Last day to enter to win a personalized 2012 Moleskine daily planner!

If you haven't already entered the giveaway for your chance to win one of three PERSONALIZED Moleskine day per page planners, don't miss out! Click here to enter for your chance to win!

Winners will be announced here tomorrow!

Erin Condren Life Planner

There's been lots of buzz around the blogosphere lately about the Erin Condren planner, so I was really excited to review one! Many thanks to the EC team for their very generous discount code, and thanks for supporting your blogging community!

Erin Condren products are colorful, and PERSONALIZED!  There are loads of personalization options. When you click on your cover choice, take a minute to examine your color options. For some cover choices you can specify what colors you want. For some covers you can even upload photos!

I chose the motivational quote cover, personalized with my name and blog, which looks awesome:

I ordered my planner in late September, so my planner begins October 2011 and goes all the way through December 2012. There is a monthly calendar at the beginning of each month, and tabs so you can access each month easily:

Now the thing is, the weeks at the beginning and end of each month are broken up, because the monthly calendar is EXACTLY at the beginning of the month. I've used planners before that have months embedded in the weeks, but those had the monthly calendar before the week when the month starts so that every week remained intact. The EC planners have the month spliced into the middle of the week. Let me show you what I mean.

Below is the end of January and beginning of February. You can see the last couple of days of January (Monday and Tuesday) on the left page. (Click on photos for larger views.) Then on the right page is the February calendar.

Then there is a two-page spread for notes:

Then turn the page again and there is the rest of the week:

Bottom line is, this will either bother you or it won't. I know a lot of people who use this planner who aren't bothered about the week being broken up.

Here's what a normal week looks like. It's an excellent layout with Goals and Tasks in the left column, and the daily columns divided into Morning, Day and Night. 

Every month has a new color scheme, which is very pretty and adds variety:

There is a page to write in your important numbers, and several pages of colorful stickers, some of which are pre-printed and some are blank to write whatever you like.

There is a double-sided pocket in the back to hold bits of paper, tickets etc.:

There's also a plastic zip pouch for smaller items. This comes loaded with goodies! :)

Something that surprised me about this planner was the size. Including the plastic rings and tabs I measure it at more than 8 inches (22 cm) wide and 9 1/4 inches (23.5 cm) tall, and more than 1 inch (2.5 cm) thick.  As a size comparison, it's slightly larger than my A5 Domino Filofax:

But, with a large book comes a large page size so there's plenty of room to write.  The paper is very thick with no show-through. I don't use fountain pens, but my friend @RoriRants who does says the paper performs nicely with fountain pens, no feathering or bleed-through.

To summarize, the Erin Condren planner is a large, colorful planner with loads of personalization options, an excellent weekly format, monthly calendars, tabs, notes pages, pockets, and great paper.

If you look around online you can sometimes find a discount code for this planner, so do a search before you order!

You can find Erin Condren products on their website, and also check them out on Facebook and on Twitter:

www.erincondren.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/ErinCondrencom/433447875270

http://twitter.com/#!/@erincondren

Moleskine products have California Proposition 65 warning on Amazon.com

Many thanks to reader Erin for bringing this to my attention! On Amazon.com, many Moleskine notebooks and planners are now are listed with the California Proposition 65 warning. (Click here to see.)  When looking at the Moleskine products info page on Amazon, scroll down to Product Details to see if the California residents warning is listed.

Erin said in the same email that Ecosystem planners are not being made for 2012, which is even more disappointing now to not have them as an alternative to Moleskines.

I don't know much about California's Proposition 65, can anyone educate me?

**Edited: Many thanks to New Kid for posting Moleskine's link to this issue. According to Moleskine, all of their products made since August 2010 are Proposition 65 compliant:

http://www.moleskine.com/prop65.php

How have your planning needs changed over the years?

I'd love to hear about your personal Planner Evolution!

My planner needs have changed drastically over the years. I first started using a planner in high school to record assignments. Very basic. In fact I just drew up my own in an extra notebook I had. Even in undergrad I just used my planner to keep track of assignments and work hours in my part-time jobs.  Back then I used whatever planner had the best scenery or wildlife photos.

While working in Alaska I first got turned on to a Filofax-style binder, which changed my entire life. You can read all about that revelation here.

In grad school I bought my first real Filofax, and it held my life together. I wrote assignments, reminders, course requirements, grade records, travel plans and everything else into my Filofax. It hardly left my side.

When I worked in a corporate office I continued to use my Filofax for personal things and Outlook at work, which everyone had to use to schedule meetings. I didn't have a problem keeping my Filofax synched with Outlook.

Then when I had kids things suddenly got much more complicated. We moved to Moscow when my daughter was a newborn, and had my son just a year and a half later. While the kids were babies we made multiple international trips per year which required tons of coordination and loads of gear! Packing lists, dosage lists for over the counter infant medication, vaccine records, calendars and more were stuffed into my Filofax.

Since then life continues to get more and more complicated, and I'm always searching for a planner that can handle it all. Both kids are in school now with after school activities, projects and events. I schedule parent volunteers in both kids' classes, which is fun but does require some mad planning skills. I have my own things going on too, with multiple blogs to write and/ or contribute to, household chores etc. And most likely we'll be doing another international move next year, which I am already starting to gear up for!

I'd love to hear how your planner needs have changed and evolved over the years! Have they gotten more complicated? Have you streamlined or simplified your planning needs? Please post a comment!

And if you haven't yet entered to win a personalized Moleskine planner from Jenni Bick, click here to enter!

Giveaway! Win a PERSONALIZED Moleskine planner from MoleskineAndMore.com!

***This competition is now closed. Many thanks to everyone who participated! See the winners on the Monday November 14 post!

Jenni Bick Bookbinding (www.jennibick.com) has a new website called Moleskine and More (www.MoleskineAndMore.com) that does custom personalization of Moleskine planners and notebooks!

If you've ever ordered from Jenni Bick before (which I have, and they are excellent) you'll know they are famous for beautiful embossed personalization on diaries, notebooks and photo albums.

Now Jenni Bick has created Moleskine and More to specialize in personalized Moleskine notebooks and planners. I am very excited that now we can easily add that personal touch to our Moleskines!

Moleskine And More has generously offered to give away THREE personalized Moleskine planners to Plannerisms readers!  The planner is the Large Hardcover Day Per Page Moleskine, which is a fantastic planner.

I've been using this planner for several years as my journal (which you can read about here), Dora uses the softcover large daily Moleskine as her work diary, and if you want more ideas on how to use a day per page planner/ diary click here to see my post with loads of suggestions.  The large daily planner is very versatile, and is sleek and sophisticated so you can use it at home, at work, at school and everywhere!

Here are the rules of the contest:

1) This giveaway is open world wide!

2) Post a comment on this post. Only one comment per person please. Your comment will be your entry.  In your comment, if you want, you can write what you'll have personalized on your Moleskine. You don't even have to be specific, just say your name or initials, a motivational quote, your company or website's name, etc. Or if you don't feel like sharing, that's okay too!

3) Comments/ entries will close Sunday November 13 at midnight in New York City, USA. That's the time zone.

4) Winners will be determined by random number generation on Random.org.

5) The three winners will be announced on this blog Monday November 14!

That's it! Pretty easy. Good luck everybody!

You can also check out the Jenni Bick blog, find them on Facebook, and see their gallery of custom embossed journals! 

Many thanks to Moleskine And More for sponsoring this giveaway!

2012 Life Book diary and faux leather cover by Organised Mum

I love my 2011 Life Book diary from Organised Mum so much, I ordered the 2012 Life Book diary!  And this time I treated myself to the purple faux leather cover too!

There are several updates to the 2012 Life Book including excellent new paper, an elastic closure strap and some slight changes to the format. You can click here to see my review and photos of the 2011 Life Book if you'd like to compare it to the 2012 version.

One very noticeable improvement in the 2012 Life Book is the paper! Last year's paper had quite a bit of show-through, especially with wet inks. But now the paper is absolutely glorious. No show-through whatsoever, even with my Sharpie pens and Microns. The paper is thick, smooth, white and very pleasant to use.

The 2012 Life Book began in mid-August this year and goes all the way through the end of December 2012. The 2011 Life Book began in September 2010 to coincide with the start of the school year in England. Scotland (and the US) start school earlier, and last year I suggested to Organised Mum that it would be useful to us if the diary started in August. Thank you to Organised Mum for listening to your customers!!

When you buy the 2012 Life Book together with a faux leather cover it costs a little bit less than buying each separately. It comes fully loaded with the Life Book slotted into its holder pocket in the cover, the Addresses booklet and stickers in the documents pocket in the front. There is also a black elastic pen loop next to the front pocket to keep your pen handy with your diary.

The Addresses booklet has A-Z pages for addresses and phone numbers, useful contacts for services and businesses, a quick-reference page for frequently used phone numbers, and a page for birthdays and anniversaries. You can use this booklet year after year to avoid rewriting contact info each year.

The Life Book diary comes with two pages of stickers to help you mark important dates. I also bought extras of these General Stickers, the School Stickers, and the Household Stickers.

Here is the front of the Purple Berry faux leather cover! I like the dapply look of the faux leather, and that it wipes clean easily (which I need!).  It looks so smart I'll carry it in my hands most of the time, but when I do put it in my bag it will protect my Life Book from all the other things I have banging around in my bag. The cover is soft and smooth and wonderful to touch!

Here is the zip-around goodness! No worries about papers flying out.

One of the additions to the Life Book diary this year is the elastic closure strap which is great for keeping your book securely closed while you're out and about if you're not using a cover. I think this is an excellent addition to the book.

 Some other changes include the design inside the cover, and an easier-to-read font.

The Useful Numbers and reference calendars are still here just like in the 2011 version (thank goodness!)

The Weekly Routines pages have changed. Now there are three two-page spreads with columns for seven different people or categories to show what's happening when on a weekly basis.

The weekly format has a slight change: this year the days of the week and Meal Ideas text are located on the left side of the days, last year they were on the right. Also the font has changed (and I think it looks very nice).  Holidays and moon phases are printed on the day spaces, which I really appreciate. The weekly pages start August 15, 2011 and go through the end of December 2012.

I love the Meal Ideas prompt, it gets me thinking about what to make for dinner throughout the week so I don't have that horrible feeling at 5pm while I'm staring into the fridge wondering what to make for dinner!

Click on the photo below to see the difference between the 2011 version (top) and the 2012 version (bottom).

I have to be honest, I miss the seasonal decorations in the 2011 version. The winter months had snowflakes, the spring months had dandelion fluff, the summer months had butterflies and the autumn months had leaves. Now all weekly and monthly pages have a flower design. It's very pretty, but I liked the seasonal icons. However, the Life Book has a sizeable customer base in Australia, where of course the seasons are reversed from those in the northern hemisphere, so to be consistent for all users it makes sense to have the flower design.

Below you can see how I use the lined areas at the page edges. (Click the photo for a larger view.)  The left edge is meant to be used as a tear-out shopping list, but instead I use the top of that column for my Goals for the week, and below that is my main To Do list for the week.  The right edge is where I put things I need to do for my Blogs and Household.  In the bottom right corner under Important I write financial totals for the week.

The Notes and Next Week space is a great landing spot for those random bits of information that come in during the week, and to prepare for next week. I also write two or three lines each week for a Weekly Review.

There are two clear, top-tabbed divider pages included in the Life Book. They clip onto the rings and can be moved from page to page. I use one to mark my current week and one to mark my current month.

 After the weekly section there is a page for Notes, then the (very pretty) tabbed divider for the Monthly section. I get really excited about the features in this section!

First there is a page for Notes, where I will write my goals and resolutions for 2012:

 2012's version has monthly calendars for August 2011 through December 2012:

I LOVE having a two-page monthly spread to plan my month. Holidays are printed on the day spaces. Here is the clear divider to mark the current month:

After each month there's a two-page spread for Things To Do that month (where I write my monthly goals and tasks) and Notes for that month (where I write my Mid-Month review in the top 1/3 of the page and my Monthly review in the bottom 2/3 of the page).

THEN there is a two-page spread for Budget and Expenditures!  I love these pages sandwiched between the monthly calendars to keep my plans, goals, reviews and budget all together for each month!  Very organized.  I feel so in control when I use these pages!

At the end of the Monthly section is another Notes page, which I think I will use for my year-end review. Next is a tabbed section for Christmas and holidays planning.

There are pages to record Christmas Plans, Budget, Presents, Shopping, and Cards.

Next is a Summer planner with eight undated weeks to plan the entire summer on one two-page spread. This is a great way to plan out the summer so at the end of it you don't wonder "Where did the summer go??"

Next are three two-page spreads for Thoughts and Plans for each of 2011, 2012 and 2013.  After that there are several pages for Notes.

In the back of the book there are forward planning calendars for 2013 and 2014. There is a pocket to hold your Addresses booklet, Stickers and other papers (if you're not using a cover).

I ordered the 2012 Life Book diary together with the faux leather cover along with the stickers I mentioned above. I used international shipping which I thought was very reasonably priced.

I have to say, moving over into my 2012 Life Book made me a little sad to leave my 2011 Life Book because I love it so much! It's extremely rare that I ever move directly over into the following year's version of the same planner. Usually I move to a totally different type of planner. So, Organised Mum, you deserve some kind of Plannerisms Consistency Award!  Well done!!

Filofax diary poll result!

Thank you to everyone who voted in my poll, which I did out of sheer curiosity. You can see the results in the sidebar.

I wasn't surprised to see that most people use a Personal size insert, and most people use Week on Two Pages.

I was surprised that more people don't use the week + notes format, because in bound planners this format is so extremely popular. My own personal opinion is maybe people don't use the Filofax version more because of the multi-languages! In my experience they take up too much day space.

I didn't do a breakdown to see how many people use, for example, an A5 week on 2 pages vs. a Personal size week on 2 pgs because I thought that would make the poll too complicated.

I love learning about how people use their planners so I found this poll fascinating! Thanks again to everyone who voted.