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Saturday, December 5, 2015

Agendio planner review

My Agendio planner arrived yesterday! You may have seen my introduction post on the Agendio planners (which you can see here if you haven't already). Agendio.com is an amazing new online planner creator where you choose every aspect of your planner: the layout, the size, font, colors, add-ons and more. And you add in your own labels for lists, select your holidays, add your personalized events, and much more. These details are all saved so you don't have to add them again when you make your next planner!

The planner customizer takes a few minutes to get the hang of, so take a look at all the possibilities and play around with it. It's very addictive! Look at all the features (which you can see the overview of here).

I'll walk you through the planner I created so you can see some of the options. Remember this is just one, there are loads to choose from.

Disclosure: I received a discount code so I could create and receive this planner as a free sample to review.

I was too excited to take a picture before I ripped the package open, but I should have because the planner was beautifully wrapped in tissue paper with a logo sticker. Very elegant.

I went for their largest planner (8 1/2 by 11 inches), in the turquoise blue cover. I chose the color-matched elastic closure strap. You can also choose black, or none.


Before I go any further I want to make a note of the paper sizes. Agendio is located in North America, so they use standard North American paper sizes (letter size is 8 1/2 by 11 inches). They do not use European sizes (A4, A5 etc.). This of course makes sense because 1) their North American customers want the paper sizes they use and are accustomed to, and 2) it makes much more financial sense to use the local paper sizes than to import European sizes. So if you are not in North America, be sure to look at the page dimensions so you know what you are getting.

Let's continue! I want to apologize for the quality of my photos. It's very hard to get good light here this time of year, so the photos are a bit dark and the pages don't look nearly as nice as they do in real life. So as you look at these, please keep in mind these photos don't do the planner justice! You can click on images for a larger view.

The first page has the Agendio logo, and lists the Model number which is handy if you want to reorder and/ or tell people which Model you got. This one is Model number 32162. There is also space at the bottom of the page to write your contact info in case of loss.


The next page is a feature I love, and actually use: month overviews for the 12 months in your planner. My planner goes from December 2015-November 2016 so those are the months shown on this page. Very handy. Opposite is a lined page for notes, goals, frequently used numbers, whatever you like.


My planner is a monthly + weekly, and I chose to have my months at the beginning of the book. You could also choose to have the months at the back of the book, or embedded within the weeks. I love the big open day squares. You can also choose to have them lined, and you can select which line spacing you prefer.


I customized every aspect of the pages: which holidays to add, what I wanted the list area at the right to look like and what label I wanted for it, etc.

There are monthly calendars for the 12 months of your planner plus the next month, so my planner has month calendars for December 2015 through December 2016, which is very nice for forward planning. This means for example if you created your planner for the school year August through July, your monthly calendars would go August through the following August, so you can plan through the whole summer. Very convenient!

Below is my weekly layout. This one has the Span feature (more on that in a minute), two divisible areas at the right, and space under the daily columns for Activities.


Here you can see a closer look. I chose the Fondamento font, but there are loads of other fonts to choose from. I also chose turquoise print but you can choose from lots of different colors. You can see the Span feature, which allows you to write tasks or events over multiple days. Take a look at the holidays listed in Monday below, I want to tell you something about them:


One of the first questions the customizer asks is which country you will be using your planner in. Here's why: in Monday above there is Spring Bank Holiday, which is a UK holiday, and Memorial Day (US). Since I live in the UK, I set that as my location. That causes the UK holidays to appear as above, and holidays of other countries have their country notation so I know which country they are for.

Here you can see a better view of my lists at the right. I chose how may lines I wanted for each area, if I wanted them solid or dotted, square or round check boxes, and of course the labels.


Below the day column is a small area that I labeled Due Today. On the first Saturday of every month I have a reminder to check the batteries in my smoke and CO2 detectors. I also have blog post topics in the days as reminders. When I originally created a planner, they did not have these small spaces available, only larger ones. I requested this area to be smaller so the day column could be longer with more hours, and voila! They tweaked it for me. Keep in mind, the smaller the area below the days, the fewer Activities it will hold. This one only holds two, which is plenty for me. There are other formats with larger spaces for more Activities.

After all the weekly pages there are forward planning pages for the following 12 months, which is great so you can plug in future dates.


I chose to add the double-sided pocket to put papers into. This is a great place to put bills, receipts, birthday or wedding invitations, etc.


I also chose perforated tear-off corners, and their logo placemarkers.



You can choose to have your planner start any month, up to 6 months in advance. You can have your weeks start with any day, which is great for people who work shift or non-traditional work weeks.

The quality is fantastic: the paper is white, smooth and 90 gsm. The cover is soft to the touch but durable. Despite being full letter size, the planner is remarkably light: I weighed mine at 652 g.

I loved adding in all my own holidays and events like birthdays and anniversaries. Normally when I buy a planner I have to write in all kinds of things: holidays if they're not already in there, moon phases, and at the very minimum birthdays and anniversaries. With the customizer, these were all printed in, and are saved for the next time I make a planner!

You can make multiple planners, with different holidays and events too. So for example if you make a planner for someone else, you can put their holidays and important days in. Or if you make a planner specifically for work, you can have only work-related events and no personal ones.

I am very pleased with the result of my planner. Agendio.com is great for those of us who want to be able to customize our planner, a little or a lot.

They now also have refill pages for Filofax, Franklin Covey and Day Timer, so be sure to check those out too!

20 comments:

  1. Just got mine too & I love it. Has kind of thrown a monkey wrench in my 2016 planner ideas - can't see how I can give up something like this which is so perfectly tailored to my needs. I got the green with green band and green ink. It looks quite wonderful.

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    1. Why resist when it's so perfect? The soft-touch cover and smooth paper make it so pleasant to handle, the whole package is irresistible.

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  2. Thank you for the thorough overview and the weight detail. I'm very close to ordering now that the lined month is availabke, but I think I'm going with the Letter size refills, as I suspect I won't like the soft touch cover material. It's a texture thing for me. Luis I like my large planners to have more flex to them, so I can stuff them into bags easier.

    I need the refills anyway. I need a Sunday start month and a Monday start week. I've given up on Monday start months - I used a Monday start at work for 7 years, but now that the kids get so many Sun start paper calendars handouts, I keep copying items into the wrong day. I can't convert the whole US with me, unfortunately.

    I asked Agendio to combine the different starts into their builder, but they don't see a demand for that.

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    1. Bree, I am right there with you. I wish everyone would go to Monday start!!
      If you are thinking for next year, try PlumPaper or Inkwell Press. Both have Monday start weeks and Sunday start months. I actually have a PlumPaper that I bought for 2016 before I knew that. Devastating bc I wanted them to be the same!!

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    2. I've come very close to ordering the Plum Paper, but I need my monthly to be lined. My handwriting expands to fill the space it's given :)

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  3. UPDATE to Agendio comment. Just tried to erase a Frixion note in my January month - the Frixion eraser (clean) made a mess of the Frixion ink plus took off the ink on the page - one line and some of the background tint! I am not going to try to erase any other Frixion, this was such a disaster. I'm going to use a pencil from now on. Irritating, of course.

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  4. i make a recent order with them agendio online planner builder but jus annoying they refuse to process my order jus due to one features of adding the holidays / annersary dates i see no need be printed as i prefer to write them in as more obvious for me . anyone can advise how to talk to them

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    1. I am not affiliated with them so you will need to contact them directly. Here is the link to their Contact page: https://agendio.com/feedback

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  5. Found it, this company is my dream come true!!! Too bad Frixions don't play nicely with their paper but I'm willing to overlook that.

    All Agendio planners and refills are printed on 60 lb / 90 gsm smooth white paper. This is relatively thick paper for planners.

    All our paper is Acid-Free FSC® certified / Rainforest Alliance Certified™ / SFI® Certified from sustainably managed forests.

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    1. You beat me to it but yes the paper is 90 gsm, white, smooth and very nice!

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  6. Does the cover fold back all the way, like a notebook? I might get a monthly with notepaper if it can do that.

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  7. I just received mine today.

    I suspect I have a little bit of a misprint in the back as my forward planner at the end has the Jan - April on the left on the left hand page... then lining the top and bottom on the next page, rather than on the right, so there's just a bunch of horizontal lines between and no way to write next to each month.

    Not a huge deal, since I likely won't utilize it much, but it threw me.

    Right now, I already wish I had a few more note pages, but it'll be OK. I also would like it if I could have a divisible section that spanned two columns, then two narrower columns below but I suspect that would require some recoding they might not be up for yet.

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  8. I just received mine today.

    I suspect I have a little bit of a misprint in the back as my forward planner at the end has the Jan - April on the left on the left hand page... then lining the top and bottom on the next page, rather than on the right, so there's just a bunch of horizontal lines between and no way to write next to each month.

    Not a huge deal, since I likely won't utilize it much, but it threw me.

    Right now, I already wish I had a few more note pages, but it'll be OK. I also would like it if I could have a divisible section that spanned two columns, then two narrower columns below but I suspect that would require some recoding they might not be up for yet.

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  9. Any chance there are any current promo codes to use for a discount? I'd like to try one out but $66 seems a little steep....

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    Replies
    1. I don't know if they do promo codes. If they do, I don't know any.

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    2. No discount codes currently. There is a page for them, but they're all from the launch and expired.

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  10. I finally ordered - just the weekly inserts. I'm using them as a family planner for the 2016-17 school year, so I ordered July start. It was $37 plus $9 Priority Mail shipping, which was high for just paper, no cover.

    I ordered Style 12345 - similar to Laurie's above, but the times area is am and pm boxes (lined), as this allows before and after school on weekdays. And my bottom area is Meals.

    And my two right hand columns are different - first one is a long tasks column. Right section is 4 boxes - 1 for each family member.

    This will live in a 3 ring binder in our kitchen, replacing the wall calendar we've used for 7 years. With a 7 year old, and 10 year old off to middle school, we'll be on 4 different schedules. For my sanity, I can't be doing all the planning anymore. This will also allow easy punching of school flyers and calendars - things I've been keeping in my Franklin Classic this year.

    I'm hoping the Letter family planner will allow me to drop back down to Personal size or an A5 bound weekly. I'll test that over the summer.

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    Replies
    1. Bree let me know how your system works for you after you've been using it awhile, it sounds really good!

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