Erin Condren has just come out with a totally new planner layout! It is a vertical hourly layout from 6am to 7pm with a weekly sidebar to do list with check boxes.

echourly

 

There are plenty of new features in this planner I’ve noticed too that I will go over in this post.

If you’ve never ordered from Erin Condren before and would like to save $10 then click this link.

COVER

For my cover I chose to do a custom color way of the “She Designed a Life She Loved” cover. I chose pink and purple because you can never go wrong with those two colors. It was hard since you can really preview what the custom color way will look like. You just have to hope for the best.

I already have the horizontal layout and love it but I desperately wanted to try this hourly layout as well. It is perfect for anyone who needs better time management. I use an hourly schedule but only in my daily pages and for days when routines are different. I love it but also wanted a weekly view of it. A weekly hourly layout seemed so perfect. I feel like 6am is very early for me but I am fine with it since I can use that space for events and such instead. It would be nice to be able to choose what times you wanted though. As a stay at home mom, my days don’t start until around 8am. And our night routine starts around 8pm, but anything after 7pm can just be written below I suppose. There is also enough space to write in 8pm at the bottom as well.

WEEKLY LAYOUT

It will definitely take some time getting used to a structure like this.


MONTHLY LAYOUT

Some new features of the planner that I love about the planner is that their monthly pages now come with a lined notes page and blank banner page before each month! It would be perfect for listing monthly to do’s or goals.

The monthly pages are also different. The boxes now have light lines to make writing in it for multiple events so much easier!


GOALS PAGE

There is also a blank goals page in the beginning of the planner. I plan to place categories and my goals for them here. For example, family, relationship, blog, etsy, and savings goals!

The planner overall has this marbled effect design, I personally am not such a big fan of it.

YEARLY OVERVIEW

This is the 2016-2017 year at glance page. I love how clean and organized it looks.

NOTES

The notes pages in the back now have flags and lines so you can better organize your notes

ACCESSORIES

The back of the planner still comes with stickers, a perpetual calendar and free goodies in the zip pocket!


Decorating/How to Plan in this Layout

 

PLANNING

Planning in it was a challenge. I feel like this planner is more for people with constantly changing schedules. The only times where planning in it felt productive was when I had an appointment that would change our schedules around. But on days when nothing was going on, I felt like I was repeating my schedule exactly the same way on each day. It was also hard to write your daily to-do’s, the only logical place for it would be on the sidebar.

This planner is great for managing time though. It would be perfect for someone who needs routine and structure in their lives. For me it was really repetitive and I like to check things off daily.

I tested out planning in this layout three different ways.

  1. The typical way I would plan with my vertical layout
  2. My scheduled routine
  3. & with stamps

This first way was great. I love that I can fit regular vertical stickers in it nicely. I also liked how everything fit according to the time. I didn’t like though how if I had a task that didn’t have a specific time to be done would essentially have to be assigned a time.

This is what an ideal scheduled day would look like for me. The only problem is, what if I sleep in? This whole schedule would be thrown off & I wouldn’t follow the rest of the day. My to do’s don’t have a spot for me to check off daily , so maybe I should put checklists next time, instead of just a schedule so I can feel more productive. I also need to use more action verbs in my to do’s, like “Go to Gym” in stead of just “Gym”.

This would be great to use with stamps since there are lots of repeated routines you may do everyday. It will definitely help me with meal planning !

DECORATING

I photocopied some pages to test out these pages since they don’t officially start until December. This planner doesn’t have a lot of color so decorating it won’t be as easy. It consists of mostly lines for the times and is very professional, I feel. There is barely any space to put your washi tape without covering too much. I didn’t really like how small & plain the dates were too.


The stickers in the back of the planner fits nicely, which means stickers from etsy shops made for the orginial vertical planner should fit as well.

I think mini hexagon or icons stickers like these will work perfectly with this layout.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall I like the space & structure of this layout, but I feel like it isn’t suited for lifestyle as a stay at home mom. This would be perfect for students or professionals with several different schedules daily. So what do you think of this planner? Le me know in the comments below!