Is it obvious yet that I’m doing reviews of all of my favorite planners first? The Emily Ley Simplified Planner* is one of those planners that is so gorgeous on the outside and makes me want to kick my butt into gear on the inside. It’s perfect for busy women who want a professional planner that’s still cute, has room for everything in their life, and makes them inspired when they use it. This is the planner to do just that.
The front cover is a nice, thick cardboard with a touch of foiling for added class. I don’t mind if covers are made of cardboard material as long as the corners are reinforced like this one is. Throughout the year corners take the most damage and wear so it’s ideal to have them protected with metal covers.
Gotta love a planner who understands the importance of stickers. There’s a cute little sheet at the start along with a handy pocket to store receipts, paperwork, or even more stickers. The monthly tabs have a great color palette that’s fun while still having a level of professional class. They’re laminated so they’ll hold up to a year’s worth of use.
The front of the planner has your standard holiday page and yearly overview, but my favorite is this 2018 Bucket List. I love that there’s a designated place to write goals and plans for the year ahead, and check boxes so you can tick thing off as you do them. It makes me want to not only make some plans, but do them too.
The monthly view is simple, but elegant. It sadly is just a little too small to fit standard sized sticker boxes, but little icons an decorative stickers can still be used to snazz up spreads.
It’s the daily view that really sets this planner apart for me. Each page is one day with a hourly section on the left side starting at 6am and going to 9pm. The time range is a lot more functional than the one in Erin Condren planners and is perfect for writing meetings, kid’s events, deadlines, etc. The right side has a roomy to do list to write everything that needs to get done that day. The bottom two sections are marked meals and notes, but the headers can easily be covered up with a sticker to be turned into other categories.
On the weekend page there’s a section for weekly prep that already has a few to do items written in. At first I wasn’t so sure about this, but it’s grown on me. I like having items to refocus my mind and prepare me for the week ahead.
This planner sends my functional mind fluttering. I love this layout for daily pages and if I had more meetings and hour based items, it would be my ideal planner. It just doesn’t fit my current lifestyle enough to justify using it sadly. It would be an amazing planner for busy, working women, large families, or students.
So definitely give the Simplified Planner a look-over if you’re hunting for a new work planner or a planner to hold everything in your life. This one could do the trick.
