Last fall I was so incredibly excited to finally find the day planner of my dreams, the Erin Condren LifePlanner (you can read about it here). I had been looking for something where I could keep all my lives straight – my home life (including Travis and Jack’s schedules), my work life, AND my blog life.
After hearing how great the Erin Condren LifePlanner system was for a bunch of other people, I bit the bullet and spent the $50ish to buy myself one. Now that it’s been a year, I figured I’d check back in to let you know if I still love it.
As a reminder, here is the one I bought for 2016:
I chose the vertical layout, which gives you three blocks per day. I used the top block for home stuff, the middle block for my work schedule, and the bottom block to keep track of everything Pocketful of Joules:
Now that I’ve been using the LifePlanner for a year, I feel like I can give some better feedback than just swooning all over the place with an organizing mind-boner.
First off, size. While the planner is thicker than the typical monthly planner I’d used before, I didn’t find it too large to throw in my work backpack with my laptop (and 10,000 random papers). The monthly calendar boxes are sized well for me to write in multiple meeting for a day, and I’ve color-coded my work and home events so that I can better determine which is which when glancing at my schedule.
Next, the weekly breakdown pages. One of the main things I loved about the LifePlanner is the weekly breakdown pages that give you three blocks per day. When you use them, they work really great to keep home/work/blog stuff organized. However, every few months I get really lazy and stop using them… only to remember how much I like them and start again. If you are the type of person who uses the weekly breakdown consistently, I think you will love this feature. I just need to get better at using it every single week.
Last, wear and tear. Usually by the end of the year my planner looks like someone threw it down the garbage disposal — ripped pages, a bent cover and more. I have been using my LifePlanner for a little over 12 months so far and it looks only slightly worn. The plastic covered cover does a great job at keeping it from getting tangled with everything else I shove in my bag. The pages are obviously written on and marked up, but still in one piece. I’m actually really impressed with how good it still looks.
So, was it worth it?
YES.
Instead of buying multiple planners and juggling them, I was able to use this one planner to keep my life straight for the whole year. I’m totally sold on the LifePlanner concept and since my planner only goes through December, I’m currently on the hunt for a new one.
As always, you can find a huge assortment of LifePlanner designs on the Erin Condren website (use this to get $10 off your first purchase). You can design your own calendar by choosing the calendar layout, cover design, adding your name (or nickname, or business name), and even choosing the metal finish on the coil. After clicking around a ton, I’ve got my 2017 choice narrowed down to either the Floral Ink (left) or the Bold Bouquet (right) designs:
If you don’t care about personalizing your LifePlanner, you can buy one pre-made at Staples. The only difference is that you can’t add your name and the calendar styles are predetermined by design (they have the vertical option that I used, a horizontal option and an hourly option). They do have a bunch of choices though, so you might find one exactly as you would have designed.
There doesn’t seem to be much of a price difference whether you purchase your LifePlanner from the Erin Condren website or Staples, but I did notice that Staples had the 18 month versions on sale (here’s one similar to the one I have).
Okay, that’s enough about my day planner addiction. I hope you found the ‘one year follow-up’ helpful!
Am I the only day planner dork who spends WAY too much time fondling all the options at the store? What would your PERFECT planner include?
Disclosure: This post was NOT sponsored by Erin Condren and I paid for my Life Planner with my own money. If you decide to use my special promo code, I will receive a small referral bonus towards future purchases.
I LOVE my Erin Condren! I fell in love with the mid century circles design & couldn’t wait to get it so I ordered mine a month or so ago. For $5, they’ll put the remaining months of this year in it so you don’t have to wait to use it. We have to keep track of what we do at work so that we can bill our clients, so I have the hourly one & it works really well for me. I just ordered a monthly planner in the floral ink (such a pretty cover!), and can’t wait for it to come. I’ll keep that one in my purse to keep track of personal commitments so that I don’t have to take my work one with me.
Yes – I need two! 🙂
I’ve heard so many things about the Erin Condren planners. I currently use a Ban.do Agenda and love it, but was thinking about getting a different planner as well so I could have one for my day job and one for my side hustle. I might have to try the Erin Condren planners 🙂