Milligram Family Planner (video flipthrough, pros, cons and pen testing)
On the seemingly never-ending quest for planners with non-traditional layouts, I stumbled across the Milligram Family Planner.
Quick facts
- Size: 6″ wide x 8.75″ high (bit bigger than A5)
- Hardcover
- Book / sewn binding (that lays flat!)
- This belongs to page in case your planner is lost
- Dates at a glance page
- Neutral / minimalist color scheme
- 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
- 2 Page monthly calendar (starts on Monday)
- Timezones page
- Made in Australia and ships from Australia
Let’s take a closer look!
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Very sturdy hardcover
Approx 1.5″ thick.
Dates at a Glance
For the current year and next year
Holidays
This is an Aussie planner so has Australian public holidays and school terms broken down by state.
Annual Planning
Despite being called a family planner, the family info page is really the only page that is specific to a family. – anyone could use this planner.
Monthly Calendar
The monthly calendar starts on a Monday (consistent with the weekly spread).
Australian (by state!) and New Zealand holidays are pre-printed.
The calendar splits the boxes in 2 diagonally, rather than restarting the numbering on the top row 🙁
Monthly Budget
I have another Milligram planner that has a 2 page monthly action list. In this version this is replaced with a 2 page budget:
Weekly Planner
This is the reason I wanted the planner – a mix of unlined, lined and categories writing space. The layout is a cross between a horizontal with notes and categories layout. I haven’t seen this layout in a planner before!
Consistent with the monthly calendar, the weekly planner starts on a Monday.
Not the nicest color combinations…
But the purple is pretty!
Notes pages
There are 20 dot grid pages at the back of the planner.
It has the usual 5mm dot grid spacing
Extra pages
These travel planning pages are a bit too brief and would really only be useful for general overview / working out where you’re going, not for detailed trip planning.
Time zones page is a nice idea… but probably quicker to just look it up on your phone. This page could be good for marking all the places you’ve been or where you want to go during the year.
Tabs
There are no tabs in this planner. Instead, the months are shaded on the side of the pages for each month. Tabs are preferable and make it quicker and easier to find things but this is a good alternative:
Pocket Folder
One-sided pocket folder at the back.
Planner Stickers
I’m not a fan of these planners stickers. The colors aren’t that nice and they’re quite big (approx 0.75″)
Pen Testing
The paper is nice to write on but not the best quality. All of the pens had ghosting or bleed through:
Just a note about the paper… for the most part it was smooth and nice to write on, and while a bit of a yellow tinge, definitely a lot nicer paper than most sewn bound notebooks. 1 page did get stuck and and ripped but I’m thinking I just got unlucky as no other pages were stuck together.
Pros of the Milligram Weekly Planner
- The annual calendar, monthly calendar and weekly planner all start on a Monday (consistent)
- Very functional weekly planning space
- Gender neutral
- Very sturdy hardcover – one of the sturdiest I’ve seen in a planner
- Smooth cream paper that’s nice to write on
- While it’s a book / sewn bound planner the pages actually lay flat
Cons of the Milligram Weekly Planner
- Not a fan of the color scheme on the weekly spreads
- Due to the book binding, the planner doesn’t have much room to expand if you want to use lots of stickers and washi to decorate
- Plain boring cover with no option to personalise
- The dates at a glance calendars on the monthly and weekly spread are the smallest I’ve ever seen for a planner 0.75” wide
- Paper is thin so you can see ghosting on the back side
Would I use this planner?
Yes! Love the different weekly layout.
Reviews of similar planners:
Planning Tips:
- Best highlighters for planning
- Color coding your planner: how to choose which colors to use
- How to design planner stickers from start to finish (a sneak peak at my design process!)
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