Review: The Daysteps Planner

Posted on June 21, 2010 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Life Design,Organization,Review

Mondays are productivity days at SimpleProductivity blog.

Product Description

The Daysteps planner is a spiral bound 8.5″ x 11″ planner with different sections. Its goal is to allow you to actually plan out what you want to do, keeping balance in mind.

Company Background

Daysteps is a small company out of St. Louis MO which produces a planner aimed at life balance. The women founders of the company all lead busy lives, balancing family, work and personal needs.

What Makes This Planner Different

I was attracted to this planner because of the focus on balance. Too many planners turn into a blob of rushing to get too much done, without really giving you any room to figure out what direction you need to be going in. Daysteps aims to do life planning, and includes daily ways to make sure you are caring for yourself.

The Details

Month Page/Intentions

Click on the pictures for PDF examples of the three types of pages. All PDFs and Photos are from the Daysteps site.

For each month, you are given a two page spread. One page holds a month-at-a-glance calendar. The facing page asks you to pick intentions for the month, as well as set goals for fitness and nutrition. There are also two areas for you to note household maintenance tasks for the month as well as personal enrichment goals.

Week Page with Health Tracking

Each week has a two page spread. The top half is devoted to a calendar-like grid, but without numbers. The bottom of each day has grids and circles to track health, fitness and nutrition. There is a small task list area on the left side of the page.

Mind Dump and Review Space

At the end of each week there is another two page spread. The left side is dedicated to getting stuff out of your head. The right side is for recording events and reflections.

Overall Impressions

I liked the Daysteps planner from the standpoint that it really does stand apart in the area of actually planning. Too many planners are just calendars and task lists without any space (or reminders) to help you decide what your time should look like. In other words, Daysteps is a proactive rather than reactive planner.

The paper is thick and of high-quality. The covers are a bit flimsy for six month use without a cover, but it will fit into notebook covers from your local office supply store. Each of the pages has a tear-off corner to make it easy to find your current spot.

I was disappointed to find the daily calendar, but realizing there were no times in place allowed me to see that this could be used as a free-form appointment and task list.

I really liked the nutrition and fitness tracker, because for me out of sight really is out of mind.

The Guarantee

Daysteps offers a 30 day guarantee for unused planners. I have never run across a planner that does that (although admittedly I am out of the loop with planners these days).

Disclosure: I was sent a free copy of the Daysteps planner from which to write this review. I initiated the contact with Daysteps, and receive no part of their sales.