Moleskine 2018 Pro weekly planner

First of all I want to apologize for the very poor quality of these photos. I don't have much time but I wanted to get this info out there. I took the photos on my phone in poor lighting and loaded them up real quick.

The Moleskine Pro planners lineup has changed a bit for 2018. Below I talk about the Extra Large version, and further down I talk about the Large one.

Gone is the Action Planner. Now the only version of the Extra Large Pro planner has pages between each week for lists and notes like the Taskmaster did. Personally I think this makes the planner extremely useful for busy people and it's wonderful to have so much space to track tasks and projects each week!

The 2018 XL Pro also has excellent pages for annual goals, monthly goals and tasks, and something very exciting: a page with an index for each week! I tried to take a photo of it but it didn't turn out in the bad lighting today. It's a page that says Weekly Contents with a line per week and the weeks numbered, so you can index the main events or things to remember each week.

Here are some photos. The week is a standard vertical timed weekly, timed from 7 am to 8pm with lines every half hour. Saturday and Sunday are not timed.

In between each week there are pages for notes, tracking projects and tasks. The left page says Notes. The right page has Projects and Status at the top, and Tasks at the bottom.

There are also monthly pages, I love these! The right page says Monthly Projects and Goals at the top, and This Month's Focus at the bottom.

In the back of the planner there are several blank pages for notes, some of which are perforated if you want to tear them out. There are also perforated list pages. Personally I don't find the lists as useful as I use sticky notes for things like that,  but even if you don't remove them from the book they are convenient list pages.

Again I apologize for the crappiness of the photos but hopefully you get the idea. If you have any questions about this planner let me know and I'll be happy to answer them!

I tried to find out if the Large size Pro planner has pages in between each week like the XL has. I posted the question to Moleskine on their Facebook page, and they just sent me the link to the product page which I had already seen and which does not say if the Large and A4 versions of this planner have pages between the weeks. I found this page on the Jenni Bick website which says the XL has 264 pages, Large has 168 and A4 has 160 so if that is correct that would mean no pages between the weeks. I have asked Moleskine for a confirmation but have not received a reply from them yet.

(Update: Moleskine replied on Facebook to say I need to ask this question on the Contact form on their website:  https://us.moleskine.com/contact-us  However I was unable to, because the pull-down menus didn't work for me, and anyway I found it very intrusive that they asked for my phone number. I don't need them harvesting all of my data, so I left it. Then I ended up ordering the Large size one after all, because if it does in fact have pages between the weeks it will be so perfect! I don't think it does, but curiosity got the better of me. I'll report back after I have received it.)

UPDATE: I have received the Large Pro 2018 that I ordered and I am VERY happy to report it DOES INDEED have a two-page spread for lists and notes between each week! It also has the same annual goals page, weekly contents page, monthly pages, etc. All the content is exactly the same in the L and XL. There is no page count on the label, and I haven't counted the pages by hand, but the number must be the same in the L and XL because they both have all the same pages. Anyway, I am thrilled that there is a full two page spread every week for tracking projects, tasks, and notes! Well done Moleskine!!!

So if you liked the Taskmaster, I think you will like this planner even better with the monthly and goals pages. If you are very busy with a full schedule, lots of tasks, tracking projects and goals, then I think you will love this planner! It crams a lot in while still being portable and a reasonable size.

Please note: I am not affiliated with Moleskine in any way, and I paid for these planners with my own money. I am happy to answer any questions about these specific planners but if you want more info you'll need to contact Moleskine directly. I just wanted to put this info out there for anyone else who was confused like I was!

Guest Post: Taskmaster Redux from Mstraat

You might remember Mstraat's excellent guest post reviewing her Moleskine Taskmaster weekly planner. Due to popular demand, she has graciously agreed to a follow-up post detailing how she uses her Taskmaster!  Thank you Mstraat!!

As promised, here is a peek at how I have been using the Moleskine XL Taskmaster this year. For the first time I have separated my work and personal planning, as Laurie advises here and I am very much appreciating her advice. Other than a couple of phone numbers or emails, I don’t need work info at home because if something untoward happens I’ll have to drive in to work anyway. As long as I know I have it all written down in the Taskmaster, I have been much more able to leave work at work this year. This book lives on my desk, in front of my computer monitor.

I don’t use the month grids, which I thought were necessary. But I have a pre-printed month on two pages calendar that has all the national and regional dates and other info needed for office planning that is used for room scheduling, and I found it a waste of time to write this in two spots. Likewise, the information pages for international holidays and so on are unused.

The bulk of the Taskmaster consists of alternating pages of weekly vertical, timed pages and lined pages with tick boxes for that week’s lists. I am using the weekly pages to log what I have done each day on the timed lines.

I work in a one-person office and make a time log every couple of years just to keep an eye on myself and the work flow. Blank spots mean I was still doing whatever was last listed.

I use the space at the top of the page for day-specific items, as I have very few of these. I use a different color ink than in the log to mark these to dos or appointments so I am less likely to overlook them. A slash mark on the left means a completed task and a wiggly line through an item means it didn’t happen. The only synching (is this a word?) I have to do with my personal planner is a very occasional note to open the building outside my regular hours.

For me the most useful part of the Taskmaster are the two pages for lists following each week. To dos for an upcoming week that are not day-specific are written into the top left page as they come up. 

Most of my to do list lands here as my job requires me to remain completely flexible and I can’t schedule tasks at a certain time. It’s not hard to scan the weekly list and do the next task as I get time. (See below for how I handle non-deadline to dos/goals.) I use the same blue ink as the top page notes so I can quickly tell if I’m in the week or on the page behind it as I flip pages.

A system for recording other sorts of information has evolved: information on orders for supplies, books, etc., is recorded on the bottom left page and phone calls are recorded on the bottom right page. To do lists that rotate by week of the month are on the upper right. 

First week is month end bookkeeping, second is board meeting agenda, third is monthly newsletter (“Courier” in the photo) and fourth is non-deadline to dos (Still below). I use four removable tabs to mark these lists. Just for the record, the Post It brand stick better than Avery tabs for me.

Finally, the fourth-week list gives me a place for annual to do lists, one-time projects, or ongoing to dos that need to happen sometime. 

For example, in the picture you’ll see my 2011 year end  to do list, which won’t be exactly the same next year but will give me a list to reference. One time projects would be, for example, publicity for a capital campaign, and the ongoing, non-date specific list includes things like archiving annual files. Annual and one-time lists are easy to find by date; the ongoing list has a tab and when most of the items are marked off I transfer what’s left and start a new list on the current fourth week.

At the end of the Taskmaster there are a few blank note pages which seem useful but I haven’t used them, and the address booklet and back pocket are unused as well. Addresses are in the computer (with multiple on- as well as offsite backups, should you be worried about this).

My conclusions about the Taskmaster? It is working well for this year, though I am not using a lot of its features. Next year I don’t plan to track my time, so that leaves only the spaces at the top of those pages and the list pages for me to use. I will find another planner for next year—but if you need to keep track of both time and tasks, the Taskmaster might work for you.

Guest review: Moleskine Taskmaster planner

Enormous thanks to Mstraat who graciously offered to review the 2012 Moleskine Taskmaster weekly planner. I've been very curious about this planner, so I really appreciate this review!!  Here's Mstraat with the glorious details:

I’d like to start by thanking Laurie and the folks at Jenni Bick for the embossed 2012 large daily Moleskine I won in the plannerisms.com giveaway. Of course I subsequently had to view every item on the moleskineandmore.com site and as a result came across something I have needed at work: a planner that has some space for appointments but, more importantly, lots and lots of space for lists. Here is a tour of the Moleskine Professional 2012 Taskmaster Planner – X Large.

The Taskmaster is the usual Moleskine X-Large size of 7.5 x 10 inches (19.5 x 25.4 cm). It is hardcover and so should be sturdy though that adds a bit to the weight, which is 1.5 pounds (680 gm) according to my kitchen scale. By comparison, the daily large Moleskine weighs in at 1.25 pounds, so it isn’t much heavier. It is not quite so thick as the daily one.

Many of the features are the same as in other Moleskine products; ivory colored paper that is fairly thin so you’ll need to be careful what pen is used; “in case of loss” inside the front, followed by pages for personal data yearly overviews for 2012 and 2013; month on one page grids for 2012, a space at the bottom of each page for notes; international holidays; one page for travel planning and one for travels memo; time zones, international airport and flight duration listings; conversions and clothing sizes; and two blank pages with legend.

The weekly pages are a vertical layout, with the date and days across the top as well as indications for international holidays and moon phases.

You can see in the photo of the left side page that there are times for appointments, one line per half hour but printed hourly, with a blank space midday.

On the right side notice that Saturday and Sunday share the column with no times printed to the lines, and that at the bottom there is a small calendar for current and following month. At the bottom side left the week number is printed, and the month on the right.

So far this is pretty mundane planner stuff, but the page following the weekly calendar is what made my heart beat faster!

Look at all the space for lists! One of the features I like in a planner is the ability to use space as I want without needing to white out pre-printed titles. The left side page has the week’s dates and month at the top with lots of blank space, then two sets of lines with a blank space between. The lines are arranged as four columns with tick boxes at the left side of each and a slight break in the center of the lines, but the boxes are faint enough to write clear across the lines if you prefer.


The right hand side has “actions and projects” printed at the top, again with blank space.

There are two sets of lines that extend across the page with a blank space in the center. At the left of each line is a tick box and two dots at the right to use for your own follow up markings.

There is a set of these pages following each week, and I can imagine all sorts of ways to use them. To do lists could be arranged by day, week or project. Project and action lists could be located behind the appropriate date. There is room for agenda item notes or meeting follow up lists. . . Maybe you can tell I completely fell under the Taskmaster’s spell. To finish up, as in other Moleskine planners there are seven blank pages for notes at the back of the Taskmaster, as well as the inner pocket and indexed address book.

I do want to add that the Jenni Bick folks are most helpful. They were quite prompt in answering my email queries about the Taskmaster and even with time for embossing it arrived quickly. The embossing they do is beautiful, as you can see:

and they repackage the Moleskines with the original label—and a free gift! I received a leather bookmark with one planner and a key fob with the other. I am anxious to begin using the Taskmaster and will update you on how it has worked out for me after I have used it a bit. Thanks to Laurie for letting me share this review!

Thanks again so much to Mstraat for this excellent and thorough review!!