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All About Planners

Printable planners to organize your home, business and life!

December 9, 2019

Busy B Weekly Planner Review (Pros, Cons, Video Walkthrough & Pen Test)

One of the planners I purchased in my Europe stationery haul is a planner I’d found online months before the trip. I wasn’t expecting to find it (least of all in Slovenia!) as it’s a UK brand. Busy B have a variety of weekly planners (mostly horizontal) but in layouts that are a bit more creative than the seen-it-a-dozen-times kind of layouts.

Quick facts

  • Size: 5.5″ wide x 8.25″ high
  • Softcover
  • Glue binding
  • Dates at a glance page
  • Goals page
  • No monthly calendar
  • 1 page weekly spread plus 1 lined notes page for each week
  • Worldwide holidays printed on the weekly spread
  • Extra pages including websites, contacts, expenses tracker etc.

Let’s take a closer look!

To enlarge the screen of the video, click the square icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video (it will say ‘full screen’ when you hover your mouse over the icon).

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The Cover

Disappointingly, the cover is just thin cardstock. It does mean the planner weighs practically nothing but it doesn’t have enough weight to keep the pages open / lay flat on their own. I can see the cover getting damaged throughout a year of use.

busy b everyday planner review weekly monday start horizontal layout no monthly calendar lightweight

busy b weekly planner review calendar year 12 month planner

Approx 0.8cm thick (about 0.3″)
busy b everyday planner review portable lightweight

The planner starts with a personal details and useful information page

busy b weekly planner review horizontal planner monday start date blue weekly spreads only no monthly important information

followed by 2020 & 2021 dates at a glance calendars.

busy b weekly planner review annual dates at a glance yearly overview

A 2 page birthdays list. The writing space is far too small – only 3mm!

busy b weekly planner review annual dates at a glance yearly overview birthdays anniversaries events

Then there’s a 2019 in reviewbusy b weekly planner review goal planner 12 month planner horizontal weekly spread monday start lined notes

And goals for 2020.

busy b weekly planner review goals career health family money holidays annual overview horizontal weekly planner

As you can see from the photos, the pages wouldn’t even lay flat on their own long enough for me to take a photo. Even when I broke the spine (which usually works) the pages still wouldn’t lay flat. I tried using a butterfly clip but since the cover is just thin cardstock the cover left an indent 🙁

Monthly Calendar

This planner doesn’t have a monthly calendar – probably why it’s so thin! I actually prefer this since I don’t use the traditional 2 pages per month box layout.

Weekly Planning

This planner is a UK brand but has worldwide holidays printed (including Australia!)

There are no tabs but the months are printed on the side to help find them easier.

busy b weekly planner review goal planner 12 month planner horizontal weekly spread monday start lined notes minimalist

Each month has a 2 page weekly spread – 1 page weekly horizontal layout plus a lined notes page.

busy b weekly planner monday start 2 page spread horizontal with lined notes page

busy b weekly planner review goal planner 12 month planner horizontal weekly spread monday start lined notes worldwide holidays printed

Since there are no monthly calendar, the month is printed on each of the weekly spreads.

busy b weekly planner monthly overview minimalist lined monday week start

Extras pages

For being such a compact planner there’s actually quite a few extra pages at the back:

  • 2021 Year planner
  • Key dates for 2021 (annual overview)
  • Goals for 2021 – 2 pages
  • Expenses (6 pages)
  • Travel plans – it’s just lined note paper (6 pages)
  • Websites (2 pages)
  • Contacts (2 pages)
  • Notes (4 pages)

busy b weekly planner review horizontal planner monday start date blue weekly spreads only no monthly annual calendar yearly overview future log

busy b planner annual overview

busy b weekly planner review lined notes 1 page weekly minimalist cheap affordable password logins

busy b weekly planner contacts

busy b weekly planner review

busy b weekly planner review lined notes 1 page weekly minimalist cheap affordable

busy b weekly planner review expenses tracker by month

busy b weekly planner review weekly goals planning 12 month calendar

Pen Testing

Unfortunately, the paper quality isn’t very good, all of the pens had indenting or heavy ghosting.

busy b planner pen testing uk stationery brand sewn bound highlighters stamps ghosting bleed through paper quality

busy b planner pen testing uk stationery brand

Pros of the Planner

  • Portable size
  • Lightweight
  • Affordable
  • Variety of extra pages
  • Elastic band

Cons of the Planner

  • Pages do not lay flat
  • No tabs
  • No monthly calendar
  • Paper is prone to ghosting

Would I use this planner?

Maybe. This planner had the potential to be great but a few things let it down: the pages don’t lay flat, the cover is too thin and the paper is prone to ghosting.

This brand has other horizontal weekly spreads to choose from (and different layouts to the usual boring seen that way too many times horizontal weekly spreads).

More planner reviews:

  • Do It All Weekly Planner by Orange Circle Studio 
  • Review of the Plum Paper Me Planner
  • Life Organized Weekly Planner by Paper House (similar to the Erin Condren Life Planner)

Planning Tips:

  • How to make a printable chore chart using Microsoft Excel (including video tutorial)
  • 8 Ways to use highlighters for Bullet Journal Spreads
  • Which planner stickers are right for you?

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busy b weekly planner review pros and cons video flipthrough uk brand horizontal weekly spread

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Posted In: Horizontal 1 Page Weekly + Notes, Planner Reviews · Tagged: busy b planner review, busy b weekly planner, busy b weekly planner horizontal, busy b weekly planner review, horizontal weekly planner, horizontal weekly planner review, monday start weekly planner, uk planner review

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Welcome to All About Planners! I’m Rachael, a 20-something Aussie addicted to graphic design and all things planning. On the blog you’ll find more than 1,000 posts about all things planning including planner reviews, tips, favorite supplies and some of my past weekly spreads.

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