When Your Planner Layout Stops Fitting Your Week

A bound planner has a limit. You're set to a format, and then you need to stick to it.

When I was using my regular bound planner, I was stuck to that order. One of the biggest challenges was how many pages do I leave for a big to-do list or a project or a collection.

I'm almost done with my bound vertical weekly for the first half of the year, and I filled it up very well. The only downside is the weeks where I was busy and didn't have time. So you do have the blank page there, which obviously you won't have with a ring planner.

Why swap a page instead of the system

What makes a ring planner special is that you're able to just move things around. You can buy pretty much any type of paper and refill it as needed.

Some weeks I want a different layout, and I can do that without really having to change the notebook or do something different to the system. It's just a page that gets removed, gets replaced, gets archived.

The pieces of the method

Pick the page size. It takes some time to figure out the right size. Once the size is decided, it's easy to just cut the pages to size. Sizes were in an earlier letter, How to Pick the Right Insert Size for Your Planner.

Lay out the week. I put the hourly planning at the top. Then I added breakfast, lunch and dinner for some meal planning at the bottom, as well as habits or tracking for habits per day.

Fold it for space. What inspired me was the monthly insert from MeePlus. It's the whole calendar in one piece of paper, and I'm able to open it up the whole way and see almost a year at a glance. That mechanism inspired a weekly vertical that folds out.

I've been experimenting with this folding format that just allows me to have a lot more information in one sheet. I'm able to have at least two weeks in one of these sheets.

I have been testing a tri-fold, which has worked great to have a little more space but still get the compactness of this size of notebook. I also have a bi-fold.

Cut and punch. I can buy bulk Tomoe River paper for a lot cheaper and then just cut it to size and hole punch it. I have been using a Bira Craft 6-hole punch. Works great. The print setup has its own page.

The rule that decides

I'm totally happy to use a bound planner for my journal, because it is chronological. But for projects and things that move around, I don't know how much space I'm going to need. The rings have been perfect for that.

One question really decides whether a tool sticks in my lineup or gets cut: does it serve the purpose I want right now?

Where it breaks, and what switching costs

Ring planners are great for the flexibility, but the spine itself has to be thicker to house the rings. If you think of your college or high school binder, those are pretty thick with pretty big rings, and they're harder to carry around.

I use the MeePlus SlimPad in the personal size, and I got the 13 millimeter rings. They do have 11 millimeter and 16 millimeter sizes, so I went for the one right in the middle.

I would really deter people from trying the really small ones, and I wouldn't recommend this for a pocket journal. Those are great if you know you have little handwriting and you know a small size works for you. For me personally this is not enough space.

The other downside is the price. A smaller notebook or even a cover comes in around $50, $60, and the MeePlus is 100 plus dollars depending on the size you get.

Try this week

1. Draw one vertical week on a loose sheet instead of the layout your planner came with, with hourly planning at the top and your meals and habit tracking at the bottom. 2. Next week, try a different layout, a horizontal if you drew a vertical. 3. If you have a ring planner, cut one spare sheet to your page size and hole punch it.

If you would rather start from a finished page

My own version is in Ring Planner Setup: The Custom MeePlus Inserts I Print Myself. The Weekly Vertical Fold-Out for Small Rings is in the shop, and the personal size is the one I use.

The free filler pack of dot grid and lined sheets lets you test out a few prints and cuts before you commit to paid ones.

MeePlus sent me the SlimPad, and the MeePlus link is a referral link. The Bira Craft and Tomoe River links are Amazon affiliate links. They cost you nothing and they help pay for the testing.

Luis