A Plannerisms Going Places Planner

Recently, Laurie at Plannerisms offered me her planner for review. With certainty my life could use a lot more planning and far less randomness. I’m game for improvements, so I accepted the planner in hopes that not only would it provide a good product about which to post, but also a tool to organize.

The Plannerisms Planner is full of all sorts of useful things like conversions charts, weights and measures, International holidays and an International Dialing Directory.

There are instructions on how to use the monthly, quarterly and annual goals pages along with weekly pages to track progress.

There is a calendar to keep track of activities, two pages at the front to set goals and two pages for an annual review at the end. If you are goal oriented, this is one of the best planners to track your efforts.

There is a slim notebook inside a sleeve at the back that has lined paper with “Notes” printed at the top. That added bit reminds me of drawing outside the box with the planner itself being the box and the notebook being the store house for everything that doesn’t fit.

The two main sections, goals and calendar, are easily accessed with two ribbon bookmarks of compatible colors. In my book, one is teal and the other black. This is a nice touch and makes finding the right page fast and convenient. The elastic band that keeps the planner closed matches the color scheme so the whole affair is very pleasing to the eye.

There is a small embossed logo at the bottom right corner on the front and center bottom edge on the back. Discreet is the best word to describe both.

The planner comes in several colors. The teal stands out in contrast to the plethora of neutral items on my desk, but it is a soft teal that invites rather than demands attention. Iroshizuku syo-ro is a good match for it.

The pale cream colored paper is a mere 84 gsm so a lot of pages fit in the journal. The surface is very smooth and should work well with all sorts of writing instruments. Laurie uses liquid ink roller ball pens and gel pens that don’t produce any show-through or bleed-through.

The ink test tells fountain pen users who won’t compromise on writing tools, all they need to know: some pens and inks work while others do not. The Sheaffer Taranis medium with Sheaffer Blue Black ink performed the best, comparable to the Sharpie Pen and the other non-fountain pen instruments. The Taranis is a narrow medium with a flow that is on the dry side of average. Used with a light touch, it produced a very acceptable line and very little show-through. The dry-writing Pilot Prera fine with Noodler’s Bad Belted Kingfisher was second best with a modest amount of show-through and a few dots of bleed-through. Iroshizuku syo-ro worked almost as well from a Pelikan M250 with a fine italic nib.

The conclusion is that a dry-writing extra-fine to fine nib with the right ink should produce a workable duo. I prefer my Autopoint Mechanical Pencil for use in a planner since my plans are always in flux. Being unable to use a fountain pen is not a problem for me, but I know that for some of you that might be off-putting.

The Plannerisms Going Places Planner is attractive, well-built, and an asset for the goal-oriented user. If that isn’t you, the pages for goals could be adapted to other subjects.

Thanks Laurie for the opportunity to review your planner.

More info: Order a planner from Plannerisms and get the scoop on additional covers.