Leuchtturm1917 Planner Review: Take Control of Your Year

Leuchtturm1917 is one of the most recognizable names in planners. They make a variety of notebooks and stationery products in addition to a range of planners. If you’re into bullet journaling, they have a book that’s designed just for you. However, the A5 size weekly planner is an excellent product that may be perfect for anyone who wants to keep better tabs on their schedule.

Leuchtturm1917 planners come in a variety of sizes. This is the medium size that measures 8.3 inches by 5.7 inches. That’s a solid, middle-of-the-road size that’s easy to carry with you but big enough to give you plenty of room to write.

If you prefer something smaller, then you may choose the A6 pocket size or the A7 mini size. Those who would rather have a larger planner may choose the A4 master size.

Equipped with a hardcover, this planner is designed to take a beating. You can easily keep it in your backpack or purse all year long. Take it out and put it back as many times as you like. It’s likely to look just as good on day 365 as it does on day one.

The cover is available in elegant, understated colors like black, anthracite, and navy blue. Anyone who prefers a bit more color may choose the berry, fresh green or Nordic blue versions. Regardless, the contents of each planner are the same.

The Leuchtturm1917 planner maintains a fairly slender profile despite its hardcover thanks to the 80 gsm paper. This paper is acid-free and warm ivory color. Accordingly, it’s easy on the eyes, even if you are working with the planner for an extended period of time.

While this is a good thing, the 80 gsm paper is cannot be wholeheartedly endorsed. It simply is not a particularly thick, high-quality paper. The result is that you will experience quite a bit of ghosting, and ink is certain to bleed through from one side of the sheet to the next.

This may be a deal breaker for some people, especially those who prefer to use a variety of pens and inks in their journals. It is just incredibly annoying to see all of your writing on one page leaking over to the next. Reading anything on that page gets difficult.

If you really like to use a lot of decorative elements on your pages, then your creativity is going to be circumscribed. In a planner of this quality and at an affordable price, the better paper is simply expected.

On the positive side, the printing throughout the planner is a warm, light gray. It’s easy to look at and shouldn’t clash or interfere with any ink that you use. The design is quite clean and minimalistic, leaving you to be as creative as you choose.

Additional features include two ribbons for marking your place. Each ribbon is sealed on the end to prevent fraying. Although the planner has an elastic strap for closure, it does not have a pen loop.

The first pages in the Leuchtturm1917 planner contain year-at-a-glance calendars covering three years. This may help you to visualize what’s coming up in the next few years. Next, you’ll find pages with monthly overviews with one column being dedicated to each month.

Each page has three columns, so there’s enough room to record birthdays, holidays and the like. Leuchtturm1917 has printed the date and the phases of the moon for you.

The column format for the monthly layouts is an interesting deviation from the norm of a pre-printed calendar with a box for each date. The column format does not give you much room for detail or to decorate. It may not be your cup of tea, especially if you are a heavy user of monthly calendars.

The following layout is for national holidays. It’s a bit of a confusing layout as well. Leuchtturm1917 planners are manufactured in the Czech Republic, so their idea of holidays may not coincide with yours. Moreover, the holidays are not listed. It’s merely an indication of a month and day on which a holiday occurs.

This makes it less helpful than you might imagine it would be for planning those fun days off from work.

Next, you’ll find a project planning section. This is an incredible feature of whether you need to track a personal or professional project. Ideally, these layouts are used to help to keep you on track with a big project that may stretch over several months or perhaps even the entire year.

These are the kinds of projects that may have multiple moving parts and several stages. If you want to make certain that they all get done, then you’ve got to plan ahead. Even more essential is the need to break the overall project into smaller parts.

Accordingly, the idea of these project plan layouts is a solid one. However, we have some doubts about the execution here. You’re presented with a series of blank rows, each of which is divided by the weeks of each month.

Accordingly, you get just a tiny box for each week where you can make an “X” or a check mark. There is no room for additional details. This means that the layout may be a serviceable overview of a project, but it’s no substitute for true project planning pages.

The weekly layouts come next, and they feature a pretty straightforward design. The top left-hand of the first page lists the month and year. Then, each day of the week is allotted a row, with Monday coming first. Each row includes the date and the day of the week. It also lists holidays.

The bottom of the first page has a split row for Saturday and Sunday. If you work weekends or are really busy on these days, this may not be sufficient room for you. The Leuchtturm1917 planner also counts the weeks for you at the bottom of the page and provides you with moon phases.

The facing page for each week is set aside strictly for notes, to-do lists, doodles or whatever you need it for. It’s really nice to have this level of flexibility. However, some people prefer to have a bit more guidance on these pages. As an example, it might be nice to have a space to write your goal for the week or your top priorities.

This page is lined so that you can easily write on it. If you care to spend the time, you could design your own habit tracker and an area for reflection so that you can keep track of what went well that week and what you hope to improve in the next week.

In fact, some people might consider this a plus as they aren’t locked into a particular format. If you really want to get creative with this, then you should have plenty of blank space to do it.

Other editions of the Leuchtturm1917 planner feature a weekly layout that covers two full pages. This provides you with far more room for each day, although the two weekend days are still forced to share a row. With this format, you get more structure, if that is what you prefer.

However, you do lose the entire blank page, which people who want to be free to create their own format may really value.

After all of the weekly pages, you find 10 blank pages. Ten of these are perforated if you would like to tear them out. All things considered, this is not a huge amount of blank pages. If you take copious notes throughout the year or like to create numerous trackers for yourself, then this planner may not be ideal for you. Still, the expandable pocket inside the back cover is a nice touch.

This Leuchtturm1917 planner review shows that this company’s good reputation is mostly well deserved. Their planners do make use of plenty of innovative ideas. Moreover, the colors for the covers are attractive, and the ribbon bookmarks with sealed ends are an unquestionable plus. The durable hardcover also is certain to appeal to many people.

Unfortunately, the 80 gsm is a truly poor choice, and it is a surprising one from a company with this level of reputation. When even an ordinary ballpoint pen shows through so easily on the other side of the paper, you know that this is not a good paper choice.

Leuchtturm1917 should know this too. Of course, that thin paper does keep the overall profile of the book slimmer, but it seems like an unfair tradeoff.

The Leuchtturm1917 planner has other defects that prevent it from being among the absolute best planners out there today. For one thing, most people who still use paper planners seem to be fanatics for things like productivity, planning, goal setting and mindfulness.

This planner does not have any special tools or features for them. Instead, it’s more like a plain and simple agenda with a few nice extras tossed in.

If you are looking for a planner that is going to legitimately help you to dial up your productivity and start achieving your goals, then you need something that provides more direction. Other planners are available that will help you get started on the right path.