The Best Planners to Help You Reach Your Business Goals
May contain affiliate links.
People who write out their goals are more likely to achieve them.
But guess what? Writing them down is NOT enough!
You have to take consistent action in order to reach them. My favorite tool to do this is a planner.
The good news is there are lots of planner options out there. The bad news is that it can be a daunting task narrowing down the options to just one!
Hello! Welcome to the Desire to Done podcast! I’m your host, Billie Gardner.
I’ve always been a big fan of planners, so I’ve tried many of them. While I have my favorites, I actually don’t use just one. I usually use about 3 at one time, depending on my needs.
I’ve found that there isn’t a “one-fits-all” solution when it comes to planners because each one has different features. As long as they work together to help me reach my goals and improve my life and business, I’m fine with it!
In today’s episode, I will cover a few planners I’ve tried and loved. I’ll also talk about the features I like about each one, what’s not included, who it’s good for, the price, and any other side notes. And you’ll find links to each of these planners in the episode description.
See if any of them appeal to you. If so, try them out! You won’t know if it’s the right planner for you until you take it for a spin.
The first planner I want to cover is Leonie Dawson’s My Brilliant Year Business Goals Workbook
I’ve been using Leonie’s workbooks since 2017. I always take a week off after Christmas and fill out my workbook. It’s a yearly ritual that I really look forward to.
My favorite features of the planner are:
That it’s colorful, cheerful and just makes my day looking through it.
It covers important topics like systems, monthly money goals, and fixing things that don’t work for you and your business.
The monthly oracle reading is a fun addition. This is when you randomly choose a tarot card for each month’s theme. I love the Crazy Sexy Love Notes oracle cards by Kris Carr. They’re colorful, the images are pretty, and the cards are easy to read, meaning you don’t need to be a tarot card reader to understand what the cards are saying.).
And the planner is far from a serious business planner, yet it’s really powerful.
What it doesn’t have:
This planner covers annual and monthly goals but doesn’t have a place for your weekly or daily goals. So you’ll need some sort of daily planner for your to-dos.
This planner is good for:
Creatives who love fun, colorful workbooks and business owners in any industry or at any stage in their business.
The price is currently $24.95, and you’ll need to purchase this planner yearly. It’s now un-dated, however, so you can start using it whenever you want.
Just a side note, Leonie also has a Life Workbook you can use to map out your life goals
The next planner I want to share is the Savor Life Planner
I learned about this planner from one of the Virtual Assistants in my membership, the Introvert VA Club. It looked interesting, so I decided to try it.
This one is a little different from most other planners because it only focuses on 3 months at a time.
I like this concept because every 90 days is like a reboot. It’s a time to reflect on how the past 3 months went and a chance to get back on track if needed.
My favorite features of the planner are:
That it’s clean and uncluttered.
It’s spiral-bound, so I can flip the pages open.
It’s focused on 3 months only which allows you to hone in on your goals.
It has plenty of room for daily to-do’s.
There’s lots of extra space for notes, lists, and brainstorming.
It focuses on self and soul care,
and it has stickers!
What it doesn’t have:
You can map out your 90-day goals and daily to-dos, but it doesn’t include annual goals. So having another planner to work out your goals for the year is something you’ll need in addition to this.
This planner is good for:
Anyone who likes a clean, minimal look that, wants to focus on 90-day sprints rather than a whole year, and doesn’t mind buying a new planner every 3 months
The Price for this planner is currently $29.95 and like I mentioned earlier, you’ll need to buy it every 3 months so if you want to cover a whole year, you’ll need to buy 4 of these books. But you can buy them one at a time. No need to buy them all at once.
The next planner I want to talk about is called Appointment Book by Poluma
This book is nothing fancy, but it’s the planner I use the most. That’s because this one is a daily planner. It’s what keeps me on track with the goals I mapped out in other planners.
It’s just an appointment book, so you can break down your day by the hour if you like. To be honest, I usually don’t. I just add the daily to-do’s on there wherever.
My favorite features of the planner are:
It’s clean and uncluttered.
It’s spiral-bound, so I can flip the pages open.
It’s focused on daily tasks, but off to the side, there’s a place for your top weekly goals, a to-do list, and even an end-of-the-week review.
Plus, it’s affordable.
What it doesn’t have:
It’s not colorful or fun, but it does what it does best – reminds me of what needs to be done that day
This planner is good for:
Anyone who wants to stay on track with tasks and appointments and people who like a clean, minimal look.
The current price is $12.49, and you only need to buy this planner once a year.
There are tons of daily planners out there, so if this one is too boring for you, you shouldn’t have any problem finding one that appeals to you more.
The last planner I want to cover is The Creative Boss Planner
This planner is one I created myself. It’s a PDF digital download which means you can print the whole planner or only the pages you want to use. It includes yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals, plus more.
It focuses a lot on money goals, so making money, tracking the flow of money going in and out of your business, and planning your expenses.
The planner also focuses a lot on time management, like tracking your time so you know where it’s going, scheduling important tasks, project management and action steps, and designing your ideal week.
And the planner also has pages to help you with your marketing efforts, like planning your blog editorial calendar, creating a social media schedule, and planning and tracking client outreach.
My favorite features of the planner are:
It’s super cute yet uncluttered – if you like unicorns, you’ll like this planner.
It focuses on many areas of your life and business,
and it’s non-dated, so you can reuse it year after year
What it doesn’t have:
It’s not a physical planner, so you’ll need to print it out.
This planner is good for:
Creatives who love fun planners.
People who love printables.
Business owners in any industry or at any stage in their business.
Anyone looking for an affordable planner option (no need to buy a new one each year or every 90-days) and people who want the option of being able to print the same page several times
The current price is $19, and you can buy it once and reuse it over and over!
You can punch holes in the planner and put it in a 3-ring binder to keep it organized. You can also use plastic page covers and erasable markers for the daily pages to save paper!
If you’d like to check out a few of the pages, you can download 3 of them for free! I’ll add a link in the episode description.
Choosing the perfect planner doesn’t have to be a stressful event! Check out the planners I’ve mentioned and see which ones work for you. Whatever you choose, use them consistently, and you’ll be on your way to reaching your big business goals!
Thanks so much for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, and why not also leave a review? I’ll chat with you again in 2023. Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and Happy Goal Setting! I wish you all the success in the world! Bye!!
