Personalized Notebook Nerdiness

I will admit...I'm sort of a geek about notebooks and planners. And pens. And stickers. And notepads. And pretty much anything else like that!! (come on, educators...I know I'm not alone:)

So, in leaving my previous district, my amazing PTO gifted me with an Erin Condren gift card! EEEEEK! My paper/planner loving heart did a happy dance. Not to mention the fact that they recently came out with a Wonder Woman collaboration (say, what?! Those that know me well, KNOW that I couldn't resist these goodies!)

Check out these lovelies that I had to own:

Seriously....I now own a Wonder Woman pen bag! All educators know how important the "perfect pen" is, and now I get an awesome bag to tote them around in!

You can find these and more on Erin Condren's site. Seriously....How could I not?? I even got a notebook divider, markers for it, and a fun, faux-leather notebook to write recipes in.

The gem of my finds comes from a new site to me, Plum Paper. Friends, you can create a completely customizable notebook or planner!! It is like Erin Condren on crack! I have always admired Erin Condren's planners, but they never worked for me, as a principal. They are definitely more teacher-driven. Enter Plum Paper!

I used to be a paper calendar gal (raise your hand if you still are??). For many years, in fact--long after the invention of Google. Special thanks to those close to me (ahem...Kate...and my husband), I moved into the digital age. That being said, I still take all my notes by hand. I used to have notebooks for everything. One for meetings. One for behavior. One for my contact log, etc. Last year, I explored making my own custom notebook through Blue Sky. I absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, this year, it didn't seem to be an option again. Plum Paper was recommended through one of the principal Facebook groups that I belong to. It is an educator's dream! When you think "customizable", this is truly customizable! You can change the wording on every page layout! For me, I was able to combine all of my needs into one, beautiful notebook (with a few fun extras!) The largest sections are two, separate "NOTES" sections. I used a DOT GRID for the largest section. This is the one in the front. I will use that for meeting notes. I'm a doodler and a diagram maker. I love dot grids for this purpose. The second notes section, I chose LINED pages, and I will use that for my behavior notes. I typically do narrative writing when meeting with kids. That one is in the back. In addition to the basic note pages, there were all sorts of extra goodies to choose from. Check out the ones I chose below.

The first part has special date pages. Great for those appreciation days and staff birthdays! The back holds a 2-sided pocket to store loose papers. The tabs are colorful and easy to ready.

Other fun pages are the Parent communication, the To-Do section, and the COLORING pages (yes, you can add in mindful coloring!!!) The tab for my communication section reads "My Class"--in hindsight, I'm not sure if I could have changed that or not. I clearly would have wanted it to say "Contact Log", so I will put a piece of label tape over that tab name.

I have already started filling my "to-do" list section with ideas/needs for my new job. I officially start next week, and I can't wait to use this to keep me organized! Building it took time, but it was worth it in time and price (in my humble opinion). Maybe someday I'll switch to digital note taking, but until then, I might as well take notes in style!

If you want to learn more about Plum Paper, here is a video on how to personalize their planners/notebooks. I found it super helpful when starting out.

How do you stay organized? Would love to learn from you!

Yours in Notebook Loving Nerdiness,

Angela