Blue Sky planners are an American brand that always have affordable and functional layouts. One of my recent finds was the Noteworthy planner!
Quick facts
- Size: 5.5″ x 8.5″ high (the inside pages are smaller than the cover)
- Wire binding
- Softcover
- Double sided pocket folder
- Dates at a glance
- Contacts pages
- Neutral inside pages
- 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
- 2 Page monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
- Lined notes pages (about 1/3 of the planner i.e. heaps!)
- Tabs
- 12 month durations
- Academic or calendar start year
Let’s take a closer look!
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The Cover
The cover extends beyond the monthly tabs on the side and the notes tab at the top. The cover feels like thin plastic and is quite bendy. It doesn’t have any laminate or frosted cover to protect from wear and tear.
There’s a double sided pocket folder however it’s cardstock and the space is quite small. Combined with the coil which doesn’t have much room for expansion, you’d probably only be able to fit a few sticker sheets.
Monthly Calendar
Week starts on a Sunday (not consistent with the weekly spread).
The line spacing is really close together in the notes sidebar – 2 lines share the amount of space that is typically 1 line in other planners.
Unfortunately the calendar splits the boxes rather than re-starting dates on the top row.
A fair bit of space is taken up with USA national holidays and other random things like religious events, first day of autumn etc.
Weekly Planner
The weekly spread is one of my favorite layouts: horizontal days of the week on the left and checklist space on the right.
There is a fair bit of blank space at the top of the page which could be used for meal planning, reminders, weekly top 3 etc.
Extras pages
The noteworthy planner lives up to it’s name with an entire section just for lined notes pages (about 1/3 of the whole planner)
Tabs
Including a tab for the notes pages to find them easily.
Pen Testing
Based on the other BlueSky planners I’ve reviewed and the affordable price point, I was expecting the paper quality to be average which turned out to be the case.
I tried various ballpoint, gel, fine tip and marker tip pens – there was some ghosting on the back side of the page. I also did some highlighter and stamp swatches. The highlighters also had some ghosting and, as always, the MAMBI stamps bled through the page ?
Pros of the Planner
- Portable size
- Thin & lightweight
- Functional weekly layout
- More notes pages than most planners include
- Tabs protected by the cover
- Double sided pocket folder
- Equal amount of space to plan each day
- Affordable
Cons of the Planner
- Monthly calendar splits the days in 2 rather than re-starting the numbering on the top row
- The monthly calendar starts on Sunday but the weekly spread starts on Monday
- Bad pen ghosting and bleed through
- The softcover may not hold up well over time
- No monthly divider pages, monthly planning, monthly review or notes pages for each month
- The monthly calendar has a lot of random events pre-printed which waste planning space
- The line spacing in the monthly calendar sidebar is too close together
Would I use this planner?
Yes. My preferred layout is horizontal with days of the week on 1 side of the spread and list making space on the right page so this planner fits my requirements. A slightly bigger page size and line spacing would make it even better. Plus better quality paper.
This planner would be ideal for a student or someone that wants to track multiple things in the one place (e.g. work and personal, family and personal) rather than using 2 planners.
Update: See how I used the planner in this post.
More planner reviews:
- Scribbles That Matter Notebook
- 90X Goal Planner Review
- Week 31: Using the Ashley Shelly Planner for weekly planning
Planning Tips:
- 10 ways to save money when buying planner supplies
- 50 Tips for writing a better to do list that will make you more productive
- Choosing sections for your planner: what to keep in your weekly planner versus a household binder
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