Happy Birthday To Us

Eighteen years, one planner, and so many of you to thank

Hi, friends! Emily here.

I wanted to pop over to celebrate Simplified’s birthday with y’all — and honestly, there’s no community I’d rather throw a planner party with than you.

So pull up a chair, because every good birthday comes with a little reminiscing, and this one starts back where it all began.

Back in 2012, I was loving my life and drowning in it at the exact same time. I had a baby on my hip, a business I was building in my guest room late at night, and a brain that felt like it was running fifteen tabs at once — deadlines, diapers, dinner, doctor’s appointments, all of it, all the time. I’d lie awake some nights running through everything I might be forgetting, certain I was one missed thing away from the whole day falling apart. (This makes me need a deep breath just writing it out again!)

I tried the apps. I tried the binders. I tried every color-coded system anyone swore by. None of it held the way I needed it held — none of it made me feel like I could actually breathe.

So I built the system I couldn’t find anywhere else. The first Simplified Planner.

I didn’t build it for a market. I built it for myself — and then realized I wasn’t alone. Hundreds of thousands of women were carrying the same invisible load. Loving their lives. Overwhelmed by everything those lives held. Looking for something that would actually work.

Some of my favorite moments since have come from hearing that something finally worked for someone else too — a customer telling me a planner page walked her through a hard season, a mom in line at Target stopping me because she recognized the beautiful cover. Watching a sharpie-and-binder idea end up on shelves at Target, Walmart, Anthropologie. None of that was the plan, and it still doesn’t feel real some days!

I won’t pretend every year of this was easy. There were seasons I showed up exhausted, parenting through planner files and book deadlines, wondering if I was doing either job well. Growing a business while growing a family will humble you fast — there’s no planner page for that, though I’ve tried.

One of the things I’m proudest of, looking back: the team of women we built along the way. Many of us moms, building creative careers that flex around our families instead of demanding the reverse. We built the kind of company we needed back when we were the overwhelmed ones at the kitchen table — work that bends to fit a real life, not the other way around.

Simplified has been that solution for nearly 20 years now. Today, you’ll find us online, in major retail stores, and in small local businesses, and the community keeps growing in ways I’m endlessly grateful for. If you want to see how far we’ve come — every cover, every year, every season — the Planner Archive is waiting for you!

So today is about us turning eighteen — and it’s about every single one of you who’s spent a piece of those eighteen years with us. To celebrate, the Birthday Sale starts today through Monday — up to 60% off, no code needed. Make sure to grab your new planner on sale so you’re ready for August. I’m in the thick of it too, getting my own ready, and cheering you on all year long!

Thank you for eighteen years of choosing to simplify your life. We’re proud to help and proud of you!

xo, Emily