Lifehacker: The Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, and Better, Third Edition

Hack 24: Design Your Own Planner

Level Easy

Platform All

Cost Office supplies

There are many good reasons to ditch your expensive, electronic PDA for a paper-based planner system: cost, portability, and maintenance, to name a few. Paper-based planners never run out of battery juice or memory; they never crash or refuse to work the way you expect. Lots of even the most tech-savvy are going retro with paper calendars and to-do lists. This hack explains how to build your own custom paper planner, calendar, and project manager using your computer and your printer.

The D*I*Y Planner system (http://diyplanner.com) is an extensive library of PDF templates from which you can pick and choose. Then, print the pages you need and assemble your planner.

Why Build Your Own Planner?

You can walk into any office-supplies store and choose from a variety of prefab paper planners. But the advantages of a do-it-yourself planner are customization and scalability. Maybe you’re thinking about giving up the BlackBerry and you just want to test-drive a paper solution. Maybe you don’t want to have to order a new set of custom-print pages from your store-bought planner’s manufacturer every time you run out. With a D*I*Y Planner, you can easily add, replace, and reshuffle pages. Refills are a matter of printing a new set of pages.

You can also easily make D*I*Y Planners for your staff that cover custom timelines such as the duration of a particular project. Keep your D*I*Y Planner thin and portable by carrying ...