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All About Planners

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February 20, 2020

Happy Bee Planner Review (Undated Daily, Weekly and Monthly Planner)

On the quest for planners with some decorative elements but not too many (still want a functional spread), I came across the Happy Bee Planner. The entire planner has bee & honey references throughout!

Quick facts

  • Size: A5
  • Hardcover
  • Sewn binding
  • Dates at a glance page
  • Annual planning pages
  • 2 page Monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
  • 2 page weekly spread (starts on Sunday)
  • 1 page daily planning pages
  • Neutral inside pages
  • 5 Double sided lined notes pages
  • 5 Double sided blank notes pages
  • Pocket folder
  • Undated
  • Lasts 6 months
  • 2 ribbon bookmarks

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

The usual hardcover that all sewn bound notebooks have. At least they added a bee to the otherwise plain black cover.

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_02

The planner comes with 3 functional rainbow sticker sheets 🙂

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_01

Approx 0.75″ thick

Dates at a glance

This is the only page of the planner that has dates pre-printed.

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_05

USA Holidays List & Goals

The goals by category is a great idea but the writing space is very squished and only gives enough space to focus on 1 goal for each category. A bit more space would been good.

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_06 happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_07

Love the timeframe page in gantt chart style. I use something similar to this to plan out my year.

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_08

Monthly Planning

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_09

Love the bee & honey theme continued throughout the entire planner while still keeping the planner very functional.

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_21

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_20

The monthly calendar pages are a bit disjointed. If they’d added an extra page (e.g. goals or notes) then you could see the month at a glance but at the moment you have to flick between pages. In a 2 page view, 1 page is last month and 1 page is the current month. So in the photo below the left would be half of June and the right page would be half of July.

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_10

Weekly Planning

Same for the weekly planning. Starts on a Sunday (consistent with the monthly calendar) but disjointed. Maybe I got a planner with printing error…

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_11

The scheduling and daily task space is quite narrow – you’ll need to write small. However there’s plenty of space on the daily spread so you could do a code e.g. a symbol or stamp for each goal category, and then write the task on the corresponding daily planning page.

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_12

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_13

Daily Planning

1 page for each day with a very functional spread. I think this would be a really good layout if you want to keep work and personal in the same planner.

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_14

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_15

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_16

Notes

5 lined and 5 blank notes pages.

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_17

Pocket Folder

happy bee planner review weekly monthly undated vertical hourly layout 5am to 11pm schedule lined monthly calendar video flipthrough_19

Pen Testing

Since the paper is thin with bad ghosting of the design printed on the back of the page, I didn’t bother with a pen test.

Pros of the Planner

  • Portable size
  • Minimalist color scheme
  • Honey & bees theme continued throughout is something different (while still keeping the planner functional)
  • Plenty of lined writing space throughout
  • 3 big (A5 size) sheets of functional rainbow planner stickers
  • Detailed yearly and monthly goal pages
  • Undated – start planning anytime
  • Pages lay flat
  • 2 ribbon bookmarks (and different colors)
  • Logical clustering – starts with yearly, then monthly, then weekly and lastly, daily pages at the back
  • Functional daily planning page
  • Lined and blank notes pages
  • Pocket folder

Cons of the Planner

  • Plain cover (and it’s black)
  • Thin paper that’s prone to ghosting
  • Yellow / cream paper not white
  • Hard to find online
  • No tabs
  • The monthly calendars are awkwardly split between spreads. In a 2 page view, 1 page is last month and 1 page is the current month
  • Columns are narrow on the weekly spread
  • Only lasts 6 months

Would I use this planner?

No. I don’t use vertical weekly planners or day to a page planners. However, I still like this planner. There are a few design flaws – thin columns on the weekly, odd page sequencing with split months and weeks and the thin paper, but I do like that it has monthly, weekly and daily pages. The daily pages are a very functional layout that would be ideal if you wanted to plan work and personal (or your day job and a side hustle) in the same planner.

I found this planner on Amazon about a year ago but cannot find it on there anymore. The website on the front of the planner also doesn’t seem to work. So if you like this planner, I’d try a site like eBay.

More planner reviews:

  • bloom weekly planners review (horizontal, vertical, monthly & student)
  • Life Organized Weekly Planner by Paper House (similar to the Erin Condren Life Planner)
  • Mom’s Manager Planner Review from TF Publishing 

Planning Tips:

  • 7 Cheaper alternatives to popular (but expensive) planner supplies
  • Best pens for writing on washi tape 
  • How to choose the right habit tracker for your planner

Browse all posts

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happy bee planner review pros and cons video flip through vertical 5am staart day to a page work and personal monthly yearly annual

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Posted In: Planner Reviews, Undated Weekly, Vertical Weekly · Tagged: amazon weekly planner, cute weekly planner, daily 5am start planner, daily and weekly planner in one, daily and weekly planner review, day to a page planner, happy bee planner, happy bee planner review, happy bee planner video review, minimalist planner, vertical hourly 5am start planner, vertical hourly planner, vertical hourly planner review, vertical hourly start 5am planner, vertical hourly weekly planner

Comments

  1. Sinnamon says

    February 25, 2020 at 01:14

    I think I would love this planner if it were not in hardbound form. I like Discbound Planner systems.

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