If you’re reading my blog, I’m going to assume you’ve heard of Kikki K. Each year they put out a lot of cute planners, but in past years, the layouts have never been to my style. Too many decorative emellishments scattered throughout taking up functional planning space, pages I would never use etc. Until now. I was browsing their new 2018 planners and came across this one (just wait till you see the inside!)

I also saw a couple of notepads and well, once they were in my hands, I couldn’t just leave them in the shop, I had to bring them home with me too!

Kikki K 2018 Weekly Planner Review

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Pros of the Kikki K 2018 Weekly Planner Review

• Sturdy, navy fabric cover
• 2 page weekly spread with the days of the week on the left side and goal setting, meal planning, habit tracking and a checklist on the right page
• Week starts Monday
• 2 page monthly calendar (also starting on Sunday)
• Equal amount of planning space per day
• Flag bookmark plus 1 ribbon bookmark
• Holidays for the entire world from Australia to the UK, USA, Singapore etc.
• Monthly tabs
• A5 size
• Plenty of notes pages

Price

Reasonable price point. This planner was $35. Most of their planners (and everything in this shop) can be quite expensive. I signed up to their mailing list and purchased during a 25% off sale. They also have a signup discount when you subscribe to their mailing list.

Let’s take a look inside!

The cover features a pop of gold with a pretty repeating triangle pattern. The planner is book-bound / sewn – approx. 0.75″ thick.

Goal Setting

The front has some generic info about goal setting we’ve all heard about the SMART goals system – the front pages are basically just an overview of that.

Yearly Reflection

Identify what went well and what didn’t go so well in 2017…

Yearly planning

I like that this planner focuses on top 3 – from the yearly goals, to quarterly, monthly and right through to the weekly spread.

Quarterly Planning

Unlike most planners, there’s a quarterly goals planning section where you can record what goals you want to achieve and something most planners miss – space to create an action plan (like a pre-plan before scheduling things to each week). I personally find that unless I record all of the steps that need to get done before I start allocating days / weeks to do them, something inevitably gets overlooked.

Similar layout / questions to the yearly goal planning – love the consistency

The Weekly Spread

What drew me to this planner was the weekly layout. I’m growing bored of the same generic horizontal or vertical weekly spreads. I’ve found that, after trying more than 40 different weekly layouts this year, I’m thinking a 1 page for weekly planning and a second page for habit tracking, checklists etc. is a better fit for me. The only things I schedule to particular days are blog posts, the rest of my week just tends to be a big checklist.

The weekly layout features a 2 page weekly spread starting on Monday, with the days of the week on the left page. On the right page is my favorite part of the planner: top 3 priorities, weekly goals, daily gratitude (which I’ll probably end up using for something else), habit tracking for 3 habits, to do checklist and dinner plans – overall a very compact and functional layout.

Each tab has a motivational quote. The tabs are made from paper and don’t feel very sturdy (very disappointing).

If you’re after a less structured weekly spread, the Plum Paper Horizontal + Notes layout might be a good fit for you – it has the same weeks on one page and then a large open-ended lists / notes section on the other page. 

The monthly calendars and the weekly spreads both start on a Monday. Sounds logical right? Yet most planners start the monthly calendar on Sundays and the weekly spread on Mondays. The monthly calendars have 3 goals section with space to record actions. This sidebar is my favorite part of the monthly calendar!

The monthly calendars have 6 rows so if the dates reach the end of the row they don’t split the daily boxes into 2 like some calendars do. However, rather than starting the dates at the top row, they add a 6th row. This does sacrifice / waste a fair bit of space for each day’s box.

Monthly Reflection

A simple monthly reflection page for each month.

Dates at a glance pages

Public holidays for everywhere in the world

Extra pages at the back

There are ample notes pages at the back with different titles for lists as well as graph paper.

Pen Testing in the Kikki K Planner

The page quality feels nice and no pens bled through the page.

Cons of the Kikki K 2018 Weekly Planner Review

• The pages don’t lay flat unless you leave the page open for a while and push down really hard to smooth the pages (the main reason I normally avoid book bound planners)
• No personalisation
• The days of the week (left page of the spread) is unlined
• The tabs / dividers are made from paper, not cardstock or other sturdy material

Would I use this planner?

Yes (I bought the planner with my own money, I wasn’t given it for free in exchange for this review) – I’m quite excited to try this planner in 2018! 🙂

This planner is similar to the Mi Goals planner which I used in week 19 of the 52 Planners in 52 weeks challenge, and the Plum Paper Horizontal with notes that I tried in week in week 12 (although I’m thinking about trying the  Plum Paper planner again in a different way to last time).

Update: see how I used the planner in this post Color coding by section using the Kikki K Goals Weekly Planner

Other Kikki K Planners

I also purchased the habit tracker notepad which I thought would be a useful for pre-planning the week, or when trying planners for the 52 planners in 52 weeks challenge that didn’t have a habit tracker or not enough room for tasks (for some planners I’ve had to add a sticky note part-way through the week to create extra space).

I’m a sucker for black & gold and couldn’t resist these notepads!

Related Posts

• Ultimate list of the best planner pen brands and how to choose colors for color coding 
• Highlighters vs. Highlighter Pencils: Are they worth the cost? 
• Life Organized Weekly Planner by Paper House (similar to the Erin Condren Life Planner)
• Ultimate Comparison: Erin Condren Life Planner versus Plum Paper Planners – Which planner is better? 

Browse all posts on the blog here.