Planner’s Guide - Is Customization The Answer To Planner Peace
In a world filled with endless planner options, are more options really the answer to finding planner peace?
Shopping for the “perfect planner” has been a long time struggle and unattainable holy grail for many who are seeking a planner that can meet their own unique needs and lifestyle. While some are satisfied with buying a planner ready to go (off the shelf), others are seeking a life tool that will help them manage their time, organize their tasks and achieve their goals. In response to these mounting customer requests, many planner companies are offering more options, customizations and upgrades than ever before. In particular, among the more premium planner brands, customization is definitely on the rise.
So, what exactly does opting for a more custom planner afford you? Let’s dive into some of the key benefits of customizing a planner and share some brands to explore.
Personalization - These days, personalization goes far beyond monogramming your initials on the cover (although that is included as well). Many planners now incorporate things like meal planning and budgeting into their layouts but more customizable planners enable you to create a planner more specific to your needs through a compilation of preferences such as layouts (monthly, weekly, daily), additional sections/features (goal setting, habit tracking, wellness, budgeting) and in some cases even binding.
Design & Style - A custom planner can not only be designed for the season of life you are in but also reflect your personal style. Oftentimes, custom planners are a step above the rest in terms of materials and designs. Many brands have collaborated with artists for one of a kind artwork (cover designs), unique patterns, on trend color palettes, premium papers and let’s not forget coordinating accessories.
Functionality & Flexibility - Ironically, clean and simple layouts are usually the main ingredient of custom planners. Opposite of what you may expect, most brands keep the layouts minimal to allow for a blank canvas to support greater productivity and adaptation to life changes. Another key ingredient is binding or selection of binding. Choices of binding range from coil, to disc to ring and each type offers its own range of benefits that can fit a variety of lifestyle and organizational needs.
There is no denying that customization has allowed planner companies to offer more personalized solutions to their customers. However, keep in mind, the customizations are different from each brand depending on factors such as manufacturing process, website builder and production timelines.
Now, let’s explore some of the brands that have put these options on the market.
Erin Condren is the most recent to up their customization offerings. In addition to their personalized covers, layout selections and design choices, the latest collection offers the option for add-on sections to their weekly planners and new coil color. The weekly Erin Condren LifePlanner is available in both A5 and 7 x 9 and can be customized to meet your unique season and style.
Plum Paper offers a variety of customization options that allow you to build your perfect planner. From quick and easy to full on customization, there are a variety of layouts that can be customized to your needs, personalized covers, binding options, custom holidays/events and the ability to choose your start date.
So Typical Me is a leading planner manufacturer from Scandinavia which offers customized planners in a variety of sizes and layouts. By utilizing the design tool on their website you can select your planner size (A6, A5 B5) and build from there by choosing cover designs (soft cover or hard cover), elastic bands, interior layouts (nearly 20 dated or undated) as well as add on pages (to do lists, trackers, coloring pages, lined) at no additional cost. There is also an option for weekly/daily trackers to keep what’s important top of mind as well as adding in your own special dates/holiday plus selecting your start month.
Golden Coil offers completely customized planners which allows you to have only what you want in your planner and not what you don’t. With their on-demand manufacturing process, no two planners are the same. All of the planners are 7.25” x 9.75” and feature the beautiful “golden coil” binding which varies in size depending on the number of pages. You can choose from a variety of covers (designer patterns, linen and leather), select your layout (daily, weekly, monthly) and add on pages for meal planning, goals, budgeting and more. There is also the option to add special dates/holidays as well as inspirational quotes.
Agendio offers a truly endless array of options to customize the planner that works for you. Building your perfect planner involves selecting everything from page configurations, fonts, text highlights, special dates/holidays, repeating tasks or activities and personalized tabbed sections. Layouts can be tweaked and personalized before the planner is printed to meet your needs. Planners can be coil bound or printed as inserts (punched or unpunched) in a variety of sizes or you can configure your own productivity notebook.
All of these companies offer planners made with high quality materials (covers, paper weight, designs and binding). Additionally, many of them also offer notebooks and notepads which can be customized to work as a companion to your planner or alone.
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