So I actually bought this planner 2 years ago… but it got lost amongst my never-ending list of planners to review. The company that does this planner seems to release a similar design each year so even though the planner has expired, you’ll probably be able to find a similar layout dated for the current year.
While this planner has ‘expired’ I still wanted to post this review as it has a different layout to most vertical weekly spreads.
Quick Facts
- Size: 5.25″ wide x 8.25″ high
- Sewn bound
- Softcover
- Annual dates at a glance
- Plenty of extras pages including: Holidays list (worldwide), timezones page, weights and measurements, phonetic alphabet, contacts alphabetical list
- Dates to remember
- 2 page monthly calendar (starts Monday)
- 2 page weekly spread (starts Monday) – half vertical / half lined
- 70 GSM paper
- Pocket folder
- 1 Ribbon bookmark
- Printed in English & Italian
- Made in Italy
Price: 12 Euro but I found it for a bit cheaper on clearance. I purchased it at a bookstore in Rome. See the rest of my first Europe stationery haul in this post.
Let’s take a closer look!
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The Cover
The planner has a softcover which might get bent over time but at least the corners have rounded edges:
It’s a very compact (and lightweight) planner at only 1cm thick (about 0.4″)
At the front of the planner are a number of extra pages that only European planners seem to include. Some are helpful, others I don’t think many people would use:
- Annual planning – 1 quarter per page
- Dates at a glace
- Holidays list (worldwide)
- Italian major airports
- Foreign major airports – I find it odd that they included Adelaide on the list but not Brisbane!
- Major airlines
- Worldwide currencies
- Timezones
- Weights and measurements
- Dates to remember
While it’s nice that the planner is printed in both Italian and English and I’m sure some people will appreciate having both languages printed, it does take up a lot of space.
Monthly calendar
There are no split boxes 🙂 However instead of just re-starting the numbering on the top row, they’ve added a 6 row to all monthly calendars. At least they make use of that 6th row by adding some lined notes space.
Weekly
The weekly spread is a different layout with a combination of vertical and horizontal planning space (perfect if you can’t choose!)
The schedule for each day runs from 6am to 8pm except for weekends where there are no pre-printed times.
The spread starts Monday which is consistent with the monthly calendar.
Quite a major flaw (I think) in this planner is that all of the worldwide holidays are printed on the weekly spread (all those ovals with the letter codes for the countries in them on the 1st in the photo below). It takes up a good chunk of planning space unless you ignore it and write over the top. With so many letters to check and see if your country code is there, it’d be quicker to just print a holidays list for your country (or state within your country) and glue it to the inside of the cover of the planner instead.
The months are dispersed throughout the planner with the weekly spreads in between.
At the back of the planner is a page with the phonetic alphabet as well as 4 contacts pages (organized alphabetically)
At the back is a roomy pocket folder:
Pros of the Ivory Planner
- Different weekly spread
- Reasonably priced
- Pocket folder
- Compact & lightweight
- Variety of page sizes to choose from (I purchased the medium size but there was a large version too)
- Different cover colors
Cons of the Ivory Planner
- Very thin paper (only 70 GSM) that shows through the design so will definitely have pen ghosting & bleed through
- Plenty of extras pages – but most of them I don’t think many people will use
- Only 1 ribbon bookmark
- Pages tend to close on their own (not lay flat)
- No tabs
- No extra notes pages
Would I use this planner?
The columns in vertical planners are too narrow for me. Having the horizontal notes space underneath the days of the week is good, but I’d rather use a planner that’s 100% horizontal not 50/50 vertical/horizontal.
However, I think this would be a good planner for a student. Color coding your tasks with the corresponding time would work e.g. Chemisty = green so times you want to block out for classes, homework, study etc. for this subject could be highlighted in green in the scheduling section of the spread.
If you’re someone that wants to brain dump their tasks and then schedule them to a time rather than erasing and re-arranging things multiple times, this could be a good planner for you too.
Where to buy it
I found this planner at La Feltrini in Rome. They had quite a few planners from this brand. I randomly found this one on clearance.
Address: Largo di Torre Argentina, 5/A, 00186 Roma RM, Italy
Read more: My Favorite Stationery Shops in Rome
They had the same planner in a larger page size too:
More Europe stationery shopping
- Favorite stationery shops in Paris
- My Favorite Stationery Shops in Rome
- Favorite Stationery Shops in Copenhagen, Denmark
- Favorite stationery shops in Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Favorite Stationery Shops in Germany
- Favorite stationery shops in Finland (Helsinki & Rovaniemi)
- Favorite Stationery Shops in Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp & Bruges)
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