For week 36 of the 52 Planners in 52 Weeks Challenge, I used the Momentum Planner. It’s not a planner a lot of people seem to talk about but if you’re working on a big project and really need to nail down the details of how you’re going to get it all done it’s a very goal focused planner you should try!

Disclaimer: I purchased the planner myself. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own! 

I used the weekly planner as well as their daily planner on Saturday and the Day Designer daily planner on Sunday (which will be in a separate upcoming post!)

Features of the Momentum Planner:

• Undated and dated options available
• Printable
• Very goal focused <3
• Daily, weekly and monthly layouts
• Week starts Monday
• Structured planning pages

Setting up the week

 

Since the Momentum planner features a simple, minimalist spread I wanted to ‘jazz it up’ a bit and add some color. The quickest way to add color to a planner is using highlighters. My categories ended up being a bit random this week:

• Yellow = personal / other
• Green = product planning (for a new planner set I’m working on for the shop!)
• Pink = Blogging
• Blue = bookkeeping / Etsy shop

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure how I should use this planner. I much prefer structured planners to those that just have one big open-ended planning space per day… but this planner is almost too structured.

I like having to do lists for each day and really liked the idea of the planned time versus actual time. Blogging is time consuming. Very time consuming. Blogging more frequently this year has meant less time to work on new products for my shop so I wanted to track how much time I was actually spending writing blog posts. I didn’t think it took very long to write each blog post, but when I broke it down and actually monitored how much time I spent, it was more than I thought. I found I actually spend around 1.5 hours per post, even more for posts that require research (i.e. planner roundups).

The weekly spread has space to allocate tasks to each day, but then it goes a step further than most other planners and has a section for priority, planned time and actual time. It was similar to the printable I made / used last week. I really liked the extra columns to allocate a time – it was one of the main reasons I was drawn to the planner.

Saturday and Sunday are combined so space is a bit squishy – I knew it wouldn’t be enough for me so I also used their daily planner (more on that later). I opted to convert the Saturday / Sunday (I will never understand why planners combine the days!) into a habit tracking section:

Yes the columns aren’t the same width for each day. I’m slowly learning to let go of perfectionism… 

The monthly objectives repeats itself on the weekly spread which could be removed to create more planning space, although it does prompt you to stay focused on your goals. The weekly projects tie into the monthly goals, the scheduled events are good for appointments and the deadlines section is good for fixed due dates like bills (or exams if you’re a student).

I like that there’s space for unplanned stuff that pops up as I normally use a sticky note for this.

However, there wasn’t much room to write notes so I opted to use a piece of memo paper to write down the blog posts for the week and secure it to the page with a strip of washi tape i.e. DIY sticky note! <3

Stationery Used

• Ditto highlighters from Big W (cheap highlighters that do the job)

 

• Bic Atlantic black pen (a good quality, affordable, everyday use ballpoint pen)

 

• Keji brand white out correction tape (from Officeworks, my favorite white out correction tape and they’re only 50c each – <3 when things are cheap and work well!)

 

• Monami Essenti Soft highlighter for the habit tracker (pretty aqua color that’s hard to find in highlighters)

Related: Ultimate list of the best planner pen brands and how to choose colors for color coding 

Daily Planner

I don’t use daily planners very often but decided to try one for a change! Since I’m at my day job during the week it made sense to try it out on Saturday when I have the whole day free to work on the blog and my shop!

The Momementum daily planner has sections for:

• Today’s projects (up to 5)
• Scheduled events e.g. meetings
• Daily schedule (for up to 8 hours in 15 min increments)
• Each task / step for the projects you’re working on that day
• Emergent tasks i.e. random stuff that pops up during the day
• Notes section

The Momentum Planner’s daily planning page has so many sections so you can really get into the details of what you need to get done, then plan out when you’re going to do it in the schedule sidebar.

I liked that there was only space for 8 hours. One of my favorite features is that there are no times pre-printed on the schedule and it’s in 15 minute increments. You could use this if you worked traditional hours or like I did, with the  parts of the day when I work.

I know that every Saturday I go for a walk at 5pm, cook dinner at 6pm etc. so why waste paper scheduling this stuff?

Confession: I did end up writing them down as the notes space looked empty. I still need to learn there’s nothing wrong with a bit of white space on the page! 

This would be an ideal daily planner for someone managing multiple projects and clients at work, or if you’re a business owner managing multiple projects and staff.

Related: Overwhelmed by the planner community? Read this post 

Pros of the Daily Momentum Planner

• No times pre-printed, choose the hours that work for you! Too many hourly planners start at 6am (no way would I ever be awake that early!) and usually finish at 10pm. I’m a night owl so always end up having to white out or cover up any pre-printed hours with date dot stickers

 

• Plenty of space to write tasks

 

• Gives you space to record the energy level required to complete that task to help you focus on where to start (high energy level) and leaving the easier lower energy level tasks until the end of the day

 

• The columns were just the right width – not so wide that you waste space on the page but not so narrow that you have to do ant sized writing to squeeze everything in

 

• The height of the lines was almost a perfect match to the width of highlighters – not sure if this is deliberate but I liked it!

Cons of the Daily Momentum Planner

• Doesn’t really give you the opportunity to do planner decorating or use stickers

 

• Too structured – there is a very specific need / use for this planner  – it’s more of a project / work planner than a life planner

I opted to print the printable page at full page size but it could also be printed at smaller page size (see this post for printing tips). I think it could end up making the writing space too small though. 

Monthly Momentum Planner

The planner also has a really good monthly planning page which I’m keen to try soon!

Annual Momentum Planner

Would I use this planner again?

No. This week was… a bit of a jumbled mess. This planner would be great if you’re managing multiple projects that have lots of steps or multiple people on your team, but otherwise it’s a bit too structured. This isn’t a planner I could use every week, it’s more of a weekly project planner rather than a weekly life planner.

It sounds a bit odd but I plan how I’m going to plan using the planners I use each week. I didn’t really give much thought into how I would set up the week before I started adding stuff (hence all the white out!) Lesson learned:  like everything else in life, don’t skimp on planning process!

I didn’t like how the spread looked aesthetically at the end of the week, nor the amount of ‘dead’ space – this planner was too structured for me.

I can see how this planner would work for some people, but it’s not just the right fit for me.

Catch up on past week’s of the challenge

• Week 18: Making a DIY printable planner with a flexible layout 
• Week 19: Mi Goals Weekly Planner 
• Week 20: Weekly planning using only a checklist and habit tracker – download a free printable
• Week 21: Using Microsoft Word to plan your week

Related Posts

• Planners you’ve probably never heard of (but will want to know about!) 
• 5 Ways to use sticky notes for school or college
• 5 Planner supplies you should never skimp on
• 7 Planner supplies I don’t regret splurging on
• How to make printable graph paper in Photoshop (perfect for habit tracking and bullet journalling!)