DIY diary: how to make a diary yourself

The volume of information and the degree of its accessibility today are so great that it is simply impossible to remember everything that we learn every day. And if we add to this the busyness of a modern person and the huge number of tasks that he has to do, we get that even at the right time, “getting” some information from the corners of memory becomes problematic. This is why many people use diaries in school, work, business and everyday life. But for this to give results and really simplify life, you need to be able to format them correctly. Next we will talk about how this is done.

DIY diary from a finished notebook: description, photo

The first thing that comes to mind is processing an existing notebook. How can this be done? Get creative by creating a diary with a clock from the most ordinary old notebook !

Besides the fact that this will be quite unusual, it will also be very useful for people who are constantly late. Now, when planning any event or checking with those closest to you, the owner of this useful notebook will always be able to know what time it is.

The manufacturing procedure is as follows:

• You need to take an old wristwatch, which, however, will be in working order. It is preferable to remove the watch strap.
• This clock is attached to the inside of the bottom cover. It is most convenient to use glue.
• All that remains is to make slits on all the pages that will correspond to the circumference of the dial. This way, no matter which page you turn, the clock will always be visible.

IMPORTANT: This part of the manufacture is the most difficult. To make it go perfectly, it is better to use a stationery knife.

This is how a personalized diary with a clock can turn out from the most ordinary notebook.
Active individuals can make a thick diary from several notebooks. For this you will need:

• Actually, several notebooks
• Satin ribbon, preferably thinner
• Good density white cardboard
• Hole punch, scissors
• Simple pencil and markers
• Ruler
• Various decorative elements - for example, stickers, multi-colored tape

The diary is prepared as follows:

• Notebooks are getting rid of covers. This is easiest to do with paperback notebooks that are not too thick.
• Next, using a hole punch, holes are made on the spines of the notebooks

IMPORTANT: The holes must be made in such a way that the notebooks can then be conveniently fastened together. That is, parallel to each other.

• Then the notebooks are folded spine to spine
• through the holes made and tied
• two parts from thick cardboard that will represent the cover.
• These parts are placed on opposite sides of the notebooks and connected to each other in the same way using tapes
• All that remains is to decorate the cover according to your personal wishes.

This is what a diary assembled from several notebooks might look like

How to make it from scratch?

Many girls are interested in needlework and creating their own diaries. In order to create your own, you need to have thick cardboard, sheets of paper, glue, scissors and

Needlewomen often share with each other templates with which they create unusual diaries. Typically, these templates consist of lines decorated with flowers or pictures. You can print them out and make some pretty cute pages for your future diary. If you want to create a sketchbook, you can use regular white sheets of paper.

The inner pages need to be sewn. After this, you need to cut out a cover from cardboard and glue beautiful scrapbooking paper onto it. Next, you will need to glue the stitched pages onto the cardboard. Crystal glue is suitable for this; it holds cardboard well. Let the glue dry. By following these rules, you can create your own unusual diaries.

It is very easy to make a diary, because even small children make their own paper books in which they draw and write.

Business is now developing at a very fast pace. For it to be successful, you have to keep a lot of important information in your head. Naturally, you may forget something. Therefore, you cannot do without a notebook. Almost all people who are used to planning their working time use notepads or diaries. They help organize information and not miss an important event. However, it is not always possible to find a diary in the store that would meet all your needs. Therefore, having learned how to make a diary, you can make it at home.

DIY diary on rings: description, photo

Many people like this type of diary. They are beautiful and practical. To create such a thing you will need:

• Binding cardboard
• Thick paper - perfect for scrapbooking
• The rings are detachable - they are also quite easy to purchase separately
• Awl
• PVA glue
• Sewing machine, scissors
• Printer required

IMPORTANT: And even better - a special device for installing eyelets.

The manufacturing process is simple:

• Using the printer, blank pages for the diary are printed. Or you can mark it yourself on attractive scrapbooking sheets.
• The sheets are equal.
• For the cover, sheets are cut out of cardboard to suit the format of the future diary.
• The cover is covered with colored paper. Scrap paper is also appropriate here.
• After combining the cardboard and the main sheets, are made .

IMPORTANT: It is preferable to insert grommets - this step will help keep the cover intact for a long time.

• All that remains is to insert the rings.

You can get such a cute diary on rings.
You can also create an unusual diary with a cover that imitates wood. You will need:

• Metal rings with connectors
• Metal corners in the amount of 4 pcs.
• Thicker cardboard
• Acrylic paints - need 2 shades
• Craquelure varnish
• Stationery knife, awl, pliers, scissors
• Ruler, pencil
• Flat synthetic brush
• Paper

The paper for the diary can be anything, even colored and with drawings. The rings and corners for the diary are needed like this.
You can start making:

• To begin with, regular and cardboard sheets are equal. Cardboard ones can be slightly larger, since they will make a cover.
• Next, symmetrical holes are made in the cardboard
• The cardboard is coated with acrylic paint. After this it becomes quite dense, so it is recommended to level it before coating.

IMPORTANT: Several layers are needed to artificially age the cover. If you just plan to decorate it with drawings, you can get by with just one.

• Both the outer sides of the future cover and the inner ones are painted.
• If you still need to trim the cardboard, you should lay something under the table.
• After applying the first coat of paint, it should be allowed to dry thoroughly .
• Next is the turn of craquelure varnish. To make it dry faster, you can use a hair dryer.
• And again a layer of paint. The master must remember that the direction of movement of the brush is actually the direction of future cracks.

You get the following blanks for the cover of your diary:

• But now you can attach the corners. If it is difficult to do this with your fingers, pliers will come to the rescue.
• If necessary, you can once again put the pages of the future diary in order.
• All that remains is to put everything together, fasten it with rings - and now the vintage diary is ready!

This is the vintage diary on rings you can get in the end

Paper or electronic

The format of the weekly planner is determined by tasks, as well as habits and convenience. But still, a weekly journal is like a book: if you think that the best book is an e-book, then an e-book is the way to go. If you are a tactile person, paper is your everything. Each format has its advantages.

Electronic:

• unlikely to get lost;
• in task organization services (especially team tasks) such as Trello, Notion or Jira, you can create convenient pre-configured visualizations;
• it's easy to share with colleagues, making collaboration much easier.

Paper:

• does not distract with notifications and allows you to concentrate better;
• the physical area is limited, a relatively small amount of information is placed, so it is easier to focus attention;
• possibilities for visualization are limited only by the creative abilities of the owner.

“I constantly teach people how to use notes in notepads and journals to structure their thoughts. They are trying to do this both on paper and on a tablet, and I see a huge bias in preferences towards paper. In order to keep a weekly journal electronically, you need preliminary training. Most often, people want not to think about the complexities of digital recording, but to completely relax and surrender to the flow of their spontaneous thoughts,” notes Katerina Bogina, co-founder and managing partner of the Insight Group, a group of educational companies.

Recently, more and more studies have appeared proving that it is advisable to “keep” writing with pen and paper in everyday practice. For example, Norwegian scientists have found that a person remembers better what he writes down by hand than what he types using a keyboard. Writing helps develop memory in children and maintain its level in adults. In turn, an electronic diary allows you to quickly record and adjust goals, and in case of transfer, just a couple of clicks are enough to change the status of the task. The downside is that this increases the chances of starting to procrastinate, since things are put off from a psychological point of view easily, as if in “snoozed alarm” mode.

With a paper diary it is more difficult in terms of changing plans: the owner sees the entire history of corrections, and this creates discipline. But it requires motivation to maintain it, and it also takes up space in your bag and on your desk. In addition, it is easier to forget a paper diary somewhere.

Anastasia Zhigach, journalist, author of the book “AikiBusiness: How to Launch and Maintain Your Business” (co-authored with Andrey Lushnikov) has been using a combination of a paper Bullet Journal and notes on an iPhone for several years. The first helps her keep strategic goals in mind for the week, month, year ahead and monitor their progress. The second is to quickly record new work and personal information, which is important to immediately record for later use in electronic form.

DIY diary book: description, photo

If you want to create a hand-bound diary booklet, you will have to stock up on the following components:

• Cardboard
• Sheets corresponding to A4 format
• Fabric and fabric ribbon
• A piece of gauze
• PVA glue
• Marker
• Needle and thick thread

IMPORTANT: You need thick sheets, thin sheets will not work.

The diary is prepared as follows:

• First of all, sheets of A-4 format are folded in half.
• From them you need to form a kind of notebooks, nesting them in each other. Each notebook can hold from 2 to 5 sheets.
• These notebooks are folded into one pile and left under pressure for some time . Special office clips and sheets of cardboard that protect from marks will help with this.

A diary in the form of a book needs to press leaves according to this principle

IMPORTANT: Leave the sheets in this position for at least 3 hours.

• After the specified time, the staples can be removed.
• cut off several strips from the fabric tape . with them .

Fabric strips are applied to the future diary like this:

• But there is no need to attach the strips at this stage - after marking the locations of the strips with a pen or pencil, they can be removed.

Marks on the future diary It is even more convenient to make these slits on the future diary

• Now the fabric strips are taken again, but this time they are sewn firmly to the workpiece . Please refer to the photographs below. It is worth noting that you do not need to sew the entire stack to the ribbons at once - each notebook is processed separately.

The stripes are applied to the future diary first like this. Then the stripes are attached to the future diary with loops of thread like this. Now it’s time to sew on the second notebook of the diary. This is how the notebooks for the diary are attached. Now you can sew on the third notebook of the diary. This is how the weave of the diary will turn out

• The spine needs strengthening . To do this, you need to put gauze on it under a press. Or use sealant.

The gauze should be placed on the diary like this

• Next, the spine is covered with fabric tape.

The diary spine meets the fabric tape again

• Now 3 parts are cut out of thick cardboard - the spine and parts of the future cover.

IMPORTANT: It should be remembered that the cover should be slightly larger than the sheets.

• rectangular piece out of the fabric on which the blanks described above can be placed.
• They need to be glued to the fabric.

Cardboard blanks and fabric cover for the future diary

• The remaining unoccupied parts of the cover are glued with pieces of fabric from the inside.

Gluing the inside of a diary cover with fabric

• Now the flyleaf is glued on.

This is what the endpaper for a diary looks like

• All that remains is to connect the main part of the leaves and the cover.

It turns out this is a diary-book

Recommendations for keeping a diary

Throughout my life, I have started keeping a diary a huge number of times. And I abandoned it about the same number of times. After analyzing all the unsuccessful attempts, I was able to identify the main mistakes that prevented me from introducing this useful habit into life. Please review the following guidelines. They will help you not to step on the same rake.

• The diary should have a single concept

Below I will give you 8 options for designing a diary. All of them are based on well-known, simple and effective time management methods. But this does not mean that you need to mix them together.

Mark the options that suit you best and select a separate notebook for each method. Yes, you must have several planners if you want all the techniques outlined to work. Otherwise, instead of useful and convenient tools, you will get an incoherent mess.

• Choose the right format

Think ahead about how you will use your planner. If you need it to remind you of current affairs, then it should always be at hand. Choose a small or medium format notebook so that you can easily carry it in your bag.

If you are going to do long-term planning, you can take a large-format voluminous notebook. You won't have to carry it anywhere, and the wide sheets will open up additional possibilities.

For more detailed recommendations, see our article on how to choose a diary.

• Down with fixed dates

When choosing a diary, give preference to those options that do not initially contain dates. This way you can start any day. And you won't have any blank pages.

• Accuracy is everything

I admit honestly that my accuracy and diligence have been suffering since my school days. That's why I don't want to re-read most of my notes at all. It took me a lot of time to accustom myself to write beautifully and accurately, to observe intervals, not to go beyond the limits, etc. Only after that I managed to make friends with the diary.

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If you suffer from the same problem, try to overcome it with willpower. Imagine that a strict teacher will check your notes and give you grades. Otherwise, every time you look inside the diary, you will want to close it immediately.

• Down with too narrow lines

Try to choose a diary where the lines are not too narrow. It is very difficult to decipher a continuous veil of small symbols.

• Opt for an erasable pen

To avoid having to cross out and tear out pages, buy a pen that can be erased. This way all the pages of your diary will look neat and aesthetically pleasing.

• Highlight important points

Get a couple of markers and use them to highlight important points. This will make it easier for you to navigate your writing. And the pages will look brighter and more fun.

• Personalization

Even if you need a diary for work purposes, this is not a reason to give up your individual style. Add custom elements that will bring your notes to life: stickers, special symbols, seals, etc.

Read our article on how to keep a diary. There you will find even more useful recommendations.

DIY scrapbooking diary: photos, description

You can also make a wonderful diary with your own hands with a bright, unusual cover. For this you will need:

• Scrap paper
• Any other sheets

IMPORTANT: In this case, there is a rule that the more unusual the paper, the better. That is, old sheet music, unnecessary packaging from something, etc. can be used.

• High-density cardboard or special blanks for covers Album rings
• Glue gun, double-sided tape, stamp pad
• Scissors, hole punch, sewing machine
• Ribbons

You can start making:

• First of all, it’s worth calculating in advance what design is best for the diary. Then, based on this, you need to cut off the preferred number of ribbons in advance and prepare the required amount of other decor.
• The machine will help you sew the necessary parts onto the paper.

The machine is very convenient for processing blanks for a future diary. This is what the seams look like from the inside of a blank for a diary.

• Double-sided tape is attached to the cardboard that processed paper with decor can be glued onto it.

This is how you need to paste over cardboard for the cover of a diary

• But, despite the presence of adhesive tape, additional processing of the cover clearly would not hurt. That is, it is advisable to stitch it around the perimeter.

IMPORTANT: A wide stitch is best for this.

This is how you can stitch the edges of a future diary cover

• Now you can glue any other decorative elements.

Any decor will make the diary unique

• To make the pages of your future diary attractive, you can mark them with a stamp pad.

A stamp pad will decorate the pages of your diary.

• Next, using a hole punch, punctures are made in the sheets - and you can connect all the sheets and parts of the cover.

This is how the parts of the diary are connected. It turns out to be such a wonderful diary that you will want to fill out every day

Why is it useful?

The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras said: “When you wake up in the morning, ask yourself: “What should I do?” In the evening, before falling asleep: “What have I done?” A diary is a tool that is needed just for this. With its help, you can structure the chaos of random processes in a person’s work and private life. He helps:

1. plan tasks;
2. set priorities;
3. monitor task completion, which reduces frustration from overload and returns free time;
4. write down ideas so you don't forget;
5. take notes on everything that is required;
6. structure thoughts, schematize;
7. reflect on the past days or weeks, recording your emotions in writing.

Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, conducted a study that found that completion of goals and objectives was 42% higher if they were written down in a handwritten planner. In addition, regularly using a planner reduces stress as it gives you a feeling of control over the situation.

It is strategically important to keep a diary for everyone who has tasks for more than 10 hours a day, or who simply value sleep. This tool will also be useful for those who have a large number of meetings on duty or on personal issues. It is necessary during periods when you need to take yourself and your life into your hands and make a “thrown march” in your career/personal life. It's when people plan to start over in life that they often start keeping a diary for goal setting and moral support.

How to draw the inside of a diary: ideas, photos

How can you conveniently design a diary from the inside? We offer several ideas as options:

Each day in the diary can be indicated by a square in which plans are entered. You can simply select a page for each day in the diary, and write things in a column. To-dos in the diary can be distributed not only by day, but also by category. You can also paste similar tear-off leaves into the diary , which are removed as the next goal for the day is completed. You can combine day cells in the diary with tear-off leaves and a separate list of goals. This kind of layout of the diary is very convenient not only by days of the week, but also by hours

How did the bullet journal technique come about?

The author of this special method of writing daily notes is the American Ryder Carroll, who was diagnosed with hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder at an early age. As a result of this, he was unable to concentrate on any specific activity. He always had a huge amount of thoughts in his head, but randomly jumping from one issue to another made it difficult to bring his ideas to life. Then he created an approach that allowed him to focus on what was important, and began to call it a “bullet journal.” Translated from English, “bullet” means a bulleted list, and “journal” means a journal.

Carroll later told friends about this approach. It turned out that he also helped them effectively set goals and achieve them, getting the desired result. Then Carroll began to promote this approach on the Internet through his lectures and training videos, after which millions of people around the world began to use it.

This is how a whole technique was born, combining a diary with goals and objectives for certain periods of time and a personal diary for recording thoughts and plans. In 2015, Carroll released a mini-film about the key principles of keeping such a diary, which was watched by almost 4 million people.

Bullet journal features

Bullet journal is a diary where short-term and long-term goals, daily tasks, incoming thoughts and ideas are written down. Notes must be taken daily and labeled based on topic. Planned tasks are indicated, for example, by a dash, those already implemented - with a tick or cross, interesting ideas or key thoughts - with a circle. A separate section is devoted to upcoming tasks, for example, for a month or a quarter, and a separate one for longer and larger plans, for example, for a year or several years.

1. Regular notes help you monitor the process of achieving your goals and, if necessary, adjust them.
2. All used data is stored in one place, which allows you not to rush between notebooks, text editors on your phone and electronic services such as Evernote.
3. It’s convenient to move uncompleted tasks to another time. Thanks to clarity, it is impossible to miss something important.
4. Compared to a regular diary, a bullet journal can be easily adjusted to your needs, leaving only the necessary sections or adding something of your own to it.

Thanks to the diary you can:

• Find solutions. If you don’t know how to solve a problem, then write down all the possible ways to solve it with their pros and cons, and you will immediately find a solution.
• Remember important events. What is written down on paper and often seen is difficult to forget.
• Get more done. By recording all activities during the day, you can understand what activities interfere with achieving your goals.
• Organize your life correctly. Thanks to the diary, you can track all your activities for a specific period of time, and understand which actions bring positive results and which are useless, as well as develop the right habits.

Benefits of a bullet journal

• Ease.

Keeping a diary is very simple. No serious training, specific skills or knowledge is required. All you need to do is come up with your own symbols and fill out the diary regularly.

• Flexibility.

There is no universal rule for keeping a bullet journal. The technique adapts to the needs and habits of everyone. You can add or remove sections, design it based on your desire, taste and mood. You can keep a notebook of wishes in bullet journal format.

• Efficiency.

A bullet journal helps you focus on your main tasks, become more organized, take an original and creative approach to solving problems, and develop the right habits if you do it regularly for just 20 minutes a day.

• Appearance.

The process of designing a diary can give real aesthetic pleasure. You just have to show your imagination, and the bullet journal will turn into a real art object. Each section can be designed differently using drawings and colored markers.

Making a diary with your own hands: ideas, photos

Now let’s offer options for the external design of the diary:

Personalized diary with buttons Old notes or old newspaper clippings will give the diary a vintage feel Metal details will give the diary style An envelope diary is a laconic and convenient model You can sew applications from various fabrics to the diary The status that appears on the cover of the diary will add optimism every time you use it This is so interesting retro idea for designing a diary You can sew a zipper into the diary and make pockets - it’s convenient to put pens, pencils, business cards, and a calculator there. Decoupage of the diary will help you create an interesting design. Anything can be used to decorate the diary - braid, old photos or pictures, buttons, ribbons Beads of various sizes will give the appearance of the diary a special chic Delicate design of the diary made of buttons and braid

Nowadays you can find a diary for every taste on sale. But why not create it for yourself? Unique, uplifting, motivating. One in which you will definitely want to make notes. I would like to hope that the tips in this article will help with this.

Design principles

When designing a diary, it is important that each task falls into one of the typical/repetitive categories - then distributing time between activities will become much easier. For example, Tony Urban, founder and CEO of AI-based presentation design service DeckRobot, follows this principle:

1. “Customers” are the most important and urgent tasks for a business. It is better to keep this to-do list “clean” and complete it first.
2. “Investors” are also important matters, but, as a rule, the deadlines here are much more comfortable than with clients, and you can even stay late for client activities.
3. “Business transactions” are not always important, but sometimes urgent matters, such as signing documents for government reporting.
4. “Employees/hiring” - this includes non-urgent but important matters that need to be addressed thoughtfully.
5. Other - everything that does not fall into the previous categories.

A simple weekly journal can also become an excellent development tool if you attach effective approaches to self-organization to it. For example, you can divide time into so-called sprints - weekly, two-week, monthly - during which attention is focused on solving certain problems. Tasks are planned at the entrance to the sprint, and summing up occurs at the exit.

Checklists that help you mark off new weekly habits, like meditating or drinking water, work great. Experts advise conducting a constant internal review: what you liked during the week, what upset you, what you can praise yourself for, what you can improve, and what you can change. It’s like constant circles of self-improvement: this is how the weekly becomes a kind of dashboard of a person’s life.

Additionally, when people start taking visual notes in a weekly planner, they learn to think more logically and forget less. After all, you can not only write text, but also add small images, icons, drawings that stimulate creativity - and, as a result, memorability.

The most useful principle is to constantly use a planner so that it is the only place where operational information is stored in calendar format. Sometimes this approach helps to find the right phone number years later, simply because a person can roughly remember when he wrote it down there and why.

Notepad with rings

This type of diary is primarily decorative in nature and is perfect for creative people. In addition, it can be a good gift for a loved one. To work, you will need special rings and a grommet installer. The last tool can be replaced with a regular awl. To make the cover you need cardboard with a thickness of 2 mm.

Other tools and materials can be found in any home:

First you need to cut out two rectangles of the required sizes from cardboard. These parts can be covered with colored paper on each side. You need to make holes in the cover to attach the pages. If possible, it is worth inserting eyelets into them to increase the service life of the accessory.

For your DIY diary, you can print out pages that have been pre-marked according to your personal preferences. After that, all that remains is to collect the notebook. The main advantage of this design is the ability to add new pages.

Vintage option for the musician

Why not make a gift for a musician. A product in the form of an antique music notebook will delight the recipient.

Advice

!

To make the gift not only valuable, but also fragrant, the paper must be soaked in coffee with cinnamon.

Materials:

• office paper;
• coffee;
• ink pads;
• cardboard;
• scissors;
• fleece;
• textile;
• glue;
• sheets of music notebooks.

Execution sequence:

• Soak the sheets in coffee and let them dry naturally.

• We tint the paper with ink pads.

• Making the cover. We cover the cardboard with fleece, wrap it with fabric, and glue the materials on the inside along the edge.

• Inside the cover we paste a sheet of music notebook.

• We design the cover at our discretion.

• Insert the sheets into a notepad.

The product is ready, you can evaluate the work. Surely it will turn out to be of high quality. Now you can give a gift to a loved one.

General information about diaries

It’s worth starting with what general direction your diary can have. Depending on it, the design of the diary may differ both inside and outside. This is due to the fact that using this tool should be as convenient and comfortable for you as possible. Moreover, you should like keeping a diary, you should enjoy this process, such an activity should become something like a hobby.

Now you can find a variety of ideas for designing diaries from many manufacturers. Therefore, you can choose exactly what will meet your needs and wishes. We will not consider all types of diaries, but will list only the most common:

• An ordinary diary . This can be a simple notepad with space for planning tasks for the day. Most people use this type of diary because... It’s convenient to keep notes, make notes, mark dates and times of meetings, record birthdays, phone numbers, addresses and other data. Keeping a regular diary occurs according to a system that a person comes up with for himself.
• Personal diary . It can be called a diary, because... it is intended mainly to relieve emotional stress, “spill out” disturbing thoughts on paper. Psychotherapists and psychologists advise keeping such diaries, especially for those who are prone to excessive emotionality, anxiety, worry, and negative thinking. And there really is an effect - after such “practice” people relax and normalize their mental state. Personal diaries are kept, usually in free form.
• Business diary . Designed for businessmen, business people, workers with busy schedules. A business diary allows you to structure your affairs, not forget anything, and have all the important information in sight. It must be clearly structured and divided into time periods: hour, day, week, month, year. The results of work and the successes that a person achieves largely depend on the organization of the diary.
• Electronic diary . This includes special computer applications and programs, but recently utilities for smartphones and tablets have become increasingly widespread. Electronic diaries are incredibly convenient, equipped with a lot of useful functions, the ability to customize sound notifications, etc. For people who lead an active lifestyle and value mobile devices, they are simply irreplaceable.

In general, today you can find an incredible number of diaries on sale, including highly specialized ones - designed for specific purposes of “users”. We will not dwell on them in detail - just go shopping and see what is on the shelves.

We would like to continue by considering several design ideas for diaries that may be useful to you. But first, let's take a look at a fun video about the benefits of these tools.