Planner Review: 2021-2022 Large Simplified Student Planner

Once again, we are getting ready for a new school year. And, thanks to this lingering pandemic, with its climbing numbers, we are still feeling a bit uncertain about the upcoming school year.

What’s a planner mom to do? Grab a student planner to at least restore some order to the beginning of the school year! And, this year, I am sending my daughter with her second “The Simplified Student Planner.”

Last year, my daughter was so excited to get her Little Stripe Simplified Student Planner. I was incredibly grateful to receive one from one of the ladies in the Simplified Sisterhood Facebook page, as they were all sold out.

It was so adorable and made her feel very organized, which was a big deal since it was her first year of middle school. I loved it so much, I reviewed it here.

The only drawback about last year’s Simplified Student Planner was its size. It only came in a notebook that measured 7 x 9 inches when closed with each page measuring 5 x 8 inches. With my daughter’s big, swoopy handwriting, she found herself struggling to write small enough to add all of her assignment information to the small block available for each class period.

So, you can imagine our absolute delight at learning that Emily Ley and At-A-Glance have teamed up once again to offer this planner, and it now comes in two sizes! There is a “medium,” which is the size we found last year, and a “large,” which we purchased this year. (#Ad)

Below is a review of this year’s Simplified Student Planner. I have compared it to the one we purchased last year, providing both similarities and differences. I’ll also provide some opinions on what we loved and what we would change if we could. Spoiler- there’s isn’t much we would change. 😊 At the end, you’ll find suggestions for some fun accessories to go with any student planner.

2021-2022 The Simplified Student Planner Review

We were pleased to see that not much has changed between last year’s Student Planner and this year’s. We really appreciate the time and care that was invested in creating a planner as beautiful and function as the one offered here.

Features Similar to Last Year’s Student Planner

• The 2021-2022 Simplified Student Planner is a monthly-weekly, 12-month dated planner.
• As you would expect from a student planner, it follows an academic-year calendar, and like last year, runs from July to the end of June.
• Both size planners are bound with a single, flexible silver coil and have two, sturdy laminated covers.
• The inside design of the cover is white with small navy-blue polka dots.
• Attached to the back cover is a navy-blue elastic band to hold the book closed when not in use.
• Inside, the months are marked with laminated tabs in graduated Simplified flagship colors.  
• The paper is still the kind you find in other At-A-Glance products, so it is not the same quality as Mohawk paper used in the flagship brand.

Monthly Layouts

• Each planner has a full year of monthly layouts that are all dated
• Both have days of the week, which start on a Sunday, and basic holidays written in small print within the day’s assigned slot.
• To the left of the calendar is a lined notes column for monthly “To Dos”.
• Just like last year’s version, the days of the week at the top of the monthly layout are set within brightly colored boxes in classic Simplified colors. The months are written in the same navy blue ink throughout.
• Each daily slot in the monthly spread has the date listed in a small box in the top left-hand corners. Only the days of the month for that calendar are dated, with the rest having empty boxes.
• Like last year’s model, the monthly spread header includes the name of month on the left and a simplicity tip on the right.

Weekly Layouts

• This year’s student planner has weekly layouts that begin in July 2021 and go through July 3, 2022.
• Each week is a two-page spread.
• Like in the monthly spread, the days of the week at the top of the monthly and weekly layouts.
• As in last year’s planners, the range of days is written in navy blue each week.
• Each week has a Monday start, with a full vertical planning column for each weekday. Saturday and Sunday share a column.
• The layout has colorful daily headers with the words “My Day” written in a small font to the left of the first row for each day’s column. On the left side of both pages is a small column to write down the class period or name of the class.
• Each class slot is lined, and the bottom of each day’s column has an unlined notes section (which my daughter used to plan after-school “activities”- mostly chores and homework last year).

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Bonus Features

• Like last year’s model, this year’s came with a beautiful clear, snap-in bookmark. The bookmark has a 6-inch ruler and the Simplified logo all in gold foiled writing. The bookmark is held in with just two fasteners. It is thin plastic, so it wore out a bit and my daughter stopped using it because she didn’t want it to break.
• The very first pages you find when opening the planner are two pages filled with student-paged stickers. As with all Simplified stickers, they are pretty and functional. These include important dates such as the 1^st Day of School, Fall and Spring Break, etc. The large also has several heart stickers, 32 Test Today stickers, and 12 Project Due stickers
• The first page is a nameplate page, which is one of two glossy, cardstock pages. See my comments below on the functionality of this page.
• Once again, Emily Ley includes a letter wherein she provides some encouragement to the student and her vision for using the student planner.
• The next two pages are “About Me” pages. The first includes sections for a name, grade, school, phone number, address, and three goals. The second has a chart to write down school accounts and passwords.
• There are two pages for Looking Back and Looking Ahead. These encourage students to assess what worked and didn’t work the previous school year as well as ideas for new routines for the current school year and a list of things they’d like to do.
• There is a Daily Routine page which has space for writing out before and after school routines.
• As with many planners, there is a class schedule chart with room for writing 12 classes and their corresponding teachers and locations. My daughter is on an A/B day schedule (each day has about 4 classes, and she attends half of them on alternating days), so she’s grateful to have the extra space for new classes that may pop up during her spring semester. Below that is a lined notes section.
• There is also a weekly schedule for Monday through Friday. My daughter used this to write out her weekly responsibilities that might change by the day.
• The planner includes an academic year overview, with room to plan out important events for the school year.
• At the back of the planner, after the monthly and weekly spreads is a two-page spread of lined “Future Planning” pages with a small month’s calendar that can help to plan into the next academic year (July 2022 through June 2023). One of the pages is the second of the glossy cardstock pages, so watch out for inks that might smear.

Differences between the Large and Medium versions

Cover. It comes in 4 cover designs: Happy Stripe, Blue Stripe and two different Floral designs (which is the one we purchased this year).

Size. This obvious difference between these two planners lies in the size. The “medium” is a very slim and compact planner. The “large” is also very slim, but it measures much larger and is not as portable. Here are the specs:

• Closed, the medium planner measures about 7 x 9 inches (including the coil and cover). The large measures 11 ¼ x 9 ¾ inches.
• Each page in the medium measures about 5 x 8 inches, whereas the pages in the large measure 11 x 8 ¼ inches.
• The two-page monthly calendar in the medium has a slot of about 1 1/8 x 1 1/4  inches for each day. In the large monthly calendar pages, each daily slot measures 1 3/4 x 1 7/8 inches- not much of a difference, but it’s significant when you’re trying to write more in each space.
• Although the months are marked with laminated tabs in graduated Simplified flagship colors in both planners, having larger tabs in the Large planner makes it much easier to thumb your way to the right month.

Availability and Price. The smaller planner retails for about $12.99 at Target and ranged between $18.00 (Floral) to $18.95 (Happy Stripe) at Amazon. At Target, the prints were completely different. It comes in a different floral print at as well as in a light Blue Stripe. Interestingly, I could not find the large version at Target. At Amazon, the large was priced between $19.68 (Floral) and $19.97 (Happy Stripe) and was available in both the pink floral and Happy Stripe.

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Things We Would Change if We Could

Many of these are ones mentioned in last year’s planner review, so no surprises here. And, I’m totally nitpicking because the planners are just lovely and I understand that a planner at this price point wouldn’t have these features.

That said, these are options we kind of wish were available, even if you had to purchase some add-ons to accessorize the planner. We think these are particularly doable for the larger planner, given its size.

• A folder of some sort. The Simplified Daily and Weekly Planners all have a pocket attached to the front cover. It would be great to have a small pocket either attached to the inside cover or a separate folder or sleeve bound into the coil. I can even see them creating an accessory pack with this as a snap-in or sticker option.
• Extra notes pages. With this larger layout, I think just a couple of notes pages would be useful and not make the book too bulky.
• A pen holder. This is just a personal preference, since my daughter likes to keep her pen attached to her planner. That said, even with this larger size, you can clip a pen within the wire coil or to the top of the planner using the elastic band.

A gender-neutral color option. I mentioned this one last year because it would be so great to have an option like for kids like my son. With their floral and striped covers and rainbow interior design, the current planners are clearly geared toward girls or those who enjoy feminine-themed stationery. Perhaps Simplified can offer a Dapperdesk version that is more gender neutral? I noticed that The Simplified company has collaborated with At-A-Glance to create an affordable version of their Dapperdesk planner (which is a more professional and gender-neutral product), so it would be really great if they could collaborate on a Student Planner that fits that model. (#Ad)

• Cutting out the glossy pages. I’m sure the glossy pages have a function the publisher recommends. But, my daughter found them really difficult to write on. It would be great if the glossy pages were reserved for pages that don’t require any writing on them.

Fun Accessories

As I noted in last year’s post, I find that you are more likely to use a planner if you make using it a fun experience. Here are some accessories that my daughter and I recommend:

If the bookmark that comes with the planner wears out, it might be easier to just go with a nice, pretty binder clip to hold your place. Here is a set of cute ones: (#Ad)

Because it doesn’t come with pockets: (#Ad)

If you need room for extra notes, and you find sloths as cute as we do, try these sticky notes: (#Ad)

If you’d rather not use the coil or elastic band to store a pen, try an adhesive pen loop. This one is from the Happy Planner, and although they’re a bit pricey, they hold pens and pencils with a larger barrel: (#Ad)

Or, have a few pens in a cute pencil holder that wraps around the planner. This one should stretch to fit the large sized planner: (#Ad)

Although the planner comes with a couple pages of stickers, here is a link to a search for a few other sets to provide you with more options (#Ad):

Specifically, here is a huge sticker book filled with school-themed stickers: (#Ad)

Or, for a great collection of functional student-themed stickers (#Ad):

For older (high school and college) students: (#Ad)

It might also be helpful to have a way to carry this planner around. Given it’s size, my daughter has decided to use one of these plastic folders with elastic loops, which will also hold pens and other paperwork she gets at school: (#Ad)

As I noted last year, the Simplified Student Planner is a great product for a great price. It has very unique features for a student planner and both the medium and large sizes have a slim design that make it lightweight and easy to tote around.

What student planners have you used? Is there one you would recommend? Leave a comment below!

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** Graphics created with Canva with original photographs; all other photographs are original photos of Simplified Student Planners except the image of office supplies found on Pixabay.

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