DIY: Back to School Goal Planning Tutorials

August 1, 2017 0 Comments

Paperclips and Confetti is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. For more info, read my disclosure policy.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #BacktoSchoolGoals #CollectiveBias

Any reason to use office supplies is a reason to make me smile! So when Back to School comes around each year, all of the fun supplies and great deals and bundles make the perfect time to stock up on all my favorite things! Whether you’re a mom of kids going back to school this year, or you are a student yourself, I’m going to show you a couple easy and fun tutorials to help you set and achieve your goals using my favorite supplies!

First, we’re going to create a monthly goal reminder. This can be hung up anywhere in your home (I hung ours in the kitchen) or even inside your locker or dorm room wall. The most important thing is to put it somewhere you will see it every day so you can keep yourself reminded of the goals for the month.

Then, we’ll create a weekly goals dashboard for your binder. I will show you how to make it and then share some helpful tips on how to use it for goal tracking! Ready? Let’s get started!

DIY Monthly Goal Reminder:

Here’s what you need for this one:

1 pack of Scotch™ Thermal Laminating Pouches (and a Scotch™ laminating machine)

1 Piece of Paper with your goal categories (You can draw one or print one out.)

1 Variety Pack of Post-it® 3″ x 3″ Notes (in at least 4 colors)

1 pack of Scotch® Magic™ Tape refills with BONUS Dispenser

You guys, this 6 pack of tape came with a FREE bonus dispenser…and it’s purple!! LOVE!

Note: You will have some extra supplies at the end of this project to use throughout the year for each new month’s goals. There are no dates, so this project can be used over and over again! If you want brownie points, you can also share some extra supplies with a teacher!

Instructions:

You will want to use a piece of paper to create a sign that has four clearly defined category areas. I chose the following four categories: To Do, To Make, To Buy, and To Remember. You can choose any four categories that work best for your life including: health, financial, relationship, personal development, etc. We are currently celebrating our VERY FIRST official Back to School year ever as parents, so our main goal for this month is to complete a successful Back to School preparation for our big kindergartner! Get creative for your sign. You can decorate it with pens or if you are computer savvy, design and print something like I did! I also included a quote at the bottom that says, “Do something everyday that brings you closer to your goals.” Back to School is a LOT of work. It can seem overwhelming to accomplish each of these tasks within a short period of time. But if I focus on just one each day, I will have our little guy all ready in time for the first day of school!

You will need to create a 3″x 3″ square space below each of your 4 categories. This is where your Post-it® notes will go. We’ll go over that soon…. You can either include this space in your print design or, if you are using pens, trace one of your Post-it® notes in each section.

Once your paper is all ready to go, you are going to laminate it. This will keep everything protected as well as create a nice, smooth surface to stick your Post-it® notes on! Laminating is super easy! I purchased this Scotch™ Laminator a few years back and I absolutely LOVE it! (The new ones are really cool, too!) It works super fast and is so easy to use. All you do is plug it in, flip on the power switch, wait for the light to turn green, and it’s ready to go!

Open one Scotch™ Thermal Laminating Pouch and place your paper inside. Be sure the paper is centered so it will look nice once it comes through the machine. close the pouch with the open end at the top. Feed your pouch with the paper inside through your Scotch™ Laminator. In a few seconds, it will come through the other side all ready to use!

Next, grab your 3″x3″ Post-it® notes. Choose one color for each category. (I decided to color code mine to make it look pretty.) Take 4-5 Post-it® notes from each color and stick it into the designated Post-it® area. (You don’t want to use too many at once because it will get heavy and you are going to hang it up.)

Then, go ahead and write out your goals for each category. Be specific. Instead of saying, “Lose weight,” say, “Lose 5 pounds.” Whatever the goals are, even if it’s to do one small task, be sure that it’s realistic to accomplish in one month. You can add several small tasks in each category as well. You have full freedom to create whatever goals will help you get to the next step. You may even want to write out your goals for the year, and then break them down into monthly, actionable steps. Sometimes, especially in the case of school, you may not be able to plan that far ahead. But planning goals for the month is something that almost anyone can do.

Once it’s completely filled out, turn it over. Apply Scotch® Magic™ tape to each of the corners and the centers in loops (see photo). You should have a total of 9 tape loops like this:

Finally, hang on the wall, in your locker, in your dorm room, etc. We hung ours in the kitchen since the goals for family-oriented this month. As needed, you can replace each of your Post-it® notes so you can reuse this goal reminder over and over again!

Did you know that you’re 42% more likely to accomplish things if you write them down? Also, by having your goals in a place you see them every day, you’re constantly reminding yourself about them and making it easier to stay on track. If other people see your goals posted, they can also help keep you accountable. So put your goals, your dreams, the things you want to do and remember, front and center with Post-it® products!

DIY Weekly Goal Dashboard:

This project is a fun way for students to keep goals front and center. I never particularly enjoyed studying although I did enjoy school. I did very well as a result of strong organizational skills. For me, being able to categorize and label and color code things made a world of difference! Anyone who was ever a classmate of mine knows I’m a bit of a Post-it® queen. To this day, I still carry several around in my purse (in different sizes and colors). You just never know and they come in handy all the time!

So we’re going to create something similar to the monthly goal reminder but this will be in your binder.

What you need:

1 Page document with 4 categories (similar to the last but this one will be horizontal)

1 Pack of Scotch™ Thermal Laminating Pouches (you can use the same pack from the last project)

2 packs of 2 Post-it® 3″x5″ notepads (in 4 different colors)

1 pack of Post-it® page flags (multi color)

1 3-hole punch

Instructions:

Start out by creating your document. (Just like before, you can make this with pens or print one out that you design. Be sure that it’s horizontal/landscape and not vertical/portrait. Create a space for 4 categories for 3″x5″ Post-it® notes.) Place the document inside a Scotch™ Laminating Pouch and laminate it!

After your document is laminated, with the heading on the left of the page, use a 3-hole punch to punch holes so it can be placed inside your binder.

Note: Since the document is laminated, there is plenty of laminated area around the punched holes to place it around the binder rings. It just looks like that since it caught the edge of the paper.

Now, we’re going to place our Post-it® notes. And you’ll notice, I color-coded my categories with these as well! Use about 4-5 pages of Post-it® to stick onto your laminated dashboard. This will make sure they fit nicely in your binder and you can store extra Post-it® notes in your backpack for when you need to add more, or use them for other things…. I’ve always said you can never have enough Post-it® notes!

Next, write out your goals for each category:

Tip: When one goal seems overwhelming, break it down into subgoal steps. (See example above for Science Project). Bigger projects will take more time and work to complete, but it feels great to check off boxes so allow yourself to celebrate each small accomplishment on the way to the big ones! It also makes larger goals seems more achievable and gives you a place to start and ability to focus on one part at a time!

After you’ve written out your goals for the week, place the dashboard inside your binder on top of everything else! It will be the first thing you see each time you open your binder keeping your goals front and center! Having a weekly goal dashboard will keep you balanced so that despite having several classes, all with different workloads, you can manage your overall student goals all in one convenient place and be able to see everything at once! (I actually had classmates ask me to make these for them back when I was in college!) It doesn’t matter if you’re in junior high, high school, or even college. This will work for you!

Now you can add a few more fun Post-it® products to your binder to keep your goals (and everything else) organized. I highly recommend the 2 pack of 3″ x 8″ lined Post-it® note pads. You can fit two of them perfectly side by side on the inside cover! Keep your schedule handy on one and use the other for Notes and a Goals Overview (anything you are working on that is not included in your weekly dashboard can go here).

Also, if you want to make things even prettier, you can coordinate your binder with your dashboard by using colorful page tabs. The extras can be stored right inside your binder pocket for easy access. Hey, go crazy and match them up in your text books also! Get set for Success, go beyond the basics. The more you put into getting your goal system written down and in front of you, the easier it will be to stay motivated and accomplish all of your goals!

There you have it! With the help of Scotch™ and Post-it® you’re all set for Monthly and Weekly Back to School planning! Whether you are a parent or a student, I hope you found these tutorials helpful and you use them to accomplish all of your goals this year! If you do create any of these projects, I would LOVE to see them! Please share on Instagram and tag me @paperclipsandpacis!