The Inspire Now Journal by Inspire Now Daily is the best goal-focused journal aimed at increasing productivity and helping you to achieve your goals on the market.
Like any productivity journal the Inspire Now Journal has Pros and Cons. Here they are:
Pros
Cons
Its design is appealing – brown leather cover and ever every page has colour.
It’s dateless, meaning you can start using it at any time.
It has a 7 day week.
It prioritises tasks into: One task must be completed today, top three tasks and other tasks and actions.
It has inspirational quotes throughout. Including one for every day.
Daily pages also include the following sections: Reminders/Shopping Lists/Appointments, Reward for achieving goals, health & well-being actions, self-development actions and things I am grateful for today.
Weekly pages include the following sections: goals – split into categories (Career & Finance, Personal Development & Learning, Health & Wellness, Family & Social, Physical Environment and Spiritual), habit tracker and reward for achieving my goals this week.
Past Week Reflection pages include: big achievements this week were, how I was able to achieve these, next week I will take the following steps to avoid distractions, I learnt, I will use lessons I learnt last week to improve next week by and a Achievements Score (1-10) for the week.
It has Calendars for 2016-2019.
It has Month At a Glance pages.
It has a Birthday List page.
It has Long Term & Short Term Goal pages, along with Ideas & Notes pages to go with these.
It has a Savings Chart page, Debt Management pages, Payment Checklist pages, Project pages, Fitness Plan pages, Travel Checklist pages, Books to Read & Movies to See page, Contacts pages and Notes pages.
It has a bookmark ribbon and an elasticated closure.
The tasks & actions on the daily pages are too small to write in. I usually have to write over two lines.
No daily rating for achievements.
No specific section on daily pages for General Notes & Ideas.
There are undoubtably pages/sections that you wont use. For example, I will never use the Debt Management pages, Payment Checklist pages and Fitness Plan pages.
The planner only has 6 months worth of pages in it. However it would be impossible to make the journal any bigger.
The Inspire Now Journal is brilliant and a journal that I love. Once you get in the routine of using it, you will wonder how you have ever managed without it.
It focuses on single-tasking rather than multi-tasking and doing the most important task of the day first. It also uses The Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique is working on a task for 25 minutes without distraction or procrastination and then taking a 5 minute break.
Like any productivity journal the Productivity Planner has Pros and Cons. Here they are:
Pros
Cons
Its design is smart and business-like.
It’s compact and light to carry.
It’s dateless, meaning you can start using it at any time.
It prioritises tasks into: Most Important, Secondary and Additional.
It has Weekly Planning/Review sections.
It has a place for Notes on each day and a full Weekly Notes page.
Every daily page has an Inspirational Quote and a Productivity Score (1-10).
It has circles next to tasks to measure time. You set a Target and then record the Actual, helping you to allocate a more realistic amount of time for tasks.
It has a bookmark ribbon and an elasticated closure.
It is really designed for business use. It only has a 5 day week.
There’s no Done boxes to tick tasks off on the daily pages.
The planner only has 6 months worth of pages in it. Meaning you would need to buy two for 1 year.
It is expensive for a journal, being priced at £20+.
There’s no short term, medium term or long term goal setting pages.
There’s no monthly or yearly view pages.
It is black and white throughout.
There isn’t anywhere to record rewards for completing tasks. I find rewards really motivating.
There’s no way to organise tasks into groups, e.g. Personal, Business, Health, Family/Friends, etc.
I’ve just been off work for a week on much needed annual leave. I’ve had a great week off, the weather has been warm, but with intermittent sun and showers. Here’s a list of things I’ve done:
Had plenty of rest and relaxation – including some naps here and there.
Attended Wigan Pride (gay pride event), organised by BYOU+. It was a great event which included: a parade led by the legendary Sir Ian Mckellen (better known to some as Gandalf or X-Men’s Magneto), a stage with local performers performing (also opened by Mckellen) and a marketplace of information stalls. BYOU+ and the residence of Wigan did Wigan proud and it is an event that I shall look forward to attending again in the future. Here are some photos from the day:
Wigan Pride Parade (1)
Wigan Pride Parade (2)
Wigan Pride Parade (3)
Wigan Pride Parade (4)
Wigan Pride Parade (5)
The closest I could get to Sir Ian Mckellen (under the rainbow brolly).
Wigan Pride Main Stage
Sir Ian Mckellen opening the main stage (1)
Sir Ian Mckellen opening the main stage (2)
Caught up with Sye, James and Sye’s family (who are kind of like my adoptive family!).
Had my eyes tested at Specsavers, got a new prescription and had the lenses put in my existing FCUK frames (as I still love them and they suit the shape my face).
Had coffee out (twice) and lunch out (once) on my own, to have some me time.
Went on my monthly man date, we had dinner out at a posh place.
