Blue Sky Personalised Weekly Planner Review (Pros, Cons and Pen Test)
I’ve done plenty of reviews of Blue Sky planners that are collabs with designers e.g. Dabney Lee for Blue Sky and Day Designer for Blue Sky. Since I liked those so much I decided to get a personalised Blue Sky (no collab) planner.
Quick facts
- 3 sizes to choose from:
- Small 5 x 8″
- Medium 7 x 9″ (this is what I chose)
- Large Size 8.5 x 11″ (US Letter)
- Wire binding
- Frosted cover over glossy paper like material for the cover (personalisation optional)
- This belongs to page in case your planner is lost
- Dates at a glance
- Colorful inside pages
- 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
- 2 Page monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
- Tabs
Price: I chose the 7 x 9″ with a few add ons and it only came to $28 USD!
Let’s take a closer look!
To enlarge the screen of the video, click the square icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video (it will say ‘full screen’ when you hover your mouse over the icon).
Subscribe to my YouTube channel for more planner videos!
The Cover
As is the case with most of the Blue Sky planners, the cover is a smooth thin glossy paper-like cover with frosted cover over the top. I much prefer planners with this cover format as it’s more sturdy than laminate and the corners don’t get bent.
Approx 0.5″ thick
Monthly Calendar
Week starts on Sunday.
One of the few planner companies that do lined writing space on the monthly spread! <3
Unfortunately Blue Sky do the split boxes:
Weekly Planner
Starts on Monday (not consistent with the monthly calendar)
I chose the weekly / monthly to do layout – love it!
There are 4 different colors (1 for each quarter) in a similar color scheme to the Plum Paper Planners.
This could be a pro or a con depending on your preference: Saturday and Sunday have half the planning space as a weekday
So much list space <3
Dates at a glance
Extras pages
One of the optional add on’s I chose was the weekly menu
I also chose the daily planner
Lots of room in the scheduling section and tons of list space!
Anything list / notes pages
Note sure why Blue Sky still include contacts pages in their planners. I’d re-purpose this as extra to do list space.
Tabs
The usual cardstock tabs – not super sturdy but are protected by the cover so should hold up fine.
Pen Testing
The trade off for an affordable price means paper quality that isn’t the best. I’d use ballpoint pens as they had the least ghosting. Avoid marker pens, highlighters and stamps which bled through.
Pros of the Planner
- Multiple page sizes to choose from
- Cover personalisation
- Multiple cover designs to choose from
- Lightweight
- Very affordable (especially for a personalised planner)
- Optional add ons: daily planner, meal planning, budget, fitness, grid notes, coloring pages, lined notes, parent planning, party planning, shopping list
- Optional accessories: snap-in sticky notes, snap-in notepad, snap-in ruler, stickers, snap-in recipe cards, 2 sided pocket, business card holder
Cons of the Planner
- Difficult to get outside of the USA
- Paper quality is prone to ghosting and bleed through
Would I use this planner?
Yes! I think the Blue Sky planners are some of the most affordable planners available. Love the page size, color scheme, lined writing space on the monthly calendar, the weekly spread and the personalised cover.
Update: See how I used the planner in this post
More planner reviews:
- Using the Day Designer for Blue Sky Vertical Hourly Weekly Planner
- After trying 52 planners, these were my top 7 favorite weekly planners
- Using Microsoft Word to plan your week
Planning Tips:
- How to use functional icon planner stickers
- How to make planner stickers for free using Silhouette Studio (Introduction – Video Tutorial)
- Setting up a new planner: 70 Tasks to add
Found this post helpful? Pin it!
I bought the happy planner cover, discs, punch, and some accessories. Now I can use a quality paper. I can print just dot grid, lined, free planner pages, or even ones I’ve designed myself. Loving it! Thanks for sharing your review.
I do love your blog and have found wonderful ideas. Thank you. I liked many aspects of this Blue Sky planner, particularly the optional pages you selected – do you know of any disc bound options with similar pages (mostly the daily/monthly to do, scheduling and Anything List)? Thanks.
Hi Toni, glad you’ve found my blog helpful 🙂
ARC by Staples have anything list refill pages. MAMBI also have plenty of refill pages (dot grid, lists, daily planning, half sheet etc). Both are discbound. I did a comparison in this post: https://allaboutplanners.com.au/arc-by-staples-versus-mambi-which-discbound-system-is-better/
I have been using Blue Sky planners at work for going on 5 years. I love the lined daily space for to-do lists and notes. I love your review of these planners!