The Kind Friend Journal Review (Part Planner, Part Bullet Journal)
If you’re looking for an alternative to a traditional weekly planner and would like a hybrid planner / bullet journal, The Kind Friend Journal may be the right fit for you.
Disclaimer: The creator the planner sent me a copy for free in exchange for this review. As always, all opinions are my own.
Quick facts
- Size: 5.75″ wide x 8.5″ high
- PU Leather cover
- Multiple cover colors to choose from
- Sewn bound
- 2 Ribbon bookmarks
- 13 x 2 page weekly spreads (starts on Monday)
- Neutral inside pages
- Ships from Singapore
- 160 Pages
- 100 GSM paper
- Undated
Price: 30 SGD (Approx $33 AUD or $22 USD) + shipping
Shipping for 1 notebook is $13 SGD to Australia
Let’s take a closer look!
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The Cover
There are 5 cover colors to choose from: red, black, blue, pink and yellow. I’m really happy with the blue I chose!
Approx 0.75″ thick. Love that gold foil edging.
Weekly Planning
If you’ve been following my blog for a while you’ll know I much prefer planners that don’t have a lot of space for the days of the week (as I tend to just work off a to do list). Hence why I really like this spread with a few exceptions: the mood tracker doesn’t need to be so big and neither does the lined writing space in the questions section.
A top 3 on the weekly spread! <3
Bullet Journal
The weekly planning pages are clustered together at the front with the dot grid pages behind.
6mm dot grid spacing. 22 dots horizontal x 31 dots vertically.
I didn’t do a pen test as you can already see the design showing through the back side of the paper (only 100 GSM).
Pages lay flat on their own no matter where you open the notebook.
The dot placement is great – none of the dots are too close to the edge of the page.
Tabs
There are no tabs but the quote / phrase pages are black so kind of act like tabs:
There are 5 sections (broken up by the black quote / phrase pages) in the dot grid section. You could use these for different school subjects, lists, meal planning, kids schedules, doodling, brain dumping etc.
Pros of the Planner
- Portable size
- Lightweight
- Bullet journal & planner in the one notebook (hard to find!)
- Gold foil edges
- Bright white paper
- Multiple cover colors to choose from
- Pages lay flat on their own
Cons of the Planner
- Only 13 weekly spreads (you’ll need to purchase 4 journals to last an entire year if you don’t skip any weekly spreads)
- Ships from Singapore i.e. shipping could be expensive depending where you live
- Thin paper
- No pocket folder
- No monthly calendar
- No page numbers in the dot grid section
- No index
Would I use this planner?
Maybe. I like the mix of weekly planning and dot grid pages. If the the mood tracker on the weekly spread was smaller with more space for lists I think this would be a really functional planner – perfect for people like me that prefer to plan off a to do list, rather than by day. The paper is a nice bright white, but is quite thin.
More planner reviews:
Planning Tips:
- 12 Monthly planning bullet journal spreads (you can do in 5 minutes or less)
- Bullet Journal Ideas: 26 Weekly Spread Layouts to Try
- 10 Reasons why I hate traveler’s notebooks and will never use one
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I’m building a planner biz and this was very useful as this is the closest one to my concept. I’ve already incorporated some.of the things you found lacking in this one so that’s encouraging. Thanks for your insights!