for my own benefit.

Ruth E.

As it happens (rarely), I started a new journal with the New Year. My first entry:

"With this journal, it is my intention to cultivate positive mindstates.

With this journal, it is my intention to develop an appreciation of the colors I have not used in my artwork in the past [largely, oranges and yellows]."

Patsy T.

I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions, but I do use this time of year as a reason to examine different areas of my life and think about what I might do differently over this next year's time frame. Of course, one can do that at any time, but the New Year is a natural. It's a good time to set intentions and consider possibilities.

I think in the coming year I'm going to continue to work on what I've been working on this past year - being more diligent about daily meditation or similar activities. It is a restorative process and I need to spend more time with it.

I am going to be more closely examining what I spend my time on in coming year. I will be pulling back from some things and moving forward with some others.

My intention is to develop outside sources of income that can support me so that I can move away from working for someone else in the next few years. I intend to devote time to that regularly. That means I will have less time for other things.

I also intend to continue organizing my home as I know in the long run this will be a time saver, as well as make me feel better in my own home.

I plan to devote more energy to writing and recording in the coming year as well. I have been haphazard with that in the last few months and that cannot continue.

I will continue to host gatherings, but friends will have to step up to do that as well, or we'll have to be without. I must be judicious in the sorts of things I invite people to join me in. I have already stopped inviting people for studio play dates who don't want to create but want to watch others create. That's a worthwhile endeavor, but my studio is not the place for it.

I'm still trying to figure this balance out as I love having people over, but some things are more labor intensive than others, just as some people are more involved to be around. I am still working on the balance, but know that I cannot host everything that anyone comes up with.

Jodie F.

I, as a creative soul, will be considerate of my sensitivity, and not over-commit myself to so many projects as to lose my vision. I will exercise my imagination, I will play with crayons, and clay and fingerpaints. I will stretch my inner artist.