Having posted a photo of the daily planner/ journal that I use to keep my days balanced and productive, I was overwhelmed with the response from people asking which one it was and where could they order one from.
I've always assumed that I was one of the few who prefers a pen/ paper diary because technology provides so many wonderful, organised options these days - but I was wrong.
There is something very therapeutic and very calming about putting pen to paper to write your daily to-do's, meetings and goals which is why it's always been my preferred way of keeping organised, but only recently have I found the best journal for myself.
The Full Focus Planner, designed by Michael Hyatt is a quarterly planner with the best layout I have come across thus far. In fact, I became familiar with this journal while working for a competitor who has their own Productivity Planner, and I began using one of the Full Focus samples we had in the office for market research, because I found it to be so much better than the ones from our own company (you can imagine how well that went down!). The days are perfectly set up, the weeks, and the months too. The attention to detail, thought into what someone wants from a planner and the quality itself of the paper, ring bind and cover are really great.
I love the coil option because its easy to slip extra papers in if needed, and I went for the green/ khaki colour. It's easy to hook a pen onto the outside (I'm someone who needs to use the same pen every day otherwise everything looks messy) and I genuinely enjoy sitting down and filling it in every morning. The weekly summaries are a nice way to reflect on the days gone by, and can be used as a way to plan what improvements you'd like to make for the following. To have created something that really helps people keep their lives in order, be productive and actually enjoy using the tool is something that I really admire. Making a to-do list, calendar and schedule are fairly mundane tasks normally - this is not.
The planner is amazing there is no doubt about it, however, the price not so much. This journal lasts 3 months rather than a year and it's a steep price to pay at £37.00. When you think about what some of the online planning platforms charge per month it seems reasonable in comparison, but for a paper journal it isn't cheap. This is my first Full Focus planner and I am only on week 3, so I have 2 months and a week to decide whether its worth the investment. In the meantime, I am also using the podcast channel Lead to Win by the founder, Michael Hyatt to ensure I am getting the most out of the planner and familiarising myself with the techniques and systems to use. If I'm committing to the price, I may as well use it properly... I'll let you know!
