Those of you who are familiar with the planning community will know what I mean when I say that this year I am firmly on #teamvertical. Those of you not familiar, the Erin Condren Life Planner has historically been a vertical planner – meaning each day gets a slice of the page up and down:

This is different than most planners, which give you a horizontal view of your week… until this year. Erin Condren sent out a survey and listened to her cult members followers – they have both a vertical and a horizontal offering for 2016. Last year was my first year using the ECLP and I thought it would be really hard for me to make the switch… now I find that I can’t imagine going back! My sister just ordered a horizontal planner… I’m going to have her do a guest review once she gets it!

Without further ado, here is my review of my 2015-2016 ECLP!

The Cover

I was so super excited to see they offered a black and white plaid… I’ve been on a plaid kick for the last couple of years and knew I absolutely had to have this one! That’s the beauty of the interchangeable covers – they’re $11 bucks and you can switch based on your mood. They came out with a bunch of new designs, so there are a ton of options! They even did a special Rose Gold planner – complete with rose gold coil and foil cover.

The Guts

This is the most important part! I’m a firm believer that no matter how pretty the insides are, if they’re not functional for your planning style, you won’t use it.

First up, the monthly view. There’s a slight change this year – the quotes at the top are gone. This is kind of nice since a lot of people ended up decorating over them. That said, the space is still there for you to write in your personal favorite quotes if you’d like!

Next, the weekly view. There are some big changes here. The first is that Erin Condren removed the “morning”, “day”, and “night” headings. She also removed the calendar on the upper left corner and renamed it “thankful thoughts”. I don’t entirely love it since that’s typically where I put my Fitbit steps tracker, but since I covered it up before anyway, it doesn’t make much difference to me. They also removed the heading just below that – leaving you with space to update how you see fit. I typically use that left hand side to make lists of people to call, things to buy, places to go each week. They’re most likely things that will eventually get “assigned” to a specific day but that I’m not sure about at the beginning of the week. Finally, the fonts are a bit different this year with the number and day names being on the same line. It actually leaves a little more room above the numbers for reminders or weather tracking.

After that comes the notes pages. The standard lined pages and plain white pages are still there, but this year they’ve added in the graph paper. At first I was skeptical, but it’s starting to grow on me. I’m not entirely sure how I’ll use them yet, but I like the option!

The Goodies

I ordered a couple of notepads, which I love. I also ordered the launch bundle… it came with the new sticker book and a pack of pens. I’m a bit of a pen snob (I typically like for my writing to all be in the same pen – my pen of choice is the blue Pilot G-2 .07). The Erin Condren pens are definitely cute – they’re porous tip and write very beautifully, but I’m not sure how I will use them. I might just use them on the months to color code my appointments.

The sticker book is just okay. I am so spoiled with the sticker pimps shops that I’ve found on Etsy, I think I was expecting a little more from the Erin Condren book. That said, they’re cute and I will definitely incorporate some of them into the next year of planning!

Turn Around Time

When I ordered my first planner (mid-December 2014), it took forever to print and ship to me. Like it was early to mid January when I finally go it. I sort of expected the same thing this time around since I was ordering on Launch Day. I ordered on June 9th and it shipped on June 11th! I even ordered the customized cover (it has my name on it), which generally adds a couple days, but was thoroughly impressed!

Finally, I wanted to share my referral link with you… if it’s your first time ordering the ECLP, you’ll get $10 off! Just click the link below and follow the directions!

https://www.erincondren.com/referral/invite/annablankenheim0102

I hope this review has been helpful for those of you on the fence or thinking about making the move to an ECLP! Happy planning! Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below!