Generator

Assembly How-To

A6 pocket planner

Materials and tools

You will need:

1: Alternate fastening methods are possible if you only have a desk stapler, detailed in the instructions below.

2: A paper guillotine is best but scissors are fine.

3: I usually use card stock. It's not super hardy, but it lasts for a few weeks of daily use if you're gentle. You can cover your booklet with Contact (or any other self-adhesive book-covering film) for extra protection, or potentially use Kraft-Tex or other materials instead.

Instructions

  1. Print the generated PDF to A4 paper in double-sided portrait mode, flipping/binding on the long edge (standard).

    Disable all options to automatically scale or shrink the page content. Set print scaling to "Actual Size" or "None". Some printer options list this in multiple places, so make sure it is disabled everywhere.

    You may wish to do a test print of a single page to make sure the printer options are correct.

  2. Try to keep the stack of printed pages in the same order they came out of the printer. Orient the stack with the cover page (or first page if you did not print a cover page) in the top-right corner of the top sheet of the stack.

    TODO: A diagram indicating how the pages in the stack should be oriented.

  3. Fold all pages in half along both axis. When making the long folds, try to fold it so that the "front" side of the page is on the outside. The short folds are just to provide guidelines for making the cuts in the next step. Try not to rearrange the order of the pages.

    TODO: A diagram indicating how the pages in the stack should be folded.

  4. Cut all pages in half with your scissors or guillotine to produce twice as many A5 pages with landscape orientation. This will separate the stack into a "top" stack and a "bottom" stack. Again, try not to reorder or mix up the pages.

    TODO: A diagram indicating how the pages in the stack should be cut.

  5. Place the bottom stack into the top stack and fold the pages in the natural way. Flip through the booklet to make sure the page dates are all in order and reorder pages if you made any mistakes.

    TODO: A diagram indicating how to combine the top and bottom stacks.

  6. Cut your cover material to size and place it over the cover page.

  7. Staple the booklet down the middle crease from the outside (through the cover material). I use three staples. If you don't have a booklet stapler, I have had success with swinging open the lower jaw of a regular desk stapler, placing the stack of paper onto a sacrificial piece of cardboard, trying to staple the whole thing, extracting the stack and staples from the cardboard, and manually bending the staples into place inside the booklet.

About

What is this?

This web page is a tool for generating printable PDF funnel planners.

Currently, one layout is supported: the A6 pocket planner (to be printed on A4 paper and manually assembled; see the Assembly tab). This is just about small enough to fit in the pocket of all my pants, so I can take it everywhere I go.

What is a funnel (or funnel-down) planner?

The funnel planner is a planner system either invented or popularised by Planner Pad®. In this system, you:

N.B. This website is not associated with Planner Pad®. I don't believe this planner system is meaningfully subject to copyright. Planners generated by this web tool are provided as-is, free of charge.

How do I use it?

I mean, you read the summary above, right? You write down all your tasks, assign them to each day, and then schedule each day. Just get into the habit of jotting down the tasks at the top, assigning tasks to days, and scheduling each day. Preferably in advance, but nobody's perfect, right?

There's something wrong with this tool and/or I have a feature request!

Oh yeah, this thing is held up by sticky tape and hope. There's a bunch of stuff I want to add and fix, but email me at turtle@turtle.business if you think yelling at me will help.

Credits