Woman's Success Choice Planner 2013: new format and features!

You might remember my review of the 2012 Woman's Success Choice Planner from The Success Choice (click here to see my review) where I detailed all the features of this excellent planner. I'm very excited to show you the new format and features of the 2013 Woman's Success Choice Planner!

The 2012 format had all 7 days as equal-size columns across the two-page spread. But, many customers requested more writing space per day, so the daily columns were expanded so that weekdays have twice as much space as they had before. That puts Mon-Thurs on a two-page spread (click photos to enlarge):

And Friday, Saturday and Sunday are on the next page. Saturday and Sunday are smaller columns, but each of these is the size of the original day spaces so there's still lots of space to write each day.  At the end of the week there is a lined page for notes, lists, and anything else you want to write for that week.

Below is a more detailed view of the weekdays. Each day has spaces to list tasks, phone calls or errands, and to track your water intake (check boxes for 8 glasses per day), fruit and veg intake, exercise, and an area to personalize for your needs (medications, vitamins, reading, etc.).  Also for each day are numbered tallies to mark off daily chores like sorting mail and picking up clutter.

 Here's a closeup of Friday-Saturday-Sunday:

My friend Rori did a series of excellent reviews on this planner (see Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).  In her reviews she predicted that I would hate the split weeks, and to her credit normally she would be right. But, I think the value of having twice as much space to write each weekday is worth turning the page to see the rest of the week.

Pamela Henrie, the creator of the Woman's Success Planner, told me this about the new format:

"We keep all of the comments and suggestions from customers, and if we repeatedly get the same request, we consider a change.

The biggest request we get is more room to write, more room for appointments and tasks.

The reason we did the double column day with just a broken line is so that those who want to write straight across the two columns can. Those people who want to schedule appointments on the hour and half hour can use the second column for more appointments.

The two column tasks, etc. women can customize as desired. One column could be personal tasks, the other could be work tasks, kids, whatever.

The Contacts/Errands columns could be used for phone calls, emails, or however they want to customize it: kids, gratitude, etc.

The absolute biggest challenge was giving more room to write, more appointment and tasks, etc. and still keep it on a two page spread and small enough to easily fit in a purse. We couldn't see how to make it work and still give a full column for Saturday and Sunday which people love.

In order to keep the planner portable, we took out one notes page per week, but we added the creativity pages that can also be notes pages if desired. We had several requests for blank pages to mind map, put goal reminders, pictures, quotes, post-it reminders, etc.

We also added the monthly logs, numbered the pages, and put an index page in the back.

It is always scary to make changes because people get used to things a certain way, but at the same time there is always room for improvement.

As always, I would love any comments or suggestions."

Very interesting insight into the planner creation process!

At the end of each week is an End of Week Review, which is one of my favorite features of this planner:

And new for 2013, at the end of each month there is an end of month review, which is a wonderful addition:

This planner has a lot of goal-setting guidance, and gets you to follow-up in evaluating what you did, how it went, and how you can improve. This is enormously powerful in keeping you on track to your goals, and it's a step people often miss in their goal-setting.

Before each new month there is a blank page for notes, creativity, mind-mapping or anything else you'd like to put here:

Another fantastic new feature for the 2013 WSP is that each page is numbered!

 AND the very back page is an index, so you can easily reference numbers, quotes, ideas etc.

The other excellent features of the WSP still apply. The months are embedded in the weeks, and the months are printed on heavier card stock to make them easy to find between the weekly pages. Each month has a theme, a list of seasonal things to do that month inside your home and in the garden (like plant bulbs, change air filters etc.), and space to write your ongoing tasks each month:

At the bottom of each monthly planning page lists fruits and vegetables in season, to help you plan healthy meals.

The months are across the two-page spread, with space for notes under:

Each month has a page for goal setting, traditions and more details on the monthly theme (left page). Before each week there is a page for that week's tasks, menu planning and shopping list (right page). 

Each book holds one quarter (3 months) of monthly, weekly and notes pages, so you can start in any quarter you want.  The Jan-Feb-March quarter has goal planning pages for the year at the beginning of the year, to get you to think about and write down your annual goals. The July-Aug-Sept quarter has Midyear Planning pages at the beginning of the book to help you evaluate your goals progress so far, identify roadblocks, and brainstorm solutions for overcoming these roadblocks. The Oct-Nov-Dec quarter has Year End Review pages to be written in December to evaluate your successes and learning experiences of the year.

At the back of each quarterly book there are monthly calendars to plan a full 12 months:

And a Future Planning page for the following 12 months, so that each quarterly book has 2 full years of planning:

At the back of the book there are several more lined pages for notes, lists, quarterly reviews, expenses, or anything else.

The page size measures 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches, and each quarterly book is less than half an inch thick so it's very portable. It's designed to go everywhere with you in your bag to capture notes, lists, ideas and appointments wherever you are.

As I said in my previous review, this planner is the most comprehensive system I've ever seen for goal setting and evaluation, motivational quotes and advice, household maintenance and cleaning schedules, health trackers, notes and creativity, and more.

Don't forget you can get 15% off your total Success Choice order, including planners (spiral bound or looseleaf), leather binders and covers (see my review here), and the address book (see my review here).  Just enter code plannerisms12 at checkout!

Many thanks to The Success Choice for sending me this planner as a sample to review!