The lovely owner of the Spaces planner heard about BLP from two listeners and sent me a 2021 copy to review! Listener Angie wrote in:
“I love the unique structure of the weekly, list-based layouts. This is perfect for someone who likes to plan mostly via lists as opposed to being calendar-driven. But I also love that it still gives you a monthly calendar as well as a small weekly calendar for those things in your week that ARE calendar-based. There is so much flexibility with this layout style.”
If you are still looking for your 2021 planner and are trying to find something that’s more list based (because perhaps your calendar is electronic only!), then Spaces may be for you!
Lots of details in the episode, but I wanted to include some photos:
Very sturdy cover! Size is 8 3/4″ x 9 3/4″, coil 3/4″ thick. This is a fairly large planner and probably would be most functional living on a desk. But it would be portable if need be.
The meat of the planner! Weekly Spaces layout. Quite unique! This is a mockup of how I would probably use it, but the possibilities are endless.
Tabs – printed + laminated. They look nice and are functional.
Monthly calendar with lots of space thanks to the wide dimensions of the planner. Month on two page spread, not one.
Notes pages galore! Some with this cute card-like layout.
Some with lines:
Gel pens worked nicely in this planner, as did pigment ink pens. You could certainly go thicker than I did. The bright white paper is fairly thick but has the tiniest bit of feathering with the brush pens. No bleed through and almost no ghosting though! The tooth is moderate and I did not have smudging concerns.
Yearly overview (2021 + 2022 contained!)
The Spaces planner retails for $55 and can be found here!
Any other die hard Spaces users out there?
16 Comments
This might be the perfect planner for me! This one seems truly unique and I’d never heard of it. I’ve already committed for 2021 but maybe next year? I can’t wait to listen to the episode. Thank you!
So cool Lani!! That’s great – always love it when someone sees a product and a light bulb goes off!!!
As someone who was already committed to a Hobonichi in 2021, but was ultimately persuaded to try the Wonderland222, I highly recommend switching if you think this may be a better planner system for you if the money isn’t the issue. As I say in my comment below, the second planner is working so much better for me, and I’m already over the money I spent on the unused Hobonichi. That money is already gone, but the improvements because of the better system are making my day to day life a little bit better.
Thank you, Alyce. It is not a matter of money, more that I have been trying to fully get into the Rituals for Living Dreambook planner (thedragontree.com) for a year. I at least want to try it for a month beginning Jan 1 since I have spent so much time and energy on the prep part of it. If it doesn’t work for me, I will move to the Spaces planner.
Agree planner investments are WORTH iT! 🙂
Ooh this is lovely! I love the room for different project categories. I’m planner committed this year but maybe next year.
I love this. I recognized immediately that this is basically what I’ve been doing in my Wonderland 222. I’ve been dividing the daily pages into 4 squares per page and essentially using two daily pages as a weekly spread that I use for extensive list making. This has been working really really well for me. I don’t need a full page per day, but I do need the flexibility to make lists/reminders of the things I need to accomplish, and being able to see them over a longer period of time than just one day is super helpful for tasks that may carry over from one day to the next. And speaking of size, I appreciate that the planner version is smaller than the Hobonichi and it will be easier for me to carry it back and forth between the office whenever that happens again.
Oh this is a nice planner for keeping track of categorized to-do lists! My system is very list-heavy and I’ve used and loved a Planner Pad (which isn’t actually a pad at all) for several years; that might be another good option for someone looking for less calendar/more lined list space.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks so much for going through all these planners! I love your ideas of about how to use each of these planners, helps me think outside the box. I’m feeling like this would probably be a better planner for me as a self employed person w/ busy teens (even during the panedmic!). Timeblocking seems to naturally be evolving in an online calendar, which I always have on my phone, so I’ll use a larger planner and keep it on my desk — just for me. I’ve tried the hobonichi and the wonderland planners, and found them both too small for me — declining eyesight, so need the larger spaces, flexbility and the bright white paper.
If you do decide to give this one away, I’d be a happy recipient.
Happy Holidays!
Marla
Hi! Please email me your address 🙂
Ooh, I love the look of this! I am a “list of lists” kind of person, but I ultimately time-block my day on my computer calendar (nothing worse then writing out a full calendar day by hand, then having to scrap it by mid-morning).
Really enjoying your podcast. I never realized there were other planner nerds out there! Best wishes for a healthy holiday.
I have never heard of this planner before, and I really like the layout. Lately, my planning has been more list based, and my normal layouts aren’t working. I am wondering if that will continue once there aren’t so many restrictions from the pandemic. I’m using a bullet journal for 2021. (And where I live would prohibit me from getting one before the first of the year.) But I’m definitely bookmarking it for the future. I may play around with the general layout and see how it works for me.
Thank you so much for sharing! I think this will work for me as I love that it is not calendar based. Thanks so much!
Thank you for this recommendation! Just purchased the Spaces Planner for 2021 after seeing your post. I use a separate daily planner for work, and I can never bring myself to use it for personal goals/lists. The Spaces Planner looks like it will be the perfect companion! Thanks Sarah.
You mention daily dashboard here a couple of times. Is that something specifically made and sold – or you just make your own in a notebook ? Curious !
Ohh man – this is such an old episode that I don’t remember! I might be referring to the daily “metric tracker” that I tend to draw on each page of my planner!