2018 Momentum Planners by Productive Flourishing

Photo: Productive Flourishing

Way back in the day, I reviewed Charlie Gilkey's Productivity Flourishing Momentum Planners. A lot has changed since then! And some things have stayed the same, specifically how awesome these printable planners are. They are now even more awesome, because now they are fillable! More on that in a sec.

The Momentum Planners aren't your typical appointment books (although they do keep track of appointments too). They are designed to get you to think about What Needs To Be Done. They start you thinking about the big picture, then they get you to narrow your actions down to what needs done on the quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily levels. This gets you to create a roadmap so you know exactly what you need to do and when you need to do it.

The Momentum Planners are available to purchase online for instant download so you can get started immediately on your road to maximum productivity. For only $12 you get the entire year of annual goals pages, quarterly goals, Monthly Action Planners, Weekly Action Planners, and Daily Action planners.

When you buy the Momentum Planners, you get not only the planners themselves but also loads of support from Charlie himself with productivity emails, how-tos, podcasts, and access to the entire Productivity Flourishing community online.

Here's how the planners work. See below for sample pages:

Product image: Productive Flourishing

You can get a quick overview of the planners with some insight into how they were designed here. Click on the links in the descriptions below for Charlie's brief tutorials on how to use each type of planner.

Start by getting an overview of your annual goals using the Annual Momentum Planner. This gets you to think about what you want to accomplish over the course of the year.

Next, break these big goals down into Quarterly goals. (The Annual and Quarterly Momentum planners are only available in the purchased planners bundle.) Then think about what you can accomplish each month.

The Monthly Momentum Planners will get you to think in more detail about what you can get done in the upcoming month, working around events and other projects.

The Weekly Momentum Planner breaks down your week and lets you see what you've got going on, when you'll have time to work, and what your main projects/ deliverables are.

The Daily Momentum Planner breaks down each day with plenty of space to write your scheduled events, projects, and tasks. The untimed daily schedule has 8 hours broken down into 15 minute increments so you can decide when you are going to work on what. You can use these 8 hours in any way throughout the day: 2 or 3 hours of productive work in the morning, another 2 in the afternoon, maybe a couple of hours in the evening to work on your side gig. Most people have about 8 hours a day of actual productive work; this setup helps you maximize that.

I won't go into too much more detail about how to use the planners.  Click the links above for lots more descriptions of the details. There's loads of advice and help on how to use them to best work for you. To get started, see Charlie's Quick Overview of the Momentum Planners.

You can get the monthly, weekly and daily planners for free each month near the end of the month on Productive Flourishing. But if you don't want to wait for them to come out each month, I recommend buying the entire year to download all at once. This has the huge advantage that you get all the planners for the entire year (with the annual and quarterly planners too) ready to use right away. There's no waiting for shipping. You get your planners and start using them immediately.

You can print each planner page out as you need it, or print them ahead of time and hole-punch them to fit in a binder. Or, you can print the pages and have them spiral-bound into monthly or quarterly books to be extra organized.

Due to popular demand, the Momentum Planners are now fillable! Now you can type in your times, tasks, events, and goals, and print them directly onto the pages. This is great for people who like to keep it neat. But a word of advice: don't be precious with your planner pages. Don't be afraid to write on them, erase, and change things up. Life comes at you fast, and your day will rarely go exactly as you planned. These planners allow you to keep up with everything in real time, record emergent tasks as they come at you, and work everything into your plan.

Another great thing about the planners being fillable is you can type up an outline or game plan for each project, then cut and paste each step into the appropriate week or day's Action planner. This will keep you on track with your timeline and your next actions built right into your planner.

I want to take a minute to personally thank Charlie for all the planning, goal-setting, and life inspiration and encouragement over the years, both directly and through his website and planners. Charlie is an all around great guy, productivity guru, entrepreneur coach, and life guide for Creative Giants. Spend some time on his website Productive Flourishing for loads of help and inspiration.

Thank you to Productive Flourishing to providing me with the entire 2018 Momentum Planners download for free as thanks for this updated review. I have purchased the planner bundles myself many times over the years and they are more than worth every penny. Really, for just one dollar a month, you get a hugely valuable product and loads of resources to help you maximize your productivity and creative output.

2016 Essential Daily Planner by Productive Flourishing

Disclaimer: This planner was provided to me as a gift to thank me for years of support of Charlie Gilkey, his planners, and his website Productive Flourishing.

I've been a big fan of Charlie Gilkey's Productive Flourishing website (which has super-mega advice for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and creative people) and his excellent planners for a long time now, so I was very excited to get this new planner! Charlie's downloadable free planners are famous for helping folks manage their multiple projects. This new planner, the Essential Daily Planner, is a fantastic addition to the Productive Flourishing planners lineup.

The Essential Daily Planner takes a lot of the concepts from the Productive Flourishing planning methods and bakes them directly into the planner. These concepts are then printed and assembled into a planner that will be your personal assistant, life coach, and project manager all in one.

Charlie does a run-through video of the planner and explains the concepts behind it on this page. Take a look at that, then come back for more details on the planner itself.

The planner measures about 8 by 5 inches, so it's portable and easy to keep with you all day. The easier it is to access your planner, the more you will use it. (And you need to use your planner often for it to be effective.) The spiral binding allows the planner to lay flat on a surface or fold back on itself for compact use.

I'll walk you through the planner to show you all the features. The front cover is laminated for a sturdy, wipe-clean surface that can keep up with your life. The plastic coil is sturdy and flexible.

The first page has space to write your contact information just in case you lose your planner:

The first two-page spread (which I won't show you) gives you tips on how to use the planner, how to plan from the big picture down to daily details, and several online resources for more help and information on planning and productivity.

Next are some very handy annual overview and quick-reference pages, right at the front of your planner where you can find them easily:

Next is a two-page spread for more contacts. This is a great place to capture those frequently used contacts as a backup for your phone.

Now we start getting into the real meat of the planner. The Annual Strategic Planner gets you to think about what you want to accomplish during your entire year. It gives you spaces to break down goals and steps by month, and lots of space for notes.

Next is the Quarterly Planner, where you take those monthly goals from your Annual Strategic Planner and work through the details of what you want to accomplish each month. These pages give you plenty of room to brainstorm your Objectives, Milestones and Benchmarks for each month plus more space for notes.

After the Quarterly Planner comes a monthly overview for January. Right at the top of the page is a space to write your Monthly Objectives, so you can keep them visible all month long:

After the month overview come the weekly pages for January. On every weekly spread there is a nice big space for your Weekly Objectives. These will flow from your Monthly Objectives, and will be those actionable tasks that will get you to your goals.

At the end of that month's weekly pages, there is a page for Individual Project Planners, and three pages for notes. The notes pages are a great place to write your Mid-Month and Monthly Reviews.

These pages will help keep you on track with your projects for the month, and make it easy to find the related notes for each month.

Next is the following month's spread, with a new motivational quote every month:

Then there are the weekly pages for that month, again followed by a page for Individual Project Planners and three pages for Notes each month.

At the end of the three-month quarter you get the Quarterly Planner for the next three months. This prompts you to re-evaluate your goals from your Annual Strategic Planner, figure out what needs to continue from your previous quarter, and which priorities have changed. Having the Quarterly Planners embedded chronologically in the planner ensures you won't forget when it's time to plan and evaluate each quarter.

The pattern continues all year: Quarterly Planner, month overviews with their associated weeks, Individual Project Planners and pages for Notes.

At the end of the planner there are eight more pages of Individual Project Planners, and a whole bunch more pages for Notes. The result is a planner that will keep you on time and on track with all your appointments, projects and goals all year.

This planner works well alongside the Free Planners and Productivity Worksheets. For example you can plan your days in detail with the Daily Action Planner, write all your tasks on the Action Item Catcher, and plan your blog posts for the month with the Blog Post Planner and Calendar (which are excellent for helping you create valuable content on your blog). You can download these planners for free each month, or if you don't want to wait for them to come out each month you can buy the entire year's package to download as the Premium Planners Set.

Back in February 2010, Charlie Gilkey himself very graciously did an interview with me here on Plannerisms. It's a great insight into the thought process behind making his planners, and he has some excellent advice there for using planners in a way that fits your needs.

Huge thanks to Charlie and his team for sending me this planner! Keep doing what you're doing you guys, you help and inspire a lot of people!!

Welcome to August!

For many of us, August is a very busy month.  Despite the blazing heat, it's time to start thinking about kids' Back-To-School needs.  It's not too early to start planning your autumn, which tends to be a very busy time with activities, sports events, holidays and even the run-up to Christmas.  Plan those weekend camping or fishing trips now before the weather prohibits them.

Just in time for this busy month, August's Free Planners are now available over at Productive Flourishing!  Jump over there and print yourself out some, to get your month under control. 

Also inspired by Charlie Gilkey, it's time for a Monthly Review.  (Here's an example from PF, for inspiration.)  Take a look back through July and see what worked well, be sure to celebrate what you accomplished, make note of what didn't get completed, and make a plan for August.

Spend some time thinking about, and then writing down, your Monthly Goals for August.  Be sure to take into consideration any major events you have going on this month, and work around those. 

As you know, this is a huge month for me: I'm moving to Scotland, and my oldest child starts school.

What do you have going on this month?  Any big plans?  Cranking along with the usual?  Thinking of making some changes?

Monthly Goals

Welcome to March!

This month I'm doing something new (to me): I'm writing out my goals for the month. I'm hoping that having a specific list of what I want to accomplish in March will help keep me on track.

While preparing my list of monthly goals I've been reviewing my goals that I set out for myself at the beginning of the year and deciding what I can focus on this month. It's also a great time to jettison any annual goals that are no longer relevant due to changes in circumstances.

I was inspired to do this by Charlie Gilkey's Monthly Action Planner. It has a great format for helping you think through your month, any events that will happen, and your actions for making it a great and productive month. (I also highly recommend signing up for Charlie's Newsletter on his website Productive Flourishing. He sends periodic emails that are motivational and positive. They are like a helping hand to get back on track. Thank you Charlie!)

Of course any kind of list of your monthly goals is more useful than nothing at all. Most importantly, your monthly goals list needs to be someplace where you can refer to it often enough to be useful, at a minimum of once per week when you are making your weekly plans. It's one thing to write your goals, but it's a whole other thing to put them into action.

Last week I busted out my personal Deco Filofax (and am Calling the Dog with it and my Minister weekly planner), because I have so much going on right now and even more coming up in the next several months. I updated my tabs (which you can read about in What I'm Currently Using, scroll down) and freshened-up my Goals section.

Now I put my current month's goals page right behind my Goals tab so I see it first every time I open that section. The next page is my Annual Goals/ New Year's Resolutions, to refer to easily when I'm making each month's goals list.

When the month is over, I'll write the month review on the back side of that month's Goals page. This will let me evaluate which goals I achieved, and which ones I still need to work on. From there I can write the following month's Goals page. I'll archive the old month's page behind my Annual Goals page and put the new month's Goals page in front. That way I'll keep a record of monthly goals throughout the year to see how I'm progressing toward those annual goals. And with my current month's goals in front, I have easy access to it all the time.

Do you make Monthly Goals? Where do you write them? (On a page in your planner? On a sticky note on your bathroom mirror? In reverse-writing on your forehead with a Sharpie so you can read it every time you look in the mirror?)

Interview with Charlie Gilkey

Here is my interview with Charlie Gilkey, author of the Productive Flourishing website, time management guru, and creator of the awesome planners I featured earlier this week!

Charlie, first of all thanks very much for taking the time to answer these questions, I know Plannerisms readers will be very interested in what you have to say!


First let’s start at the beginning:

Q: When did you first start thinking about productivity issues and how people can manage their time? Was it based on your own needs, or on what you observed around you?

A: Before I just dive right in, I wanted to say thanks for the interview. I'm honored to be "here."

I first started thinking about productivity issues because of how complicated my life was. I was simultaneously working towards completing my Ph.D. (in Philosophy) while being an officer in the Army National Guard, and I was trying to be a husband worth having and finishing the basement in our house. Not only that, I'm naturally polymathic, so there were always things to do.

So, I did what any polymath does: I started reading and learning about productivity systems. I learned a lot that gave me a good foundation in the field, but the material didn't quite get the issues of being a productive creative person. It wasn't just me either - there were a lot of other creative folks who were just as stuck as I was.


Q: I noticed on your website that you are a former GTD user, but “fell off the horse” repeatedly with that system. Did your GTD experience inspire you to create your planners, or was there some other tipping point that caused you to hit the drawing board with your own planner designs?

A: In a roundabout way, yes. What I noticed is that there was a big disconnect between the "runway level" actions that GTD really helps with and the higher vision stuff - in some sense, you can say I'm combining Covey's ideas with Allen's.

The other huge catalyst for me was Dave Seah's planners. He's my design hero, and I always loved his work, but they still didn't quite fit me. So I started making ones that did. It turns out that they fit other people pretty well, too. (He's still the far superior designer, though.)


Q: I know that you do a lot of experimentation with the planner designs, and that some of the planners available to the public have changed designs at least once. How many incarnations have the planners been through so far?

A: Wow, that's hard to say. I'm constantly tweaking spacing, lead text, and elements, so whether that's an incarnation is another matter. That said, the Action Planners have been the ones that have gone through the most revisions - they're where I started, and they evolved as my understanding did.

Later planners were easier since I had a template and I knew what needed to be on the page. For instance, the Freelancer Workweek came out as a draft and people liked it well enough, so I left it alone, except for the aforementioned tweaks.


Q: What things do you take into consideration before changing a planner’s design?

A: I'll use the planners myself for a bit, and my own use cases are pretty instructive. So if I notice an element feels cramped, I'll try to air it out.

A curious designer can break more than he fixes, so I've learned to let things be and see what people want. The biggest driver of change, then, is feedback from users. People are far more likely to send me emails with constructive feedback, and this feedback drives a lot of the tweaks.


Q: You do a great job of listening to your customers and working with them to figure out what they need. In general how many people need to make a particular suggestion before you implement a change in planner design?

A: Thank you for saying so. ;p

If three people all write me and tell me basically the same thing, that lets me know that it's not just an individual issue. The other thing I'll keep in mind is feedback across time - some users are particularly good at reminding me that they asked for something a few months ago, and if they still want it after that long, it's not a "like to have" request.


Q: Who is your main customer base for the planners? What types of people are they and what kind of work do they do?

A: This is hard to say, really, since the planners have been a hit across many types of professions. Broadly speaking, they're great for creative people who need to make their ideas actionable, but they're also great for listers who lose track of the big picture. The planners really are all about integrating the Big Ideas and small actions.

On that note, the Freelancer Workweek is a bit misnamed. At the time, I was thinking about it from the perspective of a freelancer - I've had enough freelancers as clients that I know (and feel) a lot of their challenges and strengths. However, a lot of creative entrepreneurs like them because they're not so time-oriented, but instead help projects at a more global level.

The planners for bloggers are pretty tailored, too. I designed them to solve similar problems when it comes to the global and detailed views and how we get hung up. I don't use them that often, but when I do, they always help.


Q: Are there any surprising types of people who use your planners or people in lines of work that you didn’t expect would use your system?

A: Not that I've heard of, really. The reality is that, given that I'm a small online shop, most of the people who come across them are online denizens in a lot of ways.


Q: Have you heard of people using your planners in surprising ways that you hadn’t thought of?

A: This is similar to the question above. Some, like the blog planners, are fairly tailored, but even then, people have let me know that they used it to plan out newsletter topics. I didn't think of that use case, but it's very similar to post writing, so it didn't really surprise me.

The others are fairly general in how they can be used, so people will write back and say "I'm using them to help me finish my home projects," and I'll immediately see how they can be used that way.


Q: I think many people struggle and search to find the system that will work best for them in their situation. With so many planner options available, do you have any general advice or tips for someone who is searching for the planner system that will work best for them?

A: Here's the deal: there is no perfect planner system. I can't design it for you, and, really, you can't design it for yourself because your needs change all the time. The idea that one-size-fits all when it comes to meaningful action is just a myth.

That said, there are better planners, and what makes them better is if they help you work the way you work. I encourage people to ignore elements on my designs that don't fit them or to repurpose them in a way that supports their momentum. Modifying things this way is a good thing: it shows that you're aware of what you need and what's not working for you, and that you're trying to implement a new solution.

So experimentation is key. As is understanding that some days you won't need the same support that you'll need on other days.

One last thing: the question is not whether you did everything on your list today. It's whether you did what needed to be done in what time and capacity you had available.


Thanks again to Charlie for taking the time to do this interview!!

Productive Flourishing planners

I recently discovered the Productive Flourishing website by Charlie Gilkey. As I've said before, I do live under a rock so if everyone else already knows about Charlie's website, please forgive me! But if you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favor and go check it out.

Charlie is a productivity guru who also, hang onto yourselves, designs planners! And these aren't just any planners: they are designed to foster maximum productivity for out-of-the-box type people. His planners are designed for people who are freelancers, creatives, and other types of people who work to task rather than to time.

Most planners that I've seen are time-based, meaning the planner gives you the times which the user then fills in with tasks and appointments.

Charlie's planners are different. They are marvelous at getting you to think of your goals/ projects/ big picture, then help you figure out what you need to do in order to achieve or complete those.

He sums it up so well on his website: "You don’t need a system that helps you watch the clock. You need a system that helps you get your stuff done in the time that you have." Man, you can say that again.

I have to admit it took me a couple of days to get my head around these planners because they are like nothing I've seen before. They come from a different angle than traditional planners.

You can get some of these planners for free each month on his Free Planners page. Or, you can buy (for an extremely tiny price for the great planners you get) his complete Premium Planners for the entire year.

There are several different planners to choose from based on your needs, and they are designed to work (beautifully) together or individually:

The Annual Strategic Planner gets you thinking about what you want to accomplish this year and to break it down by monthly benchmarks. Similarly, the Quarterly Objective Planner helps you figure out what needs to be done each quarter to work toward your annual goals. Both of these planners come in the Premium Planner packs.

Each month has a Monthly Action Planner that helps you define your objectives for the month and plan around scheduled events.

There are two types of weekly planner: the Freelancer Workweek and the Weekly Action Planner. You can use them together or individually, depending on your needs.

The Freelancer Workweek lets you see the big picture of your week, all your projects and deadlines. It also helps you get a handle on how much you need to work on each project during the week. It's designed especially for people who need to track billable hours on multiple projects, so if you need to do that then definitely take a look at it.

The Weekly Action Planner is a place where you can capture all of those random tasks that you need to accomplish during the week, then helps you decide when you can get them done.

I think the Daily Action Planner (scroll to pg 2 after you click through) is my favorite. It helps you learn how much you can (or can't) accomplish in one day. But best of all it helps you focus on that day's goals and projects and keeps you from getting sidetracked (which I do all too easily). Each day's page allows you to keep in mind that day's goals/ projects, what tasks you need to do to fulfill them, and when you're going to do it. It even has a space to isolate those unplanned tasks that come up during the day (that are often urgent). Genius. The Daily Action Planners come in the Premium Action Planners pack along with the Weekly, Quarterly and Annual planners.

A technique that the Weekly and Daily Action Planners use is called Heatmapping. Basically you figure out what times of the day, and what days of the week, you are at your most productive and/ or creative. For example, I do my best work from 8:30-10:30 am, so I should schedule my writing during those times. If I tried to compose a blog post at, say, 2pm it would be sheer drudgery because that's my sleepy time.

Speaking of blogs, another wonderful planner he has is the Blog Post Planner and Calendar. The Planner is great for helping you break down your blog ideas by type, so that you have a variety of categories of blog posts throughout the month. And the Calendar lets you schedule those so you can see if you have too many of the same type in one stretch of time. It's great for helping you balance your content and avoid over-scheduling (or the opposite, too-long gaps) in your blogging.

As with any planner system, these have some pitfalls to watch out for. Often (as with most things in life) the good things and the pitfalls are two sides of the same coin:

The Coin: There are so many planner types with views from annual down to quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily.

Heads: This system helps you think about your main goals/ projects for the year, then funnels your energy all the way down to what you need to do TODAY to work toward it.

Tails: So many layers of planning can get overwhelming and redundant if you use more than you need.

Solution: Play with the planners for awhile to see what you need. Maybe you only need a Monthly planner and Daily planners. Maybe Annual, Quarterly and Weekly will do the job for you. Maybe you will benefit from using all the planners together. You decide. Which brings me to:

The Coin: This planner system is very personalize-able.

Heads: You make it what you need it to be. A certain box on the page doesn't fit your needs? No big whoop. Adapt it to whatever you need it to be. Or ignore it. It's all up to you.

Tails: People (or maybe just "I" but I think people in general) have a tendency to make personalized systems overly complicated.

Solution: Take a deep breath, and think about what you really need to see on your page and what is extraneous.

Because these planners are so flexible and can bend themselves to many different uses, give yourself some time to play with them and decide how they can best work for you. And the best part is, maybe you need to use them one way this week/month/ quarter, and a different way the next. You can do that easily.

Charlie's website has a ton of content on productivity, time management (more like sanity management for some of us!) and loads of great advice. When you have time you should look around and get some inspiration.

And coming soon: an interview with Charlie himself! Stay tuned!