The Good Busy planner is the most structured weekly layout I’ve come across so far – there are sections for everything in the 2 page spread. The planner also has very structured goal planning pages and monthly calendars.

I purchased this planner a few years ago and unfortunately it looks like the planner is no longer available. BUT you might want to take inspiration from the layout to create your own weekly spread for your bullet journal or to make your own printable planner.

This is not a sponsored post. I purchased the planner myself and all opinions are my own.

Quick facts

• Size: B5 size (7″ wide X 10″ high)
• Faux leather cover
• Sewn binding
• 3 cover styles (black plus 2 colorful floral designs)
• 12 month duration
• 2 page dates at a glance with dates for 3 years plus dot grid writing space (this is the only dated page in the planner)
• 2 page Monthly calendar (undated, you choose start day of the week)
• 2 page weekly spread (undated, you choose start day of the week)
• 2 ribbon bookmarks (different colors)
• 120GSM Bright white paper (100% recycled)
• 6 Goal planning pages
• 5 dot grid pages at the front of the panner (5mm dot grid)
• 2 page quarterly review and goal setting
• 22 double sided dot grid pages (so 44 pages total) at the back of the planner (5mm dot grid)
• Large pocket folder

Price: $42 USD + shipping from Amazon

Let’s take a closer look!

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The Cover

The planner has a softcover with rounded corners – typical of notebooks and planners with stitched binding. Black was the only color available.

Approx. 0.75″ / 2cm thick

Goal planning pages

At the start of the planner is a quick guide to using the planner, followed by the goal planning pages. But these aren’t generic goal planning pages. Before you start writing down goals there is a ‘workflow’ process of identifying time wasters, what you want your life balance to look like and a review of your recurring habits (the planner’s creator calls them rituals but I’d use this for habits).

Next is the goal discovery where you can decide quick wins and long term goals. Then once you’re clear on where you want to go, the master list can be used to record up to 30 goals. There’s also space for habits to develop, skills to learn and accomplishments. This is refreshing to see and I’m struggling to think of another planner than includes this type of goal review!

I appreciate the thought that’s gone into these pages but the writing space is a bit small for me. I wouldn’t be able to fit more than a few words in each box. It would be great if these pages were spread over twice as many pages to give more room to write. There are dot grid pages but these are at the back of this section and at the back of the planner, I could see myself flicking back and forth often.

The line spacing is 5mm.

After you’ve determined your goals, there’s an action plan with something I’d never seen before – guided mind maps. Some of the prompts are:

1. What I want
2. Why
3. Before & after
4. By when
5. Obstacles
6. Strategies
7. Action steps

These action plan mind map pages are available as a free download on the good busy website.

Yearly calendar

The only dated page in the whole calendar are the dates at a glance pages at the front. There are dates for 3 years plus dot grid writing space.

Note: I purchased this planner quite some time ago. You could resize a printable with whatever the year is when you use it, and paste it over the top of the existing calendars.

Monthly Calendar

The monthly calendar is extremely structured with sections for:

• Focus / reminder / important
• 30 day challenge for the month
• This month’s priorities
• Monthly master task list
• Plans for leisure / travel / fun
• Goals monthly plans and progress
• Stats / income / expenses / bills / savings
• Reflection questions
• Lined writing space
• Dot grid writing space

Typically undated planners still choose to pre-fill with a Sunday or Monday start, this is the first printed planner I’ve seen that leaves the choice up to you!

The boxes for each day are 4.1cm wide x 2.5cm high (1.6″ wide x 1″ high).

The line spacing is 5mm.

The monthly calendars and quarterly review (interspersed between the monthly calendars), are clustered towards the start of the planner.

Read more: 10 Brands that have Date Dot Stickers for your planner or bullet journal

Quarterly planner

Each quarter has a 2 page review and goal setting spread. There are sections for up to 4 goals, the same life balance wheel from the front of the planner, and a few more mind maps.

I was hoping there would be some more specific review questions with open ended space to write answers but there are only 4 review questions:

1. My greatest wins of the last quarter
2. My biggest insights and lessons of the last quarter
3. What I want to change in the new quarter
4. What I want to focus on in the new quarter

There are dot grid pages at the back of the planner if you need more room to do your quarterly review.

Weekly Planning

The weekly spread is also very structured and has sections for everything.

• My intention for the week
• Month at a glance calendar
• This week’s priorities
• Weekly master task list
• Goals weekly progress / milestones
• Habit tracker
• Mind map problem solver
• Do more of and do less of checklists
• Wins / memorable experiences
• Reflection / weekly review
• Dot grid notes section

For each day there are sections for

• Gratitude / focus / reminder
• Top 3 tasks for today
• Reward / looking forward to
• Scheduled tasks / appointments
• Secondary tasks / errands
• Notes / plans
• Best thing today

The line spacing is 4mm.

The dot grid is 5mm.

Just like the monthly calendars, there are no days of the week pre-printed so you can choose to start the week on whatever day you like.

Extras pages

At the back of the planner are 22 double sided dot grid pages (so 44 pages total). The dot grid is 5mm. The dots are a feint grey and none of them are too close to the edge of the page.

The dot grid pages are numbered, shame the whole planner doesn’t have page numbers.

The pages lay flat on their own.

Pocket folder

At the back is a roomy pocket folder but sadly there are no sticker sheets (or anything) inside.

Pen Testing

I didn’t do a pen test as I won’t be keeping this planner. The good busy website says there is ‘no ink bleedthrough or ghosting’ but the paper is 120GSM thick so I’m a bit skeptical if that is true or not. Normally 140GSM does well, (but really need 160GSM to be almost 100% sure there won’t be ghosting or bleed through).

Related post: Comparison of Dot Grid Notebooks for Bullet Journaling with 160 GSM paper (Thick, bleedproof paper)

Pros of the Planner

• Undated – start and stop planning anytime
• Paper and digital versions
• You choose start day of the week on the monthly calendar and weekly spread
• Bright white paper
• The pages lay flat on their own once you break the spine
• 2 ribbon bookmarks in contrasting colors
• Large page size planner but doesn’t feel that heavy
• Large pocket folder
• The dot grid pages are numbered, shame the whole planner doesn’t have page numbers.

Cons of the Planner

• No dated version available
• Great layouts but some more writing space in each section would be helpful
• Because there’s so much on the pages the writing space is tight (only 4 – 5mm line spacing)
• No tabs (no tab stickers provided with the planner either)
• Only 3 cover designs
• Page size is 7″ wide x 10″ high, some people may prefer something smaller (e.g. A5 page size)
• No option for cover personalisation
• No date stickers included

Would I use this planner?

No. I don’t use vertical weekly planners and the writing space is too tight for me. Some of the things I’d tweak:

– Weekly spread – give 2 lines for each of the schedule tasks and secondary task sections and extend the daily columns to the full length of the page. Then move the sections underneath the weekdays onto 2 completely separate pages. So make it a 4 page weekly spread. Then I would reduce the duration to 6 months so the planner doesn’t end up being too thick and heavy. I’d be keen to see a horizontal version of the planner too.

– Monthly calendar – similar to the above, I’d move all of the extras in the sidebar and below the calendar onto their own 2 page spread. I’d also add some open ended dot grid pages and / or monthly review question pages interspersed between the monthly spreads.

– Quarterly planning, add 2 dot grid pages after the structured quarterly planning pages

– Spread the goal planning section over more pages to give more room to write

– More detailed annual review pages

This planner is ideal for goal tracking – so any student, someone managing a day job and side hustle or a business owner could use this planner. I wouldn’t use this planner for family and tracking everyone’s schedule, I think this planner is suited just for your own use. While there are very structured layouts they’re still open ended enough that they could be used in multiple ways, so I can see the planner appealing to a wide range of people – you’ll just have to have small handwriting.

More goal planner reviews

• LH Agenda Planner Review (Goal Planner with horizontal plus notes weekly layout)
• MakseLife Goal Planner Review (quarterly weekly and daily undated version)
• 90X Goal Planner

More vertical weekly planner reviews

• Are you using the right vertical weekly planner? (10 layouts to consider)
• The best vertical weekly planners (my top 5)
• Custom Agendio Vertical Weekly Planner Review 

Planning Tips

• How to choose the right habit tracker for your planner
• Planning Tips: 10 Ways to Plan Your Week Faster
• Bored with your planner? 25 ways to mix it up

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