Erin Condren LifePlanner Binder Review

Disclosure: I received the Erin Condren Daily Life Planner Binder for review. All opinions are my own.

By now it should be no secret that I am a huge Erin Condren fan.

They have so many fun planners and accessories to help keep you organized and to make the whole process fun, memorable, and relaxing.

Planning out your days becomes something you look forward to as opposed a big chore.

Their signature product has been the Erin Condren Life Planner – which has been my favorite planner for years.

However, even though the coiled LifePlanner has three different layouts (vertical, horizontal, and hourly) they are all weekly layouts (meaning 2 pages per week). Update: Erin Condren has now come out with a Daily Duo Coiled Life Planner.

And sometimes I just need to have more space than that.

So, I was really excited to discover the new Erin Condren DAILY Life Planner BINDER!

I capitalized both words – Daily and Binder for a reason.

The word DAILY refers to the layout.

Yes – it is one full page per weekday!

And Saturday and Sunday share a page.

The word BINDER means that you can add pages if you need even more space than that.

So, if you felt even a little constrained by the available space in the more traditional coiled LifePlanner – you will love the Daily LifePlanner Binder, too.

Since I couldn’t decide between the Daily layout and the weekly layout – I got them BOTH. One for work and one for home.

An Overview of the Erin Condren LifePlanner Binder System

Allow me to introduce you to the Erin Condren LifePlanner Binder.

Choose Your Binder Color

Similar to the Petite Planner Folio System – you get a choice of 5 different binder colors (this selection will change each year):

• Sapphire
• Charcoal
• Blush
• Kaleidoscope Neutral, or
• Kaleidoscope Colorful.

Pick Your Planner Layout

Next you get to choose the layout of your planner pages.

The choices for the Binder are:

• Monthly layout
• Weekly layout (in your choice of the horizontal, vertical, or hourly formats)
• and the new Daily layout.

Select Your Color Theme

And as with the traditional LifePlanner, you also get to choose the color theme:

• Neutral or
• Colorful

Included Extras

The Binder system also comes with a snap in ruler, sturdy folder insert for collecting loose papers, and four sticker sheets.

The LifePlanner Binder Cover

Your first choice is the color of the binder itself.

For my Daily LifePlanner Binder I chose the Sapphire color which I personalized with my initials in Platinum (which is a silver color).

I also purchased a weekly LifePlanner Binder for my business. For this binder I chose the gray cloth with my initials personalized in rose gold.

You can add a personalization of up to four letters or numbers – so your initials or the year would be good choices.

The solid color binders (sapphire, charcoal, and blush) are covered in a linen type fabric, while I believe the Kaleidoscope designs are covered in a patterned paper.

The pages are secured inside the binder with a unique system of 8 rings in a gold color.

Erin Condren LifePlanner Choices

The pages inside are printed on the same heavyweight paper that you will find in the traditional LifePlanner.

You can select either the neutral color theme or the colorful theme.

Personally, I like the colorful theme – because the colors just make me happy. ?

But the neutral theme is also nice – you can add pops of color with stickers and colorful markers, if you like. Plus, I think it is a little more professional looking if you spend your days in a board room.

More About the New Daily Layout in the Erin Condren LifePlanner Binder

In the daily layout you get one page for each weekday.

The hourly column goes from 6am to 9pm with some extra blank lines, in case your day runs longer than that.

There is a second column to keep track of your to do items and tasks.

This is followed by a small blank section where you can write a thought or a note.

Weekends in the Daily layout are combined into one page.

This works great for me because my weekends are more unstructured than my weekdays – and I don’t tend to use my planner as much.

You Also Get Beautiful Stickers and A Folder

One of the things I love most about Erin Condren products is the wonderful stickers that are included in so many of the products.

They have evolved since I got my first LifePlanner so many years ago.

The stickers that are included in the EC LifePlanner Binder (4 sheets of them!) are gorgeous.

They are colorful with gold accents and are very functional for planning (as opposed to being overly motivational or inspirational).

In my planners I use stickers to make important items stand out with pops of color and these stickers do the job well.

Finally, the LifePlanner Binder finishes up with a sturdy folder that you can use to collect any loose papers, receipts, or notes that you might have floating around.

One thing to note about the new Daily layout – by it’s very nature, there is one page per day.

This is a lot of pages – and all of them will not fit into your binder cover at once.

I fit 2 quarters (January through June) comfortably inside and just added the tabbed monthly pages for the remainder of the year.

If you plan to add additional pages of your own, you may just want to carry around one quarter at a time so you have plenty of space for more pages.

Additional Erin Condren LifePlanner Binder Inserts and Accessories

As you can see, the LifePlanner Binder comes with a ton of planning tools.

But you might find the following additional inserts and accessories to be helpful:

• Take Note Lined Pages
• Take Note Productivity Pages

Things I Would Improve Upon

While there is so much to love about the Erin Condren Life Planner Binder, especially the new Daily layout – I have a few suggestions for improvement. Actually, just 2 things.

First, the golden rings are very pretty – but they are the “round” style.

I personally prefer a “D” ring style because it makes it just a little easier to turn the pages.

Second, the Daily layout does not come with the mini months pictured above (these only come with the weekly layout – and I am not sure about the monthly layout).

I use these a lot and would love to see them in the Daily Layout as well.

See It In Action

Wrapping It Up

The Erin Condren LifePlanner Binder is something you should consider as you choose you choose your planner for the new year.

It comes in your choice of 5 layouts (daily, 3 choices for weekly layouts, or a monthly layout) – and your choice of 2 color themes.

You might want to consider the Binder over the coiled LifePlanner if you like to add your own pages throughout or you need more space for your planning (think Daily layout).

Let me know which choice you end up making in the comments below.

Happy planning!