Lake Tahoe Wedding Photographer Tools: The Emily Ley Simplified Planner

Part of my services as a Lake Tahoe Wedding Photographer, and a Reno/Tahoe Portrait Photographer, is to schedule and plan photoshoots, create custom wedding timelines, invoice customers at appropriate times and send out info at certain points along the process – among MANY other tasks. Some tasks are easy to do by nature, but for others, I need reminders to keep me on-schedule.

As a mom and wife, I’m in charge of many additional things…too many to list, in fact. A bulk of those tasks stem from managing our finances and the budget for my business and our family, and I keep track of things like special events, doctor’s appointments and the oh-so-time-consuming-but-extremely-invaluable Taekwondo lessons/tournaments/testing for our oldest kid.

The most important tool in my kit for staying on top of the many things I need to do, is my Emily Ley Simplified Planner. Up until January of 2016, I was using a generic monthly planner, and in the back, I had a LONG running list of to-do items. Not only was it kind of boring and failing at keeping me on-task, but it wasn’t particularly pretty or representative of my brand either.

I had been stalking Emily Ley on Instagram and decided to take the plunge and try out her Simplified Planner for 2016. I didn’t realize at the time how truly different this planner was. I chose the Daily Edition in “Happy Stripe” and I started utilizing the daily pages, which have the following sections: Today, To Do, Dinner and Notes. It also has a monthly spread, where you can get an overview of your whole month.

At the top of each day is an inspirational quote, which I have really grown to enjoy about these daily pages. I love them as well because I have plenty of room to write out the day’s schedule by hour (6am-9pm), a to do list I can actually tackle in one day, and a place to plan dinner and write some extra notes. Sunday’s daily page has a weekly prep section which asks you to plan meals for the week ahead, tidy up, write down appointments/to dos for the week and “fill your tank,” which are all excellent tasks for a Sunday afternoon (if I’m not photographing a wedding or portrait, that is).

If you were to ask me to review my Simplified Planner, I would say this: I simply ADORE my Simplified Planner. It’s pretty, super functional, great quality and fun to use. More importantly, though – the daily pages have made my to-do list so much more manageable. Now that I can break things down into daily to-dos, this planner actually keeps me on-task and ahead of the game most of the time. Emily Ley just released her 2016-2017 Academic Daily Simplified Planner in the cutest covers, ever! I’m waiting for her calendar year version release in the fall because my current Simplified Planner in Happy Stripe covers me until January, but I hope I can get the Fancy Floral cover at that time. It’s SO ME!

Fifth and Chestnut Photo Co. is a Lake Tahoe Wedding Photographer and Reno Portrait Photographer. We are also lovers of art, simplicity, and organization! We hope that any products we review or showcase can enrich your life as they have for us. If you’re on the hunt for a Lake Tahoe Wedding Photographer or Reno Portrait Photographer, get in touch!