I knew I loved this planner when I first saw it, but the price steered me away for four years. When my prior planner was just about expired I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Whitney English DayDesigner Mini size. I've never loved a planner more, or used one as much as I do now. It may not be true for everyone's daily life but it has been worth every penny for my productivity.
The main feature of this planner is that it presents one day per page. so it's a pretty thick book. I went with the mini size so it would fit better in my bag. (what's in my bag post here) The price is a $10 difference in larger size and mini so if you work at home or have a large bag I'd go with the large.
I work best when everything is in order and I have a daily plan. It puts less stress on me when I write out my plans for studying, as you'll see below, and it keeps me on track. I realize some of you will look at my calendar and think I'm loco, but it works for me and keeps me less stressed.
The month at a glance page has thick gold tabs, and a monthly to do list on the side.
Each Day Page contains:
Inspiring Quote on the top (Yes- 365 Inspiring quotes!)
"Today's Top Three" to prioritize your most important tasks To Do
"Due," "dinner," "dollars," and "don't forget" categories
Hourly Plan
Long To Do List
Notes
Daily Gratitude
Weekend Pages are on one page and contain the "week at a glance" so you can note any important deadlines or anything. I like to use this to mark the days I don't have to go to class.
The planner has blank pages for notes and pages for recording yearly goals, and then taking steps each month (or day) to achieve those goals. The goals are even separated into categories like "help yourself" "everyone else" "attitude" "academics" "resources and finance". The worksheet includes planning out obstacles for those goals you may run into and it helps you lay out the first few steps to achieving them.
If you liked what you saw and want to order, check them out here !
If you don't want to shell out that much for a planner but like this look - then Target has a great one for $14 that I had been using prior to this. It was designed by Whitney English (who designed the original Daydesigner). Downside is it's not one day per page (it's one week per two pages). They should be making a new version soon because the calendar goes June to June so check in store in the next month or two. Both the Target one and the original DayDesigner usually sell out in the first few weeks.
The Target planner features one quote per week, gratitude space, notes for each day, daily "Top Three", and goal planning worksheets. If you don't have as many small tasks to do each day it's a great option!! Here's a pic of my Target one:
<<really killed my PIYO workouts that week-yellow dots>>
My favorite arrow paperclips, the heart post-its, and those sticky flagged tabs were all in the dollar bins at Target. The gold foil stickers and the bright labels seen in my drawer in the last picture were from Michael's.
Happy Planning!