The Day Designer has simple, minimalist and very functional hourly planners which is probably why they’re so popular. If you haven’t seen the day to a page mini version yet, keep reading!

Quick facts

• Size: approx 6.75″ wide x 8.25″ high
• Coil binding
• Hardcover
• This belongs to page in case your planner is lost
• Dates at a glance for current year
• Neutral inside pages
• 1 day per page (week starts on Monday), Sat & Sun combined onto 1 page
• 2 Page monthly calendar (starts on Monday)
• Life planning / priority pages
• Monthly notes page / anything list
• USA holidays pre-printed on the monthly calendar and daily planning pages
• Tabs
• Pocket folder

Price: $50USD + shipping from USA

Let’s take a closer look!

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The Cover

I hadn’t purchased the Day Designer in past years for the sole reason that the page size was just a bit too big. Given that this is a day to a page planner it means it’s quite bulky. Large page size + 1 page per day = a very heavy planner. So when they bought out the mini version I was sold!

Approx 1.25″ thick

Comes in a nice gift box… but you do pay for it – this planner is pricey!

Goal worksheets

At the front of the planner are a few life priority, goals and planning your ideal week and day worksheets. They’re a good idea and something that oddly, most planners rarely include.

Dates at a glance

For the current year only. Would be better if they included next years’ too!

Monthly Calendar

Week starts on a Monday.

Because this planner has a small page size, the boxes are quite small (1.25″ x 1.25″).

The photo doesn’t show it that well but there’s light shading for the weekend days.

Unfortunately this planner splits the boxes in 2 – and even worse, splits them in 2 diagonally 🙁

USA holidays pre-printed on the monthly calendar and daily planning pages.

There’s an odd gap at the top of the page that could be better utilised to extend the boxes for each day and create more space to write.

Day to a Page Planner

You’ll need to be an early bird if you use this planner – it starts at 7am and runs to 7pm in hourly intervals.

Weekdays get their own page. Saturdays and Sundays are combined into 1 pages. I don’t like this setup because if you work full time (like I do), the weekend is when you need more space to plan – not less!

The next week overview section is also a bit of a waste of space. The spaces for each day are so tiny it’s limited what you can do with it. I’d be inclined to turn this into a meal planner for the current week. Or another option could be to schedule recurring tasks / habits using color coding stickers.

Extras pages

I really like these list pages <3 but wish the planner had more of them.

Pocket Folder

The pocket folder is very small – you could probably only fit 1 letter in it.

Tabs

The tabs are gold <3 to match the coil, corners etc.

Pen Testing

I tried all the usual ballpoint, gel, fine tip, marker tip pens, highlighters and stamps. Given the price of this planner I was expecting decent paper quality so was surprised when almost all of them bled through the page or had heavy ghosting.

Pros of the Planner

• Portable size
• Minimalist color scheme – add as much color as you like without worrying about it clashing with the colors of the planner
• Good line spacing

Cons of the Planner

• Expensive
• Bulky
• The coil is so big it makes it difficult to write
• Heavy
• The monthly calendar splits boxes into 2 rather than re-starting the numbers on the top row
• Monthly calendar has a lot of wasted space in the header that could be better utilised to make the boxes for each day longer
• The pocket folder is too small to fit more than a few pieces of paper
• The paper is prone to bad ghosting and / or bleed through
• Saturday and Sunday are combined onto 1 page
• The next week section on Sat / Sun page is too small to write in – would be better if this was a notes section
• No monthly review pages
• No notes pages at the back of the planner (only 1 for each month)

Would I use this planner?

No. I don’t use day to a page planners and even if I did I wouldn’t use the Day Designer. It’s very expensive and there are plenty of cheaper alternatives that are just as good (if not better). For the price of the planner I expected better paper quality.

If you don’t want to drop a lot of money, the Day Designer for Blue Sky collaborations are a fraction of the price, have more creative / interesting covers and color schemes in the planner, and are all around much better value.

Read more: Day Designer for Blue Sky Horizontal Weekly Planner Review 

See how I converted the Day Designer into a weekly planner in this post.

More planner reviews:

• Using the Slice Planner (daily planner + app)
• Week 36 (part 2): Trying out the Day Designer Daily Planner by Whitney English (Review)
• Live Whale Daily Planner Review 

Planning Tips:

• What is the best day of the week to plan?
• Setting up a new planner: 70 Tasks to add 
• What to do if your planner isn’t working

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