This year I’ve been on the hunt for planner companies I’ve never heard of. I wanted to bring you more than just another raving review over Erin Condren products. I wanted to provide you with tons of options in all price ranges to help you start 2019 right. My journey led me to
Golden Coil Planners and it’s like I found the mecca of customizational planners.
The entire planner is customize-able. No lie. From personalizing your front page to picking your layout and adding in birthdays, you can design your planner from scratch. There’s a set number of total pages for your planner, but you decide what those pages are.
There are options of pages you can add to the front of your planner before the monthly view begins.
There is a standard monthly view option (that starts on a Monday!). You choose which month your planner starts and ends on as well. So no waiting for the start of the year to dive right in.
There are over 18 different weekly spread layouts to choose from. I opted for this horizontal on one page and weekly to do list on the other since it’s a layout I rarely see. You can choose anything from daily pages to standard weekly pages.
Now this is where things get really cool. Once you’ve picked your weekly style, you’re able to fill up the rest of your remaining pages with TONS of add-ons. There are more than 35 different layouts to choose, from baby trackers to meal planning. You’re able to choose how many of each page you want and create something completely unique.
Although the planner is around $60, it’s a fair price considering you’re creating a completely custom planner tailored just to you. The website is so incredibly easy to navigate and use. If you’re picky with your planners, this could be a great solution to give you everything that you’re looking for.
inkWell Press Planners. I’ve heard about them for years since getting seriously into the planning game, but couldn’t truly understand what the fuss was about until I had one of their disc-bound planners in my hands. I get it now. Oh do I ever.
If you’ve been following my planner journey for a while, then you know I usually avoid disc-bound planners like the plague because they’re usually flimsy and more trouble than they’re worth. inkWELL solves all my woes by giving the planner a seriously thick cover. The discs stay firmly in place and I don’t feel like everything is going to get beat up if I put the planner in a bag.
This planner has a TON of awesome pages that give it a little extra something. This big events page is a favorite for writing down monthly accomplishments, but you can also use it as an overview of the big events coming down the pipe.
Goals are going to be a huge focus for me in 2019, so seeing a nice section to break down goals into categories has me very excited. Plus it helps you to break them down into quarters for serious productivity.
Throughout the entire planner is this gorgeous geometric hexagon theme that I cannot get enough of. It’s simple, elegant, and a great place to write out plans and goals for each month.
Classic monthly view, but I love the little addition of the Top 5 to add a few items that need to get done that month.
Now the weekly view. This is where things have me all sorts of confused. It’s a fairly standard looking vertical layout with lines and three large boxes at the bottom for “Top 3” tasks/events. So simple, yet so effective. As soon as this planner arrived I set up a spread for the current week and used the bottom section to write appointments/meetings/events etc. and left the top section for a good ol’ to do list. Obsessed.
I’ve fully come to accept that planner switching is the name of the game so I’m eager to introduce this planner into my rotation officially when it starts in 2019 to see if it works for my current lifestyle. That’s the thing about planning my friends and you’ll hear me say it over and over, planners need to change and adapt with you.
The back of the planner has some gift lists and travel pages, some notes pages and project pages, but I’ll leave all the little remaining details left for you to discover on your own.
The Pros: It’s gorgeous, professional, and simple in all the right ways. It leaves a ton of room for customization, but you can still deck it out with stickers if that’s your scene. It also has a lot of extra pages to eliminate the need for other planners or notebooks to track travel and gifting. On the website you can choose from a bunch of different layouts as well if the classic layout isn’t for you.
The Cons: Honestly, I can’t really find any. If you seriously hate discs than maybe that? But even this disc hater is coming around to the idea of it…The color scheme is a soft pastel so rainbow lovers may want more color, but at this point I’m just looking for cons for the sake of it.
The Price: It varies. The planner I have is around $70 for all of the features. You’re able to purchase the pages, cover, and discs separately to build your own planner. So depending on your planner needs your price could be more or less.
Who it’s Good For: Everyone. It’s a good all-around planner that could work for any age and lifestyle. If you’re on a tight budget, this one probably isn’t for you, but if you’re planning on investing in a planner, this is a great option.