(Pretty proud of that most excellent title alliteration, BTW.)
It’s that time of year again guys. You know what’s up. Personal Planner [ Facebook / Twitter / Insta ] time!! I’ve partnered with this amazing company in 2013, 2014, 2015 and again this year to bring you something near and dear to my OCD heart – my favorite dayplanner. I’m an old school pen + paper girl. I tried using my iPhone synced to my Google calendar for a year but the syncing kept messing up and I missed things I forgot to set reminders for, so I gave up and went back to the old school way of keeping an agenda. I love it and it keeps me on track.
One thing I really like about Personal Planner is that you can input important anniversaries and birthdays, and it prints them right into the planner. I put them all in the first year, and now each year I just log into my account and there they are. Soooo convenient! They also offer notebooks, for those commitment-phobes, and wall planners for those who like to live large (these are great for families or offices, because you can keep track of people on the top column). Gift cards are also available, and I think this is the perfect gift for the person who has everything. Just get them a gift card, and they can make theirs exactly the way they like it!
Personal Planner lets you customize your dayplanner in all kinds of ways, and they just keep adding more and more every year. Last year brought monthly overviews and an adult coloring book in the back. This year, there’s even more choices in the graphics, a full-size ruler, new stickers, and erasable pens! I got to try out some of the Frixion by Pilot pens, and I loved them. They don’t bleed through the paper to the other side, they don’t smudge, and they really do erase (by friction with the ball on top of the pen… friction… Frixion.. get it!). I have been scribbling stuff just to erase it!
Here’s a few screenshots of the customization process while I was making my planner. You can see in each section the choices you get to make!
My beautiful planner arrived in the mail today and I couldn’t be happier with it. Here’s a few photos of my creation come to life:
Longtime readers may notice a trend with my personalized photo covers (you can also choose from their graphics if you don’t want to use a photo – every year I’m tempted because they’ve got some really badass stuff, but I end up with a photo because I’m a narcissist). I specifically choose photos that I want to be the theme for that year. Past years include Roatan beaches, me scuba diving, Vancouver forests, sushi, etc. You can see for my 2017 planner that my theme is JAPAN! The front cover is the famous bamboo forest in Arashiyama, Kyoto, and the back cover is my favorite Japanese food…ramen! I also chose a fun back section with the adult coloring book (there’s a mermaid one this year!) and world maps.
The super cool folks at Personal Planner are helping me share the love so you can get your hands on one of these customized beauties as well. If you just can’t wait and need one ASAP (can’t blame you – get it before back-to-school is upon us!), Personal Planner is offering a discount code to Cubicle Throwdown readers for 15% off your order (this code will expire on July 28, 2016), so if you want to order now, use discount code R-IKAS-PLAN (hehe, get it?). They are also giving away one free personalized planner – any size with any customization, including shipping – to one of my readers!
Giveaway rules: to enter, please ‘Like’ the Personal Planner Facebook page (and you should probably ‘Like’ the Cubicle Throwdown one too while you’re over there), and/or follow them on Instagram (they have the most amazing ideas on their feed). Leave me a comment below telling me that you’ve done it, and your best ‘If I Would Have Had A Dayplanner _________ Would Not Have Happened’ story. I have been getting a kick out of reading these stories every year. If you already wrote a story last year, or you reallllly don’t have a story, tell me a joke instead! [Please make sure you use a valid email address that you actually check for Disqus when leaving your comment, or I won’t be able to contact you if you win.] Previous winners – sorry, but the giveaway is only for those who haven’t won before. But you can use the discount code!
Giveaway will close on JULY 27, 2016 and the winner will be notified by email! If you don’t win, you’ll have one extra day to use the discount code above before it expires. Good luck!
It’s not a funny story…I guess… but in my job I visit schools and I recently doubled booked myself – said I’d do two parallel activities in the same school: do mock interviews with year 10s and tell year 7s all about careers in IT. When I realised, I asked my colleague, an old fashioned, bald, backward thinking man. I’m not a fan, as you can see!
I got him to do the year 7s as they’re adorable and would be easy to manage, while I did mock interviews with the year 10s. The look on my colleague’s face was priceless and he came out the classroom looking like he’d just survived a war!
I’d say if I had a planner this wouldn’t happen again, but honestly, I’d kind of like to put him through that again!!
Hehe sounds like you made it through ok and got to put him through the wringer to boot!! I used to be terrible for double booking myself…I still am if I don’t write things down!
I am the exact same way with my phone! I cannot for the life of me make my phone work as a planner. I end up just making paper notes anyway and stuffing them in my pocket, or use the notes app on my phone and delete as I go along. I’d would LOVE a notebook like this… and I can’t think of a good story off the top of my head (kind of fried from clinic today), but I know there’s some awkward things I’ve buried or tried to forget about ha. Definitely liked and liked on fb.
I’m guilty of the random pieces of paper everywhere before I started with these planners! Sometimes a girls just gotta have a pen and paper, ya know?