Product Review of the Maggie Holmes Planner Extension Pack
Wondering if a Maggie Holmes Planner Extension Pack Could Be the Right Choice for Your Next Planner? Check Out This Honest Maggie Holmes Planner Extension Pack Review and Find Out All the Details That Will Help You Decide.
The TLDR Summary on My Product Review of the Maggie Holmes Planner Extension Pack:
This planner extension pack has some fantastic things about it, and some not-so-great things about it. Overall, I’m happy with it and recommend it to other planner users (with major caveats). Please keep reading for more details about this planner extension pack and how I am using it to maximize my productivity.
Whether or not you’ve already been using a Maggie Holmes planner from the “Day-To-Day” collection, you might want to consider transitioning to using a Maggie Holmes planner extension pack.
Of course, a planner extender pack is the most obvious and logical choice to continue using if you’ve already been using one of Maggie’s planner’s from the “Day to Day” collection.
However, you can use the extension packs even if you’ve been using some other brand of discbound planner, like the Happy Planner. Maggie’s extension packs are compatible with most other discbound planners; so if you already have discs and covers you could re-use from some other discbound planner brand, you don’t need to buy an entire new planner, and you can make an easy transition by just buying yourself a couple of Maggie Holmes planner extension packs.
Mind you, it is possible to buy just one planner extension pack, but I wrote “a couple of” because if you’re going to use this as your everyday planner, it’s really ideal to get two of these extension packs. Momentarily, I’ll explain why I make that recommendation – but first, I invite you to take a look at some pictures of my own planner setup that incorporates these planner extension packs.
Important Note! Before I started using Maggie Holmes planner extension packs, I had been using Happy Planners and their related accessories:
- Happy Planner extension packs
- Happy Planner Fill Paper
- Happy Planner Punches
- Happy Planner Metal Expander Discs
- Happy Planner stickers
- Happy Planner guided journals
- Happy Planner block pads
So, in these photos, you’ll see some of those accessories; in particular, the metal expander discs and the pen pouch shown in my pictures are from the Happy Planner.
All the Details You Need to Know About Maggie Holmes Planners and Extension Packs
Maggie Holmes offers a collection of customizable, undated discbound planners manufactured by a company known as “Crate Paper,” which is under the American Crafts umbrella of brands. The Maggie Holmes Planner Extension Packis part of a popular and widely available product line that also includes clear stamps, stencils, stickers and related paper crafting supplies.
The Discbound System Is One of These Planners’ Primary Advantages
The Maggie Holmes Planner binding system is an innovative discbound system.
What that means: Instead of notebook-style binder rings that snap open and closed, or instead of a spiral binding, you use round discs to hold your Maggie Holmes Planner Extension together.
Maggie Holmes Planner Extension Packs DO NOT come with the discs you need for this. You have to buy them separately.
There are many advantages to this system. One of the advantages is that you aren’t stuck with the discs you initially choose; you can remove them and put in different discs in their place. So, if you like to fully customize your planner for various holidays and occasions, you can use holiday-themed discs at that time of year, but switch them out when the holiday season is over.
Beyond that, the discbound planner system gives you all the advantages of a spiral binding, without the major disadvantages. Namely, your discbound planner can be made to lie flat on the table and stay open to the right place without you holding it in position; and you can also fold it back onto itself to easily keep it open to exactly the day you need.
The discbound system gives you options that a spiral binding does not. One of the best things about the discbound system is that you can remove pages from your planner and then later put them back in without any problems. You can also move pages from one place in the planner to another. So for example, let’s say you spend 4 hours writing out your chores list or your list of long-term goals. Instead of having to constantly re-write that page, you can simply pull the page out and update its placement in your planner every day.
Or let’s say that you write out your grocery list in your planner, but you don’t want to carry your entire planner around the grocery store. You can remove that page from your planner, and then take it to the grocery store with you.
If you make notes on the same page about what you actually buy and how much you spent, later, after you’re done shopping, you can move that page back to the meal planning section of your planner and use it to help you with your meal planning for the week. Or you can move it back to the budgeting section of your notebook so it can help you jog your memory on how you spent your grocery money.
If you meal prep or budget, imagine the massive time savings you’ll enjoy, just because you can save so much time by moving pages around rather than re-writing bunches of information. For me, this has been a HUGE game changer!
All discbound planners, including the ones by Maggie Holmes, share these design features.
I’m a longtime user of planners; in the past, after having tried some other types of bindings, I always insisted on having a spiral binding on my planner – but I’m finding that the discbound system is a big improvement over that.
For me, the years that I have used planners with notebook-style ring binders or regular hardbound planners were disastrous. I learned one important thing: I absolutely NEED to be able to leave my planner open to the right page so that when I return to it, I am in the right spot to continue using it. If I have to mess around with opening it up and finding the right place, that not only wastes time, but it also has the potential to derail my entire day with distractions (because if it isn’t easy to open up the planner and get started on my to-do list, I don’t always get to that right away, and before you know it, half my day is wasted.)
I found that even a hardbound planner with a bookmark did not help. I have to use a planner that can be folded over onto itself and left open at the right spot.
My organization system requires me to end my workday by reviewing the day’s wins and failures and by making and prioritizing a new to-do list for the following day. I leave my planner open, with the new to-do list front and center. When I’m ready to start work for the day, if my planner is at my workspace and open, I can sit down and get right to work on my to-do list. I have a goal of finishing at least my top priority first thing in the morning before I talk to anyone or do anything else. While I don’t always succeed at that, attempting it does help keep me focused and on-track to maximize my productivity.
You might not realize that little things like this can make a huge difference in your life. I didn’t realize it until I took the time to analyze why it is that I can be so productive sometimes and so unproductive other times. For me, it came down to having a planner that can be left open to exactly the right spot; that is one little thing that makes a massive difference in my efficiency and productivity.
Another thing that I LOVE about this: The dividers have designs on both sides, so you can reuse them again the next year — unlike the Happy Planner.
With the Happy Planner, the dividers have a design on one side and half the month’s calendar on the other side, so there is no reusing them unless you want to take the time to redate them or cover over them. And if you like to keep your old planners to refer back to (I do), then there is no easy way to reuse your dividers.
I LOVE the way these dividers and calendar pages are designed with the monthly pages ALL after the divider for that month. It drives me absolutely bonkers that the Happy Planner’s monthly planning page is at the end of the previous month. I am not sure if Maggie Holmes’ planners are all designed like this, but if they are, for me, that is a huge selling point, and a reason to consider switching to using Maggie’s planners over the Happy Planner.
What Type of Page Layout Do You Get With Maggie Holmes Planner Extension Packs?
You might be wondering what layout the weekly pages are configured in. I know I was wondering this.
The answer: They’re in a horizontal layout.
The layout of this extension pack is almost exactly what I want. If you prefer to use a horizontal layout, I highly recommend this extension pack to you.
Many planner users prefer a vertical layout or dashboard layout. So if that’s what you’re hoping for, these planner extension pages might not meet your needs. In that case, please take a careful look at my photos to see if you could use these pages or not. But if you want a vertical layout or a dashboard style layout, I think these are probably not going to work for you. This probably isn’t going to be what you want, so you should keep looking for something else.
Cons: Things I Don’t Like About the Maggie Holmes Planner Extension Packs:
Overall, I love the Maggie Holmes Planner Extension Packs, and I think they are well worth the money. I’ve bought multiples of these (I think I had purchased 4 of them all together, at last count.)
That said, there are some wonky things about these extension packs. Some of these downsides might be deal breakers for you, so please, before you “add to cart,” understand the downsides.
For starters, there’s a monthly overview page that gives you a few inches to write down your monthly goals. I don’t know about you, but I need more space than that — so I’ll be either removing or redoing this page in the planner basically every month.
For me, this is not a deal breaker.
The next problem is only a problem if you buy a single planner extension pack, which gives you 6 months’ worth of pages. It’s not a problem if you buy 2 of the planner extension packs.
The problem: There aren’t enough month stickers to use on all your weekly page layouts.
If you buy a single planner extension pack, you get 6 months’ worth of pages and dividers, and there are stickers for all 12 months of the year — but there are only half as many of each month sticker as most planner users would need to use.
This problem is solved if you buy 2 planner extension packs, because then you get twice as many month stickers, and you can use all the stickers from all 12 months, instead of having half of them that wouldn’t be used.
So, if you only buy one of these planner extension packs, be aware that you will have leftover, unused stickers from the 6 months of the year that your planner extension pack doesn’t cover, but that you will need to find another solution for dating about half the pages for the six-month period that your planner extension pack does cover.
This is really pretty annoying, and for me, that would be a deal breaker if I only wanted six months’ worth of pages. In that case, I wouldn’t recommend this to you. But if you want to buy two extension packs, which equals a full year’s worth of planner layouts, then this problem vanishes. So, if you want to buy these extension packs, that is what I recommend doing. That’s what I did, and I’ve been happy with that choice.
Another problem: The paper in these paper extension packs is not the highest quality. If you’re hoping to use your high-end fountain pens in your planner, you should definitely look elsewhere. In that case, these planner extension packs are definitely not what you want.
I stamped a date stamp using Tim Holtz’s Dusty Concord Distress Ink onto this paper, and the ink bled and feathered. Normally, this ink stamps crisply and cleanly onto cardstock and paper. I’ve never had a problem with it bleeding or feathering when I stamped it on Neenah Solar White cardstock or when I stamped it directly into my Happy Planner. so I believe the paper was the cause of the bleeding and feathering issues.
For me, this is not a deal breaker, because of the way I tend to create my planner layouts. I do just about all the writing in my planner onto planner stickers or stamped images that I stick into my planner using adhesive.
So I’m okay with a little bleeding and feathering here and there.
But if you are a “paper snob,” or if you prioritize owning and using the best quality paper possible, you should absolutely NOT buy these planner extension packs. You will not be satisfied with them.
This Planner Extension Pack Coordinates With the Entire Day-to-Day Collection by Maggie Holmes
Maggie Holmes Planner Discs
Maggie Holmes does offer multiple sets of different plastic planner discs in her “Day to Day” collection; these are sold separately from the planner extension packs.
I actually own multiple sets of Maggie Holmes planner discs, too, but I’m mostly using those to hold old planner pages that I don’t need to refer to every day. For everyday use, I really need metal discs, and to the best of my knowledge, Maggie Holmes doesn’t offer any metal ones. So, I’m going to continue using my Happy Planner metal expander discs along with my Maggie Holmes planner extension pack.
Where to Buy Maggie Holmes Planner Extension Packs
At the time I’m writing this review, A Cherry on Top Craft Shop currently has these planner extension packs in stock and on sale. You can check them out HERE.
Posted By: Amy Solovay
This page was last updated on 8-25-2024