Get past you fear & mindset issues to start your online business

Selecting the right planner is the first step to improving your productivity so that you can reach your goals. This At-A-Glance Yearly Planner review shows what I consider to be the pros and cons of the planner.

Pin Image: Photo shows woman using a monthly calendar. Text says "Use your calendar to get stuff done"

Let me just start with a confession: I am a planner lover! I believe that a good planner – used effectively – allows us to get much more done than we would if we were simply relying on our memory and a bunch of sticky notes.

The right planner helps you track goals, schedule tasks to achieve those goals, acts as a To Do list, manages your appointments and meetings, and literally can act as your second brain.

With a really good planner we can take over the world.

front cover of 2020-21 At-A-Glance daily planner
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure policy for details.

I recently ordered this new planner from At A Glance. I’ve been using (and am still using) another planner but I found that I also needed one that gave me more room for each day. So I went on an online shopping trip.

Now I’ll also admit that I’m picky. Just any old planner won’t do for me. I have specific needs and I expect my planner to be a work horse that tracks everything (and that’s a lot).

Yes, I do like pretty if I can find it, but I’m more into functionality. Just because a planner is cute doesn’t mean it’s going to help you be more effective.

So, after MUCH looking and comparing, I chose this yearly planner from At A Glance. It has a separate page for each day that gives me plenty of space to track meetings, to time block (which helps me focus), to track my priorities for the day, and to keep the daily To Do’s.

I ask a lot from my planner.

I recorded this video when I opened the box right after it arrived and I go through my impressions about its pros and cons.

Here are the pros and cons I see to the At-A-Glance Daily Planner:

First off, no planner is perfect. Every planner has its pros and cons and when choosing a planner for yourself it is extremely important to consider your specific needs.

How do you like to plan? How much space do you need for detail? Are you using it in conjunction with another paper or digital system? Do you keep it close by or carry it with you when you are out?

Ultimately, the perfect planner is the one that you will use religiously.

Having said that, here’s my review of the At-A-Glance yearly planner.

Things I really like about the At A Glance Planner:

-A whole year’s worth of pages in one place – great for long range planning

-The spiral binding is very heavy duty. And the rose gold that’s on my planner is also pretty.

-The hardback cover is sturdy and I especially like the metal tips at the corners. This will help keep the cover from becoming bent or frayed. Yes, my planner gets a lot of hard use!

-Each month is shown on a 2-page spread. While the squares aren’t super huge, they’re big enough to capture the essence of your day or your most important appointments.

-On the monthly calendar you’ve got space for notes on both the right and left side. This allows you to make notes, set goals, or record other information you need to help you plan out the month.

-At the top of the monthly calendar you’ve got 3 blocks to list your major goals and you’ve got one square that is to capture a big idea. You could use this for a quote or some kind of motivation. However, I use it to write down the one thing that is most important for helping me make progress in my business during the month. This helps keep my eye on the prize.

-You’ve got blocks for your top 3 things for the day. I use these to help me focus my time blocks. This is so that I know what are the three tasks, projects, etc. that I’m going to work on for the day. (I set my week up with 21 time blocks for the week. From here I schedule the weekly activities in to one of the 21 time blocks).

graphic that links to email form for 29 Tips to Tame Your Messy Desk & Office freebie

-You’ve got room to write in meetings and appointments that occur at a specific time. Or you can use this space to do your time blocking. If you’re REALLY a workaholic (as I tend to be) you can go so far as to schedule in your lunch, break, and quitting times so that you don’t end up working every single hour.

-There’s space to do some habit tracking.

  • You’ve got space to record some notes, to make a daily To Do list, and to record your “win of the day”
  • The spiral binding is very heavy duty. And the rose gold that’s on my planner is also pretty.
  • The hardback cover is sturdy and I especially like the metal tips at the corners. This will help keep the cover from becoming bent or frayed. Yes, my planner gets a lot of hard use!
  • Each month is shown on a 2-page spread. While the squares aren’t super huge, they’re big enough to capture the essence of your day or your most important appointments.
  • On the monthly calendar you’ve got space for notes on both the right and left side. This allows you to make notes, set goals, or record other information you need to help you plan out the month.
  • At the top of the monthly calendar you’ve got 3 blocks to list your major goals and you’ve got one square that is to capture a big idea. You could use this for a quote or some kind of motivation. However, I use it to write down the one thing that is most important for helping me make progress in my business during the month. This helps keep my eye on the prize.
  • You’ve got blocks for your top 3 things for the day. I use these to help me focus my time blocks. This is so that I know what are the three tasks, projects, etc. that I’m going to work on for the day. (I set my week up with 21 time blocks for the week. From here I schedule the weekly activities in to one of the 21 time blocks).
  • You’ve got room to write in meetings and appointments that occur at a specific time. Or you can use this space to do your time blocking. If you’re REALLY a workaholic (as I tend to be) you can go so far as to schedule in your lunch, break, and quitting times so that you don’t end up working every single hour.
  • There’s space to do some habit tracking.
  • You’ve got space to record some notes, to make a daily To Do list, and to record your “win of the day”
vies of At-A-Glance daily planning pages

Things I’d like to see improved in the planner

  • While there are a couple of pages at the very front of the planner to write out some goals, I’d like to see a few pages (even blank pages) at the front of every month. I plan from big to small…meaning I plan yearly goals, down to quarterly goals, and down to monthly goals. I’d love to see a few pages in each month to assist with this instead of having to flip back to the front of the planner. Yes, I know that’s picky…but my planner really does manage my business.
  • Personally, I’d also love to see a place for a weekly overview before the start of each week. You can never have too many places to plan. However, that would add at least 52 pages to the planner which would make it bulkier. Perhaps a couple of pages right after the monthly spread for some very basic outlining would suffice.

That’s it.

To sum it up:

As you can see there’s a lot more I like about this planner than not. Overall I think the At-A-Glance planner is just pretty darn good – and I don’t say that about every planner I run across.

I’ve been using the planner a few weeks now and I really like it. And if you’re wondering, I am using it in conjunction with my weekly planner. Yes, you can use two planners effectively as long as you’re clear about the purpose of each, what you’re recording in each, and how they compliment each other to help you reach your goals.

graphic that links to email form for 29 Tips to Tame Your Messy Desk & Office freebie

More to increase your productivity:

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *