Anyone in the planner community knows there is such a thing as planner existential crisis. I'm officially joining the ranks.
Here's the TL;DR version: as a forever weekly planner, I might become a daily planner.
The 2024 Daily Sprouted Planner has brought its A-game. All thanks to the many people who offered feedback along the way.
Here are the biggest complaints I hear about daily planners (mine and others):
- Too thick/big/bulky
- Shared weekends are no bueno
- O-rings on dailies are dumb
- Wishful thoughts of weekly dashboards
Well friends, I took this all to heart and fixed that right up.
Before I dive into full details of the new daily planner, let's have a listed showdown of all the changes to the 2024 daily planner:
- Split into two planners
- Spiral bound
- Sturdier front pocket
- Revamped and added front pages
- "Values" added to monthly checklist
- Weekly dashboard added
- Greyed out bottom box of daily page changed to open white space
- Grid boxes on daily layout match up with the to-dos
Those are the biggest differences from the 2023 planners. There's more little changes that you'll notice if you use the 2023 daily planner, mostly esthetic.
Now the deep dive into the new daily planners.
Details
For my fellow measurement and detail nerds, here's your indulgence.
One of the biggest changes to the daily planner is splitting them in two. This is to accommodate the 2 biggest changes on the inside of the planner:
- Adding a weekly dashboard, and
- Giving Saturday + Sunday their own page.
The spiral binding is another huge change to the daily planner this year. The hardcover still makes it a little clunky (version laminated covers), but the pages move smoothly over them. Plus, you don't have that "end point" on the binding at the back of the planner, like the o-rings.
The inside pocket is created with sturdier cardstock, but not stiff enough to be unaccommodating.
The tabs obviously match the number of months within the planner. They are made wider, so the 6 combined tabs can stretch across the height of the planner.
The ribbon is long enough to effortlessly reach the corner of your daily planner. If it's not something you use, you can easily cut it off at the top of the back ends paper, which is where it emerges from.
Daily Features
Beginning Pages
There are 5 intentional prep work sections in the beginning of the daily planner (along with the weekly planner and hourly planner). If you are familiar with Sprouted Planners, they remain the same intentional setups are before, but jazzed up this year.
What's unique about the daily planner, is the prep pages at the beginning of the 2nd planner, July - December. It has unique prep pages, tailored to the 2nd half of the year. It will have you re-evaluate what you set at the start of the year, with sections tailored to that time-range
In the January - June planner, there is a page dedicated to bridging the gap to your July - December calendar, so you don't have to keep both with you always. The 2nd half of year planner has a page dedicated to bridging the gap to 2025.
A new page spread, added by demand, is a tracker for the year. It has the 12 months listed in the columns on the top, and 1-31 listed in the rows going down. This can be used as a tracker, year at a glance, or however your creative heart desires.
Before jumping into the monthly spread, the beginning pages end with 2 dot grid pages, and 2 lined pages. These would be great pages to map out your routines, meal rotation plans, additional trackers, schedules, etc.
If you're looking for a way to bookmark some of these important sections, may I suggest the newly introduced mini bookmarks? These beauties come in a pack of three, featuring the 3 cover designs.
Monthly Spread
- Full month views (Sunday – Saturday) with lined boxes
- Small reminders list to reference prep pages (Values, People, Reminders, Year List)
- 9x36 Grid in front of the calendar
- 10 to-do spaces with checkboxes, split into 2 columns of 5
- Dot grid space
You have no idea how many times people have told me they love this monthly layout. The moment you see it, you know why.
The faint, grey lined months are absolutely *chefs kiss* for those who love a guide. If the width is too small for you, take up 2 line or however many you want! Or ignore them altogether and write across them at an angle - that's why they are faint. There will be no planner police for how you do this.
The small reminder checklist is a gentle reminder to check your intentions you setup in the prep pages at the beginning of the year (or at the half year point) so you can schedule them in. Newly added to the list this year is "Values."
The 10 to-do boxes are broken into 2 columns of 5, which allows you to split your tasks by area (like personal and business) or not. If you need more space for your to-dos, you can use the grid space, or the dot grid space across the page.
Weekly Dashboard
- Top, blank box for weekly intention
- Monday – Sunday horizontal, lined boxes for schedule
- 1-column of 20 to-dos
- Grid space for notes, doodles, further customization
Can we say game changer? This weekly dashboard is what sent me into planner crises. Using previous daily planners had me missing my weekly view TOO MUCH. Splitting the daily planner into two allowed this gem to be added.
The ribbon would be a great way to hold this place, while your included snap-in bookmark marks the day. Or use one of the mini snap-in bookmarks.
Daily Spread
- Top box for daily intention
- 3 separate checkboxes for daily top 3, meal plan, gratitude list, etc.
- Hourly schedule from 5am – 10pm, with half hour spaces
- 15 checkboxes for to-dos or lists
- 5x16 box grid for lists, tracking, etc.
- Blank space for notes, doodles, and further customization
- Separate space at bottom of each page for daily reflection
- One page per day, including Saturday and Sunday
- All boxes unlabeled for ultimate personalization
I don't mean to brag, but these daily pages have it all without having too much. All with a neutral grey color and unlabeled boxes so you can make it your own, and/or different for what your day needs.
Also, pop the bubbly for Saturday and Sunday having their own pages! Thank you daily-planner-split-into-two for making this happen. Between the weekly dashboard, and giving the weekend their own pages, this adds 104 pages the daily planner (52 per planner).
Reflection
- Monthly reflection questions, designed to easily tear-out at year end for safekeeping
- Year-end reflection questions
Each month end features monthly reflection questions, consisting of some repeated questions, and two that change every month. The two that change tie into the loose theme of the month, which is tied into the monthly quote on the monthly spread.
One of my favorite reflection sections is the very end table, asking these 5 questions: What are you... Watching, Reading, Listening to, Looking forward to, and feeling challenged or worried by?
Once again, the monthly reflection questions were put on one page (front and back) so you can tear it out for safe keeping at the end of the year.
There are also a year end reflection questions. Two of them tie back to two of the monthly reflection questions, which help you consider the bigger picture.
Back Pages
- 10 lined notes pages
While 10 pages isn't the most generous, it's still 10 times more than the 2023 daily planner. In an effort to keep it minimally bulky (and similar depth as the weekly planner), 10 pages is what we got.
However, there are additional "notes" pages around the monthly reflection questions: one dot-grid page ahead of the questions, and one lined page after the questions (which is just prior to the monthly spread).
Additions
- 1 ruler to save your spot each day
- Sticker page
Just like infommercials back in the day (lay off me, I'm an 80s child), THAT'S NOT ALL. Both planners also come with 1 snap-in ruler, and one sticker page.
Accessories
The sticker page is a taste of what can be found in the sticker book. If you love little icons that will fit perfectly inside your Sprouted Planner, this is the book for you.
If you're looking for more notes pages, there are two perfect options you can opt for.
Mini Notebooks
The first is a mini notebook, sitting small and mighty at 5x7 inches with sewn binding this year (versus stapled). The sewn really ups the ante with both looks and durability. The mini notebooks come in each of the cover styles, so you can mix or match with your daily planner (and mini snap-in bookmarks for that matter). The come with 50 pages (or 25 sheets) of the same 80lb paper as the planners.
Notebooks
The second notes option is the brand new (and dreamy) notebook. Sitting tall at 8x10 inches, this beauty has 192 pages (96 sheets of paper) of 80lb paper. Each page is *almost* the same layout as the lined pages within the planners.
Each page has a topic box on the top, a fully lined page, and a vertical line on the far left for either margin, or to create to-dos or keys for your notes.
These notebooks are spiral bound, laminate covers, and has a double sided pocket page in the back. They come in two different cover options - different from the planner covers - but still marries well with your planner covers and other accessories. In fact, all the planners and accessories are purposely designed to pair well together in some capacity.
There are many more accessories, which will be fully showcased in a later blog, but these ones pair nicely with the daily planner.
So there you have it. Now does it make sense why I'm in a planner crises? To make matters worse, I'm also considering the new Hourly planner *insert mind blown emoji*. I'll be given a full blog showdown on those next week.
