#and notes and PDFs and etc. its too much moving between spaces i would rather explode

[theriverbeyond]

i don't know if it's a cognitive load or sensory thing but honestly one of the most overtimulating things in the world is switching between multiple apps and tabs. to me.

[busybby]

Hello all! As you may or may not know, I'm in my second year of college and I've been back in school for about a month. In that time, I have been trying out a few planning/life organization methods to see what works best for me because I’ve been getting steadily busier and busier. One of those methods was a Passion Planner!

Quick Summary: This planner is great if you’re an on-the-go, constantly moving between meetings and tasks kind of person and you’re looking for a reliable structure to organize your time. While it is on the pricier side, you get what you pay for in terms of quality and Passion Planner makes using its products accessible through free PDFs of their planner layouts on their website.

pros:

hourly spread

lots of room for creativity & reflection

accessibility

cons:

very big and bulky

difficult to organize tasks

Hourly Spread

I love the idea of an hourly spread, and the reason that I initially sought out a Passion Planner was because of this layout. After a lot of research, it was the only planner that was accessible to me that had an hour-by-hour layout. The reason that I wanted one so bad, and a good purpose for the hourly layout, is because I knew that I would only be getting more and more busy this school year, so I needed a way to visually manage that. An hour-by-hour layout works well if you have a lot of different things going on such as clubs/organizations, jobs, and classes. Google Calendar also works well for this, but I tend to forget about online planning systems in my day to day life. The Passion Planner is an amazing tool if you have a lot of meetings, events, classes, etc. happening.

Creativity & Reflection

Admittedly, I wasn't able to spend a lot of time with this part of the planner (because I just don't prioritize making time to be super creative in my planner, aka another reason why bullet journals don't work for me). I did appreciate the weekly quotes, the spaces for daily and weekly focus, and the open space on the bottom right. I ended up using this space mostly for appointments, addresses, etc. and task organization, but I definitely can see someone using that space for doodles, stickers, etc.

Another space that I loved and utilized in the weekly spreads was the box for good things that happened that week! I tried to write down at least 3 positive things for the week, and one thing per day if I was feeling particularly good. Incidentally, I happened to be going through a rough time mentally during the time I was using the Passion Planner, so all the spaces for progress and positivity were really beneficial to me.

Task Organization

In the summary, I wrote that it was difficult for me to organize my tasks. This may very well be because I've been using the same planning system for years and I am just stuck in my ways, but whatever. The Passion Planner does have a section for personal and work tasks which is organized by priority. While this is a nice addition to the planner, it was challenging for me to use because my task list evolves throughout the week. I wasn't able to easily alter my priorities, mark what classes tasks were for or mark what date they were due. There was almost too much structure within the planner for my needs. I usually assign my tasks to a day, and that was also a little challenging because there's not really any space on each day to list tasks. You might not experience this if you are someone who plans exactly what time of the day you’ll be working on specific tasks. As I used the planner more, I stopped using the bottom task section for homework and moved all of those to the top of each day (where it says 6am). I did continue to use the task section for my personal tasks such as grocery shopping and doing laundry.

This planner would be a great option for you if you’re working on multiple projects at once. For example, maybe you’re a student but you’re also writing a book or starting a small business. The Passion Planner provides a great space for people working on large-scale projects as well as the everyday student.

General Format

As someone who is constantly collecting stickers, paper scraps, etc. I really appreciate the back pocket in the planner. It’s a great size and the material is fabric, so it won’t easily break or burst if you pack it full (like I tend to do). The leather that the planner itself is made of is also super nice. If you’re carrying it around all day, every day it is definitely not doing to get ripped or ruined by water or coffee spills. It’s also great because you could spill something on the leather cover and it would protect the pages inside.

All of the blank and dotted notes pages at the end of the planner were also extremely helpful for me. I used them for writing notes about appointments I had, jotting down passwords and to do some preliminary major planning!

Overall the planner is pretty large and bulky, which can get annoying when you're in college and carrying everything with you all day, but I'd rather have it with me and deal with the size than leave it at home all day.

Accessibility

An additional great bonus of the Passion Planner is that in general, I would consider it relatively accessible. One major drawback is the price (around $30 for the basic style), however, I do think that is worth it considering the features and quality of the planner. Shipping not super limited and they can be purchased on the Passion Planner website as well as Amazon.

Finally, what I think is one of the best features of Passion Planner as a company, is that they offer free PDFs of the layouts that are within the planner itself. Obviously, this is great if you’re not in a position to spend at least $30 on a planner and it’s also great if you want to try out the planner layout to see if it works for you before actually purchasing it. This could also be a great option if you’re not into carrying a gigantic planner everywhere you go or if you just have one super busy week.