Clever Fox is one of my favorite planner brands and one of the few sewn bound planners I’ll actually use. The pages lay flat, there’s bright white paper with very minimal ghosting or bleed through, they’re affordable and there’s a huge range of cover colors to choose from.
I’ve previously reviewed the
- Clever Fox Budget Planner
- Clever Fox Weekly Planner
- Clever Fox Dotted Journal Notebook
- Clever Fox Daily Planner
I liked the weekly planner but the page size was a bit too small. There is now a larger version – the Clever Fox Pro – with a similar dashboard weekly layout but with some extra sections.
This post contains affiliate links. If you click one of the links and make a purchase I’ll receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) in exchange for referring you. This is not a sponsored post, I purchased the planner myself and all opinions are my own.
Quick facts
- Size: 8.5 x 11″ (US letter size)
- Softcover
- Sewn binding
- Undated
- Lasts 12 months
- Multiple goal planning pages – annual and quarterly goals check in pages
- 2 page Monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
- 2 Page monthly review
- 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
- Neutral inside pages
- 3 ribbon bookmarks
- 26 dot grid pages at the back of the planner
- Pocket folder
- Comes with 3 sheets of planner stickers
- 120 GSM paper (normally too thin but somehow in the Clever Fox planners there’s minimal ghosting or bleed through)
Price: $37 USD on Amazon (I chose the turquoise version)
Let’s take a closer look!
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The Cover
The cover material is that usual smooth, fake leather material typical of sewn bound notebooks. It’s the same material as the other versions of the Clever Fox Planner. The Pro version is US letter size version compared to 5.75″ wide x 8.5″ high for the original Clever Fox (pink version in the photo below).
There are so many cover colors to choose from: pink, teal, orange, purple, rose gold, black, red and turquoise.
Approx. 0.75″ thick
Goal Planning
Clever Fox always include a comprehensive goal planning section in their planners. This one has:
- 1 page awareness & self discovery
- 1 page daily rituals (I probably wouldn’t use this but some white out and I can change this into whatever I like or add my own goal questions or a printable)
- 2 page vision board (unlined)
- 2 page future planning by category (1 year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years)
- 2 pages to plan your 1 year goals by category
The line spacing is 0.25″
Not sure why but the line spacing is way bigger on this page (0.5″)
I really like that this one also breaks your goals down into quarters as not many planners do this (they usually just have the annual goals pages).
Monthly Calendar
Starts Sunday (not consistent with the weekly spread which starts on Monday).
The planner is undated so you could use some days of the week stickers or washi tape to switch it to a Monday week start.
All of the monthly calendars are clustered together at the front of the planner (which I prefer – especially since there’s no tabs but at least there’s 3 ribbon bookmarks in different colors).
The boxes for each day are 2″ wide x just under 1.5″ high.
There is no wasted space on the pages and there’s a good mix of lined and unlined writing space.
Monthly Review
Most planners don’t include a monthly review and if they do, rarely provide enough room to write more than a few dot points. There is so much lined writing space in this section!
The questions are ok, I’d probably add some of my own as well. And definitely cover up that scale of 1-10 section. I do like rating each month but I can just write the number in the top corner of the page, it doesn’t need to take up a quarter of the page…
Love the color wheel to rate each goal / life category!
Weekly Planning
After all of the goal planning, monthly calendars and review pages, the weekly spreads start.
My favorite layout – weekdays on 1 page and lots of lists space on the other page. This one has so many lists / sections you could keep track of everything in their separate sections and not even have to color code.
The weekly layout is streamlined – there’s space to write the date in the header section, not inside the day’s box which wastes space (like most planners do)
The line spacing is 0.25″
The life balance to do list categories tie back into the goal pages at the front of the planner.
The habit tracker is a bit too small for me – the space to write the habit is only 1″ long. I’d probably replace the ‘how I’ll improve next week’ (to me this is kind of a double up with the lessons learned section) and instead list out the habits with a number key which I’d add in the habit section.
Extras pages
At the back of the planner are 26 double sided dot grid pages which is far more notes pages than most planners include.
5mm dot grid
I normally avoid sewn bound notebooks as the pages don’t usually lay flat however all of my Clever Fox planners do lay flat on their own.
There are 3 sheets of planner stickers with a mix of icons, quotes and box labels.
Pen Testing
The page size is a bit too big for me so I didn’t end up keeping this planner. I assume the paper is the same between all the Clever Fox planner versions so here are the results of the pen test from the Clever Fox Dot Journal.
120 GSM is normally too thin and prone to ghosting and bleed through. But for some reason, Clever Fox’s 120 GSM paper is actually decent – bright white with only minor ghosting for marker pens and stamps.
Pros of the Planner
- 3 Ribbon bookmarks (and different colors)
- Pocket folder
- Bright white paper
- Minimal ghosting and bleed through
- Affordable
- Plenty of cover colors to choose from
- Comprehensive goal planning section (annual and 3 monthly)
- 2 page monthly review (which most planners don’t include)
- 3 sheets of planner stickers included
- Undated – start planning anytime
- Functional layouts with no wasted space
- Huge notes section at the back of the planner
Cons of the Planner
- No tabs
- Bulky page size
- Monthly and weekly spread start day is not consistent
Would I use this planner?
I really like Clever Fox Planners – it’s one of the few sewn bound planner brands I actually like. The pages lay flat, are functional and well thought out, there’s always detailed goal planning pages, there’s plenty of cover colors to choose from and they’re affordable. The weekly spread suits my needs and I like the separate work and personal sections while still having plenty of open-ended notes space.
I like the pro version but the page size is a bit too big. Something in between US letter size and the smaller 5.75″ wide x 8.5″ high version (e.g. a 7″ wide 9″ high version) would be perfect!
If you like the Clever Fox Pro, it’s available on Amazon (affiliate link). If you’d prefer a daily version, it’s available here.
Comparison with the 5.75″ wide x 8.5″ high version
The goal planning section is much more detailed in the larger page size:
The monthly calendar is much the same between the two
The weekly spread is compressed in the smaller page size with less categorised lists on the right page of the spread.
See how I tried the smaller page size version in this post.
The dot grid pages have been updated since the original version. The dots were a very dark grey and too bold in their original planner – the updated light grey and smaller dots are much better.
More planner reviews:
Planning Tips:
- 15 Review questions to ask yourself at the end of every week
- Where to find discs to make a discbound planner or notebook (downloadable comparison)
- Why horizontal is my favorite weekly planner layout
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