Agendio Planner: If You Can’t Find It, Create It

 

For the last two years, I have been using Emily Ley’s Simplified Planner. (Read my review here) It was a fantastic planner for a beginner, to get me in the habit of actually using one every day. However, it did its job a little too well, and now I feel like I’ve outgrown it.

I’m in a career and personal development-oriented phase of my life, and there wasn’t enough room for my yearly, monthly, and daily goal planning and to-do lists. I had to white out sections, staple in post-it notes, and write in blank margins to keep this planner working for me, which I found to be a bit cluttered and annoying.

So, as we approached the New Year, I started the search for a new planner. It was so exciting, because unlike my first time shopping for a planner, this time around I had a very clear idea of what features I needed. But it was also disheartening, because I wanted my perfect planner and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I read hundreds of different reviews, and the closest I could find was something like the Life Planner or Hobonichi Planners, which would require me to personalize it myself every day or week. 

Then I stumbled across Agendio. Here’s their self-described concept:

“Most planners have preset layouts, so you must adapt to your planner. That’s backwards. At Agendio.com, customize your layout and personalize all your content before we print and assemble your individual planner.”

That made me realize,  if I couldn’t find my perfect planner, why not create it?

 

How It Works

You build this planner piece by piece in their visual drag and drop builder.

1. Pick Type and Size– First, you pick whether you want a full planner, or just inserts for your existing binder. They have a variety of sizes in each, which includes Journal, Medium, and Large for full planners, and popular insert styles such as Filofax and Franklin. Next is whether you want a daily, weekly, or monthly layout, or some combination of these three.

 

Caution: Make sure you’re certain about the size you want before you move on! I had to restart when I decided halfway into the process that I wanted a medium rather than Journal size planner.

 

2. Customize the layout- You can drag and drop different elements around each type of page (monthly, weekly, daily, etc). Some of these elements include a mini calendar, to-do lists, a schedule, blank boxes, and more. On the extra pages, you have tons of options such as plain lined paper, a habit tracker, budgeting templates, contacts, music paper, tables, and more.

Then, you can customize each of those elements with different titles/labels, fonts, colors, and even line types (solid, dotted) and checkboxes (square, circle). The level of customization is seriously insane!

 

3. Add your Important Dates and Reminders– There are two ways to add important dates and reminders to your planner. First, there are preset holidays that can be manually added, or added in a batch based on your religion, nationality, etc. Second, you can manually add individual birthdays, holidays, classes, clubs, daily chore or medication reminders, etc

 

4. Pick a Cover and Accessories– Finally, you can pick your cover and optional accessories. The cover options are either an Eco-leather wrap around the outside of a spiral, or a plastic cover with a visible spiral. The eco-leather covers are solid colors, and the plastic covers come in a variety of designs and colors, with an option to add a personalized name or planner title. Finally, you can add a plain elastic or a decorative elastic if desired.

 

5. Review, Printing, and Shipping– You are given a chance to review the planner page-by-page to make sure everything is perfect. Check carefully, because once the planner is ordered, you can’t change it! Then, go ahead and place your order. Your template will be saved, in case you want to reorder this planner—with or without modifications—in the future.

 

With processing, printing, and shipping, my custom planner still took less than two weeks to get to me. It comes very securely packaged, but not in a beautiful box like the Simplified Planner. This didn’t bother me, but it’s something to keep in mind if you’re giving it as a gift.

 

My Unique Agendio Planner

The Cover, Binding, and Tabs

I went with the plastic printed cover. It’s not as sturdy or as beautiful as my hardback Simplified Planner, but I do love the color, and it’s nice to be able to label it as mine. While the plastic doesn’t look or feel as nice, I think it may actually provide more protection from dings and spills. I also love that I can fold the Agendio all the way back to take up less space on my lap or desk. As a bonus, I get to pick every tab color individually, and the colors match all of the pages within that tab’s section, not just the monthly calendar page. This makes it feel very cohesive, and makes each month feel like a special new start!

 

The Extra Pages in Front

In front, it automatically starts with a title page where you can enter “return to” info, and two pages of mini calendars from the planner year and the next year.

Then, I added a page for emergency contacts, and a page for my “starting stats” for the year. I plan to add a bunch of things, like a picture of myself, fitness measurements, current favorite hobbies, etc. Basically a snapshot of myself at the beginning of the year, to compare to the end!

 

Next, I have a section to list my 2018 goals in four areas of my life: Personal Life, Victorious Attitude, Work/Professional Development, and Other. The intent of having two full pages isn’t to overfill and make them unattainable, but rather to give myself room to make them more specific. Plus, I like having it divided into sections, because it lets me see if I’m neglecting one area of my life in favor of others.

 

The Monthly Pages

I messed up on my monthly page! I intended to start the week on Sunday for the calendar view, but accidentally selected a Monday start. I think it may actually work out for the best, since blocking out weekends for trips and events has always looked a little sloppy in a Sunday start format (since it’s split between rows). But I’ll need to be extra cautious about double checking additions to my calendar until I get used to it. I have a feeling January and February will have a lot of white out.

I also included “at a glance” mini calendars of the past month and next month, and a “don’t forget” column for random notes. It’ll be for things like “Don’t forget to start thinking about a Halloween costume” or “It’s time to schedule another dentist appointment”.

 

After the calendar, there are two pages to help me achieve my goals for each month. The first is a habit tracker, with specific daily (or at least frequent) goals like “floss”, “go for a walk”, and “sustainable commute”.

 

The second page is for goals specific to that month, and should also be smaller, specific steps towards the 2018 Goals. So the goals for each month are set up in the same way, with checklists in the same four categories of Personal Life, Victorious Attitude, Work/Professional Development, and Other. To the right of each checklist, there is space for me follow up with a note at the end of the month about whether I achieved the goals or if they need more improvement.

 

Daily Pages

The daily pages have a lot of sections, designed to help me get through my tasks for the day in an efficient way. At the top left, there is a space for events and reminders. I have daily chore reminders, holidays, and birthdays pre-printed. Below that, I have a schedule. In my old planner, I often had things to do before or after the spaces given, so I made my Agendio schedule longer and more flexible with “Early” and “Late” spaces. I’m also really happy that I could use a 24-hour format, since that’s how I prefer my clock.

In the right column, it starts with a space for Gratitude and Mindfulness. I have anxiety, so when designing this I thought it would be nice to have a space for positive reflection and observations each day. Below that, there are three To-Do lists, for my Personal Life, Victorious Attitude, and Work/Professional Development. It’s easy to forget the little things over time, so the last box is a journal to write a super short summary of what happened that day and my feelings. I hope that I can look back in future years and see changes in my daily life!

 

My daily planner is laid out M-T-W-Th-F-S/Sn, so the weekend page is laid out a little differently, but still has all of the same elements. Each weekend day has its own event/reminder box, an unstructured (no times printed) schedule, and a journal. The two days share a single long To-Do List and Gratitude space.

 

The Extra Pages in Back

At the end of the planner, I have a Reflect section. Mirroring the beginning of the planner, I have four lined columns for Personal Life, Victorious Attitude, Work/Professional Development, and Other. In these, I’ll reflect on the goals I established at the beginning of the year, and whether I accomplished them or need to continue improving.

 

There are also another three pages labelled More Reflections, where I can record the books I read, movies and shows I watched, songs I played on loop, experiences I tried, places I went, and more. I think it would be fun to track my interests and what I spent my free time on more closely, so I can see how it changes or evolves each year! Plus, I think it’ll encourage me to try more new things.

 

Like the beginning, there is also an About Me page, where I can include a picture, fitness measurements, things I like, salary, important thoughts, and more, to see how I’ve changed over the year. The planner ends with a blank notes page, which I’ll probably use to add reminders of 2019 events that I’ll need to remember to put in my next planner, and a sturdy folder for tickets, notes, etc.

 

 

Overall Impressions, and Should You Get an Agendio?

The paper is a little thinner and not as nice as the Simplified Planner (or other specialty planners I’ve looked at), and the outside aesthetic is not as beautiful either. But the utility of using a planner that has everything I need—without stapled notes, copious white out, or spending a bunch of time adding stickers or drawing—makes it 100% worth these minor nuisances for me.

Since I designed it from start to end, I obviously love this planner. It has all of the organizational features I’ve dreamed of, and I’m genuinely excited to use it each day. I’ve only been using it for a couple of weeks, but I’m very pleased with it so far, and find it super satisfying to have a dedicated spot for everything I want to write down. Learning to use a planner consistently vastly improved my life and productivity in the last few years, and I think using one custom-made for me will be an even bigger boost in the coming year.

However, while the customization may give this impression, I do not think this planner is for everyone. With my base build, minor extras, and shipping, my planner cost just under $90. For the record, I do think that’s a fair value for a tool that I use every single day and carry literally everywhere.

However, if you’re new to planners, it’s very likely a bad return on investment. Not only is it possible you’ll stop using it, but it’s unlikely that you know exactly what features you need or don’t need, what motivates you, and what will annoy you and make the planner difficult to use.

Instead I highly recommend that newbies do some research to find a planner similar to what they would ideally build, and prove that they can use it for a year before dropping the money on an Agendio. There are tons of great planners that cost half the price, but are still a huge improvement from the bland office store ones. Plus, using another planner will give you a trial run of some features and layouts to see if your choices actually work for you.

For those who are already in the habit of using a planner and are looking to take their personal organization to the next level, the Agendio is a great option that I wholeheartedly recommend!

Design your own planner here, or check out my other planner review: Simplified Planner.

 

Do you use a planner, and if so, which one? What do you love or want to change about it?

 

This post is not sponsored.

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Also published on Medium.