The Uncalendar has been on my radar for a while now. It’s an undated planner which I prefer so you can start planning anytime. So when a couple of readers contacted me asking if I’d done (or was going to do) a review, I took it as an excuse to purchase the planner!
This is not a sponsored post. I purchased the planner myself. As always, all opinions are my own.
Quick Facts
- Size – available in half page size (8.5 x 5.5) & full page size (8.5 x 11″) – there’s also insert refills if you prefer to use a binder
- Spiral binding
- Leatherette cover – bendy material (no personalisation option)
- Dates at a glance page
- Neutral or colorful inside pages (you pick)
- 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday) – enough for 1 year
- 2 Page monthly calendar (starts on Sunday) – 12 months’ worth
- Goal setting pages
- Notes pages (in the signature UnCalendar format, not just a lined page)
- Data pages
- Tabs (for each section, not each month)
Price:
$16.95 USD for the half page size ‘Lifestyle’ planner (which is the size I purchased)
There’s also a full page size (8.5 x 11″) version for $22.95 USD
Shipping for the Lifestyle half page and the monthly calendar book wasn’t too bad – $23 to Australia.
Let’s take a closer look at the Uncalendar!
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The Cover
There is no option to personalise the cover 🙁
The cover is thin, flexible and feels like a plastic-like material. It has rounded corners which should hopefully help prevent wear and tear.
About 1cm thick
Examples of how to use the planner
I like when planners include examples of how to use the pages built into the planner as you can always go back and refer to it. They can also give you ideas of different ways to use the planner that you might not have thought of.
What really drew me to this planner is the open-ended weekly layout. As someone that can’t stay loyal to a single planner as I like to change up how I plan this week, this could be a planner I use more than once. The page is structured but since there’s sections without titles you can switch up what you’re planning in what sections as your needs change throughout the year. So one week you might have a project planning section, the next you might have due dates for school etc.
Monthly Calendar
The monthly calendar has the week starting on a Sunday (which isn’t consistent with the weekly spread which starts on Monday).
The monthly calendars are clustered into one section with the weekly planning pages clustered into another section. There is 1 tab for the monthly calendars and 1 for the weekly spreads (rather than monthly tabs). I prefer this format as you don’t end up in the situation where half the week is with the weekly planning page of the previous month (or the next month depending on how the planner splits the week).
I chose the neutral colors option as I was worried the bright colors of the colorful option would clash when color coding:
I also purchased the monthly calendar book (more on that later in this post) in the colorful version – I definitely prefer the neutral color scheme.
2 Page Weekly Planner
The weekly spread starts on a Monday (not consistent with the monthly calendar). Saturday and Sunday share the same amount of planning space as one weekday.
This planner reminds me of the planner I created with Agendio with the days of the week on 1 page and open ended list making and habit tracking space on the other page of the weekly spread. This is my favorite style of planner layout – which is probably why I’m keen to try this planner!
I like that the month / year box is in the top corner so you can easily find the week you’re looking for since there aren’t tabs for each month.
I’m thinking about using the weekly planner like this:
Left page
- Top 3 goals for the week in the boxes up the top
- Project planning in the numbered list box e.g. workflow tasks for creating a new printable set for my shop or steps for an ecourse
- Random things that pop up during the week in the empty box in the middle
- Quote in the bottom left box
- Habit tracker for the graph in the bottom left corner
Right page
- Personal things ‘eat that frog’ that I don’t want to do but have to. One off things
- The boxes on the top right for priority / urgent / things that are due
- The daily planning space for blog post planning / scheduling
The daily planning space includes a separate column which could be used to:
- Number the tasks in order of priority
- Schedule a time to complete them / when they’re due
- Record the estimated time it will take to complete the task
- Put a tick or cross in when the task is finished
There’s also a shaded section for each day which could be used for things that are due, bills, events, birthdays, reminders, most important task, meal planning, cleaning tasks etc.
The planner packs a lot into the weekly spread – I really like that it’s structured but still flexible enough to be customised in different ways!
Saturday and Sunday share the same amount of planning space as 1 weekday (i.e. you get half the amount of space to plan each day)
Lifestyle Pro
The layout of the Lifestyle Pro (full page letter size 8.5 x 11″ version) is different to the half size version I purchased:
I chose the half page size as I don’t like vertical planners which the Pro is:
Monthly Planning
If I were to use the planner I’d probably put cleaning checklists or once a month tasks / reminders on the left page, and use the right page for blog content planning.
Extras pages
I’m not sure what would be the best way to use these pages to be honest, they’re not pages that are typically included in planners.
I wouldn’t use the alphabetical letters for contacts like the planner intends though, I’d probably use it as a stock up grocery list (which would be very handy if you’re couponing and need to make the cart up to a certain value).
If I was going to use these pages, I’d turn the left page into a meal planning ideas bank. The boxes are approximately the same size as Post It Note 3M sticky notes which you can write meals on then peel and stick in the monthly calendar rather than having to re-write things out all the time.
More on that in this post: Color coded monthly meal planning using sticky notes
You could also use this for blog post planning in a similar way with sticky notes like I shared in this post.
As for the right page, I’d probably turn this into a graph tracking blog statistics like email list numbers and monthly revenue (and write the months of the year with the numbers in the boxes on the right of the page). A pixel mood tracker could be another use for the page.
Dates at a Glance
The left page might be useful for ‘last time I did’ tracking i.e. recording the last time you changed your toothbrush, razor, checked your super, updated your life insurance etc.
The right page with the dates at a glance is the only page that is dated in the entire planner!
Tabs
Something in this planner that’s different to most is that there are tabs for each section, not each month. The tabs are big so they’re easy to find. They’re laminated cardstock and feel sturdy. The section title is printed on the front and the back of the tab (definitely a pro!)
The cover doesn’t cover the tabs though so they’ll probably get damaged if you’re pulling the planner in and out of your handbag.
The printing of the design has heavy ghosting on the back of the page (like pen bleeding only with printer ink) which was disappointing.
Pen Testing
I tried various balllpoint, gel, fine tip and marker tip pens – there was some ghosting on the back side of the page.
The pens that usually bleed through – Sharpie Ultra Fine Points, Stabilo Pen 68 and Uni Pi’s bled through the page.
The darker colored highlighters also had heavy ghosting. And, as always, the MAMBI stamps bled through the page ?
Pros of the Uncalendar Lifestyle (half page size)
- Affordable – $16.95 USD for the half page size version
- Reasonable international shipping rates – it cost $22USD to ship the 2 planners here (to Australia from the USA)
- Structured planning pages while still being flexible to customise to suit your own needs
- Lots of different ways you could plan the week
- Undated – start planning anytime
- Multiple colors to choose from for the cover – blue, red and black
Cons of the Uncalendar Lifestyle (half page size)
- Saturday and Sunday share the same amount of planning space as 1 weekday (i.e. you get half the amount of space to plan each day)
- No cover personalisation option
- Terrible website and ordering process (more on that at the end of this post)
- The week start dates aren’t consistent – the weekly spread starts on a Monday but the monthly calendar starts on a Sunday
- Small line spacing – if you have big hand-writing, definitely go with the full page size version (not the half page size that I purchased)
- The planner feels a bit cheap – the covers are very thin and the printing of the design has heavy ghosting on the back of the other page (like pen bleeding only with printer ink)
- The tabs extend beyond the cover so they’ll probably get damaged throughout the year
Monthly Calendar Book
I really only bought the monthly calendar because it was cheap ($5 USD!) and I wanted to see what the colorful version looked like compared to the neutral color scheme I chose for the weekly planner. And to compare the large size to the smaller size.
The monthly calendar book is quite basic. It has:
- Monthly planning page
- 2 page undated monthly calendar (week starting on Sunday) plus a sidebar.
- 12 month planner (space to plan each month on the same page)
- 2017, 2018 and 2019 dates at a glance calendars page (also starting on a a Sunday)
- Frequently used numbers and addresses page
- 8.5 x 11″ page size
- Spiral binding
The cover is very thin cardstock with no laminate or clear cover to protect it from wear and tear.
Monthly planning page. This would be ideal for blogging to jot down content themes, product launches etc.
Due to the large page size of the planner, the boxes are BIG with plenty of room to write! Each day’s box is approx 2 x 2″
If you need a bit more space on the monthly spread or like to do what I do which is plan one thing only per calendar i.e. 1 monthly calendar for meal planning, 1 monthly calendar for blog post planning etc. then this planner would be ideal to use in conjunction with a weekly planner.
You could make a printable monthly calendar and have it bound into a notebook at your local office supply store and it’d end up being quite similar.
The notebook is very thin and I was disappointed there are no notes pages at the back of the calendar. There is plenty of room on the coil to fit more pages. Some notes pages at the back would’ve made this a really good blogging notebook as notes pages are ideal for listing out post ideas before scheduling them onto the monthly calendar.
Related: Simple method for organized brain dumping of blog post ideas using a notebook and zooms
I wish the monthly planner had included the signature note taking paper – I would’ve happily paid more if the planner included the extra pages and made better use of the coil.
Pros of the monthly calendar book
- Undated, start planning anytime
- Big boxes (each day’s box is approx 2″ wide x 2″ high)
Cons of the monthly calendar book
- Very basic – you could DIY your own for the same price
- Cardstock cover that will likely get damaged through use
- No monthly tabs
- The planner feels a bit cheap – the covers are very thin and the printing of the design has heavy ghosting on the back of the other page (like pen bleeding only with printer ink)
Size comparison:
The spiral binding allows the pages to be folded back and lay completely flat
Would I recommend this planner?
I was really excited to try the Uncalendar after so many requests for me to do a review I really hoped the planner lived up to the hype. However, I was disappointed.
I really hate when companies make bold claims without no evidence to back it up. Uncalendar claims it’s ‘the best personal organizer on the planet’. I definitely think it is not the best personal organizer on the planet (there is and never will be one planner that is the best for every single person on the planet). The company shouldn’t be making a bold claim like that – especially when the planner has plenty of room for improvement (see cons list, above) e.g. a cover that extends over the top of the tabs to prevent them from getting damaged.
I recommend the neutral color scheme as the colors of the colorful style (yellow, green, red and blue) will likely clash with colors you use for color coding.
I’m not sure if I’ll use the data and addresses pages in the planner – they don’t include examples or suggestions on how to use the pages.
I was disappointed with the monthly planning uncalendar as it’s very basic – it was very cheap though ($5USD) so if you didn’t want to DIY your own / don’t have access to an office supply store that can bind pages for you it would be a good option.
If you’re going to buy the planner, I wouldn’t buy the half page size like I did as the writing space is far too small (especially the habit tracker section). I would purchase the large size (the Uncalendar Pro). Although note the Pro version has a vertical layout (with narrow columns) not a horizontal weekly layout as is the case with the half page size version I purchased.
These planners would be ideal for blogging, as a project planner or for a student.
The main con is that the company’s website is terrible!
- Difficult to navigate the website (although there seems to have been improvements since I ordered)
- If you live outside the USA you have to email them requesting a shipping quote then wait to hear back
- Then when you do place the order, it puts a temporary charge on your card and then they later credit you back if shipping is less than the default amount they charge
Considering there’s so many pre-built websites where you just choose from settings and it does the rest for you (like BigCommerce, which I use for my online store as well as Shopify etc.), it’s really disappointing that the website looks like it’s from 10+ years ago and that it’s such a time consuming ordering process.
Update: See how I used the Uncalendar in this post!
More planner reviews:
- Day Designer for Blue Sky Horizontal Weekly Planner Review
- Review of the Point Journal (similar to the bullet journal)
- 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:
- 7 Planner supplies I don’t regret splurging on
- 10 ways to plan using sticky notes
- Favorite erasable highlighters for planning
- What type of pens write best on correction tape? (gel pens vs. ballpoint vs. marker pens)
RLR says
I used the uncalendar back in college/grad school/first job. I loved it then, as it is super-flexible date-wise. (It doesn’t look as though their website has changed since then.) Once I had kids and things were much busier, I tried out a few calendars before settling on a calendar that had a two-page per week spread with a row for each family member (the momAgenda – I used the desktop and home office editions over the course of a few years). It had enough rows that I could use one just for meal planning. The home office edition was pretty big, though. Now I’m in a smaller, less expensive calendar which still has room for my medium-to-large handwriting (the It’s Just Emmy planner from Throne of Grace). Much easier to carry around since I’m on the go with older kids and more commitments than when they were younger. In the process of moving from planner to planner, I’ve also become much more consistent with color-coding, which saves space on the page and makes a smaller planner much more do-able.
I absolutely agree that there’s no right planner for everyone – I’ve used several different kinds myself over the years!
Kimberly says
The concept here isn’t bad. Those pages could be quite useful for some people. I am always tinkering with creating my own pages, and there are some features like Uncalendar’s.
But useful-ish pages printed on crappy paper, in a fugly cover, with OSFA everything, and one type of binding, and a crummy website – NOPE.
Kirsty says
I would take the large undated apart and promptly copy ( front and back) the pages in the back that I like and then punch them for the disc bound system and put it back together! Easy peasy! Love that the boxes are 2×2″!
Rachael says
Good idea… but then you may as well use printables!
Lacy says
I’m just now seeing this post, but I have used this system for years, it has never fallen apart, the tabs have never even folded, let alone torn off, and I am hard on my planners. I have tried other systems but ALWAYS come back to this one. I highly recommend it.