When the kids started to get older, a way to keep track of appointments, extra curricular activities and weekly to-do’s became a must. We’re a pretty tech heavy family so initially I looked into ways to keep track of all of my commitments digitally. I hated it though. It never felt right and I was still constantly unorganized. I moved to a paper planner and never looked back. I like the process of flipping through pages and actually writing things down. It’s also easier for me to process what I have to do and I tend to remember it better if I wrote it down vs typing it in.

I’ve been through several over the years. I had a big spiral one that I loved, but it was a tad pricey (or so I thought at the time) and I convinced myself that I didn’t need one that big. Then I moved to a smaller one, then back to a bigger one, I even had a cool customizable Martha Stewart one that I liked for short while, but I never found one that I loved as much as I remembered loving my first big spiral one. One of my biggest problems with that beloved spiral one was that it was UGLY. I don’t remember what it looked like exactly, but they only had one cover choice and it was hideous. I’m drawn to something because of how pretty it is, but it’s a real winner when it’s pretty AND functional!

Enter the Day Designer by Whitney English!

If you visit a fair amount of fashion/lifestyle blogs or follow their instagram, you have probably seen this little beauty in photos. It’s definitely got the fashionable part covered. I loved the classic black and white striped design!

However, it was pricey and without seeing it in person, I wasn’t willing to spend $59 for it.

Thankfully my husband was! He was out shopping with me one day (if you only knew how RARE of an occurrence this was, you’d know fate had intervened) and I was buying a few things at Loft when I looked down at the counter and there it was. A bold black and white striped book. I knew exactly what it was when I saw it. Turns out that it was the manager’s and when the sales girl told her I asked about it, she just raved and raved about how much she loved it. Well, being the very observant person that he is, my hubs overheard this exchange and decided to surprise me with it. The next day I got an email saying it was ordered!

Mine is the August-July edition so I couldn’t start using it until then, but since school started, I have been using the heck out of it! I probably don’t use it to it’s fullest extent, but I don’t care, I still love it. I will have no problem at all dropping another $60 when it’s time to buy next year’s edition!

I like to use a paper clip for easy access to the monthly view and daily view and I added the little “rolling to-do” list that moves day to day.

These babies sell out quickly and haven’t been in stock for a few weeks, but conveniently, they just went back on sale today!! If you were thinking about putting this on your Christmas list, you better tell Santa to buy it now!

Disclaimer: Affiliate links are included in this post. I was not compensated for my opinion of this product. All views stated are my honest, unbiased opinions.