Corie Clark’s Purposeful Planner Review: A Space for Everything

Weekly planners are incredibly common, but not many are exceptionally unique from the others. The weekly Purposeful Planner from Corie Clark is the exception to this for a few different reasons. Almost everything about the cover designs, weekly layouts, and monthly planning pages is completely different from the weekly planners I’m used to.

The Purposeful Planner is very organized and has designated spaces for all of the things you need.

First Impressions

Right off the bat, I was struck by the beautiful Ocean Blue cover. It’s definitely one of my favorite planner cover designs ever — and I’ve seen more planner covers than you can imagine. It’s simple, but so dramatic at the same time. It fits right in with my personal tastes. I actually like it so much I’m trying to figure out how to paint my own version for my bedroom.

Anyway, I love the Ocean Blue cover, but there are two others (the Morgan Floral and Coco Stripes) you can choose from. Both of those are also simple and dramatic. However, they appeal to different personal tastes than the Ocean Blue.

All of the planners come with gold wire binding, gold foil lettering, and gold protective corners, so each cover design looks extra luxurious. The covers of the 18-month weekly Purposeful Planners are hard with a supple feel, and the total planner measures 9×10.

When you flip open the front cover you find navy lining and a tall pocket to hold loose receipts, stickers, and mail. And then you get to dive into the really fun stuff.

The Contents

The paper inside The Purposeful Planner is 100 gsm, which means it’s thick and bleed-proof so your favorite pens and markers won’t mess up your beautiful planner.

Before you start filling in your monthly events and weekly schedule, there’s an introductory section. Here, you get some guidance on the different sections of The Purposeful Planner and a little worksheet to help you plan with purpose. This is meant to help you focus on your goals. More importantly, it’s designed to help you create a plan for those goals.

While most planners will have you set goals for the year and break them down into steps, The Purposeful Planner has you think further into the future with your 10-year goal and then breaks it down into five years, one to three years, and then weekly and monthly tasks. I love this because it helps you look further into the future and remember that there are goals and dreams that will take longer than the next 12 months to manifest.

After you’ve done this, you have a bucket list for the things you want to do before the year is over. This is a fun way to follow up the goal setting and place emphasis on living your life.

Monthly Planning

At the start of each month, you have a monthly calendar with a column for notes. After this there are some really exciting pages dedicated to planning out your month. First, you have a monthly budget page. It includes sections for everything you can think of, including tithes and offerings, so that you don’t forget any of the potential expenses throughout the month. This is so beneficial in managing your money because it helps you visually see where you need to spend less and where your money truly needs to go.

There’s also a monthly menu-planning page. It’s broken down into two columns: Top 20 meals for the month and the ingredients needed for those meals. Now this is not a space to write down what meals you’ll eat when; it’s simply a place to write down the meals you think you and your family will want to eat that month and list off the ingredients you’ll need to make those meals a reality. You can cook them whenever you want and deviate from the list if needed.

After you’ve budgeted and meal planned, you can move onto the master task list for the month. This page is broken down into the separate rooms in the home so you can write down anything you need to do in those rooms—for example, painting walls, updating fixtures, or simply dusting the baseboards.

The monthly planning pages end with a large free page for your monthly dreams and goals. It’s a lined page, but there are no sections or dividers. Here, you can jot down aimlessly if that’s your style, or make an organized list of your goals for the month. It’s entirely up to you.

Weekly Layout

The Purposeful Planner breaks the weeks into daily columns. Each day has its own column and contains different sections in the following order:

• Health
• Water
• Schedule
• Menu

The health box is where you can write down anything related to your health. However, it’s a small box, so you can’t use it log every single thing you did at the gym; you can use it write if it’s leg day or record your weight.

The water box contains eight circles for you to check off throughout the day. This serves as a great reminder to drink more water and less soda and juice.

The daily schedule section spans from six a.m. to nine p.m., and each hour has two lines. This allows you to write down more and break things down by the half hour if needed. It’s an expansive schedule, so it’s great for those who need a bird’s eye view of their weekly schedule in order to better manage their time and work.

The menu box is small, but it’s really only meant to be a space for your dinner plans. You use it to write down one of those top 20 meals you planned at the start of the month.

To the left of the weekly pages, there are two columns stacked on top of each other. At the top is the brain dump column. This is a space for your tasks for the week, random thoughts, phone numbers, and anything else you just need to get out of your brain.

Below the brain dump is the prayer and praise column. This is for you to write down the things you need to pray about and the things you’re grateful for.

Of course, like all good planners, The Purposeful Planner has an inspirational quote each week to uplift and motivate you.

Things to Consider

There are a lot of wonderful things about The Purposeful Planner. However, there are some important things to consider before you purchase one. First of all, The Purposeful Planner is $52, unless you choose to wait to purchase until it’s on sale. If money is tight for you, then you should consider something closer to your price range. At the same time, this planner is for 18 months. If you divide $52 by 18, it essentially costs you $2.88 to use this planner each month.

Another thing to consider with any planner is the number of pages you have for notes. There aren’t any free notes pages at the back of The Purposeful Planner. There are a lot of pages at the start of each month for you to plan and budget and jot down notes though. Simply consider if your note-taking needs will be met with this layout.

Like I said from the start, this planner is beautiful. It provides a highly organized space so you can keep track of the different areas of your life and includes built-in budgeting and meal-planning pages every single month. If you’re looking for a weekly planner with more structure and a durable framework, then The Purposeful Planner could just be the planner you’ve been searching for.

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