I like planners. I’m a nerd. I love office supplies, pens and washi tape. A few years back I was searching for the best planner for me (there is no such thing as perfect). I’m was then that I ran across the Erin Condren Life Planner. I had to have one and paid big bucks to have it shipped all the way to me in Hawaii. However, after I had used it for a few weeks, the price didn’t matter. I would have paid even more to have it. So I ordered another the next year. And another the year after that.
By the 3rd year new planner fads were surfacing and I began to wonder if perfection was out there. The problem I realized with my EC (Erin Condren) is I couldn’t add the sections I needed. My children had so many specialists I needed more contact space. Then I needed to add important medical information and I had used all my notebook paper. So I did the unthinkable; I ripped the coil out and punched holes and placed it into a Aqua A5 Malden Filofax. I was able to add the sections I needed. But I didn’t feel I had planner peace. Eventually I had so much in my Filofax that when carrying it my arm would fall asleep. Then a new planner trend popped up- midori’s. So I got one of those. But still no planner piece. So I went back to my Malden and made my own inserts and toned down what I carried. Still no peace.
Finally, I took a step back. I looked back through the years to see where I starting going down hill after being so content. I realized it all started when I uncoiled my EC. So back to the basics I went.
I started looking at Instagram accounts, joined EC Facebook groups and annoyed people with my hundreds of new pins from Pinterest. Times have changed. And so had how people used their EC. I finally saw ideas on how to fix some of the issues I originally had.
This past week I got my EC and I went to work “hacking” it. I printed out labels to cover up some of the morning/day/night boxes. After 6pm, my life consists of dinner and bed. I didn’t need that box. But I did need more room for a “To Do” list. The next problem (which actually was a huge problem now due to EC format change) was there was no contact list anymore.
I noticed everyone making dashboards to hold page markers and post it notes. To me this was silly. If you had a dashboard to your week view, then you couldn’t see your week view. However, the dashboard did give me an idea.
DIY Editable Contact list
I simply laminated a piece of cardstock I felt went with my DIY cover. Next I printed out labels containing room for contact information. I added some washi tape- because it was gold and pretty. I attached EC coil clips (you can DIY these too). Last I lined up my labels on the laminated cardstock. The labels peal off every time I need to change the contact or no longer need that one.
