Quick and Easy DIY Planner Dashboards You Can Do.

As promised here is a tutorial for making your own quick and easy planner dividers or dashboards as they are called in the planner world.

The tools that I am featuring are all the things I used to create the ones I use in my Happy Planner by Create 365.  Most tools will be the same across the board but some will be different due to the different systems available for planners.  Mine is a disk system others are wire bound or coils.  You should be able to adapt where necessary.

Last week I showed you my personal planner and talked about how I set it up in sections to fit the needs of my life.  I hope it inspired you to give planners a try again if you have been unsuccessful (inconsistent) at using them in the past.  You can read it here.

Ok, on with today.

Here is what I used to make all the dividers in my planner: a special hole punch, 12x12 card stock, a cutter, and index tabs. If you don't have these specialty tools no problem you can use plain old scissors, a ruler, and card stock.  The specialty tools will make it a quicker process, though.

I was lucky to have found this paper pad of 48 sheets of 12x12 cardstock on sale for $5 at Michael's. It is usually $20, so that was a great saving.  And it was the perfect color scheme for my planner in gold, black, and white! Michael's always has a coupon for 40% off so you can get any of these at a discount. 

First I selected the papers that I wanted to use.

Then I cut them to size to fit my planner.  My Happy Planner uses paper that is 9.25 inches tall and 7 inches wide.  The Erin Condron personal planner is approximately the same size I believe. I used my Fiskars 12" cutter to make quick straight cuts.  Once they were cut, I then punched holes in them with my Create 365 punch.  

**If you don't have the large cutter just measure and mark with a pencil and cut with scissors.  You can use a sheet from your planner to mark where you will need to punch holes, then use a single hole punch to punch them and then snip a slit in each hole on the outer edge to create the opening to slip over the discs. ** 

My punch wanted to slide on my table so I put a small piece of rubbery shelf liner under it and that took care of the problem.

With the holes punched I then applied the index tabs to the side and staggered them.  I picked these up at Office Depot.

At this point, they are ready to be labeled and snapped into your planner to create your sections.

Because I was using the 12x12 cardstock sheets I had pieces left over that were large enough to create dividers for my sub-sections.  So I did! I cut them to 9.25 inches long and they are 5 inches wide. I punched the holes and added the tabs at the top this time.

So there you have it.  Quick and easy dividers for your planner with little expense.  I love that I can change my dividers at any time!  Won't it be cute to do them for the major holidays?


You can read my previous post on how I set my planner up in sections here.