The manufacturer describes the Passion Planner as “a 24/7 life coach that fits in your backpack.” Does it live up to the hype? With this Passion Planner review, you’ll discover that this is a planner that goes beyond being an agenda.
It contains tools that are designed to help you define your goals and then to incorporate the steps to achieve those goals into your daily to-dos. Along the way, you’ll find encouragement for reflecting on the past so that you have a better idea of what’s working and what’s not.
The Passion Planner is supposed to help you focus on what matters most every day so that you can build a better life. With the goal of decluttering your mind so that you can be focused on the present, this planner could be an ally on your mindfulness journey as well.
Passion Planner Review
Inside the Passion Planner are features such as the Passion RoadMap and one year of monthly and weekly layouts. Each week begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday, with equal space being granted to all seven days. Planners are dated and run from January to December each year.
An annual overview calendar helps you to keep everything in perspective. At the end of the month, you can complete reflection questions that help you to assess your progress toward your goals.
In the back of the planner, you’ll find 20 blank pages to use however you wish. An additional 20 dotted grid pages are included after the blank pages. This should give you sufficient room over the course of a year for planning, list-making, journaling, sketching or taking notes.
Each planner is equipped with 120 gsm paper. This is a thick, high-quality paper that is unlikely to show ink bleed through or ghosting. Inside the back cover is a fabric accordion-style pocket for keeping small treasures. An elastic closure strap provides security while a single ribbon bookmark holds your place.
The beginning of the planner includes dates at glance pages listing all major holidays. Then, it gets right to work with the Passion RoadMap.
This layout has some thought-provoking prompts such as making a wish list of the things you want in life before you move on to reflect on what you would do and where you would go if anything were possible.
You can prioritize based on timelines such as three months, one year and three years.
The second page of the layout will have you getting down to specifics and details so that you can put a plan into action for achieving your dreams.
Next, you come to the monthly calendar pages with each month presented on a two-page spread. Holidays are pre-printed on these calendars.
On the sidebar for each month, you’ll have an opportunity to list your personal and professional focus, people to see, places to go and things not to do.
These are all great ideas. However, the spaces are rather small for going into any detail.
The bottom of the monthly calendar pages has space for to-do lists of both a personal and professional nature. On the bottom right-hand side, you’ll find an empty space that you can use as you desire.
The Monthly Reflection area is nicely designed with plenty of space for writing. You’ll be asked a series of questions such as the most memorable event of the past month, the lessons you learned and how you have changed since the prior month.
If taken seriously and filled out regularly, this exercise could be enormously helpful as you work toward your most important goals.
Next are the weekly pages. Two pages are allotted for each week with a timed schedule running between 6:00 am and 10:30 pm for all seven days.
Each day is formatted as a vertical column with pre-printed times.
On the left-hand side of the first page is a spot for recording your focus of the week and good things that happen. Below this are inspirational quotes.
Across the lower one-third of the first page are spaces dedicated to a personal to-do list and a work to-do list.
The space is modest in size but should be sufficient. The lower one-third of the second page has a blank spot that’s labeled “Space of Infinite Possibility” that can be used however you wish.
Passion Planner has a website where you can download inserts for habit tracking and other tools if you would like to place these here.
The weekly layout has some really nice ideas, but it tries to put a lot on these two pages. Accordingly, you get a line height of about three millimeters. That’s tiny, so don’t expect to go into a great deal of detail. You’ll just have room for the bare minimum like “dentist” and “budget conference.”
This is definitely a drawback for people who want to be able to take notes or include even a few details about their engagements.
The End of Year Reflection is another welcome feature that could really help you to start achieving your dreams and crafting a life that you love.
It gets really detailed and provides plenty of space for writing.
You’ll encounter questions that will make you pause and reflect so that you can better assess your performance for the year and what you would like to change in the next year.
Then, you’ll come to the collection of blank and dot-grid pages at the back. Blank pages are great for really artistic people who love to draw, but other people might wish that all the pages were dot-grid, lined or graphed. However, this is a minor nitpick.
The Passion Planner features really good 120 gsm paper that’s thick enough to resist bleeding and ghosting. You can use pretty much any type of pen without any worry that it will interfere with the next page. One thing to be aware of is that this is really bright white paper.
Some people find this fatiguing to look at for an extended period of time. For them, a softer ivory is a better choice. Nonetheless, this paper is very smooth and a pleasure to write on.
- Good goal-setting tools in the front of the planner
- Thick, 120 gsm paper
- Opportunities for monthly and annual reflection
- Inspirational quotes on weekly pages
- Elastic strap for closure
- Insufficient room for writing detailed notes on weekly pages
- No pen loop
- Only one ribbon bookmark when at least two are preferred
- No tabs
- Does not lie perfectly flat when opened
This Passion Planner review has revealed that some aspects of this product are admirable. The 120 gsm, the ivory-colored paper is certainly a welcome touch as are the layouts for reflecting on accomplishments.
The goal-setting tools at the beginning of the planner are a helpful addition, though it would be nice if they went into a bit more detail for really dialing in on those goals. You might be interested in those goal planners.
However, the weekly layout of planner is simply too cramped for any kind of detail. If your schedule is really packed, you’re all-but-guaranteed to be disappointed. Moreover, you’ll always be fishing for a pen in your bag because there’s no pen loop on this planner.
