I was going through some of the planner videos I’ve filmed and realised I never posted my walkthrough of the horizontal Happy Planner!

Happy Planner Horizontal Review

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).

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Pros of the Horizontal Happy Planner

Weekends have shaded color boxes to separate the weekend from weekday
Large notes sidebar in the monthly views
Classic Happy Planner Size (7.75″ wide x 9.75″ high, the actual planner pages are 7″ wide x 9.25″ high) – portable (MAMBI also have a full page size planner and a mini size Happy Planner)
The line spacing in the weekly spread is just right!
Laminating on the cover is durable
The discbound system. I’m a huge fan of discbound planning systems (I use the Arc Planner)
You can purchase larger disc sizes if you need more space or want to add additional pages to the planner
The discs come in nice colors – including gold!
The colors are very nice – love their use of the gold foil effect
Plenty of covers to choose from
Nice patterns on the dividers
Tabs are laminated
Each month gets a color that is used throughout the entire month (I’m a big fan of color-coordinated planners)
The dates for each date are placed above the daily writing spaces giving you a lot of room to write in each day
The daily planning boxes are the same size making it easy to plan your week with stickers etc.
The discbound system means you can add my own pages and pull out pages you don’t want or won’t use
Each planner comes in different colors and styles so a different cover means different inside page designs
The price is very affordable ($30USD)

Cons of the Horizontal Happy Planner

The monthly view starts on a Sunday but the weekly view starts on a Monday
If the 30^th/31^st of the month falls on a Sunday or Monday, rather then starting again on the top line, the last boxes of the month are split into 2 triangles so effectively you can’t write anything in those boxes and it’s dead space
The public holidays/events on the monthly view are at the top beside the date rather than the bottom right hand corner giving more room to write
No notes space in between the months
The calendar for each month on the left is printed onto cardstock and on the right it’s printed onto paper – maybe consider this depending on what pens you like to use in your planner
The tabs have color printed on the front but not on the back
If you want to add extra pages, you’ll need to purchase the happy planner punch – but it’s so worth to give yourself that extra customisation to make your planner your own and it’s cheaper than the Arc discbound punch
You can’t choose the start month – they sell 18 month pre-dated planners so sometimes you may end up paying for a couple of months you won’t use. However, you can cover the dates with date dot stickers.

The MAMBI horizontal is very similar to the Erin Condren Horizontal & The Plum Paper Horizontal except each day’s box is open ended (the other 2 planners split each day into 2 sections)

See how I used the planner for week 40 of the 52 Planners in 52 Weeks Challenge.

Interested in the vertical Happy Planner? Honest review of the Happy Planner by Me and my Big Ideas (MAMBI)

Interested in the mini Happy Planner? MAMBI Mini Happy Planner Review (pros, cons, should you buy it?)

Interested in making planner stickers? I shared more dimensions for the horizontal Happy Planner in this post.

See this post for my comparison of the Horizontal Happy Planner versus the Erin Condren Horizontal Life Planner.

Pen Testing

The Happy Planner has one of the thickest (best) papers I’ve come across. There is really only ghosting (and a little bit of bleed through) for the marker pens.