Erin Condren Lifeplanner
I have been a planner convert for about 4 years now. It is no secret that I have a deep love of stationary. Back to school and new years are the best times of year for me. I get so over excited by new notebooks, diaries, planners and pens. I overhaul my entire work station at work and buy far more than I could ever use. The Erin Condren planners are something that came up a few years ago when I was home with a baby. I needed a way to keep my doctors visits together as well as days out when you really have little sense of time. Nothing in the shops was up for the challenge then a friend showed me these. The real thing that drew me to them was the fact that you can create a collage cover! So every year i pull together my favourite pictures of my family and plaster them all over the cover. Not to mention when I accidentally leave it in a meeting room my name is right there on the cover so it can be returned to me.
Because its spiral bound you can add parts and even pull last month out if you want to make it smaller as you go. I love to get an extra pack or two of the snaps then print and laminate my own dashboards to go in (you can also buy them on the site). I have made a grocery list and general notes ones that are half the width of the page and can be used with a dry erase marker so I just unclip last months and re clip them into this month. I have also seen people who laminate passwords or important dates and move them through the planner so they are always at hand.
Two years ago I even converted my sister to the EC way. She is now an avid collector like me and gets one every year. Its a very exciting time when one of us starts the planning process because we both get one at the same time and save on postage (being as we are in Australia its nearly $50 postage). I splurged last year and got the rose gold coil which was an extra $10. When I got it it was so worth it and my sister was annoyed that she hadn't got the upgrade too.
There is also a whole genre of planner stickers out there. I did have a massive collection of them but have gradually paired them down to dollar signs for payday and I'm getting some bin stickers so I remember when recycling week is. Its also great for doctors appointments, swimming lessons or if like me your kids go to their dads on weekends I can keep track of which weekends I have him and which are my party weekends (joking, not joking).
The planners come in a few styles which have grown over the years. I get the regular coiled Lifeplanner. There is also a hardbound Lifeplanner, a Deluxe monthly planner and even a teacher planner which my teacher friends really love. And don't forget the accessories! Oh and did I mention they are fully customisable, you can choose colorful or greyscale for the more tonal amongst us. You can also choose horizontal or vertical format and even have the days broken into hours for your university schedule.
What I also love about these (did i mention I love these!) is that Erin Condren came up with the idea while home with her own children (interview here if you want to read more). She made the planners on her computer and printed them one by one. Eventually she needed to up her game and purchased a few printers so she could do 4 at once. Now she has a professional printing service so that she can churn these out. Such an inspiration. I will say that recently due to the high demand for them they have been getting more errors, wrong covers put on, pages upside down. But the company is super amazing and will send you out a replacement planner free of charge straight away. Fantastic customer service! They do 12 month or 18month planners and can even print them with extra months so you can get one now that also covers 2020.
