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Hello planner peeps! You know the good feeling when you open a Christmas or birthday gift and it’s just what you wanted? Well, that was just about how I felt when this “happy mail” arrived in my mailbox.
Yes, it has arrived…my Erin Condren Life Planner for 2020.
I also received a few extra goodies that Erin Condren graciously included in my delivery. So, this way I can give you a review of this lovely and colorful planner and share my observations with my readers.
It would be important to mention that the Erin Condren Life Planner comes in a beautifully decorated box, so unwrapping it was kind of fun. No plain, boring box for Erin Condren! Too bad, the shipping company plastered it with a bunch of sticky shipping labels.
Planner Review
So, let’s get started…
Three Weekly Layouts to Choose From:
- Vertical – This is the classic layout that divides the planner into three time blocks for each day. Erin Condren use to label these but they are now left blank for you to customize as you please. The headers are about 1/8″ of an inch rather than the 1/4″ they used to be. You choose between the colorful layout or a neutral layout. I chose the colorful layout. You can the customize the planner to your liking or preference.
- Horizontal – this layout has ruled lines, and shows the week as the name suggests in horizontal blocks.
- Hourly – this layout is designed with hourly increments, I believe this layout would be awesome for someone who has strict hourly commitments or someone who has several appointments or specific schedule throughout the week within specific time blocks.
Interchangeable Covers
The Erin Condren Life planner comes with a strong coil and interchangeable covers made with thick mylar. Of course, you have a huge variety of cover design choices that you can choose from.
You can choose from beautiful florals to minimalist designs to pictures of your family, it’s really up to you.
Yes, that means once you buy your Erin Condren Life Planner you could exchange your covers with either new ones that you can purchase from Erin Condren’s website or you can DIY your own. There are so many options to personalize your planner.
Don’t forget you also can personalize it with your name. I chose not to for mine.
Either way, you are not permanently stuck with a cover that you might want to change. I ordered the silver foil floral cover with a platinum coil, although due to the reflection and lighting in my picture it looks more like gold. I ordered the Metallic Budding Romance Life Planner which comes in rose gold, gold or silver.
Last year, Erin Condren released binders that are either softbound and can be carried in a traveler’s notebook type of binder or a new binder cover with rings. So, now you have even more choices or options on the type of binding you may prefer.
Binding and Paper Quality
In addition, I thought I would mention the great thing about the super strong coils on this planner. The planner lies flat when you open it and the pages turn smoothly without catching and the coils do not easily bend or get crushed.
The paper in the planner is very thick and smooth. The Erin Condren site states it is 80 lbs/ 120 GSM. Why is this a good thing? It allows you to write with a variety of pens without bleed through to the other side.
This is another failing of less expensive planners…they look good but you can’t write in them without smudges, tearing the pages when you erase your writing or bleeding through when using markers or gel pens.
That’s a feature that seems to happen with more inexpensive planners that you can purchase at office supply stores or at cheaper box stores. The planners look beautiful but don’t hold up under daily wear and tear.
What’s Inside the Erin Condren Life Planner
You might be curious about what actually comes in your planner. The following is a list of the many pages or parts of the planner that are included:
*Year at a Glance pages
*Monthly Blocks to write in birthdays, and anniversary’s , if you choose to do so.
*Sturdy monthly tabs
*Monthly goals page after each monthly tab to write in your birds eye view of that specific month’s goals, birthdays and events to remember.
*Month at a glance view
*Weekly pages for each month, here’s where stickers, planner decor and your weekly and daily planning happens.
Weekly Layout for the Erin Condren Life Planner – Vertical
*A few notes and contacts pages in the back pages of the planner
*A sturdy pocket with kaleidoscope print embossed with gold foil.
*A few wire bound pages of gorgeous, colorful stickers with Erin Condren’s trademark asterisk in gold, rose gold and silver foil.
Erin Condren foil stickers
*A perpetual calendar in booklet form that includes upcoming holidays and dates for the year.
Erin Condren Kaleidoscope back cover and perpetual calendar booklet
The Erin Condren Life Planner is a popular planner for several reasons, with it’s colorful pages, quality materials and construction, multiple options to personalize to your preferences, lovely design and interior pages with personal quotes peppered throughout the pages …it’s a clear winner for your personal planning.
Now the ultimate question would be is the Erin Condren Life planner going to organize your life, track your expenses, manage your kids’ activities?
No, not really, that will be depend on your taking action on your tasks and goals. But it will help you keep focused, keep all your life’s activities in one place and all those colorful pages will motivate you to open your planner day by day to achieve the improvements you want to make in your life.
You Might Like:
Just a reminder, if you haven’t visited my blog before, I have designed over 200+ planner stickers printables just for the Erin Condren planner alone.
The following are a few of those freebies.
If you would like to see other similar color or subject themed freebies, check out the list below:
Pretty in Pink Planner Stickers
Happy Flowers Planner Stickers
Spring Tulips Planner Stickers Printable
Find Me on Social Media
Also, if you are new to this site, I wanted to let you know that I have a board on Pinterest that you might want to follow that has several pins (ideas) by other planner designers, stationery, home office decor, office supplies and planner freebies that are mostly planner related, you can view that and/or follow here, Home Office | Planners & Stationery Favs.
Image Credit
Most images in this printable are original photos or illustrations by Vintage Glam Studio and under copyright with a few that are under commercial use or creative commons licensing.