Most of us love a good success story, and frankly they come across my desk fairly rarely these days. So I was gratified last week to see all the excitement going on at Emily Ley about her new 2014 Simplified Planner. Released a week ago last Monday, November 12th, they sold 700 in the first 48 hours, completely depleting the first batch!
Perhaps that’s because it’s not really the planner that’s simplified, it’s the life and schedule that is simpler to manage by using it. The planner is designed to thoughtfully approach and juggle our responsibilities and passions. The cheerful and unserious appearance is a great first step in accomplishing this. The brass spiral-ring bindings coordinate with the cover’s gold foil printing and chicly offset its rainbow stripes. Open it up and you won’t immediately find pages for tracking meetings or menus, but an outline focusing on the simplification process: how to balance things that MUST get done with those things that matter most.
Rather than wax on, I’ll let Emily describe the careful thought and planning that went into it. “During the summer of 2013, our shop director, Gina, and I had a lot of real, raw conversations about the Simplified Planner. Not how we could make it better and sell more, but about how we could truly impact people and help women like us, all in different stages of life, make what matters happen. We focused on our product improvements from a heart perspective. Our goals were to give women a compact, clean, simple and purposeful place to house their daily plans. This new Simplified Planner would serve as a place to plan intentional days, carving time to make things happen and time to rest. It was as important to me to include the necessities as it was to LEAVE OUT the other things. You won’t find a ton of worksheets or info pages in this planner. Simplification is as easy as that.”
Fear not, although the first batch has sold out, the next will ship out mid-December, perfect for starting the new year on a good note. Click here to be among those lucky folks receiving the next one!
