You might recall a review I did a few weeks ago for the SHP Weekly Planner which i purchased to see how it compared to one of my all time favorite planners – Plum Paper. SHP isn’t the only dupe I found, there’s also the Posy Paper Planner.
Quick facts
- Size: 6″ wide x 9″ high
- Cardstock cover personalised with your choice of text (clear cover over the top to protect it)
- Coil binding
- Cover personalisation
- Dates at a glance page
- 2 page Monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
- 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
- White paper
- Pocket folder
- Tabs are a paid extra
- Colorful monthly spread (pastel / subtle colors)
- Neutral weekly spread
- 12 Month duration
Price: $21 USD (add another $8 USD if you want tabs) + shipping
Information current as of the time of writing this post (June 2020).
Let’s take a closer look!
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I also purchased a personalised dot grid notebook from Posy Paper – see my review in this post.
The Cover
There were a few different covers to choose from – I opted for this pretty aqua marble cover and personalised it with my name.
I don’t know if I got a dud as they have 5 star reviews on Etsy, but when I folded the page back on themselves (so you can view one page at a time and make it easier to write), the coil popped out. I’ve never had that happen to me before and I have around 50 coil bound planner and notebooks (if you don’t believe me, see my planner reviews). I’m someone that takes good care of their stuff (some people say they’ve had discs from a discbound planner break which has never happened to me). Anyway, after half an hour of fiddling with the coil and ripping some of the pages trying to get the coil back through the holes, I got the coil partly back into place but it still doesn’t sit quite right. I think I need some pliers to unbend the coil and re-bend it to the correct position.
I purchased a personalised notebook for bullet journaling from this same company at the same time and that notebook’s perfectly fine – I think I just got a dud with this one.
Approx 0.5″ thick
I opted for a mid-year start but you can get calendar year (starting in Jan) as well. The planner runs for 12 months.
At the front is a dates at a glance calendar and then it goes straight into the monthly spreads. You can choose to pay extra for tabs, I opted not too pay for them ($8 USD is a bit steep to me, can just add sticky notes instead).
I really like the dots pattern at the top of the monthly notes page. Simple but effective and if you opt out of tabs like I did it makes it easier to find where the next month starts.
Monthly Spread
Each month has a lined notes page followed by a 2 page monthly calendar, then the weekly spreads followed by 1 notes page before the next month starts.
Starts Sunday (not consistent with the weekly spread)
I don’t like how the holidays are printed in the middle of the box – they take up too much space. There are pre-printed holidays for the USA and Canada.
It might be a bit hard to tell in the photos but there are different colors for the months:
- Pastel purple
- Pastel green
- Pastel blue
- Teal
- Navy blue
The colors are on the monthly calendars only. The weekly spreads are all in black ink.
The monthly calendars have color printing but then black printing (not color) for all of the pages behind that month – could be a pro or a con depending on your personal preference.
Weekly Planning
I opted for the horizontal weekly spread but there is also a vertical layout (3 columns / days per page – weekends are combined into the same column).
To me, there’s something not quite right about this weekly spread. There’s an awkwardly large gap between the month / year at the top and when the days of the week start. It would’ve been better if they expanded the boxes for each day to fill this space.
Saturday and Sunday are really small – the boxes are approx 2.5cm high x 6.6cm wide. In inches approx 1″ high x almost 2.75″ wide.
The weekday boxes are about 6.5cm (2″) high x almost 13.5cm (5.25″) wide. About 1/3 of the weekday boxes is unlined.
On days that have holidays it doesn’t leave much room for planning on weekends.
Ditching the notes section and the dates at a glance calendar would be good to make a bigger Sat & Sun section, OR better utilise the gap at the top of the page and list out holidays for the week up there, or just remove the holidays from the weekly spread altogether.
Extras pages
At the back of the planner are 2 single sided contacts pages, 5 notes pages and 1 single sided pocket folder.
Pen Testing
I did a pen test in the Posy Paper personalised notebook (see my review here), since it’s the same paper I didn’t do another pen test.
The paper is very smooth and nice to write on (one of the smoothest papers I’ve come across in a planner), but…
… Everything has ghosting. If you’re going to use this notebook, I’d stick to ballpoint pens or erasable pens – they had the least show through.
Pros of the Planner
- Good page size – not too big but not too small
- Lightweight
- Pocket Folder
- Personalised cover (and nice cover designs to choose from)
- Neutral color scheme on the weekly spread so you can decorate without worrying about the colors clashing with the colors of the planner
- Choose from vertical or horizontal weekly spread
Cons of the Planner
- Coil was not placed correctly on the planner – cannot fold the pages back on themselves or the pages fall off the coil, the pages don’t lay flat because of the coil (watch my video to see what I mean)
- Split boxes on the monthly spread
- Placement of the holidays on the monthly calendar and weekly spread wastes a lot of space
- Saturday and Sunday planning space is too small
- Tabs cost $8 USD extra
- Contacts pages (would be more useful if these were notes pages)
- Only 5 notes pages
Would I use this planner?
No. I like the cover design, the style of the planner and the mix of lined and unlined planning on the weekly spread, but the layout of the weekly spread doesn’t maximise the space on the page plus the weekend spaces are too small. Also, the issue with the coil means the pages don’t lay flat properly.
More planner reviews:
- Day Designer for Blue Sky Horizontal Weekly Planner Review
- Carpe Diem Budget Planner
- Whistle and Birch Weekly Planner Review (All layouts + pen testing)
Planning Tips:
- My Favorite thin washi tape for planning
- 52 Life admin tasks to add to your planner this year
- 7 Quick & Easy Ways to Personalise Your Planner
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