We all know Mercury Drug as this giant medical chain, but who would’ve thought it’d also be the place to grab cool planners?
To be quite honest, when I first heard about Mercury Drug's Suki Daybook in 2017, five years after they released their first one, I was in an apprehension how it would look like. Really? A planner? Mercury Drug?
Lo and behold, when I saw the photos of the debossed cover pages, I was one to shut up and swallowed my initial impression because they look amazing. In fact something unexpected from a brand that sold… meds.
So with that, thank you so much again, Ms. Ka (@beatmydust), for lending me another planner for review, your 2023 Suki Daybook (and the rest of the props on the cover photo, let's be honest). 😅💕
Let's begin. ♥︎
THE LAYOUT
The Suki Daybook 2023 is a smyth-sewn hard cover journal that comes in 3 colors: blue, pink, and gray.
- hard cover textured vegan leather
- leather-bound smyth sewn
- ribbon bookmark to match cover color
- magnetic lock on the side
- dotted select pages
- activity pages each month (features)
- budget tracker
- yearly calendar with holidays printed
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| a better look of the cover page design |
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| magnetic planner lock |
QUICK NOTES
Where to get: Any of the 1,200 Mercury Drug branch in the Philippines
~
Jumping right into The Yellow Legal Pad Test because, again, I never do a pen-to paper test on planners that are lent for reviewing because, well, they're borrowed. You get the idea. 😉 Let's proceed.
THE SAMPLE PAGES
THE YELLOW LEGAL PAD TEST
pros
- Accessible. Most of the items sold at Mercury Drug are necessities, so a generous guess is that it's easy to attain the 40 points by the end of the year if you start earning them by January. Also, there are over a thousand branches in the country, so there's going to be a branch near you for convenient claiming.
- Full of features. There is a certain activity or feature each month. For example, (1) assessing people skills, (2) creativity / doodle page, (3) empathy through self-understanding, and so much more. It's something I appreciate because it helps hone the year ahead, but it also may not be everyone's cup of tea. 😇
- Better, more neutral colors this year. This is a subjective one, and is not, in any way, a shade to the colors last year, but I think they have better color range this year. These ones are don't necessarily draw extra attention once you plop it out your bag.
- Ribbon bookmark and magnetic lock. I always commend little features like this because they make planners friendlier to the user. The magnetic lock was a pleasant surprise to me, though I wonder how much it can hold if, say, the user would paste photos and stickers on the pages.
cons
- Limited space for planning. The only pages I saw that fit planning was the list of dates with blank lines next to them. I think it's to be filled with events date or celebration dates I'm not sure. But how about if you wanted to write an event that also falls on the same day as someone's birthday? Then you won't have enough space to write two or more items.
- No monthly spreads. I was confused when I couldn't find any monthly spreads, only blank ruled pages sandwiched between monthly covers/features. Perhaps the goal is to make notes? Or perhaps they wanted a diary-type entry instead? Or a brain dump at least? I wasn't sure how they envisioned people would use those, but the omission of monthly or weekly or daily spreads is a no on my book.
- Can be expensive. Not a strong con (as stated in item 1 in the pros section), but let's say you buy sporadically at the drugstore⏤just the usual wet wipes, snacks, and the occasional meds here and there⏤PHP 8,000 can be a little difficult to achieve.
- The design might be too much. This is a very subjective way of looking at the design, but I think that the planner has so much design there is only very minimal space for one to actually write on each page. This actually reminds me of the age-old slam books and autograph books.
- Not for those with big handwritings. The same as Starbucks 2023 planner, the Suki Daybook 2023 is also favorable to those who have smaller penmanship. Because the design takes most of the space, there wouldn't be enough for those who write their letters twice as big as the others.
VERDICT
final rating: 3.7
RECOMMENDATIONS
I'm unfortunately ranking this low as well, same as the Starbucks 2023 planner; the day book's lack of monthly, weekly, or daily spreads just does not (and will never) sit well with me. The point of keeping a planner is to keep track of day-to-day activities, not just a single event or celebration for a particular day.
However, because the monthly features are somehow fun and helpful to shape your year, I would recommend to, might as well, get one if your Suki Card can afford it. But if I were to get one of this, I would probably only use it as a supplementary planner, not my main one, just for the monthly features. Though I'm not even sure I'll use the pages for it; I might transfer it on my own bullet journal.
As an actual planner though, I would say that won't be as functional if you're one to use a planner to help you get on top of your daily tasks. :(
⚘ jls
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