One month officially down. Eleven more to go. So now would be a nice time for me to finally review my favorite thing so far this year. The Dapperdesk planner by Simplified. a.k.a Emily Ley and her wonderful team.
Okay so first things first. Emily Ley, if you haven't heard of her yet, is a Pensacola based entrepreneur who created Simplified, a planner and organization oriented company that helps you well .. literally simplify things in a beautiful colorful joyful and all of the good fulls way. I first discovered her about four years ago and this planner is my third year with her. After using Lilly Pulitzer's academic agendas for all of my six high school years, I went for something a little bit less illustration and a little bit more organization and I loved it.
Her planners, are the best planners out there, believe me, and even though I am designing some of my own, oh, it's been a long road, this are my favorite planners to help me plan my own planners.
Simplified carries three different planner styles, in both academic and regular years. Weekly and Daily are gold wire-o coiled beauties that have gorgeous colorful yearly changing designs and colorful spreads on the inside. I used a regular daily for the past two years and I really liked them, they are big and sturdy, honestly for college a little bit bulky if you carry more than just a laptop or iPad, but perfect for backpacks and lighter students. The daily keeps you organized with a full page divided into hours and to-do list for every weekday and a single one for weekends. The Dapperdesk, is practically the same, minus the color, binded instead of coiled and has individual saturday and sunday pages. I chose the latter since it looked like a nice elegant version for a more professional graduated me who would constantly work and be out and about carrying a bag (yeah sure, because pandemics magically go away with the winds of a new year, right?)
So one month into the year and one month into Dapperdesk I can tell you it's almost the same and still great as using the daily.
For me the top positive changes are:
- Color. I love that there is no longer a color code for each weekday because as much as I love color I hated having to change my midliner every single day to match, and have it look all scattered around. I rather much like sticking with one color for a month and one color for work and that's it. Makes it much more professional and elegant looking and every sticker you like matches the page perfectly.
- Size. It's much more hand bag friendly than the daily. I haven't taken it out and about much, but the few times I've had it stays put and fits nicely in any handbag big enough for you to carry a good book as if you were Rory Gilmore, so pretty much that sums up all of my handbags.
- Monthly view. The monthly view is all at once, you've got 12 months in a sum and then the year starts and goes on and on and on. I love that flipping through the whole year is easy and at hand.
- Ribbon marker. I love the ribbon marker, it's elegant simple and easy, I used to add one to the coil on the daily and now it's matchy and pretty.
- Look and feel. It's super elegant looking and the leatherette it's super soft to touch. I love the way it looks on my desk, it camouflages nicely with my things and does not stand out too much as other covers do. I like that.
Now, the unfortunate changes are:
- Flatness. Since home office is still a thing and will still be, having a completely flat surface like the daily offers is something I really miss. Don't get me wrong, it lies on the pretty good, just not enough for having it open all the time.
- Monthly tabs. I miss the monthly easy access that tags give you, but I understand that it's something to give up un order to gain space efficiency on handbags. Givers takers huh?
- Inside pocket. I miss it! yet, it's super easy to add with a bit of card stock so being crafty comes in hand.
Now that we've covered the basics I'll get more into detail. How do I plan my days?
Well, I add everything I can on the first monthly pages. Special dates, days off, pay days, birthdays and more. I used to add birthdays with little cake home made stickers on each square and teeny-tiny handwriting but always left my side notes empty so now I switched it up and added a star sticker for each day and a number - name on the notes section for a more clean look.
I love The Happy Planner stickers, seriously, every single time I go into a Target, Walmart or Staples I leave with one new sticker booklet, it's insane. I recently bought a student one that includes festivities and that's how I mark them up each month + lots of seasonal booklets and sticker decor.
side note: as a sticker maker it's amazing how hard it's still for me to use my stickers, I feel like a little kid that wants to save them and guard them forever and using them feels both, hurtful and reassuring, like, now you're an adult and you can buy PLUS make your own stickers, I know it's hard but let it go let it brighten up your pages!
Now, for the everyday planning, I always pencil in appointments and pen them up once I've already had them, add a little color to them to mark as done depending on it's class. work? orange since it's the company's color. workout? hot pink since it's the Sweat's app color and looks a teeny bit like Peloton red. personal? use the month's color. January's color was grey btw, because snow you know...
Recently I've also started tracking my runs. Since I often retake Becs Geantrys' runs on Peloton, this way I can keep a visible tracking of my progress, miles and average pace per run. It's motivating to come down from the tread all sweaty and mark it down like yes! 7k way to go!.
Now, if you've come this far on my planning process and introduction post to Simplified, there is a slight chance you want to buy one, and if that's the marvelous case then there's two things you also need to know about my favorite products.
- The mini notebooks are only about $10 and I love them madly. I use them for many different things and they are super small and pretty but perfect for sporadic planning so do invest a couple tens more and get yourself some notebooks.
- The pens are beautiful but not worth it. They always end up failing a lot and way too early, like hey it's march please could you hold your act together and wokrk?! Buy yourself some Sharpie S·GEL pens and thank me later.
- SUPER BONUS AND GAME CHANGER - the planner is made out of thick paper so it's bleed proof and sturdy and that is what a planners' dreams are made of.
- Planner pouches. contrary to the pens, this ladies are worth it. Never have a dusty dirty planner paper on the side ever again, and also, never lose your pens on tour bag and look for them like a maniac. I got myself the pink pinstripe one, which would've been the cover I'd chosen had I bought a daily and it's so so pretty! It fits lots!
I hope my planning details and review inspired you to simplify things out and at least check Emily's site for a while.
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