First, let me start by clarifying a few things. These are solely my opinions based on using both of these planners for an extended period of time (not simultaneously). I paid for the Whitney English Day Designer and the Erin Condren Life Planner (2014-2015) edition. I’m saying that to let you know that this isn’t sponsored in any way.
I love a planner, more specifically, I love a paper planner! I use it to keep everything together, to make lists, to remember important dates, to schedule our life! I’m not kidding when I say my planner goes with my everywhere, and I use it every single day.
I’ve been a long time Life Planner user. Last year, I ordered my third Life Planner and I’ve been pleased with the product. One of my favorite things about the Life Planner is the weekly view. I love to look at my whole week at once. I feel better about managing my week this way. I also love the vertical layout, it lends itself to list-making (which is what I normally do). I don’t particularly love the way the days are divided, but I just overlook that part and write anywhere I want to in the space.
The Life Planner also has laminated tabs and a full monthly view. I love the fun colors that fill each and every page of the Life Planner.
The organizational space in the back is functional and perfect for things like stamps, invitations, and important documents I need to keep handy. Life Planners always include gift tags (stickers) and mine came personalized and matching my planner this year. The Life Planner comes with a few other extras as well including stickers, a removal perpetual contacts and calendar, spiral paper clips, and a page marker/ruler that snaps into place. Additionally, you can order other coordinating products from the website.
So what do I not like about the Life Planner? It took several weeks for me to get the product. Granted, it shipped by the date indicated, it just seems like such a long time to wait. Their production time is slow, and it has been for all the planners I’ve ordered. I also wish I could customize the daily boxes, instead of morning/day/night I’d definitely like to have one just for a daily random to-do list. I use them for things like that anyway, but it would be nice to customize the boxes to go with how I’m actually using them.
Next up, the Whitney English Day Designer. Allen ordered this for me for Christmas last year and I’ve used it until last month. Like the Erin Condren, it has tabs and a monthly view.
Here’s where things get very different. The Day Designer has a separate page for each day of the week, and one page for Saturday and Sunday. The daily view is actually why I purchased the Day Designer. You can keep up with meal planning, daily to-do’s, and your whole day (broken down by hour) all on one page. There is plenty of room!
As far as extras, the Day Designer has several pages of goal tracking at the front and a pocket inside the front cover for keeping important things handy. The Day Designer also has a neat little band that is connected to the planner to hold it all together.
So what do I not like about the Day Designer? The very thing that drew me to the product, the separate daily pages. For me, it was overkill. Even when I was working, blogging, pregnant, and managing our household and a busy toddler, my life wasn’t busy enough to fill up these pages. Obviously, I could have written daily things that are part of our routine, but it just seems like a waste of time to write the same things every day. Honestly, I didn’t even know what to write in some of those boxes! The pages are also very thin, so I really had to be careful with what I wrote in this planner with, because it would bleed through very easily. The whole planner is black and cream (not white), it lacks color. All in all, I decided I definitely prefer the weekly view, it was hard for me to get a whole picture of our week because it just seemed too spread out for me.
- Both of the planners are large. The Day Designer is obviously bigger because of the amount of pages needed. Size was not an issue for me and didn’t factor into my decision at all.
- They are both pretty pricey.
- Day Designer (including shipping): $72.00
- Life Planner (including shipping): $64.95
- They both took several weeks to arrive at my house. Yes, several weeks!
So which one did I ultimately choose?
I’ll be using the Erin Condren Life Planner for the upcoming year. The colors, the extras, the weekly layout, it was all enough to sell me on the product and make me come back for another year of the Life Planner. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the planner for you. Depending on where you are in life and your personal planning preferences, you’ll have to take a look at both and decide which one will fit your needs best.
As far as pens, I don’t know that I’ll ever stray from these Staedtler’s 
What about you? What planner do you use?
I want an Erin Condren so much, but it’s just not in my budget. I will say, I agree about the morning/day/night headings – they wouldn’t work for me that way either. I have seen where some people will use the blank stickers you can get with the ECLP or even a thin washi tape to cover the headings and rename them or just leave them blank. If I ever get one, I’ll probably do something like that.
This is great! I have been using the Life Planner for two years, but I’m about to try the Day Designer… I’m interested to see which one works better for me! I am so glad you did this though!!
This was the review I was needing to read! I have only used the Life Planner for one year and although I have been happy with the product I guess I wondered if the grass was greener elsewhere 🙂 Based on how I use my planner I think the weekly layout instead of daily would also suit me best. And I need color in my life too! Thanks for giving your insight, friend!
I’m a planner lover too and had the Mom Agenda for 2 years and switched to the Erin Condren Life Planner for the past 3. I am happy with the product, but if Emily Ley does a Weekly Simplified Planner using the school year calendar, I’m all in! Happy planning : )
Love Erin Condren Life Planners! I have had one for the last four years and will continue to use it for next year as well. Love your comparison, too. I was eyeing this other planner, but am glad I have my EC. I’m a pretty loyal customer. 😉
I was a HUGE Erin Condren fan for 3 years until I had some pretty poor customer service. I found Plum Paper Designs on Etsy, and LOOOOOVE them! The layout/quality is on par with EC, and with Plum Paper, you can customize your weekly layout- and take OUT those Morning/Afternoon/Evening sections of the days of the week! Not to mention, their planners are like $40! Next year when you have to get a new planner, you should definitely check them out! (Not in any way affiliated with them, just REALLY love their products!)
Thanks so much for the comparison – I was just beginning to decide between the two! I think I’ll stick with the EC planner for the next year afterall.
I love that you did this comparison!! I am in the middle of doing the same thing!! I had an EC Life Planner last year, but when I ran into issues ordering this year’s their customer service was terrible!!! They never did help me resolve my problem, so I decided to go elsewhere and ordered the Day Designer. I totally agree with you about your cons for each planner 🙂
Have you ever seen the Plum Paper Designs planners? You can customize what your pages look like, so you can just have the list format for the weekly page. It’s really similar to the EC planners. (And I’m not affiliated in any way! 😉 )
I ordered the Plum Planner this year and my favorite part about it is you can customize your weekly view. Other than that it’s VERY much like the EC Life Planner which I love. The price is also a plus. It’s a little cheaper than the EC planner.
I’m a Life Planner girl myself, I actually need to order a new one. I attempted to use a cheap one from the store and that went wrong. Definitely miss my Life Planner.
I loved my EC planner but didn’t care for the size. I have not purchased one in a few years and have been told they are not as bulky. It was just difficult to carry around with all of the other “stuff” I have to haul back and forth. I loved the EC teacher planner as well! Right now I’m using May Books because it is small and will easily fit in any bag. I don’t like that there’s not a ton of room but there is enough to write down the important things. I tend to meal plan on a sticky note so it can stay on the fridge. Great comparison post!
I agree with you. While I’ve never used the Day Designer, I don’t think the daily page fits what I use it for. I have considered it for work, but I really do better with a digital calendar there, but I love paper for my home calendar.
I went with Plum Paper Designs on Etsy this year. I love it. As others have mentioned, you can customize your pages. It does have a 4-6 week lead time on shipping. But, it was worth it to me due to how much cheaper it is than EC. I just didn’t start my month until I knew I would be getting it.
I think you might really like Plum Paper planners. They’re a lot like Erin Condren (which is also what I used for years) but each day has a checklist at the bottom of the page. Actually, you can choose from several formats, having room for meal planning, etc. The one I got even has a weekly space for grocery list, which is handy. When we’re low on something I just jot it down. Pages are thick like the EC, and the designs and colors are so much better IMO. They’re on etsy and I think around $40.
Thanks for this review! I’d been debating between the two (but the Whitney English site is down for the holidays so I haven’t been able to see a real snapshot of what they look like. And wow -$72!)
I think I’ll go with Erin Condren. I love all the little extras, I watched a video on the site and it seems pretty awesome. Thanks for taking the time to write this! 🙂