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All About Planners

Printable planners to organize your home, business and life!

August 14, 2018

Unbound Weekly Planner Review (Pros, Cons and a video walkthrough)

The Unbound Planner is a relatively unknown hidden gem. Super functional pages throughout, 4 days to plan each week (which is a struggle to find in planners), goal setting pages, project plans – my very critical self found it hard to find fault with this 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! If you like this planner and decide to purchase using my affiliate link I’ll receive a small commission as a thank you for referring you.

Quick facts

  • Size: 6″ wide x 8.5″ high x 0.9″ thick
  • Book / sewn binding
  • Hardcover
  • Dates at a glance
  • Neutral inside pages
  • Weekly overview + notes page before each weekly spread
  • 2 page vertical weekly spread (starts on Monday)
  • 2 Page monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
  • 12 month planner
  • Goal setting pages
  • 13 Project planning pages

Price: $40 USD + free shipping to the USA

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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Mentioned in the video: How (and why) I pre-plan the week using the Plum Paper horizontal lined with notes layout

The Cover

The cover is a cloth feel hardcover. It’s rather plain 🙁

unbound weekly planner review pros and cons vertical minimalist hardbound a5 size video gender neutral

Approx 1″ thick.

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Dates at a Glance

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Yearly Planning

I really like this yearly goals overview page. I use a similar system (based on 2 week chunks rather than an entire month). It’s compact, you can see everything on the one page and use different colors to separate goals for different areas of your life (work, personal etc.).

unbound weekly planner goal planning timeline project annual entrepreneur blogger stay at home mom work vertical planner professional

unbound weekly planner review pros and cons yearly goal setting project breakdown tasks monthly planning workflow

unbound weekly planner goal setting process tips worksheets workflow hardbound notebook

unbound weekly planner goal setting brainstorm hardbound notebook video review pros and cons gender neutral success blog entrepreneur daily agenda

unbound weekly planner review goal setting productivity reflection vertical gender neutral planner pros and cons video

Monthly Calendar

The week starts on a Sunday (not consistent with the weekly spread that starts on Monday)

unbound planner review monthly calendar checklist goal setting functional layout list maker sunday start a5 bookbound

Love this sidebar. It’s wider than most so you don’t have to do ant size writing. I wouldn’t use the gifts / cards section though. I’ll probably turn this into a project planning section.

USA holidays are pre-printed on the calendar.

unbound weekly planner monthly calendar sidebar checklist minimalist 2 page monday start goal setting hardbound affordable usa

unbound weekly planner monthly calendar sidebar checklist minimalist 2 page monday start goal setting hardbound affordable usa holidays sun start

This planner does that annoying thing where they combine 2 days into the space of one rather than re-starting the numbering on the top row 🙁

unbound weekly planner monthly calendar sidebar checklist minimalist 2 page monday start goal setting hardbound affordable usa pros and cons

Weekly Overview

This page is my favorite of the entire planner! With the exception of the morning routine section this page is basically exactly how I pre-plan my week.

unbound weekly planner review pre plan the week overview checklist priorities list goals vertical alternative to erin condren morning routine task list habit tracker

unbound weekly planner review pre plan the week overview checklist priorities list goals vertical alternative to erin condren morning routine task list

Lots of to do list space, a habit tracker, lined and unlined notes space. This weekly spread = <3

unbound weekly planner overview checklist habit tracker pros and cons video review hardbound gender neutral goal setting blogger

Weekly Planner

While I tend to avoid vertical planners this one has a layout that I could adapt to suit my needs. Not too open ended with just a blank column for each day, but also not so structured that it couldn’t be used in a number of ways.

unbound weekly planner vertical review monday start family planner mom minimalist gender neutral goals habit tracker checklist

Here’s how I’m intending on using this layout:

  • Focus box for the most important thing ‘eat that frog’
  • Instead of ‘daily’ turn this into blog post planning (if I end up with excess space I might rule a line and create another section for ‘little things’ that pop up throughout the week that I usually end up putting on a sticky note)
  • Bottom box for reminders / little things instead of gratitude

unbound weekly planner ribbon bookmark monday start verical 3 sections per day hardbound gender neutral minimalist

Project Planner

Love these project planning pages. So simple – not too much structure but also not too little structure (anyone else get annoyed when planners just include a blank page with a title like ‘project’ or ‘vision’ instead of any actual worksheet?)

Each project gets 2 pages to plan with.

unbound planner review project planner 2018 vertical alternative to erin condren gender neutral pros and cons goal setting productivity

End of Year reflection

Simple and to the point questions

unbound weekly planner review pros and cons end of year reflection questionaire goal setting process success

Extras pages

There are dot grid pages at the back of the planner which are numbered to help find things easier.

unbound weekly planner review pros and cons alternative to bullet journal notebook with numbered dot grid pages vertical monday start

The dots are space approx 0.5cm apart.

unbound weekly planner dot grid notebook plus vertical spread monday start pros and cons video review

Tabs

There are no tabs in this planner although there are 2 ribbon bookmarks.

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 bled through the page ?

unbound planner review pen testing highlighter ballpoint erasable stamps pros and cons minimalist

unbound weekly planner review pen testing ghosting bleed through ballpoint fine tip gel marker highlighter stamps

Pros of the Planner

  • Portable size
  • Minimalist color scheme
  • Numbered notes pages
  • Love the functional layouts throughout
  • Project planning pages
  • 4 pages to plan each week
  • 2 page monthly calendar

Cons of the Planner

  • Pens had bad ghosting / bleed through
  • Bookbound binding
  • The start days for the monthly calendar and weekly spread are not consistent
  • In some instances, the monthly calendar combines 2 days into the space of 1, rather than re-starting the numbering on the top row

Would I use this planner?

Yes, while I tend to avoid vertical planners this one has a layout that I could adapt to suit my needs. Plus, it’s not very often that a planner includes 4 pages to plan each week so it wouldn’t matter as much that you can’t fit many things into a vertical layout. I really really like the weekly overview section and notes page. If a horizontal version of this planner is ever released the weekly layout would basically be planner peace for me!

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! If you like this planner and decide to purchase using my affiliate link I’ll receive a small commission as a thank you for referring you.

More planner reviews:

  • Life Organized Weekly Planner by Paper House (similar to the Erin Condren Life Planner)
  • Lorna Leigh Lane Weekly Planner Review (Pros, Cons & a Video Flip through) 
  • Passion Planner Review – Compact and Classic Sizes (Pros, cons and video walkthrough) 

Planning Tips:

  • What to do if your planner isn’t working
  • Choosing a planner: Horizontal versus Vertical versus Hourly planners (which is right for you?)
  • Which is Cheaper: DIY Printable Planners or Pre-Printed & Assembled Planners?

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unbound weekly planner review pros and cons vertical minimalist monday week start simple video

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Posted In: Horizontal 1 Page Weekly + Notes, Planner Reviews · Tagged: 4 pages to plan each day, all about planners, alternative to erin condren, checklist weekly planner, functional weekly planner, gender neutral planner, goal setting planner, hardbound weekly planner, honest review of the unbound planner, minimalist weekly planner, monday start planner, planner for bloggers, planner for blogging, review of the unbound weekly planner, similar to erin condren, simple weekly planner, unbound weekly planner, unbound weekly planner pros and cons, unbound weekly planner review, vertical weekly planner, weekly overview

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