Right before the end of each year, I begin my frantic search for the perfect planner for my needs. For the past four years, my planners just were a little off. They were either too small, too big, didn’t have enough sections, or not enough room to write in for the day. Or, there weren’t sections focused on goals, quarters, or your vision. It got to the point where each year I would crack up as all of us tried to find the right planner for our lives. People would ask on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram “What planner are you getting?” The answers were all over the place. Then, my friend shared a giveaway that she was running in conjunction with the company whose planner I’ve fallen in love with.
*In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please read my disclosure here.*
Thinking about starting a blog?
It’s pretty simple to do and cheap! Start with Siteground and WordPress.org. With this winning combination you’ll own your own website by the end of the day. And, Siteground has easy to follow tutorials to help you with setting up your site. Also, don’t forget to grab 120 Awesome Blog Ideas from Ruth Soukup’s Elite Blog Academy today.
Related Post
Clever Fox Pro Planner
A huge, huge thanks to Tonya from Budget and the Beach who connected me with this fabulous planner. She was running a giveaway with Clever Fox (I didn’t win) and I knew that it was the planner for me. After watching informative product videos created by Tonya and Clever Fox. I knew I had to get this one.
So I did. Am so obsessed with this planner. And, I got the one in the image below. What I love about it.
It’s BIG!
Literally, it’s around 8.5″ x 11″ and I really like this because I find that I need space to write everything in. While it’s big, it’s not as wide as my previous two year’s planners and it’s flat.
Mindfulness Focus
If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know that I love Vision Boards. And, inside this planner there is space to create an actual Vision Board. There is also a section focused on the following:
- Gratitude Practices
- What I want in my life
- Goal break downs
Goal Breakdowns
At the end of each year, I spend up to a month reviewing the previous year’s successes and what didn’t work. Then, I begin brainstorming my goals for the current year. What the Clever Fox Pro planner does well is:
- Yearly Goals-There is space created to write down yearly goals. My goals are always available to me in my planner.
- Quarterly Goals-This actually is huge! In order to meet goals, we all know that it’s important to break them down. And, with the Clever Fox Pro Planner, there is space allocated to reviewing my goals annually. At the end of each quarter, there is a section when you can reflect on what has or hasn’t worked related to the goals your working towards.
- 5,10, and 20 year Goals-I’ve always been the type of person who likes to think about my long-term goals. My Pro planner actually has space to write down where you see yourself years from now. I absolutely love this.
- Monthly Reviews-There’s also space to look at how your previous month went. Having a section after each month to check in with yourself is key to actually achieving your goals.
- Winning! There is space to note your wins however big or small.
Blank Pages
I’m obsessed with journals. I’m constantly writing down notes, ideas, and blog post inspiration. In fact, my favorite type of swag at events besides socks, is a nice hard journal where I can’t write down my thoughts. The thing is, carrying a notebook, my planner, and my laptop can be a little too much.
The Clever Fox Pro Planner has a ton of pages in the back that you can write down notes, doodle, etc. In fact, throughout the planner there is space allocated towards jotting down random thoughts.
Stickers
Stop laughing. But, I was so excited to find stickers in the back pocket of my planner. They’re pretty good ones to such as:
- Bill due
- Paid
- Congratulations, etc.
When I was younger, I used to collect stickers. I’m not sure why sticker collecting was so enjoyable. But, it was. The stickers were like some random unexpected exciting bonus that came with the journal.
What I didn’t Love
As much as I love this planner, there were a couple of things that I didn’t love.
- Where’s My Week? The first issue was where the weekly views were placed. I felt like it would have been better to place the weekly views after a monthly view. Instead, there is an entire section that is dedicated to weekly views for the year.
- Undated-This is both a good and bad problem to have. The good thing about having an undated planner is that you can begin using it at any time during the year. The bad thing about an undated planner is that it took me about an hour to get all of the dates set up as well as adding events and holidays. Then, I messed up during the month of July and accidentally skipped a day. I had to use white out to remove the incorrect dates and then add them back in. I had to get the whole year set up now because I already have events that I plan on attending that take place in November and December.
- Not Enough Space-The actual space allocated for each day in the weekly views could have a few more lines added to each day. There are some days that are crazy busy. If I were a mom with several kids, there wouldn’t be enough space in this particular planner for those schedules.
- What Time is It? The days don’t have times listed. What I mean is, typically, most journals will have hourly times on the page so that you can write down what time a meeting is being held, etc. The Clever Fox Pro Planner doesn’t have this. However, this may be available in other versions.
Overall Grade: A-
Despite some of my misgivings, I do believe this planner/journal will work wonderfully for me and I’m enjoying it quite a lot so far. I like that that this planner is also set up with productivity/reflection/and mindfulness combined. As a woo-woo person, this combination really speaks to me.
What planner are you looking at for this year?
Latest posts by Michelle (see all)
- How Work Policies Against Black Women Birthed a Love of the Soft Life - 20 March, 2024
- How Taylor Swift’s IP Victory Could Change the Business of Music - 28 February, 2024
- Why Don’t More Personal Finance Content Creators Talk About Policy - 16 January, 2024
Leave a Reply