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Combining the MäksēLife Planner and the Erin Condren LifePlanner
I’ll be the first to admit this is a little much. I really don’t need two weekly planners. Especially in the same book. But in this post I’ll walk you through what I did, and why I decided to do it this way.
It wasn’t as easy as it seems like it would be. There were actually a lot of complications that I didn’t expect. But it worked out okay in the end, and I’m happy with the result.
Why Two Weekly Planners?
To be completely honest, I just couldn’t decide which one I wanted to use. And I wanted to try out both.
I really love the Flora pattern for the Erin Condren LifePlanner, and since my horizontal planner that I’ve been using (and has been working great) ended in December, I decided to get the Flora Horizontal. And in case that didn’t make it pretty enough, I also got the vegan leather lavender cover with a black coil. I just love it, and that is the coil and cover that I’m using on my completed combined planner.
I’ve also been really intrigued with the MäksēLife Planner since it came out. I’ve been using Powersheets for my goals, which I love. But I thought it would be helpful to have the weekly goal planning pages that are included in the MäksēLife. Plus, they have a vertical lined layout, which is something I’ve been wanted for a long time! I started with vertical and used it for years, but hated that it didn’t have lines. I used the hourly for awhile too (for the lines) but didn’t like covering up the hours each week. Too much work. It just seemed like the MäksēLife has so much to offer and I wanted to finally try it out.
But I couldn’t choose between the two. Both have features I really, really love. And I just couldn’t imagine not using one of them. The best thing I could think of was to combine them and try out both to see which actually works better for me.
I also didn’t want to be dealing with two separate planners. I have enough planners and having two weekly planners just seemed like too much to deal with. Plus, ordering the MäksēLife Planner Inserts is less expensive than the full year planner, so it seemed like a great option to be able to try out this new planner.
The Struggle
I want to touch a little on the things that weren’t as easy as I was hoping they would be. But it’s hard to explain without showing you, so I highly recommend watching the YouTube video if this is something you want to do.
Trimming the MäksēLife Planner Inserts
First of all, MäksēLife Planner insert pages are, in fact, 7×9 inches. Erin Condren pages are not. They are a little shorter, and a little wider than true 7×9. So the first thing I did was trim each of the MakseLife pages to be the same height as the Erin Condren pages.
I didn’t worry about the width. It wasn’t much and I barely noticed it after the whole planner was coiled together anyway.
But because of the tabs, and the different information and layout of each page, I had to be strategic in how much of the top and bottom I cut off of each page. It wasn’t always the same between pages.
Make Sure the Punched Holes Line Up
Next, pay attention to how many holes you are punching for the coil to go through. I have the benefit that I have access to a coil binding punch. So I was able to play around with scrap paper and make sure that I got it just right before I punched all my papers. I’m really glad I did because I would have messed it up if I had just done it like any other paper.
I ended up doing it really low on the page, so there was enough room to add in an extra hole. This is how the ECLP is set up and once I figured that out, the holes lined up much better!
There Were Way Too Many Pages
Because the MäksēLife Planner has two spreads for each week, it is almost double the thickness of standard weekly planners, including the Erin Condren LifePlanner.
Even though the MakseLife Inserts are only 6 months worth of pages, they are almost as thick as the entire year of Erin Condren LifePlanner pages. I only added in 6 months of the ECLP pages, plus an extra notes page each month, and this planner was almost too big to close. I ended up taking out things like the coiled in stickers, title pages, and some of the notes pages in the back in order to still have enough room for it to close *almost* nicely. It was still very full and didn’t have room for my sticky notes to clip inside.
The Results
It’s not perfect. Not at all. Trimming the pages in small amounts is just asking for cutting errors and I definitely had some. On many of the pages the top coil hole is extended past the top of the page, and one page I completely misjudged and cut it 1/4 of an inch too short.
But for all the struggles that it was to figure out how to coil together the MäksēLife Planner Inserts and Erin Condren LifePlanner, I’m really happy with the results. None of the issues are bothering me that much (except for the shorter page, but I don’t have to look at it that often- and at least I didn’t cut off anything important).
I can’t wait to jump into this planner and figure out how I will use it.
