Erin Condren Life Planner

One thing I loved about being in school was that fresh, new "assignment book" we received every year on our first day of school. I remember creating collages out of snapshots of friends, magazines and print-outs, giving my cover a makeover. I had all my subjects color coded with different pens. It was something I enjoyed. It kept me organized and I looked forward to taking care of my assignment book. Then I went off to college where we had the option of buying a school planner and of course I did. I don't think I carried around a bunch of colorful pens, but I do remember giving each subject a different highlighted color.

Then, I stepped into the real world where I depended on keeping my "schedule" in a digital calendar through my various jobs so that all my fellow co-workers had access to my schedule. It's just what we did. Now that I work at home, I find my self struggling to keep a digital calendar. No one needs to see it but me. It's a pain to create all the entries manually. I decided that this year, I need to get more organized on a day to basis and it was time to get back in the routine of keeping a planner.

The day I lit a fire underneath myself was just a few days before the new year. As soon as my husband got home from work I ran out to him and said, "Can we go to Staples?!?" and he replies "What for?!" I said, "I need a planner." The look I got was priceless. Anyways, I was told we were not driving all the way to Staples just to buy a planner and to look online to see if I could find something. And look I did! I came across this glorious website:

erincondren.com

Miss Erin makes all sorts of cool customizable planners. After sitting on it for a few days and getting a hold of a discount code, I finally decided to make my big purchase. It was everything I could ever want. It was almost like buying a car. That's how excited I was.

I knew just what photo I wanted to use as the cover. After submitting my order, I received an email from one of her designers going over my order making sure everything was the way I wanted. He even caught that I had typed in "2013" instead of "2014" for my cover. Oops. Not surprised there. I had him change a few things around and then I sat patiently waiting.

My social life came to a hault. I refused to make any commitments until I had my planner to write in all my important dates. Ok, just kidding.

And then one magical day, it came. 

I had never been so excited to get a package before in my life. I know, lame.

Everything arrived beautifully packed in bubble wrap and pretty tissue. Nothing beats a great presentation when it comes to customer service. I can tell they really cared about their customers and their products by just the way it was packed.

Ahhh yes. Exactly the way I pictured it would be. This is one of my favorite pictures of my husband. I took it when we first met with a basic point and shoot. Nothing special. You may have seen it around before :)

I love all the tabs for each month. It makes navigation easy.

And inside, the planner is littered with all kinds of fun, inspirational quotes. No better way to start your day then colorful, positive messages!

The planner is broken down by each month...

...and then it is broken down by each week. You can fill out your daily schedule for morning, afternoon and evening.

And the thing I love the most, ironically, as I am not a list maker, is the weekly goals and notes section. I can keep all my ideas, goals and thoughts next to my schedule.

I know it's just a silly planner and you're probably thinking I am nuts right now.. but this thing is loaded with so many cool features. Not pictured are appointment stickers, envelopes for storage, a notes section, an address section, a contacts section and much more. You're not going to find all that in just any old planner. 

I do a lot of custom graphic work for people and it was kind of fun to have some custom work done for myself. I figured by the time I designed my own planner and purchased the ream of paper and an ink cartridge, it would have costed me the same amount of money. This way, I was able to sit back, relax and let someone else do the work.

Thank you, Erin Condren, I love it! 

This is such a cool company and I am so excited to order more of their products in the future. Everything was great from the product to the customer service to the package.

Now it's your turn to go get signed up so you can go and design your own planner! Get a $10 off code just by visiting this link and signing up from my blog:

www.erincondren.com

If you end up ordering a planner, be sure to let me know! I can't wait to see what you design.