Author: onewomansmeat

I’ve had my Erin Condren Life Planner for over a month now, and I’ve definitely been getting use out of it.

I have a vertical planner, and have to decided to divide up the boxes into Work (freelance and my regular job), Personal Projects (things like this blog and Style Syntax), and Personal (stuff I need to do at home/appointments outside of work). Using the Life Planner has definitely become a part of my routine, and it’s been especially helpful at work. I track not only the things I have to do, but write down what I do as I go along, so if someoone asks me what I did to Tuesday, I can turn to my planner and check. Before, I would often forget whether or not I had worked on a certain text. I also put post-its with reminders of things I need to check.

I’ve also found it helpful for keeping track of my non-work goals. When I was actively working at home full-time and thus using my Filofax as much as I’m using my ECLP now, I would punch holes in a page from a memo pad and keep it in the middle of my week-on-two-pages spread. With the ECLP, I write those goals down the left side of the planner. Special monthly goals and goal tracking go in the monthly spread.

So far, what I’m liking about the ECLP is that I don’t feel like I have to be as precious with it. I can just throw it in my work bag, and since I carry a backpack, the size doesn’t bother me. The layout also works well for me, since my life currently can be divided up nicely into three separate boxes. Right now, I’m basically using my Filofax as a place to store personal information and documents that I need, but don’t want to carry with me all the time. I could foresee that if the time comes when I’m not working outside of the house, like my situation last year, having two planners might seem extraneous and I could go back to my Filofax with whatever spread suited my needs. But for now, using a bound planner to do my actual planning seems to be working for me.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that I made it over to Staples, planning to maybe pick up some Erin Condren things without paying for shipping. I left empty-handed, however, because $7 for four coil clips looks a little outrageous in person. It doesn’t feel that was when you’re on the website, because you’re not surrounded by much cheaper products by Martha Stewart and Cynthia Rowley. This brings up the question of whether the Life Planner is overpriced. I think it is, but I do really like it, so the cost won’t be a factor in my decision-making when I decide whether to purchase one for 2018.

I know everyone has had their 2017 Life Planners for ages now, but I just got mine and since this is my first experience with Erin Condren, I thought I’d write about my reactions as a completely new customer.

I wrote about why I was buying an Erin Condren last month. Update: In that post, I mention that the name is also on the back–I later found out that this isn’t true; the preview image just shows it that way for some reason.

Anyway, my immediate reaction upon taking it out the box was that the cover is a lot higher quality than I expected. I was terrified of Erin Condren getting my ordered wrong, since I’ve seen a lot of people having issues. But even though the picture on the receipt showed a horizontal neutral layout, mine was the vertical neutral I requested. I didn’t notice any of the common problems–so far, I haven’t seen any wrong or missing pages, and since I didn’t get a coated coil, mine was fine.

The one thing I do wish is that I had gotten my name on it. The middle of the front cover doesn’t have the rose gold foil on it, so it looks a bit empty.

The back is all rose gold.

If this particular cover goes on a sale or something, I might get a second one with my name on it. You now have to pay extra if you personalize the cover when you buy it with the planner, which is annoying. That’s another reason why I didn’t put my name on it–the cost adds up fast when you starting selecting options. But we’ll see how I feel about it as time goes on.

One thing I’ve never been able to understand from watching Erin Condren videos and so on is just how big they are. I knew the pages could fit in a Filofax A5, but somehow they always seemed like the size of a regular notebook to me. Here’s a comparison with my Charleston A5.

Overall, I’d say I’m pleased with the quality. The vellum and cover feel more luxurious than I was expecting. I see the issues that people have mentioned with the image quality on some of the pages, but it doesn’t really bother me. I am very glad that Erin Condren has come up with a layout that isn’t as colorful–I didn’t like the bright circus colors they used to use, and I dislike the more muted palette they’ve been using even more. Now I just have to keep the habit of planning every day.

I was always one of those people for whom school-supply shopping was basically Christmas in August. It’s only natural that the whole planner world/subculture would appeal to me. I’m generally disorganized and I have both a work schedule that varies week to week and freelance work. Plus, let’s face it, I like buying stuff.

So when I discovered planners about a year and a half ago, I was immediately drawn to Filofax. You can get all kinds of inserts and really customize the insides to your exact needs. I didn’t find any design that really appealed to me, however, until I found the Charleston, which is sadly no longer in production. I also liked the Temperley Violet range, but knew I needed an A5.

I found a Charleston A5 on eBay and then found a Violet pocket on deep discount at a local store, and I’ve been using these two planenrs ever since.

The Violet I use as a wallet, and the Charleston mainly sits at home. Originally, I had thought it would be something I’d take with me, but the leather is so beautiful and scratches easily, and I also ended up putting in a lot of personal information and documents that I don’t necessarily want to carry around with me all the time. I had thought that I would use the Violet as an on-the-go calendar and then transfer things into my big planner later, but that hasn’t really worked out for me.

So while I do use my Charleston as a catch-all and a brain dump, I’m not really using it for planning. It sits on a shelf, I take it down when I need it, I’ll sometimes write in when something is due or what days I’m working–but I’m not in the habit of sitting down and planning it on a daily or even weekly basis, and I’m not in the habit of referring to it regularly. It hasn’t really become an extension of my brain.

Now, I’ve always been a Filofax girl. The idea of being able to switch out inserts is appealing to me, as well as being able to move things around. So the other major player in the planner game–Erin Condren–never appealed to me, since they make bound planners. And I never liked their aesthetic, with their bright color palette and inspirational quotes.

But on June 1st, they launched their new line, which features a “neutral” version. It’s much more subtle, mostly gray and black with little touches of color. There are still some inspirational quotes, but overall, it just feels much more sophisticated. So when I saw a video with the new line, it stuck in my mind, and when they officially launched yesterday, I realized that instead of buying new Filofax inserts that I won’t use on a regular basis, perhaps I should try something new and see if I’ll get more planning use out of it. A planner that’s basically a notebook with a plastic cover is one I would feel comfortable tossing into my bag and taking everywhere with me, and the three-box vertical layout (which I could use for work, my own projects, and to-dos at home) seems like it would suit my needs. Plus it has things like a goal tracker, which is also something I would want from a planner.

And when I saw that they had a cover featuring my favorite flowers, anemones, I was sold.

So I ordered one. I didn’t get my name on it, because for some reason the name is also on the back in mirror image, which I find strange. I don’t think I’ll get it until the beginning of July, but when I do, I’ll share an update of how I’ve been using it and how I like it.

Do I feel a little dumb for buying something that could basically be accomplished for something that I could pick up for $5 or $10? Yes. It’s expensive for what it is. I felt the same way when I got my Filofaxes. But I think there’s something to be said for treating yourself once in a while and buying the thing you really want, and not a cheaper version.