If you’re anything like me, you like to plan. I freaking love having a schedule written out because I forget things SO easily. Even sometimes when I enter appointments in my Google cal, thinking that’s enough… I miss the appointments. 😖 I typically have to have two forms of schedules, one digital and one hard copy, to keep myself organized and prepared. Over the past four years, I have tried 4 different planners and I am going to tell you the pros and cons of each one! They are all pretty different and offer unique ways to organize your life!
First off, is my planner from 2018 (omg, feels like eons ago). Don’t ask me why I still have it, it was just so pricey and so pretty that I feel guilty throwing it away! This planner is by Erin Condren and typically runs around $55 for the Life Planner. The price will increase once you start to personalize aspects of the planner (i.e. coil colors, name on front, expensive designs, etc). I won’t lie to you though, I LOVED this planner. The website is so fun and there are hundreds of designs to choose from for the Life Planner. One of my favorite parts is that they offer different planner inserts depending on what you need. For example, when I ordered my Life Planner I got an insert for meal planning and one to track spending/saving! They have a ton of options and if you use your planner daily, I suggest this planner. I will say though, while the price is hefty, it is fantastic quality, good paper (no ink bleeds that I experienced). PS: I also think I got mine on sale? So, keep an 👀 out for those!
Above is my EC Life Planner from 2018. As you can see, I got the cover personalized with my name and the year. My planner had a monthly spread at each month start and then a weekly spread. I loved how much space was given for each day with little side boxes for notes (I usually planned my workouts there). ALSO, when I ordered my planner they sent me SO much free stuff with it. I’m talking sticker packs, book marks, gift tags, a birthday book to record everyone’s birthday, etc.
Now to the planner that was hardly written in…my 2020 planner by the Happy Planner. These range from about $25-35 a pop and can be bought online OR at major craft stores (Michaels, Hobby Lobby). The best part about these planners is how FUN they are. The Happy Planner company comes out with TONS of cool sticker books that you can buy to make your planner your own. I don’t know about you, but I was OBSESSED with stickers growing up so this planner was a no-brainer for me lol. I only got two sticker books (the prices start to really add up) and had fun embellishing all of my pages in my planner. I found it quite therapeutic if I’m being honest.
Above is my Happy Planner from 2020. There was a monthly spread, an important dates/holidays section for each month and a weekly spread. The weekly spread was a BIT small for my taste because I like to have space to write my daily to do lists. I will say, I did like the left hand page that has sections for errands, calls/emails, projects, appointments and notes. Definitely a good quality planner in terms of the paper and covers. I DID NOT like the binding on this planner. As you can see, the bottom disc of the planner is missing because it broke off when I dropped the planner once. They do have disks you can buy to replace (~$7.99), but as you can see I never did that.
Now to be honest with you all, I completely forgot I had this planner from Urban Outfitters 😂. It is hardly even used and the pages that are used are filled with class assignments and sorority meetings so I’m GUESSING it is from some year in college, just not sure which. I actually don’t know why I stopped using this daily planner because I really do love the layout of it. The current price of this daily planner is $24 and is available in multiple patterns. I LOVE how nice the cover of this planner feels. Downsides: I got a planner with a very light cover and it is stained. I hate that. Also, I prefer planners with coils vs the composition notebook style so not sure why I went for this one on that front.
This planner is SIMPLE AF, but that’s why we can love it right? It isn’t dated so you can start it now, pick it up two years later and use it again. We love that. There is a time table section to schedule your day, to-do list section (LOVE THAT), objectives, a notes section. Wish I would’ve found this one before I ordered my current planner 🤷
NOW HERE is a daily planner. I LOVE my new planner by Papier. This is the 16-week daily productivity planner. I was drawn to this because one of my besties got this planner and I was like OMG NEED. The 16-week option was the only one available for me when I went to purchase and I didn’t mind. Since this is a daily planner and can be dated any time, I was cool with the short commitment. It ran me about $28.99 and I had the ability to completely customize. This color combo was pre-set and I didn’t change it because ehem.. I love pink. However, I did add my name to the top, change the title to just daily planner from MY daily planner (idk why the “my” made me feel dorky lol) and then added 2021 A to the bottom. I was trying to come up with ways to number or alphabetize these planners since it is only 16-weeks. I went with A (and will continue as B, C, etc) because 2021 1 looked weird.
I moved from a VERY colorful 2020 planner to a planner that is as basic as it can get in 2021. I’m obsessed with the layout so far. There is a weekly overview with priorities, important to-do’s habit tracking, notes, and thoughts. This is one upside versus the UO planner. I do enjoy a weekly view. Past that, you have a meal planning section (SOOOO IMPORTANT, especially now that I’m doing Whole30), grocery list and more notes. Each day has a schedule section, 3 most important to-do’s, and to-do’s. NOW if you all have heard me talk about my daily pages on IG reels, you know I usually pick a top 3 out of my to-do’s so I was pumped about this already being worked into my planner.
Phew. That was quite the post, huh? Who knew one could write SO much about planners… kinda sad haha. All planners, accessories, etc are linked in this post. Let me know what planner YOU use!