Erin Condren LIfe Planner review + how I use it {Works for Me Wednesday}

I first heard about Erin Condren Life Planners last fall from A Blue-Eyed Boy Met a Brown-Eyed Girl.  There was some amazing deal going on where you could get a Life Planner for $12 or so.  I didn’t really know what all the hype was about but I love a good planner so  I tried to buy it.  Unfortunately I did something wrong or they had met the limit of the coupon codes or something, but I wasn’t able to get one.  I wasn’t too terribly upset because I still wasn’t sure what was so amazing about these planners, but I decided to keep an eye out for any more great deals.  Well, 2011 closed without any more deals and 2012 came and with it, no deals.  But as I waited I began to see these planners popping up more and more – I read reviews about them on other people’s blogs and started to really want one.  I kept waiting for a deal to come up (the planner is $50 and I just couldn’t justify paying full price for it) but nothing came up and I had finally given up getting one this year and figured I would wait until next year.

I mentioned the planner and how I wanted one a few times to Michael, but I didn’t put it on my “official” birthday list or anything so I was so surprised when he ordered me one for my birthday!  FedEx and UPS won’t leave packages at our townhouse so on my birthday there was a packing slip on the door saying they had tried to deliver it but no one was home – how sad!  So we arranged to pick it up on Wednesday – I was so incredibly excited to get it! (I may or may not have been a little late to work that day because I just had to stop and get my planner and then I just had to run in to Target to buy some matching pens…)

So that’s a long story to tell you how excited I was about this planner.  I’ve been using it for almost four weeks now and I love it.  I just have to share it with you!

even the box is pretty

wrapped up all nicely in pretty tissue paper

first look at the planner

(Michael picked the pattern and everything so it was a total surprise…didn’t he do a great job?) (oh and yes I did black out my last name…gotta watch out for those creepers, ya know?)

the aforementioned matching pens – I love pens and I love that these match my planner perfectly!

Here’s a glimpse inside the planner:

inside the front cover

special dates page – I use this to record birthdays and anniversaries

Each month has a full month overview calendar

each week has a section for goals and to-do lists, then each day is blocked off into morning, afternoon, and night

there are also lots of pages at the beginning of each month for notes

another look at a full week

more space for notes at the end of the month!

a space to put your important numbers and some suckers that say things like party, no school, vacation, etc.

some blank stickers to make your own event stickers

a pocket at the back

a zipper pocket in the back full of goodies (gift labels, business card like things)

inside of the back cover (2013 and 2014 overview)

so that’s my planner, now I’m going to show you how I use it

I don’t really need to schedule my day in chunks – like morning, afternoon, and night.  I can definitely see how that will be useful when I have kids and am trying to keep up with multiple people doing multiple things each day, but for now I don’t need that.  So I use mine a little differently.

The morning section is where I put my “traditional” calendar stuff – appointments, reminders, events (you can see I have my cake decorating class on there and information about the PRAXIS).  I’m also currently using the top box to keep up with my practicum hours (that’s what the WE – # part is).

The afternoon section is where I put my daily “to-do” list.  We’ve talked before about how much I love having a to-do list (and crossing stuff off!) and so now I have my list in my calendar rather than on a loose piece of paper floating around.

I kind of cut it off in this picture, but on the left hand side there is a column divided into two sections: “goals” and “to-do”.  In the goals section I put little motivational reminders for things I’m working on.  In the to-do section I put things I want to get done that week, but not necessarily on a specific day.

Finally, in the night section I write my blog post plans for each day and my meal plan.

So there you have it, my Erin Condren Life Planner.  I love it!  EC also makes a ton of other cute stuff (stationary, teacher lesson planner books, iPhone covers, etc.) – check it out here.

My Life Planner works for me!  (Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday)