Organising for 2016 with the BASICS notebook

 

Every year, I buy a planner and it’s always the same exact one. For the past seven years, I have always bought a Moleskine weekly notebook. I’ve tried different colours, sizes and the yearly and 18-month ones. They served me well and I really wasn’t looking for another planner until I came across the Basics notebook on Kickstarter. I’d like to pause here to add that I was not paid for this review and I bought my own notebook. What drew me to them was all the features they offered that I didn’t even realise I was missing in the Moleskine.

https://youtu.be/4Qbu0sY655c

 

These were shipped out in November and I held off opening my box until recently. I love this notebook – I particularly love the two bands – one enabling you to keep the notebook closed and the other to mark where you are so you can open up to the page you need quickly. I also LOVE the offset pages so there is somewhere to store your pen that doesn’t involve a little holder thing on the side of the book. It comes in black and mint and I picked the mint because it’s easy to spot and I’ve never had (or seen) a mint planner.

 

 

Thee dividers separate the planner from the notebook paper and the plain pages. The plain pages are perforated so you could remove them when needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pen sits flush with the top of the planner and is secured with both bands, so you’re less likely to loose it! The pen pictured here is a Staedtler whiteboard pen that I purchased with the notebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The back pocket stores a 2016 – 2017 calendar card and the whiteboard pages. I loved the pocket feature in my Moleskine and made lots of use of it – I know I will with this planner too.

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite features have got to be the Activity section within the weekly planner and the Goals and Tasks section. Every week gives you an activity to complete and I’m excited to put them all into practice. Some of them are wonderfully simple but things that will make a huge impact to your week and I love that they can be journaled and recorded within a planner. I have a lengthy list of goals for 2016 and I feel like breaking them down into bite sized pieces as three daily tasks will contribute towards accomplishing them.

 

There is a LOT packed into this notebook; a monthly focus section, a space for notes, and it doesn’t even begin or end on a specific day – you fill in the dates so you can buy the planner whenever you want and start using it whenever you want! Have you ever seen a fantastic planner in the middle of August and wished you could buy it but figured it was pointless because you’re over halfway through the year? Not a problem with this planner!

It’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into the production of this and I haven’t been this excited about an organising tool in a while. The creators want it to become an integral part of your life and that’s apparent in the design, the features and the fact that Basics notebook users get 20% off future notebooks for life. I’ve got mine all set up for January and cannot wait to introduce you all to #365daysofbasics  – more on that on January 1, 2016!

Do you have a Basics notebook? What’s your favourite feature?