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All About Planners

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July 14, 2018

Live Whale Daily Planner Review (Pros, Cons & a Video Walkthrough)

While on the quest for a planner in the non-typical vertical, hourly and horizontal format, I came across the Live Whale Planner!

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of the planner in exchange for this review. I was going to purchase the planner anyway. As always, all opinions are my own.

The Live Whale planner comes in weekly and daily editions. In this post I’ll go through the daily edition. I did a review of the weekly edition in this post.

life whale planner review undated weekly daily minimalist goal setting gender neutral pros and cons

Quick facts

  • Size 5.75″ wide x 8.25″ high
  • Book binding
  • Leather cover with elastic band
  • Undated
  • This belongs to page in case your planner is lost
  • Dates at a glance
  • Goal setting pages
  • Neutral color scheme
  • 26 x 1 page per week planning pages
  • Daily planner pages – 2 pages per day (120 days – should last 4 – 6 months)
  • 2 Page monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
  • 6 monthly budgeting pages
  • Lined notes pages
  • No Tabs but 3 built in ribbon bookmarks
  • Pocket Folder

Price: $23 USD

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

Leather with gold corners to prevent wear and tear.

The cover is a bit too plain for my liking. There’s nothing printed on the cover or the spine – it just looks like an ordinary notebook.

live whale weekly planner review pros and cons video honest minimalist gender neutral leather high quality a5 size portable daily

Because the planner has 2 pages per day it does make it quite bulky (approx 3/4″ thick)
live whale weekly planner review pros and cons video minimalist daily 2 days per page simple goal setting leather cover

Dates at a glance

4 years worth of dates at a glance on 2 pages – very space efficient!

live whale weekly planner review pros and cons video honest minimalist gender neutral leather high quality a5 size portable daily undated

Goal Setting

The first thing I noticed when I opened this planner is that the font size and line spacing is quite small. However, it also means the planner fits a lot on each page.

I really like this goal setting page structured into the main areas of your life: personal, family, career & financial, social, fitness. spiritual – and there’s an other section where you can add your own (a good space for craft projects).

Then there’s space to map out the what, why and how behind your goals. Ideally this space would be a bit bigger, however there are plenty of open-ended pages following this where you can map things out in detail.

live whale planner review undated goal setting small a5 size portable daily weekly minimalist

live whale planner review goal setting pros and cons video minimalist simple monday start sunday top 3 hourly vertical scheduling mind map

live whale planner review goal setting pros and cons video minimalist simple monday start sunday top 3 hourly vertical scheduling brain dump

It’s a bookbound planner (which I normally avoid). However, the pages actually lay flat without you having to hold them open with one hand 🙂

live whale planner review goal setting pros and cons video minimalist simple monday start sunday top 3 hourly vertical scheduling

Budgeting

Always handy – monthly budgeting pages!

There are 6 of these pages (the planner is intended to last for 4 – 6 months).

Live whale planner review pros and cons video daily weekly monthly calendar budgeting section 2 pages per day lined goal setting gender neutral minimalist simple

Live whale planner review daily weekly monthly calendar budgeting section 2 pages per day lined goal setting gender neutral minimalist simple

Monthly Divider

Each month has a brain dump page and a divider page with a different quote.

live whale weekly planner review pros and cons video minimalist weekly monthly undated monday start sunday

Monthly Calendar

Week starts on a Sunday.

The layout of the calendar is very functional with a lined sidebar  and open-ended space below the calendar boxes.

live whale planner review undated monthly calendar 2 page minimalist gender neutral simple leather a5 size portable crisp white paper no bleed through

This planner is undated – my favorite type of planner as you can start using it anytime!

live whale planner review monthly calendar undated minimalist simple functional amazon gender neutral goal setting monday sunday start week

Weekly Planner

While this is predominantly a daily planner, the planner also includes 26 x 1 page per week planning pages.

I really like this weekly planning page (more than I like the actual Live Whale weekly planner!) Very few planners have 1 page per week planners – I wish more did.

The page size and habit tracker sections to write in are quite small so when I use this planner I’m intending to put numbers in the habit section, then write out the habit the number corresponds to on a sticky note. E.g. 1 = file backups, 2 = yoga, 3 = vitamins etc.

Live whale weekly planner review monday start undated functional minimalist simple gender neutral habit tracker daily

Daily Planner

It’s not very often that a planner includes 2 pages for each day so this was a welcome discovery!

live whale daily planner review 2 days per week functional schedule 6am to 9pm checklist meal planning goals notes affirmations gratitude

live whale planner review daily 2 days per day functional goal setting a5 leather pros and cons video undated monday sunday start

Overall a very functional daily planning page. from 6am to 9pm with with two lines for each hour (i.e. you can plan by half hour). Plus the large checklist space and the meal planning section even includes space for snacks. I also really like the countdown to goal due date section. If I don’t have a deadline (date) then nothing really gets done. I wish more planners included goal accountability sections like this!

daily planner schedule 6am to 9pm undated live whale planner review meal planning checklist

Extras pages

Plenty of lined notes pages at the back of the planner:

live whale planner review notes pages lined pen testing functional goal setting gender neutral minimalist

Tabs

There are no tabs in this planner (probably since it’s undated). Instead there’s 3 built in pen loops (in different colors).

Pen Loop

And it’s fat enough to fit the Frixion pen!

live whale weekly planner review pros and cons video pen loop gender neutral goal setting daily weekly monthly

Pocket Folder & Elastic Band

live whale weekly planner review a5 size pocket folder gender neutral minimalist simple goal setting

Pen Testing

I tried various ballpoint, gel, fine tip and marker tip pens – there was some ghosting on the back side of the page. I also did some highlighter and stamp swatches. The highlighters also had some ghosting and, as always, the MAMBI stamps and cheap highlighter bled through the page ?

live whale planner review pen testing highlighters bleed through swatches fine tip gel ballpoint bookbound minimalist gender neutral

live whale planner review pen testing highlighters bleed through swatches fine tip gel ballpoint bookbound minimalist gender neutral video

Pros of the Planner

  • Portable size
  • Minimalist color scheme
  • Daily and weekly planning pages
  • 2 pages for each day giving you lots of room to write
  • Goal setting pages
  • Bright white paper that feels super smooth to write on
  • Pocket folder
  • Elastic band
  • It’s a bookbound planner, however, the pages actually lay flat without you having to hold them open with one hand 🙂

Cons of the Planner

  • Cover is very plain and no personalisation option
  • The line spacing changes throughout the planner – on the goal setting, weekly and daily planning pages they’re closer together than the lined notes pages
  • Small font size (just a bit too small)
  • No tabs (although there are 3 built in ribbon bookmarks)

Would I use this planner?

Yes. This planner is really well thought out. I like the 1 page weekly spread and the 2 page daily spread (which I’m going to convert into a weekly planner since I don’t tend to use day to a page planners).

More planner reviews:

  • Get to Work Book Planner Review (Pros, Cons and a Video Walkthrough)
  • Mi Goals ‘Goal Digger’ Weekly Planner 2018 Review
  • Amelia Lane Weekly Planner Review (Pros, Cons & a video walkthrough) 

Planning Tips:

  • Bored with your planner? 25 ways to mix it up
  • How to make planner stickers for free using Silhouette Studio (Introduction – Video Tutorial)
  • How to color code your planner for school using pens

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live whale weekly planner review pros cons monday start 2 days per page daily undated scheduling vertical meal planning goals

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Posted In: Daily Planners, Planner Reviews, Undated Daily Planners · Tagged: 1 page weekly planner, 2 pages per day planner, 2 pages per week planner, alternative to bullet journal, blogs about planning, cheap planner, daily planner 6am to 9pm, daily planner blog, daily scheduling planner, day to a page planner, gender neutral weekly planner, live whale daily planner, live whale daily planner review, live whale planner, live whale planner review, minimalist weekly planner, planner blog, planner for guys, planner for less than 50 dollars, planner similar to law of attraction, planner similar to passion planner, planners for men, planning blog, undated daily planner, undated monthly calendar, undated weekly planner

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