2025-26 Mini Daily Planner: Sea and Sky

I had this color for 2024-2025 LOVE IT . This year 2025-2026 I am going with black.

This will be my 5th year purchasing day designer planner, and my 2nd year going with the mini. The larger size is great for people working at home. The mini works best for me , not to heavy and I can carry in my bag easily .

As you can see from the picture, my planner gets USED!!! lol : ) Can't wait to personalize my new planner

cons: the ruler in the mini are not as sturdy as the large planners rulers. I am able to still use the rulers from 2021-2023( large Daily)

TL;DR:

Pro: Psyched about neutral, solid colors finally.

Cons: Consistently disappointed by the finicky spiral binding, which snags the pages and the cover, and is difficult to open/close. Special instructions for how to open/close a planner, something I carry around and use constantly, just doesn't work for me. Too fussy, bulky, and heavy for anything other than leaving lying open on a desk in one place, which isn't how I work and isn't how I use a planner.

Background:

I first discovered Day Designer in 2015. I was excited to find a planner that seemed to work with my brain, and that was organized the way I organize my day (schedule/"today" and to do list/"to do"). Bright designs are not my thing, though, so I decided to wait it out, occasionally suggesting solids whenever a survey went out. I'd sometimes print off some downloads, and I bought the A5 pages in 2016. Bought the stripe mini in 2017, and figured I'd cover the cover with something more neutral. Unfortunately, the spiral was super warped so the pages and cover caught on it. I emailed photos to customer service, who was great and responsive, and I think they sent me another one. I never ended up using it, though. Too heavy, too bulky, too frustrated with the spiral, and not very portable. However, I must have forgotten this, because I just bought the 2023-2024 Mini Daily Planner. I was excited to finally see solid, neutral colors, and ordered the grey bookcloth. It's a beautiful cover, but…

I’m officially on my 4th Academic Day Designer planner in a row. I’m clearly a fan lol. I’ll keep purchasing every year because this planner just works for me, but very disappointed with the quality of my latest purchase.

Pros: typical fast shipping, beautiful design

Cons: the included ruler with my new planner! I’m attaching photos below. I just sat down to transfer all important dates from my previous planner to my new one. So this is the first time the new planner has come out of the box. The ruler is completely unusable! I realize this is a small detail but I use the ruler included. As a repeat customer, this just isn’t the quality I’m used to with the day designer line. The planner feels more thrown together rather than carefully packaged. Disappointed on this edition so 3 stars. ☹️