A planner can help you organize your thoughts, make a plan for your life, monitor your progress towards goals, and celebrate each day. I love getting a fresh, new planner, and each year I choose an Erin Condren Life Planner. Here’s my 2020 Erin Condren Life Planner review:
WHY I LOVE THE ERIN CONDREN LIFE PLANNER
This will be my 7th year with an Erin Condren Life Planner! I almost can’t believe it’s been that long. Each year I look forward to the new Life Planner release and seeing the reviews. I love so much about the Life Planner, but here are a few reasons why I keep coming back to it after 7 years.
Erin Condren Planners are so beautiful. Each year, the planners get a new pattern/design theme and they are gorgeous; I always look forward to the new design. This year’s theme is Kaleidoscope and I love the crystal-like look.
The paper quality improved a couple of planners ago and it’s really nice. I prefer the thicker paper so my ink doesn’t bleed and it just makes the planner feel really substantial.
There are a ton of Erin Condren accessories and stickers available on Etsy or the Erin Condren site. You can definitely find a lot in the Erin Condren eco system. I like being able to find accessories or stickers that are specifically designed for my planner.
Since I have been using a Life Planner for so long, it’s become really familiar and it just makes sense for my planning style. The flow of everything is nice and I am used to all of the special little details.
CUSTOMIZING THE LIFE PLANNER
When you order the Erin Condren Life Planner, you have a lot of options to customize and personalize. There are so many cover options to choose from, and you can personalize them with text and customize the colors. You can also choose your planner’s coil color – platinum, gold, rose gold, or black.
You can choose the layout of the weeks — either vertical, horizontal, or hourly. I really love the horizontal version, but they say that the vertical is most popular. And you can have your layout either be colorful or neutral.
You can also choose when you want your calendar to start — 12 months (January 2020 – December 2020), 18 months (July 2019 – December 2020), or a prorated calendar (current month 2019 – July 2020).
Ordering your planner and personalizing it is super easy. If it’s your first order, use my link to get $10 off.
HOW I USE MY LIFE PLANNER
Throughout the years, I’ve used my planner for everything from tracking our monthly budget, to moving to Southern California. My planner helps me to organize my thoughts and make plans to execute my goals. I love setting a goal and then tracking my progress toward completion. Like when I lost 30 pounds in 3 months, I tracked the weight loss and it was so motivating to be able to see how far I’d come.
Each Sunday, I like to spend some time going over my plans for the nest week. I’ll pull out my stickers and decorate the week with whatever theme I’m trying to go for. I don’t use a ton of stickers; just enough to accent the color theme while still being functional. I also use a few decorative stickers that are just for fun. And then I’ll fill in my week — things to do or follow up on, and notes from calls or things I need to remember. Working on my planner is a fun way to be creative while keeping my life organized!
Throughout the week, I’ll check off the things I planned to do and update my progress towards goals. I love actually seeing all that I’ve accomplished and feeling motivated to keep it up. There’s a lot of space at the beginning of each month, or in the added pages in the back to track your different plans/goals.
Because I put so much into my planner, it becomes a really nice record of my past year. I like to keep the old planner as a keepsake and look back at everything that happened.
PLANNING ACCESSORIES + DECORATIONS
I love taking time to decorate my weeks and plan everything out. Decorating my planner makes the special days feel even more important, and inspires me to want to use my planner every day. I use my favorite pens and highlighters to write in my planner, and I love printing out a cute photo for special days or events. My photo printer has been so much fun for me lately since we have been going to Disneyland more frequently. I love printing out our pictures and sticking them on the day.
I keep all of my planner things in a Planner Folio with my planner. It makes it a lot easier for me to take everything I’ll need with me and forces me to only keep the essentials. Most of my stickers are from PeachyChicCo — I really like their weekly spreads — or STICKWITHMEshop — I love their designs.
MY 2020 ERIN CONDREN LIFE PLANNER REVIEW
For last year’s planner launch, I ordered a lot of accessories with my planner since I had a gift code, but this year I was a little more practical with my order.
What I Ordered
I’m really happy with everything I got with this order. I love the new kaleidoscope pattern; everything is so pretty. Here’s everything I bought:
- Kaleidoscope LifePlanner (Colorful, Horizontal)
- Kaleidoscope Planner Folio
- Planny Pack Kaleidoscope Colorful
- Snap-In Stylized Sticky Notes
- Kaleidoscope Mini Snap-In Bookmark Trio
- Kaleidoscope Sticky Notepad (Gift With Purchase)
- EC Insider Planner Charm (Gift With Purchase)
Planner Walk-Through
This year, the Erin Condren Life Planners arrive in a decorative box. I think this is a really cute way to give a Life Planner as a gift, or to store your planner at the end of the year. The box isn’t very sturdy though — it’s like a gift box from a clothing store, so you probably wouldn’t be able to do much else with it.
The year-at-a-glance spread is great for easily looking up future dates. I like to use this spread to track our vacation dates and birthdays with the transparent colorful circle stickers.
The cover pages for each month are super vibrant this year. I love the kaleidoscope pattern, but I wish they didn’t have a giant quote on each one. I’m not really a fan of quotes, but if you are, then you’ll love these!
Each month has an accent color which I think is cool. It’s a nice way to bring in some separation for the different sections, but it may be a little annoying in months where you don’t like the color.
This monthly dashboard is new and it looks pretty, but I’m not really a fan. I prefer when the sections are not labeled. I am not going to use the “birthday” section most months, so I’ll probably have to use a sticker and write over it. It’s not awful, but I wish it was blank each month, so I could easily label it how I want.
Each week has a new little monthly calendar in the corner which feels a little redundant to me. But overall, I really like how the week looks with the new changes. I am excited to start in my new planner.
I love the new stickers included in the Life Planner this year. These are stickers that I could really see myself using and I love the colors.
The pocket in the back is so pretty and large this year. It comes with a perpetual calendar which I never use.
IS THE LIFE PLANNER WORTH IT?
The Erin Condren Life Planner is not inexpensive. The Life Planner cost me $55 and everything together was $125. There are a lot of different/more affordable planner options available, so is the Erin Condren Life Planner right for you?
I shared why I love my Erin Condren, and how I use it. For me, it’s familiar and it works for my planning style. I love the vibrant colors and the design details that keep the planner interesting. Your planner can’t help you get your life together if it’s tucked away on a shelf. For me, the fact that it’s so gorgeous makes me want to have it out on my desk, and keeps me inspired to use it.
If you are the same way and will be more inspired to keep up with your planner because it’s customized and beautiful, then Erin Condren is a good option. The paper quality is good, the personalization is so much fun, and the customization options are better than you can easily find at a local store. Plus, most stickers are designed specifically to fit the Erin Condren Life Planner, so if you enjoy decorating with stickers you will have a lot of options.
If you don’t care as much about customizing and personalization, I would try out a less-expensive planner first to see how that works with your planning style. If you do want to try out Erin Condren for the first time, use my link for $10 off your order.
