Review of 2011 Daycraft Planners.

Today’s review comes from Frankie in Baltimore, who reviewed the Ecosystem Architect book for us last month.  Mr. Lee sent these three to PR HQ this autumn, with other very nice notebooks.

It’s the end of January, which makes it the perfect time to report back from test driving a trio of 2011 planners from Daycraft. Should you decide to make one of these your constant companion in 2011, you’ll still have eleven months of pages to fill with your appointments, birthdays, (hopefully) vacation time, and other reminders.

What with this being the New Millennium and all, there are any number of electronic ways to keep yourself on time and on schedule. If you’re like me, you probably have a combination of both paper and virtual methods. I have a wall calendar at home and at work to lay out the month at a glance, followed by my work calendar on Microsoft Outlook (partly required because it is also shared with my boss). But I can’t part with the old-school romance of a paper-and-pencil weekly planner that goes with me wherever I do. Because I need something I can carry with me, portability is a must –- which leads to the conundrum of allowing enough space to write without making the planner the size of a phone book (remember those?). Each of the Daycraft planners I tried achieves a balance between space to write and compactness. And each of them comes with particular designs and features that you can select to fit your personal and professional needs.

Daycraft Vogue Diary

Vitals:
Cover Material: Stitched quilted polyurethane.
Binding: Case.
Size: Assorted; 4.5 ” x 7.5” (pocket size) as tested.
Page Count: 248.
Colors: Ivory (tested), Blue, Black.

Unique Characteristics: International guides featuring holidays, telephone codes, airports, taxes, even driving conventions; list of international golf courses; vintage chart for the wine lover.
Origin: China.
Availability: Asia, Europe, and Australia. But Yanks can buy them online with international shipping here.

With its fashionable quilted cover and slender profile, the Vogue diary would look right at home inside my (or your) girlfriend’s evening bag. But don’t let the slightly Sex and the City look fool you – the Vogue diary is a hard worker. Mine has been in heavy rotation lately -– in and out of my bag, tossed across my desk, shoved in between other notebooks -– and I can attest to its durability. Its format covers one week in two pages, with each month distinguished by a sheet in a different color. You can keep your place with the red-orange velvet bookmark. Within the week, there are about 1.5 inches of space to write (less for Saturday and Sunday). The week-to-week format is great for plotting out appointments and distributing your workload. I’ve often found that with a page-a-day planner, items I don’t get around to on one day tend not to make it to my to-do list on another day. For all three planners under review here, the paper is smooth and takes to pencil well with no issues with ghosting or smearing. That has held true for the variety of pencils I’ve used so far, including the Palomino, Golden Bear, and Mirado. The international guide at the front of the planner is helpful for the global traveler. I appreciate that Daycraft acknowledges that not all of us have — or want — smart phones.

There are definitely days when I could use a little more space to write, and sometimes I resort to post-its for an extended to-do list. But the portability of the Vogue is tough to beat, and it remains my planner of choice for 2011.

Daycraft Chromatic Days Diary

Vitals:
Cover Material: Fine Italian polyurethane.
Binding: Case.
Size: Assorted; approx. 5 ” x 7”
Page Count: 128.
Colors: Orange (tested), Green, Yellow, Blue, Red.

Unique Characteristics: Four-color printed edges.
Origin: China.
Availability: Asia, Europe, and Australia. But Yanks can buy them online with international shipping here.

The Chromatic Days Diary was serious competition with the Vogue Diary to be my lieutenant for 2011. It’s slim and sophisticated, with a smooth, flexible cover and a modern look. The four-color printing on the edges also makes it colorful without being garish or obnoxious. The orange cover and orange ribbon bookmark are especially aesthetically pleasing. The Chromatic Days Diary lays out one week per page (not per spread), beginning at the end of August 2010 and carrying its user all the way through 2011. It contains fewer additional features than the Vogue but includes international holidays, a year at a glance planner, and pages for notes and a venue list. Its week-per-page layout makes space to write a bit smaller in the Chromatic Days diary -– only about three quarters of an inch. But if you don’t tend to write copious amounts of information in your planner or only need it to track certain things, Chromatic Days is a terrific option.

Daycraft Make My Day Diary

Vitals:
Cover Material: Cloth.
Binding: Case.
Size: Assorted; approx. 6.25 ” x 7.25”
Page Count: 216.
Colors: Black (tested), Black/Yellow, Blue, Blue/Yellow, Red, Red/Yellow.

Unique Characteristics: Black printed edges, perforated memo pages
Origin: China.
Availability: Asia, Europe, and Australia. But Yanks can buy them online with international shipping here.

Somewhat weightier than the Vogue or Chromatic Days Diaries, thanks to its cloth hard cover, the Make My Day Diary is similarly slender and portable. Squared in shape, it displays one week over two pages with a vertical layout that reminds me of the weekly vertical planner from Moleskine that I had a few years ago, but without the hourly markers that I found rather constricting (if I don’t have a meeting at 9 a.m., may I still write something on the 9 a.m. line?). The color palette inside the journal is cream rather than bright white. Each month is introduced by a sheet declaring “Make My Day” in different fonts, spelled out with different materials (including light, vegetables, and computer keys). While this planner wouldn’t look out of place on your bookshelf with your other hardcovers, the “Make My Day” pages lend a bit of subtle whimsy. Like other vertical planners, this one poses some challenge to fit your daily to-do list within its 1.25 inch-wide column. But it’s a trade-off between writing space and portability, and in leaning toward the latter, I think Daycraft makes the right choice, And any one of these three planners may just be the right choice for you in 2011.

[Text, F.G.  Used with permission.  Images, J.G.]