Day Designer for Blue Sky Horizontal Weekly Planner Review
I’ve been eyeing off Day Designer and Blue Sky Planners for more than a year now. After being extremely disappointed that BlueSky only ship to the USA and Canada (not here, to Australia) – I even emailed Blue Sky twice over the past 12 months to double check. But all was not lost… as I found the planners on Amazon!
Features of the Day Designer for Blue Sky Planner
- Frosted cover to protect the pattern cover. Not sure what the material is but it feels like thin super smooth cardstock
- 12 Month planner
- July 2017 – June 2018 (there’s planners in a similar style that start in January)
- 1 Page monthly calendar starting on a Sunday
- Monthly planning page – 3 lists – monthly to do, to contact or call and to buy
- Landscape page orientation (rare for planners!)
- The planner itself is 10.5” wide x 8.25” high
- Monthly calendar boxes are approx. 1.25” wide x 1.25” high
- Weekly planning columns are 3” wide – lots of room for to do lists!
- Weekly spread starts on a Monday, each day runs from 7am to 7pm with a ‘tonight’ box at the bottom
- The spiral binding coil doesn’t get In the way when writing – won’t be much room if you want to add planner stickers and washi though I doubt you’ll need much as it has a pretty confetti dot pattern featured at the top of the page
- I’m normally not someone that likes the color mint but I really like it in this planner!
- Laminated tabs
- Extras pages
- Goal setting
- Date at a glance
- Contacts pages
- Essential lists
- Travel Packing lists
- Grocery list (only 2 pages though)
- Plenty of notes pages at the back of the planner
I found this planner on clearance at Amazon for just $10! 😀
Let’s take a closer look!
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The Cover
Frosted cover to protect the pattern cover. Not sure what the material of the stripe cover is but it feels like thin super smooth cardstock.
If you like planning using stickers and washi tape you may have to rip out pages as you use them as the coil is quite small.
This belongs to page
Date at a glance for the previous and next year
Goal setting pages
4 pages to map out the goals you want to achieve for the year and space to plan how you’re going to get it done
Monthly calendar & list planning pages
Monthly calendar starts on a Sunday. This planner does my pet peeve where it combines 2 daily planning boxes into the space of 1, rather than re-starting the numbering on the top row 🙁 When I use the planner I’ll be whiting out the line and re-re-writing or using date dot stickers (minimalist style or rainbow) on the top row.
I do really like that the monthly calendar has lined writing space with dates at a glance calendars for the previous and next month.
USA holidays are also pre-printed on the pages.
One the right page there’s 3 lists to plan the month <3
Monthly planning page with 3 lists – monthly to do, to contact or call and to buy. If these lists aren’t to your liking your could always using whiteout or a colored pen and then write over the top using the Sakura Gelly Roll 08 in white or the Pilot Poplol, or the Uniball Signo or any other white pen.
Related: 10 Quick planner hacks you need to try (planning tips & inspiration)
2 page weekly spread
The weekly spread was what drew me to the planner – very different to all the other planners out there.
Weekly spread starts on a Monday whereas the monthly spread starts on a Sunday.
The columns are wide – approx 3″ so there’s plenty of space for writing. The size is between a vertical and horizontal.
It has times from 7am to 7pm pre-printed on the page and there’s a blank line between the hours if you wanted to do half hourly planning, as well as a ‘tonight box’ that could be used for dinner plans or priority task for the day.
When you use the planner you’ll need to fold the pages back on themselves unless you have a large desk (i.e. you won’t be able to see the entire week at one glance)
Saturdays and Sunday fits the same space as a weekday i.e. you get half the amount of planning space
Extras Pages
Some functional checklist pages with plenty of space to add your own things to the lists <3
There’s a lot of contacts pages – medical contacts, household contacts and general contacts – bit of a waste of paper in my opinion since all of that is kept on my phone – would have preferred more list pages similar to the 3 lists beside the monthly calendar
Grocery List
Love the layout of this page but there’s only 2 included in the planner… which is definitely not going to last an entire year. I’d love an entire tear off notepad with this design!
Notes Pages
Decent line spacing so writing won’t end up super crammed the page. This page divided into 2 will be perfect for list making
Pen Testing
The paper feels quite thin so I was surprised when there was hardly any pen bleed through – even the Stabilo Pen 68 (marker pen) which normally bleeds through or has really bad ghosting in other planners.
Back side of the pen test page.. hardly any ghosting!
Price
Reasonably priced. I bought the planner halfway through the year for $10USD from Amazon. If you buy it for an entire year they seem to cost around $20 – quite cheap for a planner. Shipping wasn’t too expensive if you’re a fellow Aussie wanting to buy this planner (or any planner from Amazon).
Pros of the Day Designer for Blue Sky Planner
- Landscape page orientation gives you wider columns to write in for each day
- Reasonably priced
- Lined monthly calendar
- USA holidays pre-printed on the monthly and weekly spreads
- Doesn’t feel like it weighs much
- Frosted cover to protect the pattern cover. Not sure what the material is but it feels like thin super smooth cardstock
- Tabs for each month and a big easy to find and grip essentials info tab at the back
- Wide columns (about 3 inches)
- Lined weekly spread
- Plenty of notes pages at the back of the planner
- Laminated tabs
Related: Trying out the Day Designer Daily Planner by Whitney English (Review)
Cons of the Day Designer for Blue Sky Planner
- Not enough of the extras pages e.g. only 2 grocery lists is definitely not going to last the entire year – I really love the layout of the grocery list though so if the company made a tear off notepad I’d buy it
- Too many contacts pages – medical contacts, household contacts and general contacts – bit of a waste of paper in my opinion since all of that is kept on my phone – would have liked to see more list pages similar to the 3 lists beside the monthly calendar
- The calendar combines 2 days into the one box rather than re-starting the date at the top of the next line
- Can only buy from Amazon. Blue Sky doesn’t ship to Australia (I really love the style of their planners and literally emailed them to make sure it wasn’t an error on their website ☹
- 12 hour schedule from 7am to 7pm – for a night owl like me I’ll be using whiteout for the times
- Saturdays and Sunday fits the same space as a weekday i.e. you get half the amount of planning space
- When you use the planner you’ll need to fold the pages back on themselves unless you have a large desk (i.e. you won’t be able to see the entire week at one glance)
- The coil snugly fits the planner so if you like to decorate using planner stickers & washi you might need to tear out weeks as you use them for everything to fit
In my usual fashion, I had no self-control when I placed my Amazon order so I have tons more planners coming (including another Blue Sky collab so make sure you subscribe to be notified when new posts are published)
Who this planner is ideal for
The planner has things like baby checklists, medical and household contacts implying it was designed for mums. However, I think this planner could be used by anyone.
Would I use this planner?
Yes! I’m really keen to try it for the 52 Planners in 52 Weeks Challenge. The width of the daily planning spaces on the weekend spread looks like a good mid-range between a vertical and a horizontal planner.
More planner reviews
- Week 36 (part 2): Trying out the Day Designer Daily Planner by Whitney English (Review)
- Buying a planner versus DIYing and making your own (pros and cons)
- Overwhelmed by the planner community? Read this post
- Planner companies that don’t ship to Australia (or have expensive shipping to Australia)
