At the beginning of last year, I was looking for a planner. Not just any planner – a magical planner. A book of life, if you wish.
I wanted to schedule my life first, then my business, then everything else. I was seeking to gain an overall perspective to my life, and have a journal and a planner in one.
In my personal life, I was writing in my journal almost daily, capturing all my deeper dreams and aspirations, paying attention to signs, patterns, and synchronicities.
In my business, I worked with a Mac Calendar to manage my time as a healer, writer, and artist.
At some point I tried to manage my entire schedule digitally, using Trello, and it just didn’t work for me. While things like travel times and reservations are handy to access on the phone, I still like writing down my everyday schedule, to-do’s and ideas. So, sometimes my desk was covered in post-it notes, which drove me crazy.
And, although I appreciate the gifts that the technology brings me, there is something so delicious, so magical occurs when I write using pen and paper – I express what I feel and think freely, flowingly, delightfully. I love to write in purple ink and use writing as an outlet to reveal my innermost self. I love to doodle when I think. I love to dream in color.
So, I searched for my magic planner.
I wanted it to have enough room to explore my Souls’ purpose, to preserve my special moments and insights, to hold my dream pages, to reflect rhythms of the seasons, the Sun and the Moon, to create my life’s credo, AND to be engaging, practical, and … magical!
I searched the Internet for hours and came up with a dozen or so of promising planners. I contacted the creators, interviewed the ones I could reach, and eliminated about half of the planners from the list.
Then I requested the rest and started playing with them throughout the year. I was paying attention to everything: the originality, size, quality, layout, engagement process, and philosophy behind their creation.
Soon I eliminated the other half of the planners and stopped at three. So now the game was on: which one closely reflects the planner I wanted, and why. It was a hard decision to make because I truly liked all three.
I hope you’ll have as much fun reading about these magical planners as I had to review them for you. All three of these are great in my humble opinion, and I hope one of them could be just the right one for your magical and practical needs!
Third Place: SACRED JOURNEY PLANNER: DAILY JOURNAL FOR YOUR SOUL
ORIGINALITY: The planner has beautiful sigils block-stamped on the cardboard cover and throughout the pages, plenty of room to reflect on the spiritual side of life, with pages for ceremony, divination, and symbolism.
QUALITY: Earth-friendly: heavy uncoated FSC paper, soy-based inks, cardboard cover.
SPIRITUAL TOOLS: Rhythms of the sun, moon & seasons; pages to acknowledge blessings, gifts & strengths; pages to set goals in all areas of life; seasonal divination with great instructions
SIZE: 8.5†x 7â€, 280 pages, over 30 pages of instruction
LAYOUT: Good room for writing or drawing, full-page monthly and weekly grids
CONS:
- I wish it was bigger in size
- Wire-O binding is too big, makes it uncomfortable to write on the left page
- A weekly page is too small, not enough space for any serious scheduling
- No dividers between the months, and no bookmarks
- Hard to reach the creator of the planner
PROS:
- Place for a personal ceremony to celebrate your birthday
- Four sections for divination during Solstices and Equinoxes
- A place to reflect during a midyear review
- Pages to capture signs and synchronicities
- Following the rhythms of the Sun, Moon, and Solstice/Equinox cycles
CONCLUSION: Although I really liked many aspects of it, it is more a journal than a planner, I couldn’t use it for business. I don’t know if it will be published this year, usually, it’s available in October.
Runner-up: LAW OF ATTRACTION PLANNER
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ORIGINALITY: Based on the law of attraction, this planner features a lot of useful tools: the law of attraction roadmap: 8 steps to design your dream life; awareness and self-discovery guide; vision and mission statement, and annual goal setting guide;
QUALITY: Great cover, comes in a gorgeous box with handy stickers, super smooth high-quality thick FSC paper
SPIRITUAL TOOLS: Foldout for the vision board, emotional vibration scale, pages to set goals in all aspects of life
SIZE: Full A5 size (5.8″ x 8.3″) and Large B5 size (7.5″ x 10″), 245 pages
LAYOUT: Monthly overview, goals, and priorities; monthly reflection page; weekly planning overview (56 weeks, 112 pages)
CONS:
- Too New-Age-y
- No rhythms of the Sun, Moon, and Solstice/Equinox cycles
- Hard to reach the creator of the planner
- Very goal-oriented, not much room for magic and play
PROS:
- Great instructions – printed and video
- Emotional vibration scale and suggestions on how to raise your vibration
- Mind mapping and vision board
- Great binding that lies flat, two bookmarks
- Weekly planning on two pages, with ample space for everything
CONCLUSION: I really like this planner and used it a lot during the year, although sometimes I felt I was not good enough for my planner LOL! If you are a type A super achiever who wants to balance spirituality, life, and business/study, you may find this planner to have it all.
And now, my favorite: MAGIC MAKERS PLANNER AND PLAYBOOK
ORIGINALITY: Truly one of a kind, with awesome hand-drawn illustrations that can be colored, very creative layout and instructions.
QUALITY: Great heavy paper for coloring and writing, beautifully illustrated glossy monthly dividers
SPIRITUAL TOOLS: A plethora of magical yet very practical resources: Moon Maps on monthly dividers – easy to understand energies of each new and full moon and the best way to use them; numerological overview of each month in illustration form; Morning Magic pages; Emotional Freedom Technique illustrated and tapping Script for Money, Ease & Magic, for Goal Alignment, and more; space for a two page vision board spread; and a lot MORE!
SIZE: 8.5†x 11â€, 226 of sketched pages
LAYOUT: Year planning considering astrology, Monthly Goal Setting utilize the power and phases of the Moon; Month End Reviews: Wins, Wishes and Magic Moments; Weekly mini-reviews
CONS:
- I am not a fan of Wire-O binding
PROS:
- Great fun instructions – printed and video
- The creator is a fantastic lady who was very easy to reach
- Astrology, numerology, and rhythms in a fun and accessible format
- Great layout with ample space for everything
- Morning Magic prompts
- Creative Illustrations of the coloring pages
- Each week has a great question to ponder
- Journal/doodling pages and great journal prompt questions
- And, my absolute favorite: Loving, kind resources for self-empowerment that really work!
CONCLUSION: I love this planner, it is what I was looking for, it even has a word Magic in its name. It’s not over-structured, yet it has everything I needed to get things done and I enjoyed coloring and drawing in it.
So, if you want to have more Magic in your life, to understand how to use energy to gain momentum in your life, to harness the power of astrology and rhythms of the seasons, to set goals based on YOUR values, and to empower yourself to reach for YOUR highest potential, and to have fun doing all of the above, give this planner a chance!Since a planner is something that you will use for everything – life, family, business, and hobbies – it is important that you find one that works for YOU.
Here are some of the things to consider when choosing your perfect planner:
SIZE
How big or small you need your planner to be? Are you going to keep it on your desk or carry it with you?
The planner needs to be large enough so that you have room to write and fit your schedule.
I like my planner to be fairly large because I use it only in my office, while my scheduled appointments are kept on my Mac Calendar and synchronized with my iPhone.
A planner with daily pages will have extra bulk.
Do you need something small enough that can fit in a purse or something larger that you can carry in your tote or backpack when you leave for work or school? Are you going to keep it on your desk?
LAYOUT OF YOUR PLANNER
What do you want the layout to look like?
Do you only need monthly calendar pages? Do need weekly pages, where each week spans across two pages side by side or one side only? Or, do you want it to include daily pages, where every single day has its own separate page?
Personally, I prefer a month at a glance and a weekly setup. I have incredibly busy days as well with my shamanic practice, workshops, and personal spiritual and magical pursuits, however, I want to be able to look at one page and see the outlook for my week as opposed to having to flip through daily pages constantly. I use Mac Calendar for daily scheduled appointments.
Here are some examples of each kind of layout for your consideration from the LOA Planner:
MONTHLY LAYOUT
WEEKLY LAYOUT
DAILY LAYOUT
 Keep in mind that planners with daily pages tend to be a lot heavier, thicker, and harder to carry around.
STYLE
One of the big reasons why I love Magic Makers Planner and Playbook is because it is beautifully illustrated without a color scheme and IÂ love to use color, draw, and doodle.
Do you like a basic planner so you can decorate it yourself? Do you like a planner that you can color, doodle, draw in? Or, would you like to purchase something that is beautifully designed out of the box?
GOAL, PROJECT, AND OTHER USEFUL PAGES
Do you like to set and track your goals? Would you like to have space in your planner to define your life’s purpose and gain perspective of your life’s path? Or, you simply need a time schedule for your study or work?
When I was young, I was never one for setting goals often. I responded to what was in front of me and life had unfolded organically and sometimes magically. Now, my awareness of time limit allocated to me in this body is very acute, and I simply want to be conscious of the things I want to experience.
So, since I don’t really like the word goal I created a 10-year map of my life preferences. It’s a play in progress and looks like a hybrid between a mind map and a vision board collage, and it helps me to keep things in perspective. I simply scan it and include it in my magic planner. Then I decide what I want to experience during the year.
The Law of Attraction Planner and Magic Makers Planner and Playbook both have a great layout for self-discovery, with ample printed and video instructions in addition to goal setting pages at the beginning of each month, and with LOA Planner – goal setting pages for each week that proved incredibly useful this year.
Other things to think about: Do you need monthly review pages? Family activities pages? Meal plan pages? Other job-related pages?
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OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Do you need to have an hourly schedule each day? Do you want your planner to include a to-do list? Do you want to keep track of developing positive habits like exercising, meditating, etc.?
I like to put my hourly schedule in my Mac Calendar, which is then synced across my devices, and I don’t need to set aside space in my planner for a time schedule. What I need space for are ideas, notes, magical occurrences, and synchronicities, and LOA Planner has it in on every page.
Other things I really enjoy in my planners are inspiring daily quotes or thought-provoking questions
Also, the purpose of the planner creator is really important to me: I like to support those whose goals are close to mine – to assist humanity on their evolutionary path to their highest potential.
I hope that this review will help you to choose the planner that works for you on your path of awareness and self-discovery.