About halfway through my first semester of sophomore year, I realized that I was simply not staying on top of everything I needed to get done. Not necessarily schoolwork, just managing my time and balancing classes, activities, and my job. I had tried iCal and google calendar, but neither one really seemed to work for me. I read about an hourly planner called the Passion Planner, and boy has it changed my life.
The Passion Planner breaks down your day (Monday through Sunday or Sunday through Saturday) in 30 minute increments from 8 am to 10:30 pm. I love this format because it helps me stay on top of all the group project meetings, clubs, and commitments I have. It also makes me more accountable for my time: instead of just going back to my room to chill between things, I can see that I have, say, an hour to go workout at the Alumni gym. This has helped me better manage my time. Each week also has a personal and work to-do list section, where I keep track of assignments and things like laundry, and a free space.
The Passion Planner also has a monthly view, which helps me in scheduling big events. I really like that the planner both breaks time down into 30 minute increments and shows you the bigger picture of the month.
In addion to simply keeping track of your time, the Passion Planner also has a guide to help you reach your goals. At the beginning, you lay them out and there are pages for check-ins each month. This feature isn’t something that I’ve used before, but there are tons of other people who live by this.
If you look up the Passion Planner, there are tons of people with elaborately decorated planners, like this one that literally features a meme on Wednesday, but I prefer mine a little more simple: just pencil, so I can change things around ;)
The Passion Planner comes in two sizes: Regular and Compact. I have only ever used the regular, which is the size of a normal piece of printer paper. One of my friends, who has used both sizes, said “For me I definitely like full size better because it helps me see my days better than the compact. I thought the compact was too small. But, I also see the benefit of having a smaller/lighter one.” Both versions come with a leather cover and a ribbon to help you keep your place.
If you want to try the Passion Planner, you can access PDFs of the pages for free here. It’s totally legit, the company gives them away as part of their work as a social enterprise. To buy a Passion Planner, click here.