The homemade diary planner is go!

After a trip away and suddenly remembering ‘Hey, I still haven’t had my homemade diary printed’ I finally sent it off to Officeworks via their online submission tool yesterday afternoon.

‘No worries, it’ll be ready to go in five days’ an email soon explained.

And then two hours later apparently it was all said and done and ready to be picked up… Well okay then!

And here it is:

A4 sized as ordered, red stripe binding (sorry red thermal) and 52 pages ready to be filled with dates, notes, scribbles and scrawls. Plus a couple of pages on either side for a master shopping list and what I need to do before 2024 comes along kicking and screaming.

The pages have all come out cleanly although I now wish I’d made each daily box just that little bit bigger. Each page does have it’s fair share of extra space though which will be perfect for those rings of coffee cups, leaking pens and everything else this homemade diary is going to cop over the next twelve months.

Initially I was worried about the thickness of each sheet but seriously, 100gsm is just fine. It feels a little thicker than an average school notebook and not printing double sided means if there’s any bleed through from whatever pen (or quill or blood is things go that sideways across 2023) then it shouldn’t affect next weeks page much at all.

The black front and back cover does feel nice but it’s a craft cardboard and by the time I’m through all 52 weeks, I expect things to look a little…well…battered. Sadly endangered species poacher skin was not an option. I might get wifey to design some kind of funky vinyl design on it though that’s a little hard wearing or there’s always the bulk cheap stickers from Aliexpress option (A giant version of this would be hilarious).

They lined the front cover up perfectly, the back though not so much.

(Another thing I’ll change in the next redesign is the darker colours on the Saturday and Sunday title – they’re a bit too dark to write the date in.)

Still for something that set me back just $13.20 with a dedicated fitness, writing and finances column lining up with my plans for the new year, I’m pretty happy with how it all came out. And the great speed in which it was printed – maybe my job was the only one they had on their own printing to do list?

Here comes the ink

Now comes filling it up of course – not just the days but the things I’m supposed to remember like birthdays and my own wedding anniversary (I’m really not good with dates which shouldn’t surprise anyone – hence the need for a homemade diary. Or any reminder tool really).

And yes already I’ve managed to fudge a couple of dates on it because this is me we’re talking about. But once we get everything in there (correctly), off we go!

Now putting in 365 dates is very time consuming but I’m happy to report that if you only put in the date of every Monday (that’s only 4 per month and 48 in a year usually) you can come back and fill out the rest of the week later on. Genius!

Where to get one

My original design idea and write up about it is right here while I used my local Officeworks just down the road to have it all printed. If you don’t have one of those handy, just looking for book binding services locally or enquire at your nearest office supply store.

Also if you do end up building your own, let me know! I’d love to see what other creative options people have come up with.

Good luck homemade diary, it’s going to be a busy year and you’re going to need it!