Naturally as a very goal oriented pre-med student, keeping a planner has been a tool that I have kept in my toolbox for quite some time now. For me, a planner allows me to organize all the tasks I have to get done for the week, and also serves as a place I can come back to when I need inspiration.
I was very excited when this little gal came out as I had been eyeing the original day designer ( It is absolutely gorgeous! You can find it here!) for quite some time, but I honestly couldn't justify spending the $57 to purchase it, especially when I knew that my schedule wasn't going to be quite as busy to necessitate a daily planner. When I found out that Day Designer had done a collab with Blue Sky and would be selling planners at Target, I couldn't wait to get my hands on one. The planner line had several different options to choose from. Some of the planners were similar in design to the original Day Designer ( in size and layout), but I decided to go with this smaller one as it was less expensive than the larger one and would be easier to carry around. I believe I paid around $12.99, which isn't too bad when compared to the original $57 price tag, and it would allow me to test out the layout before committing to purchase it for the school year.
The Layout
What sets this planner apart from other monthly-weekly planners is that instead of breaking down the week into two pages it has a page dedicated to each weekday of the month ( weekends are set up differently) allowing for quite a bit more space to organize yourself compared to other planners. This layout style piqued my interest as when I kept a traditional monthly-weekly planner, I often found myself writing out my schedule on a list pad as there wasn't enough space to jot down in my planner.
Similar to other planners, the planner has a monthly view at the beginning of each month's section. This is a nice little place to do an overview of the month and it is where I like to keep track of my work shifts as well as jot down major events that will be happening during the month.
For each weekday, the planner features a daily view which gives you a nice amount of space to organize yourself for the day. I like to use this page to do a rough layout for my day and jot down a couple things in the to-do section that I'd like to accomplish.
For the weekend, the planner combines Saturday and Sunday on one page and eliminates the to-do section. I'm not particularly fond of this feature ( I'll touch more on that later), but it does make sense for other people on how they set it up.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- I did like the Schedule feature as it is something that I like to give me a general idea of how much time I have during the day.
- The design is really cute and for the price point it has held up incredibly well!
- The quotes! I am a huge fan of inspirational quotes, so the fact that every day has a new one to reflect on is a pretty cute feature.
- The gratitude section. I think it's really nice to be reminded to take the time to reflect on what you are grateful for, and I think it helps to promote positivity in your day.
- At the beginning of the planner, there's a little section to jot down goals and do a reflection about yourself. I think this is pretty neat as it helps to promote productivity and self-awareness.
Cons:
- Too much space. For the people that need the space, I'm sure it's a lovely feature, but I don't tend to jot down too much during the day. Honestly, the excess of space might be because my current schedule is lax in comparison with a school year schedule.
- The daily style. As a visual person, not having the week laid out on two pages wasn't my favorite because it didn't allow me to get a feel for what my week looked like. I'm sure that sounds a bit silly but for me having a mental picture of my week allows me to organize myself a bit better.
- Weekend layout. I am not a fan of not having a to-do section on the weekend page. I would've at least like to have had a couple lines where I could right down a few tasks that I hoped to get done over the weekend.
- Decorating would be pricey. Currently, I just add some washi to the daily pages to add some flair, but if I wanted to add more decoration it would add up quickly.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I'm glad that I tested the planner out. It allowed me to see whether or not I would like the layout style without haveing to break the bank. Would I repurchase? eh, most likely not. Althought the original is beautiful, the planner offers way too much space and it would definitely go to waste. I might reconsider once I start med schoool and I see what my planning needs are, but for now I personally would hold off. I am definitely going to finish using it, but I'm thinking afterwards I might go for the personal planner (check it out here!).
I hope the review was helpful, and might have helped in the decision of what kind of planner to try.
~Genesis<3
