Tuesday is the day before Wednesday, which is two days from Friday, which means its almost the weekend!! YAY! I kid. Got you excited though didn’t I? I’m a little bit ashamed at how excited I am about posting about a planner. But yup, that’s what this entire post is going to be about. A planner. Specifically, my Erin Condren 2015/2016 Horizontal Life Planner. (Disclaimer – this is a photo heavy post).
While I consider myself to be very techno-savy – I like paper planners. I need to see my goals/to-do’s and deadlines. I do have running reminders on my Iphone, but honestly, sometimes after the phone buzzes, I forget about it. In my planner however, every time I look at it I’m reminded of my tasks and as an attorney, I have to have visual reminders all day every day.
Last year I used a personal Filofax for work and bought an Erin Condren Life Planner for the blog. Whelp, I didn’t use the Erin Condren much and mainly used my Filofax. I found maintaining two planners to be a drain and I didn’t like the vertical set up of the Erin Condren. Also, it was a little too cutesy for the office. Coming from the Filofax system – which I loved – because it was customizable and smaller, I wasn’t quite sure if I should get the larger Erin Condren for this year, but then they came out with the horizontal planner – with not so cutesy colours and I was sold! On launch day I ordered this one:
Its a platinum prism cover! Not too colourful and I could keep it on my desk with no one thinking its a colouring book. I decided to go ahead and order the remaining months of this year with the calendar beginning on July 1st since I wanted it to coordinate with the start of my new job. So the planner I ordered has 18 months – a really long time. I don’t mind the price of the planner too much as I don’t mind paying for things I genuinely love and will use – (fyi its $60 for platinum edition which I got plus $5 for the extra months) – but I definitely have to get my use out of it and for the price I really should get what I ordered. Right?
So here’s the kicker …
I wasn’t sure if I should post this paragraph or not since I may sound bitter but here goes. Unfortunately, that gorgeous cover up there is not the cover I received… and I received the planner well after July 1st (the date the planner begins) in spite of ordering on the morning of launch day. They cant blame international shipping either because it shipped to a US address. Apparently, there was some issue with the production of metallic planners which caused everything to be delayed. The irony? – A planner company didn’t plan for eventualities. I could sit here and rant about the fact that Erin Condren has possibly the worst, most incompetent Customer Service on the planet, or that I still haven’t received the platinum cover for my planner (the covers are replaceable and they sent the planner with a “temporary cover” – a CS rep assured me this weekend that mine will soon ship. We’ll see), or that I was so disgusted during the debacle that I pulled the lawyer card … but I won’t. #iguessijustdid. Thankfully I love the planner … it doesn’t take away the bitter taste in my mouth, but at least I love it.
UPDATE: I have since received not only my planner, but I’ve also received a $20 coupon code for my cover being late and a $25 coupon code because my cover had a minor issue (they gave me a choice of a new cover or credit to my account). While I will not discount the terrible experience I did have with CS, I must say that I am VERY impressed by their attempt to fix the problem – for that I have to say kudos and had to make this update!
Here’s a look at the planner:
It came in a blue box and was bubble wrapped inside:
And below would be the planner I got (with the temporary cover) … thankfully they included the Keep it together bands that come free with the platinum planner.
The inside is lovely. I got the platinum velum because yanno … its a platinum planner – or supposed to be.
I adore the horizontal layout! And the colours. This right here is the sole reason I purchased this planner!
All Erin Condren planners come standard with stickers at the back …
And with a keep it together folder (I think that’s the name) and clear pouch with free goodies.
I also purchased some other goodies:
I got myself 2 pen holders (although they sent one … they compensated me though) and some do it all dots (stickers)
A sticker book and notepad. The notepad is actually purple and silver to match the planner cover I will eventually (hopefully) receive.
… and all the goodies together:
I do love the planner, I do. I just don’t love the experience of getting it. Anyway, I plan to keep everything in this one planner. I have begun using the monthly view to track blog posts and the days/weeks to track my daily appointments, deadlines and work tasks. One planner – less hassle – simple wimple.
If you want to see an actual post about how I set it up just let me know! I don’t go crazy with the stickers but I do use them here and there (PS – I love stickers and all things stationary and pretty but my wallet and I slipped and fell down the rabbit hole of the sticker-and-all-things-planner community on Instagram and Facebook and got very very scared – I’m currently in recovery haha). Personally, I keep my planner professional yet cute. Lemme know if its something you would like to see.
Also if you like this planner and would like $10 of your first purchase you can sign up using my referral link – I get $10 store credit if you do.
If you’d like a detailed view of how I use the planner. Check out this post!
How do you plan your days? Electronic or paper planning?
