My Life Planner

Staying with the theme of this week on sharing some “Living Solutions” that work for me, my family and my home, I wanted to share my Erin Condren Life Planner. This is not a sponsered post, I’m just sharing something that I love and can’t live without! I remember finding Erin Condren because one of my friends who knows all good paper products used her for her Christmas cards, so I looked her up. And lo and behold, she had this great “Life Planner!”  Sounded like just what I needed! I was always on the lookout for a great planner. I’m a girl who loves to write things down. I usually have too many lists going and need one place to keep all of my appointments, notes, etc, so I pulled the trigger and loved her products from the get go.

I’m laughing in my head right now because I’m remembering back in college, I was OBSESSED with going digital. Like it was all I could think about. {WHY?!?!?!} I LOVED planners but I thought I would be so much more “together” if I could just go digital. Which meant a Palm Pilot back in the day. Do you remember those?!?! And then Blackberries were all the rage and I OBSESSED again about having one of those suckers! {Whitney, if you’re reading, I know you remember this!!!}

For our family, my hubby and I use the Cozi app on our phones to keep our family appointments in one place where we can both access. It’s helped tremendously, but for my personal scheduling, I love my EC Life Planner! At heart, I am a write-it-down kind of scheduler.

You can choose your cover from a large selection and change up color combos. You can even upload any picture to use on your cover. I just put my initials on it, but in years past I used our family name or a quote I loved. And now they have interchangeable covers if you can’t change for want to change it out down the line for some reason.

1st page…

I was looking through my past planners {yes, I keep them} and the month used to be just one page with small squares and the monthly tabs weren’t laminated. So much better now.

These extra stickers come in the back of every planner. You can personalize your stickers too, but I haven’t ever done that. It seems like too much work!

And some blank ones in different colors. I use these for my work appointments so I can see quickly what I have going on work-wise when I look at my week.

This meal planner is a new addition this year. I love that it can snap in my week and I can write down what we are eating. It’s a goal of mine to get meal planning figured out!

 And I added some of these little “Dots” to my order. I’m excited to play around with them.

I thought I would show you an example of the weekly pages. This was right when I got my new planner and I didn’t have much filled in. For privacy, I’m just showing you this page! Trust me when I say I fill in a ton more than this!!! I like to color coordinate my planner too. Each of us has a “color.” The kids’ color translates into other areas of our lives/home too, so there is some consistency. Again, this is just an easy way to visually let me see what is going on.

There aren’t times listed but boxes for morning, day and night. You can check out the Erin Condren website to see videos on other ways you can use the planner.

Here’s a glance at the month.

For as long as I’ve been keeping a planner, this is how I track my exercise. I just draw a diagonal line across the monthly box. Another way for me to at a glance see if I’m getting enough exercise. There is clearly a theme here! I am a VISUAL person!

There is a whole bunch of different paper in the back.

Blank…

Lined…

And graph paper.

I keep all my client hour logs in the back of my planner on the blank sheets and it’s nice that it’s all in one place.

There is a cute little pocket at the back for holding odds and ends.

And there is a little zip pouch in the back too that they always fill with goodies!

I forgot to take a picture of these guys, but I really love using them. They stick on to anything you want to snap in to your planner coil, like an invitation or receipt.

And the little perpetual calendar you can fill out and just move from planner to planner.

 My go to pen is usually a black Pilot Precise Pen, but these are a good pen with more of a fine felt point. I love how an fine Sharpie pen writes, but I don’t want to see it at all coming through the pages.

The Life Planner comes in both a 12 month and a 18 month version. The first two planners I ordered, I ordered only a 12 month, but I now order an 18 month calendar every 12 months. That way, I can plan ahead. It’s not much thicker than the 12 month version and I can add vacations, school breaks, doctor and dental appointments that are a ways out and not have them floating around on a little sticky note.

The Life Planners are a little pricier but there is so much you can customize and for me, it’s worth every penny!If you want to try one of your own, you can click here to design one of your own!

Have you tried the EC Planner? Do you love it? Or do you have a go-to planner you swear by? I would love to hear!