This time of year people think of new beginnings and making some life changes. The fact is, anything new that you add to your life needs to be worked into your daily schedule or it's not going to happen. How do you bring new tasks into your current schedule?
The best way is to see your goal tasks along with your daily schedule in your planner. This keeps your goals in front of you all the time, and lets you see where you can fit them into your days.
The first step is to review the past year to determine what you have achieved and what still needs work. Then write your annual goals, and break them down into your quarterly goals to get an overview of your plan for the year. (For more details on planning your annual and quarterly goals see this post.)
When you have your plan all set, you'll be able to break your goals down into actionable tasks. Here is where the plan turns to action and you'll start to notice a real difference in your effectiveness. By listing your daily goal tasks along with your schedule, you'll be able to see what you need to do and when you have time to do it. See more on how to incorporate your goal tasks into your weekly and daily schedule in this post.
The Plannerisms planners were specifically designed to help you work your goal tasks from the big overall picture, through your quarterly and monthly goals, to your weekly and daily tasks.
There are still some limited edition 2016 Plannerisms planners left to order, you can see ordering information here. But don't wait, because there will be no more made for 2016 so when they are gone they are gone for the year!
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
2016 Plannerisms planners are ready to order!
Update: the 2016 Plannerisms planners are now sold out! Many thanks to everyone who bought a planner. There will be no more made for this year.
Look for the 2017 Plannerisms planners in early autumn here on Plannerisms.com!
Look for the 2017 Plannerisms planners in early autumn here on Plannerisms.com!
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
How to use the Review pages in your Plannerisms Planner
The Plannerisms planner incorporates methods that have been proven to help you set and reach your goals. One of these methods is regular reviews.
At the backs of the weekly booklets there are designated pages for your Half Year and Annual reviews.
These spaces are where you ask yourself questions like:
What went well in the past six/ twelve months?
What goals did I complete?
Which goals have I not completed?
What prevented me from completing these goals? (Roadblocks)
What can I change in order to break through these roadblocks?
Have any of my goals changed during the course of the past six/ twelve months?
Which goals became irrelevant?
After you have figured all of these out, you can decide what your goals should be for the next six/ twelve months.
Some people like to do monthly, and even mid-month reviews to stay on top of their progress. There is space for this in the Notes pages that are between every month's spread.
There are limited supplies of the Plannerisms planners, and when they are gone they are gone! Click here for ordering info.
At the backs of the weekly booklets there are designated pages for your Half Year and Annual reviews.
These spaces are where you ask yourself questions like:
What went well in the past six/ twelve months?
What goals did I complete?
Which goals have I not completed?
What prevented me from completing these goals? (Roadblocks)
What can I change in order to break through these roadblocks?
Have any of my goals changed during the course of the past six/ twelve months?
Which goals became irrelevant?
After you have figured all of these out, you can decide what your goals should be for the next six/ twelve months.
Some people like to do monthly, and even mid-month reviews to stay on top of their progress. There is space for this in the Notes pages that are between every month's spread.
There are limited supplies of the Plannerisms planners, and when they are gone they are gone! Click here for ordering info.
How to use the Goals pages in your Plannerisms planner
I designed the Plannerisms planner to be an all-in-one place for your big-picture goals all the way down to the daily details. The Plannerisms planner has pages that can help you determine your goals for the year and then break them down into quarterly milestones, monthly goals and daily tasks.
There is a two-page spread where you can write your big goals for the year. If you like you can use one page for work goals and the other for personal, as shown below. This is where you dream big, and think of big things you want to accomplish before the year is over.
Next there is a two-page spread where you can break your annual goals down into quarterly goals. Think realistically about what you can accomplish in each three-month block. Take into account seasonal changes (how much will you be running in the winter months compared to summer, for example), slow times at work due to holidays, travel, and other major events.
After you have determined your quarterly goals you can break these down by months. The monthly pages in the Plannerisms planner give you an overview of each month. In the shaded area at the left you can write the month's focus, things to focus on in particular weeks, etc.
Between each monthly spread there is a two-page spread for Notes. This is where you can write your goal steps for the month, track your progress, and do your monthly evaluations/ reviews. (More on reviews in a separate post.) You can use this space any way you like.
Then you take your goal tasks directly to your schedule page. List your daily goals in the shaded area at the left so you can check them off every day with no re-writing. Write actions and tasks that help you work toward your goals directly into your day spaces so you can be sure to work them into your daily schedule and routines.
You can see more info on how to use the weekly pages here.
There are limited supplies of the Plannerisms planners, and when they are gone they are gone! Click here for ordering info.
There is a two-page spread where you can write your big goals for the year. If you like you can use one page for work goals and the other for personal, as shown below. This is where you dream big, and think of big things you want to accomplish before the year is over.
Next there is a two-page spread where you can break your annual goals down into quarterly goals. Think realistically about what you can accomplish in each three-month block. Take into account seasonal changes (how much will you be running in the winter months compared to summer, for example), slow times at work due to holidays, travel, and other major events.
After you have determined your quarterly goals you can break these down by months. The monthly pages in the Plannerisms planner give you an overview of each month. In the shaded area at the left you can write the month's focus, things to focus on in particular weeks, etc.
Between each monthly spread there is a two-page spread for Notes. This is where you can write your goal steps for the month, track your progress, and do your monthly evaluations/ reviews. (More on reviews in a separate post.) You can use this space any way you like.
Then you take your goal tasks directly to your schedule page. List your daily goals in the shaded area at the left so you can check them off every day with no re-writing. Write actions and tasks that help you work toward your goals directly into your day spaces so you can be sure to work them into your daily schedule and routines.
You can see more info on how to use the weekly pages here.
There are limited supplies of the Plannerisms planners, and when they are gone they are gone! Click here for ordering info.
How to use the Weekly pages in your Plannerisms planner
The Plannerisms planner's weekly pages are designed to help you incorporate your goal tasks into your daily schedule.
At the left there is a shaded column where you can write your daily goals and/ or intentions. This allows you to write them only once, and check them off each day.
Under the day spaces there are areas to write your task lists, weekly reviews, mind maps, sketches, notes, and anything else you would like to put in this space. You can use it any way that suits you, and you can even use it differently week to week if you want.
The flexible format can be used any way you like. Here are a couple of suggestions:
Below is an example of how I use my weekly pages. You can see my goals in the shaded column. I circle appointments and make note of important events in red. I list things to bring along to an event above the entry.
Below the day spaces I write my categorized lists. I use a box for multi-step tasks. I fill in half the box to indicate when a task is in progress, and I fill the box in entirely when the item is completed.
You could also use the shaded column to divide your day spaces into different members of your family, work/ school/ home, etc.
There are loads of possible ways to use this flexible format.
There are limited stocks of the Plannerisms planners available for this year, and when they are gone they are gone! Click here for ordering info.
At the left there is a shaded column where you can write your daily goals and/ or intentions. This allows you to write them only once, and check them off each day.
Under the day spaces there are areas to write your task lists, weekly reviews, mind maps, sketches, notes, and anything else you would like to put in this space. You can use it any way that suits you, and you can even use it differently week to week if you want.
The flexible format can be used any way you like. Here are a couple of suggestions:
Below is an example of how I use my weekly pages. You can see my goals in the shaded column. I circle appointments and make note of important events in red. I list things to bring along to an event above the entry.
Below the day spaces I write my categorized lists. I use a box for multi-step tasks. I fill in half the box to indicate when a task is in progress, and I fill the box in entirely when the item is completed.
You could also use the shaded column to divide your day spaces into different members of your family, work/ school/ home, etc.
There are loads of possible ways to use this flexible format.
There are limited stocks of the Plannerisms planners available for this year, and when they are gone they are gone! Click here for ordering info.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
2016 Plannerisms Planners UPDATE
I have just received the notification that the 2016 Plannerisms planners are finished printing! Because we are getting them out so late in the year, THERE WERE ONLY 100 PRINTED. And when they are gone they are gone for the year, there will be no reprints for this year. So if you want a 2016 Plannerisms planner, you will have to order them as soon as they are available to order because when they are gone, they are gone for the year!
I will post the ordering link as soon as I have it, so keep checking here on the blog, Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.
Meanwhile you can see this post for more info on prices and shipping, and you can see this post for photos and information about the planners themselves.
Make your list of who you want to get these planners for as gifts, because you might not get more than one chance to order! I will have ordering information up here the second it's ready.
Thank you for your interest everyone!
Update: the 2016 Plannerisms planners are now sold out! Many thanks to everyone who bought a planner! There will be no more printed for this year.
Look for the 2017 Plannerisms planners in early autumn here on Plannerisms.com!
I will post the ordering link as soon as I have it, so keep checking here on the blog, Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.
Meanwhile you can see this post for more info on prices and shipping, and you can see this post for photos and information about the planners themselves.
Make your list of who you want to get these planners for as gifts, because you might not get more than one chance to order! I will have ordering information up here the second it's ready.
Thank you for your interest everyone!
Update: the 2016 Plannerisms planners are now sold out! Many thanks to everyone who bought a planner! There will be no more printed for this year.
Look for the 2017 Plannerisms planners in early autumn here on Plannerisms.com!
Friday, December 11, 2015
2016 Plannerisms planners NEWS!
Hooray! Here is the latest news from my publisher:
Unfortunately we were not able to get these sold via Amazon this year after all, so all shipments will go from the publisher in Germany. We are working on a US distributor for next year.
The planners will finish printing in the next few days and will be available to order soon!
PLEASE NOTE: I created the original design of the Plannerisms planners, but I do not sell these planners myself. They are published, sold, and distributed by X17.de. If you have any questions about the ordering process, shipping, prices, customer service or anything else you will need to contact them directly at X17.de because I do not handle any of that myself. For more information on the planners themselves including size/ dimensions, formats etc see this post here. Disclosure: I do receive a percentage of sales.
Update January 15, 2016: The 2016 Plannerisms planners are sold out! Many thanks to everyone who bought a planner. There will be no more made for this year.
Look for the 2017 Plannerisms planners in early autumn here on Plannerisms.com!
Update: The 2016 Plannerisms planners are now ready to order! Info is here: http://www.plannerisms.com/p/how-to-buy-plannerisms-planners.html
The Plannerisms planners come as a package in three booklets: one booklet for month on two pages calendars, notes and goals pages; and two booklets for the weekly pages (6 months each). These booklets fit into a cover, you can see more info on the new Plannerisms planners system and how it works here.
Price: 19.90 € (Euros) which includes 19% German taxes (so the price for customers outside of Germany will be 16.72 € for USA and Canada)
The shipping cost to the USA, Canada and UK is 9.95 €.
You can see the exchange rate from Euros to your currency at an exchange website like XE.com or others.
Please note that for shipments out of the EU, additional customs duties could apply.
Please note, that the normal time for shipment is not less than 10 days to the US.Unfortunately we were not able to get these sold via Amazon this year after all, so all shipments will go from the publisher in Germany. We are working on a US distributor for next year.
The planners will finish printing in the next few days and will be available to order soon!
PLEASE NOTE: I created the original design of the Plannerisms planners, but I do not sell these planners myself. They are published, sold, and distributed by X17.de. If you have any questions about the ordering process, shipping, prices, customer service or anything else you will need to contact them directly at X17.de because I do not handle any of that myself. For more information on the planners themselves including size/ dimensions, formats etc see this post here. Disclosure: I do receive a percentage of sales.
Update January 15, 2016: The 2016 Plannerisms planners are sold out! Many thanks to everyone who bought a planner. There will be no more made for this year.
Look for the 2017 Plannerisms planners in early autumn here on Plannerisms.com!
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Week Dominator planner review
So I'm almost a year overdue for this review. Sorry guys! Better late than never, right?
You may remember my post on the Week Dominator planners back when they were doing their Kickstarter campaign (and if you don't, you can click here to see it).
The bad news is: the Week Dominator is currently sold out. (So now you are asking, why are you bothering to show us this review??) Because the good news is, the new updated version of the Week Dominator is available for pre-order and will be available soon! The insides are all the same so I will show you the layout.
Disclosure: I bought and paid for these planners myself for my own use. I happily helped fund their Kickstarter campaign.
The Week Dominator planner is the result of lots of research on planning and time management methods. The creators (the brilliance behind Neu Year) designed the planner to work with lots of different methods like time blocking, Pomodoro, goal setting, evalutions/ reviews, etc. The result will help you be more productive and allow you to dominate your time, not the other way around!
The Week Dominator planner is undated so you can start any time, leave it home when you're on vacation with no wasted pages, start it at the beginning of a big project, etc.
These are the covers I chose from the Kickstarter version of the planners. The new version will have different covers which they describe as rose-petal soft. Sounds nice!
The previous version of the Week Dominator planner had pockets, an elastic strap closure and a pen loop, which the new version will not have because it will be designed to fit into a classy looking folio that will have these features. The folio is currently still in development. I've seen sneak-peek photos of them and they look really nice!
Here is the letter from the creator giving you some insight into how the planner was developed:
Here are photos of the pages. Sorry for the poor photo quality. It's hard to get decent light this time of year at 57 degrees north! You can see their website for better images. This will give you an idea of the layout of the book. You can click on photos for a larger view.
There are these excellent year overview planners that show the months with the weeks not broken up, so you can have an overview of your entire year:
Next are the 80/20 pages: "80% of the results come from 20% of the work. Focus on the most productive 20%. Take 30 minutes at the end of each month to think about what's working (the 20%) and stop doing what's not working."
There are some very helpful tips and suggestions on ways to use the planner. The whole design is very flexible so you can use it any way that works for you.
The weekly pages are dotted so there's nothing to box you in. You can do time blocking on the timed daily columns. You can use extra space for notes and lists.
Between every weekly spread there is another two-page spread. The left page is for Idea Generation, more space for lists, sketches/ charts, notes, anything you need. The right page has a place to track your weekly goals, capture ideas and relationships, and evaluate your wins and lessons learned. All of these are proven methods for increasing productivity and effectiveness, so it's great to have them right there in your planner embedded in the weeks so you can't forget to do them weekly.
The original Week Dominator planners have letter size pages (8 1/2 by 11 inches) and have six months per book to keep them light enough to carry around. The new version has a soft lightweight cover which will make the books even more portable.
You can click here to pre-order the Week Dominator directly from Neu Year. I highly recommend these planners to anyone who wants a tool that will help them be more effective and productive, and that is easy and pleasant to use!
Note: I am not affiliated with Neu Year/ Week Dominator in any way. I do not sell these products and I do not receive any commission from their sales. If you have any questions about ordering, customer service, products, or anything else, you will need to contact them directly at www.Neuyear.net.
You may remember my post on the Week Dominator planners back when they were doing their Kickstarter campaign (and if you don't, you can click here to see it).
The bad news is: the Week Dominator is currently sold out. (So now you are asking, why are you bothering to show us this review??) Because the good news is, the new updated version of the Week Dominator is available for pre-order and will be available soon! The insides are all the same so I will show you the layout.
Disclosure: I bought and paid for these planners myself for my own use. I happily helped fund their Kickstarter campaign.
The Week Dominator planner is the result of lots of research on planning and time management methods. The creators (the brilliance behind Neu Year) designed the planner to work with lots of different methods like time blocking, Pomodoro, goal setting, evalutions/ reviews, etc. The result will help you be more productive and allow you to dominate your time, not the other way around!
The Week Dominator planner is undated so you can start any time, leave it home when you're on vacation with no wasted pages, start it at the beginning of a big project, etc.
These are the covers I chose from the Kickstarter version of the planners. The new version will have different covers which they describe as rose-petal soft. Sounds nice!
The previous version of the Week Dominator planner had pockets, an elastic strap closure and a pen loop, which the new version will not have because it will be designed to fit into a classy looking folio that will have these features. The folio is currently still in development. I've seen sneak-peek photos of them and they look really nice!
Here is the letter from the creator giving you some insight into how the planner was developed:
Here are photos of the pages. Sorry for the poor photo quality. It's hard to get decent light this time of year at 57 degrees north! You can see their website for better images. This will give you an idea of the layout of the book. You can click on photos for a larger view.
There are these excellent year overview planners that show the months with the weeks not broken up, so you can have an overview of your entire year:
Next are the 80/20 pages: "80% of the results come from 20% of the work. Focus on the most productive 20%. Take 30 minutes at the end of each month to think about what's working (the 20%) and stop doing what's not working."
Next are goal setting pages to help you break down your annual goals into quarterly and monthly subgoals.
There are some very helpful tips and suggestions on ways to use the planner. The whole design is very flexible so you can use it any way that works for you.
The weekly pages are dotted so there's nothing to box you in. You can do time blocking on the timed daily columns. You can use extra space for notes and lists.
Between every weekly spread there is another two-page spread. The left page is for Idea Generation, more space for lists, sketches/ charts, notes, anything you need. The right page has a place to track your weekly goals, capture ideas and relationships, and evaluate your wins and lessons learned. All of these are proven methods for increasing productivity and effectiveness, so it's great to have them right there in your planner embedded in the weeks so you can't forget to do them weekly.
The original Week Dominator planners have letter size pages (8 1/2 by 11 inches) and have six months per book to keep them light enough to carry around. The new version has a soft lightweight cover which will make the books even more portable.
You can click here to pre-order the Week Dominator directly from Neu Year. I highly recommend these planners to anyone who wants a tool that will help them be more effective and productive, and that is easy and pleasant to use!
Note: I am not affiliated with Neu Year/ Week Dominator in any way. I do not sell these products and I do not receive any commission from their sales. If you have any questions about ordering, customer service, products, or anything else, you will need to contact them directly at www.Neuyear.net.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
Moleskine Spring 2016 catalog with 2017 planners!
The Spring 2016 Moleskine catalog is out with their 2017 planners!
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/landing-pages/catalogs/moleskine/
I'll make comments as I go through it. So exciting!
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Moleskine in any way and I do not receive any commissions on their sales. I do not have any contacts or know anyone at Moleskine so if you have any questions about their products or how to purchase them, you will need to contact Moleskine directly.
Hard cover notebooks have new colors: coral orange (very interesting!), sapphire blue, citron yellow and willow green in addition to the usual black and red.
Soft cover notebooks have added grid pages to the lineup, so they will be available with blank, lined, dotted or grid pages.
Limited edition notebooks: Toy Story.
Ok here we go: planners!
18 month planners: looks like they no longer have tabbed address booklets, which is too bad because I actually use those. Instead they come with stickers.
18 month weekly notebook planners with hard covers in Pocket and Large sizes have new colors: Steel Blue, Coral Orange, Malachite Green and Grape Violet in addition to the usual Black.
Soft cover weekly notebooks have black or red covers.
The new colors also apply to the hard cover 12 month daily and weekly planners. Soft cover 12 month planners come in black or red.
The Professional weekly vertical planner in A4 size is back after being absent for a few years.
Limited Edition planners: Batman. Let Petit Prince, Peanuts. No Star Wars???
Those are the major changes, which aren't all that major really. The new colors look nice.
UPDATE Feb 27, 2016: I have just received my 2016-2017 18 month Moleskine weekly notebook and I am THRILLED to report they have gone back to printing holidays on the day spaces as they did in years past! They must have received floods of complaints when they took away the holidays and made people look them up on their website and write them in themselves. (I know I was severely annoyed by it). The name of the holiday is not printed, just the country abbreviation on the day. For example, on July 4 "US" is printed for Independence Day. Also on Easter Sunday, the countries that celebrate it are printed on the day. This is great for those of us who don't like to look up and write holidays in ourselves! (Especially those of us who tend to mistakenly write things in on the wrong day!) Thank you Moleskine for bringing back the holidays!
Also, the 2016-2017 weekly notebook still has the monthly pages as grid calendars for July 2016-December 2017, not vertical monthly columns as in years past. Personally I prefer the month grids but it does mean there aren't pages for planning the future year. I'm going to get around this by using 4 of the notes pages in the back of the book as a forward planner for 2018 with 3 months per page. There is a 2018 reference calendar in the book so I can look up dates when I need to.
I can confirm the hardcover weekly notebooks no longer come with an address booklet, which is my only disappointment. Instead, in the back pocket are 3 sheets of stickers: Alphabet letters, and a seemingly random assortment of weather symbols, emoticons, icons and symbols.
I'm very pleased to have the holidays printed AND month grid calendars! Thank you Moleskine!
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/landing-pages/catalogs/moleskine/
I'll make comments as I go through it. So exciting!
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Moleskine in any way and I do not receive any commissions on their sales. I do not have any contacts or know anyone at Moleskine so if you have any questions about their products or how to purchase them, you will need to contact Moleskine directly.
Hard cover notebooks have new colors: coral orange (very interesting!), sapphire blue, citron yellow and willow green in addition to the usual black and red.
Soft cover notebooks have added grid pages to the lineup, so they will be available with blank, lined, dotted or grid pages.
Limited edition notebooks: Toy Story.
Ok here we go: planners!
18 month planners: looks like they no longer have tabbed address booklets, which is too bad because I actually use those. Instead they come with stickers.
18 month weekly notebook planners with hard covers in Pocket and Large sizes have new colors: Steel Blue, Coral Orange, Malachite Green and Grape Violet in addition to the usual Black.
Soft cover weekly notebooks have black or red covers.
The new colors also apply to the hard cover 12 month daily and weekly planners. Soft cover 12 month planners come in black or red.
The Professional weekly vertical planner in A4 size is back after being absent for a few years.
Limited Edition planners: Batman. Let Petit Prince, Peanuts. No Star Wars???
Those are the major changes, which aren't all that major really. The new colors look nice.
UPDATE Feb 27, 2016: I have just received my 2016-2017 18 month Moleskine weekly notebook and I am THRILLED to report they have gone back to printing holidays on the day spaces as they did in years past! They must have received floods of complaints when they took away the holidays and made people look them up on their website and write them in themselves. (I know I was severely annoyed by it). The name of the holiday is not printed, just the country abbreviation on the day. For example, on July 4 "US" is printed for Independence Day. Also on Easter Sunday, the countries that celebrate it are printed on the day. This is great for those of us who don't like to look up and write holidays in ourselves! (Especially those of us who tend to mistakenly write things in on the wrong day!) Thank you Moleskine for bringing back the holidays!
Also, the 2016-2017 weekly notebook still has the monthly pages as grid calendars for July 2016-December 2017, not vertical monthly columns as in years past. Personally I prefer the month grids but it does mean there aren't pages for planning the future year. I'm going to get around this by using 4 of the notes pages in the back of the book as a forward planner for 2018 with 3 months per page. There is a 2018 reference calendar in the book so I can look up dates when I need to.
I can confirm the hardcover weekly notebooks no longer come with an address booklet, which is my only disappointment. Instead, in the back pocket are 3 sheets of stickers: Alphabet letters, and a seemingly random assortment of weather symbols, emoticons, icons and symbols.
I'm very pleased to have the holidays printed AND month grid calendars! Thank you Moleskine!
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
The Dream Organiser
The Dream Organiser is a brand-new planner that is designed to incorporate all aspects of your life into one book. The creator, Gillie, told me how it came about:
Disclaimer: I received this planner as a free sample to review.
The Dream Organiser has 299 (numbered) A4 size pages that are color-coded in sections, making it easy to find what you are looking for. Below is the table of contents and the introduction by Gillie:
I'm only going to show you a tiny bit of what you get in this planner, because I don't want to give away any secrets and this planner has so much!
Goal setting is a major theme throughout the book.
There are loads of tips on how to set goals, and specialized pages for your Wheel Of Life, reviewing the previous year, capturing your dreams and getting them down on paper, how to focus on your dreams, and more. I'm not showing these pages on purpose, because they are special and I don't want to give them away.
The next section is on Self Care, which is so rare to find in a planner. Usually planners are all about things you have to do. It's nice to have space in your planner to focus on you and what you need.
Next is a section for planning projects. There are pages to help you break down the plan, determine your resources available, the aim and scope of the project, and more. Again I'm not showing the pages on purpose! These pages are all very useful to get you to focus.
Next are the diary/ planner pages, which are undated so you can start any time. There are 12 months of weekly pages with all seven days as vertical columns, and lots of space on the weekly spread for your goals, tasks and dreams. Monthly grid calendars and monthly goals pages are incorporated within the weeks to keep you on track. Every month has a new inspirational quote.
The next section has pages for meeting notes. These pages are structured so you can automatically organize your notes as the meeting goes on, making it easy to see decisions made and follow-up actions.
At the back of the book there are several blank, lined and grid pages for sketches, notes and charts.
The result is a very substantial book! The page size is A4 so you have lots of space to write everything. 299 pages makes it more than 2 cm thick. There is a lot of content in there!
The Dream Organiser is available to purchase from the following websites: Amazon UK, Ebay, and Etsy. Please note I am not affiliated and receive no commission from sales.
Be sure to join their Facebook group too!
Many thanks to Gillie for giving me the opportunity to review this amazing new planner!
"What I was looking for was something that enabled me to have all my dream and goal setting, diary, planner, reflections and plans all in one place. Thus The Dream Organiser was born. I have nicknamed it the life coach in your handbag."
Disclaimer: I received this planner as a free sample to review.
The Dream Organiser has 299 (numbered) A4 size pages that are color-coded in sections, making it easy to find what you are looking for. Below is the table of contents and the introduction by Gillie:
I'm only going to show you a tiny bit of what you get in this planner, because I don't want to give away any secrets and this planner has so much!
Goal setting is a major theme throughout the book.
There are loads of tips on how to set goals, and specialized pages for your Wheel Of Life, reviewing the previous year, capturing your dreams and getting them down on paper, how to focus on your dreams, and more. I'm not showing these pages on purpose, because they are special and I don't want to give them away.
The next section is on Self Care, which is so rare to find in a planner. Usually planners are all about things you have to do. It's nice to have space in your planner to focus on you and what you need.
Next is a section for planning projects. There are pages to help you break down the plan, determine your resources available, the aim and scope of the project, and more. Again I'm not showing the pages on purpose! These pages are all very useful to get you to focus.
Next are the diary/ planner pages, which are undated so you can start any time. There are 12 months of weekly pages with all seven days as vertical columns, and lots of space on the weekly spread for your goals, tasks and dreams. Monthly grid calendars and monthly goals pages are incorporated within the weeks to keep you on track. Every month has a new inspirational quote.
The next section has pages for meeting notes. These pages are structured so you can automatically organize your notes as the meeting goes on, making it easy to see decisions made and follow-up actions.
At the back of the book there are several blank, lined and grid pages for sketches, notes and charts.
The result is a very substantial book! The page size is A4 so you have lots of space to write everything. 299 pages makes it more than 2 cm thick. There is a lot of content in there!
The Dream Organiser is available to purchase from the following websites: Amazon UK, Ebay, and Etsy. Please note I am not affiliated and receive no commission from sales.
Be sure to join their Facebook group too!
Many thanks to Gillie for giving me the opportunity to review this amazing new planner!
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Agendio planner review
My Agendio planner arrived yesterday! You may have seen my introduction post on the Agendio planners (which you can see here if you haven't already). Agendio.com is an amazing new online planner creator where you choose every aspect of your planner: the layout, the size, font, colors, add-ons and more. And you add in your own labels for lists, select your holidays, add your personalized events, and much more. These details are all saved so you don't have to add them again when you make your next planner!
The planner customizer takes a few minutes to get the hang of, so take a look at all the possibilities and play around with it. It's very addictive! Look at all the features (which you can see the overview of here).
I'll walk you through the planner I created so you can see some of the options. Remember this is just one, there are loads to choose from.
Disclosure: I received a discount code so I could create and receive this planner as a free sample to review.
I was too excited to take a picture before I ripped the package open, but I should have because the planner was beautifully wrapped in tissue paper with a logo sticker. Very elegant.
I went for their largest planner (8 1/2 by 11 inches), in the turquoise blue cover. I chose the color-matched elastic closure strap. You can also choose black, or none.
Before I go any further I want to make a note of the paper sizes. Agendio is located in North America, so they use standard North American paper sizes (letter size is 8 1/2 by 11 inches). They do not use European sizes (A4, A5 etc.). This of course makes sense because 1) their North American customers want the paper sizes they use and are accustomed to, and 2) it makes much more financial sense to use the local paper sizes than to import European sizes. So if you are not in North America, be sure to look at the page dimensions so you know what you are getting.
Let's continue! I want to apologize for the quality of my photos. It's very hard to get good light here this time of year, so the photos are a bit dark and the pages don't look nearly as nice as they do in real life. So as you look at these, please keep in mind these photos don't do the planner justice! You can click on images for a larger view.
The first page has the Agendio logo, and lists the Model number which is handy if you want to reorder and/ or tell people which Model you got. This one is Model number 32162. There is also space at the bottom of the page to write your contact info in case of loss.
The next page is a feature I love, and actually use: month overviews for the 12 months in your planner. My planner goes from December 2015-November 2016 so those are the months shown on this page. Very handy. Opposite is a lined page for notes, goals, frequently used numbers, whatever you like.
My planner is a monthly + weekly, and I chose to have my months at the beginning of the book. You could also choose to have the months at the back of the book, or embedded within the weeks. I love the big open day squares. You can also choose to have them lined, and you can select which line spacing you prefer.
I customized every aspect of the pages: which holidays to add, what I wanted the list area at the right to look like and what label I wanted for it, etc.
There are monthly calendars for the 12 months of your planner plus the next month, so my planner has month calendars for December 2015 through December 2016, which is very nice for forward planning. This means for example if you created your planner for the school year August through July, your monthly calendars would go August through the following August, so you can plan through the whole summer. Very convenient!
Below is my weekly layout. This one has the Span feature (more on that in a minute), two divisible areas at the right, and space under the daily columns for Activities.
Here you can see a closer look. I chose the Fondamento font, but there are loads of other fonts to choose from. I also chose turquoise print but you can choose from lots of different colors. You can see the Span feature, which allows you to write tasks or events over multiple days. Take a look at the holidays listed in Monday below, I want to tell you something about them:
One of the first questions the customizer asks is which country you will be using your planner in. Here's why: in Monday above there is Spring Bank Holiday, which is a UK holiday, and Memorial Day (US). Since I live in the UK, I set that as my location. That causes the UK holidays to appear as above, and holidays of other countries have their country notation so I know which country they are for.
Here you can see a better view of my lists at the right. I chose how may lines I wanted for each area, if I wanted them solid or dotted, square or round check boxes, and of course the labels.
Below the day column is a small area that I labeled Due Today. On the first Saturday of every month I have a reminder to check the batteries in my smoke and CO2 detectors. I also have blog post topics in the days as reminders. When I originally created a planner, they did not have these small spaces available, only larger ones. I requested this area to be smaller so the day column could be longer with more hours, and voila! They tweaked it for me. Keep in mind, the smaller the area below the days, the fewer Activities it will hold. This one only holds two, which is plenty for me. There are other formats with larger spaces for more Activities.
After all the weekly pages there are forward planning pages for the following 12 months, which is great so you can plug in future dates.
I chose to add the double-sided pocket to put papers into. This is a great place to put bills, receipts, birthday or wedding invitations, etc.
I also chose perforated tear-off corners, and their logo placemarkers.
You can choose to have your planner start any month, up to 6 months in advance. You can have your weeks start with any day, which is great for people who work shift or non-traditional work weeks.
The quality is fantastic: the paper is white, smooth and 90 gsm. The cover is soft to the touch but durable. Despite being full letter size, the planner is remarkably light: I weighed mine at 652 g.
I loved adding in all my own holidays and events like birthdays and anniversaries. Normally when I buy a planner I have to write in all kinds of things: holidays if they're not already in there, moon phases, and at the very minimum birthdays and anniversaries. With the customizer, these were all printed in, and are saved for the next time I make a planner!
You can make multiple planners, with different holidays and events too. So for example if you make a planner for someone else, you can put their holidays and important days in. Or if you make a planner specifically for work, you can have only work-related events and no personal ones.
I am very pleased with the result of my planner. Agendio.com is great for those of us who want to be able to customize our planner, a little or a lot.
They now also have refill pages for Filofax, Franklin Covey and Day Timer, so be sure to check those out too!
The planner customizer takes a few minutes to get the hang of, so take a look at all the possibilities and play around with it. It's very addictive! Look at all the features (which you can see the overview of here).
I'll walk you through the planner I created so you can see some of the options. Remember this is just one, there are loads to choose from.
Disclosure: I received a discount code so I could create and receive this planner as a free sample to review.
I was too excited to take a picture before I ripped the package open, but I should have because the planner was beautifully wrapped in tissue paper with a logo sticker. Very elegant.
I went for their largest planner (8 1/2 by 11 inches), in the turquoise blue cover. I chose the color-matched elastic closure strap. You can also choose black, or none.
Before I go any further I want to make a note of the paper sizes. Agendio is located in North America, so they use standard North American paper sizes (letter size is 8 1/2 by 11 inches). They do not use European sizes (A4, A5 etc.). This of course makes sense because 1) their North American customers want the paper sizes they use and are accustomed to, and 2) it makes much more financial sense to use the local paper sizes than to import European sizes. So if you are not in North America, be sure to look at the page dimensions so you know what you are getting.
Let's continue! I want to apologize for the quality of my photos. It's very hard to get good light here this time of year, so the photos are a bit dark and the pages don't look nearly as nice as they do in real life. So as you look at these, please keep in mind these photos don't do the planner justice! You can click on images for a larger view.
The first page has the Agendio logo, and lists the Model number which is handy if you want to reorder and/ or tell people which Model you got. This one is Model number 32162. There is also space at the bottom of the page to write your contact info in case of loss.
The next page is a feature I love, and actually use: month overviews for the 12 months in your planner. My planner goes from December 2015-November 2016 so those are the months shown on this page. Very handy. Opposite is a lined page for notes, goals, frequently used numbers, whatever you like.
My planner is a monthly + weekly, and I chose to have my months at the beginning of the book. You could also choose to have the months at the back of the book, or embedded within the weeks. I love the big open day squares. You can also choose to have them lined, and you can select which line spacing you prefer.
I customized every aspect of the pages: which holidays to add, what I wanted the list area at the right to look like and what label I wanted for it, etc.
There are monthly calendars for the 12 months of your planner plus the next month, so my planner has month calendars for December 2015 through December 2016, which is very nice for forward planning. This means for example if you created your planner for the school year August through July, your monthly calendars would go August through the following August, so you can plan through the whole summer. Very convenient!
Below is my weekly layout. This one has the Span feature (more on that in a minute), two divisible areas at the right, and space under the daily columns for Activities.
Here you can see a closer look. I chose the Fondamento font, but there are loads of other fonts to choose from. I also chose turquoise print but you can choose from lots of different colors. You can see the Span feature, which allows you to write tasks or events over multiple days. Take a look at the holidays listed in Monday below, I want to tell you something about them:
One of the first questions the customizer asks is which country you will be using your planner in. Here's why: in Monday above there is Spring Bank Holiday, which is a UK holiday, and Memorial Day (US). Since I live in the UK, I set that as my location. That causes the UK holidays to appear as above, and holidays of other countries have their country notation so I know which country they are for.
Here you can see a better view of my lists at the right. I chose how may lines I wanted for each area, if I wanted them solid or dotted, square or round check boxes, and of course the labels.
Below the day column is a small area that I labeled Due Today. On the first Saturday of every month I have a reminder to check the batteries in my smoke and CO2 detectors. I also have blog post topics in the days as reminders. When I originally created a planner, they did not have these small spaces available, only larger ones. I requested this area to be smaller so the day column could be longer with more hours, and voila! They tweaked it for me. Keep in mind, the smaller the area below the days, the fewer Activities it will hold. This one only holds two, which is plenty for me. There are other formats with larger spaces for more Activities.
After all the weekly pages there are forward planning pages for the following 12 months, which is great so you can plug in future dates.
I chose to add the double-sided pocket to put papers into. This is a great place to put bills, receipts, birthday or wedding invitations, etc.
I also chose perforated tear-off corners, and their logo placemarkers.
You can choose to have your planner start any month, up to 6 months in advance. You can have your weeks start with any day, which is great for people who work shift or non-traditional work weeks.
The quality is fantastic: the paper is white, smooth and 90 gsm. The cover is soft to the touch but durable. Despite being full letter size, the planner is remarkably light: I weighed mine at 652 g.
I loved adding in all my own holidays and events like birthdays and anniversaries. Normally when I buy a planner I have to write in all kinds of things: holidays if they're not already in there, moon phases, and at the very minimum birthdays and anniversaries. With the customizer, these were all printed in, and are saved for the next time I make a planner!
You can make multiple planners, with different holidays and events too. So for example if you make a planner for someone else, you can put their holidays and important days in. Or if you make a planner specifically for work, you can have only work-related events and no personal ones.
I am very pleased with the result of my planner. Agendio.com is great for those of us who want to be able to customize our planner, a little or a lot.
They now also have refill pages for Filofax, Franklin Covey and Day Timer, so be sure to check those out too!
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Thank you for your patience!
Hi everyone, I'm waiting to hear from my publisher all the details on pricing and when the Plannerisms planners will be ready to ship. As soon as I have this information I will post it here on Plannerisms, so keep an eye out. Not long now!
Thanks again so much to everyone for your interest!
Laurie
Thanks again so much to everyone for your interest!
Laurie