I’m a sucker for planners. When I was in elementary school, I was sort of obsessed with them. Lisa Frank, cats, puppies, boring adult ones…. I never used them, but I imagined someday being a fancy business person with lots of appointments. And now, here I am!

I use a mix of paper and digital planning tools in my business. It’s difficult for me to pick just one. Right now, I’m using both the Passion Planner and the Savor the Success 90-Day Action Planner.

So naturally, when Michelle Nickolaisen offered a free digital copy of her upcoming planner for a review, I jumped on the opportunity! (Michelle admits she also uses Asana in conjunction with her paper planner, so we’re kind of like two peas in a pod on this)

Michelle has created The Freelancer Planner, one designed specifically for those of us out there chasing down leads and managing multiple clients at a time. Oh yeah, and we also have to do the whole admin and marketing side of running a one-woman business.

What does The Freelancer Planner offer that other planners don’t?

When I mentioned the planner to my husband, he immediately said “what makes this one different?”

Good question!

Michelle really attempted to cover areas that other planners don’t: money tracking, project tracking, admin stuff tracking, and a different approach on the to-do list. She’s broken it down into priorities and what she calls “niggly” tasks–those things you have to do but are rather inconsequential.

Few planners also provide the space for daily, weekly, and monthly planning. In fact, that’s why I have two planners right now to cover those 3 time periods.

I think The Freelancer Planner takes care of many of the complaints people have about other entrepreneurial planners.

What features does The Freelancer Planner excel at?

Coming from a systems/productivity perspective, I think Michelle’s planner does a nice job by including all of the following:

• No pre-written dates, so your planner can start in the middle of the year
• Enough space to plan out your to-do list
• A section to note all your projects and events for the month, so you don’t forget about clients who begin midway through the month
• A section to focus on your marketing so you don’t get so wrapped up in client work that you forget to grow your own business
• Entire areas dedicated to setting and tracking income goals, so you know how many clients/projects you need to close before it’s too late
• A section to just take notes, which I find invaluable in my planners, rather than having a separate notebook for notes that aren’t associated with my to-do list

What does The Freelancer Planner look like?

I’m glad you asked! Here’s what pages of the planner look like on the inside:

I like that these pages remind you to focus on your business, and to remember what you are actually doing things for in the first place! Ever find yourself wondering what the point of various tasks is?

You can literally figure out how much money you need to make each day to meet your income goals for the month, and keep it at the forefront of your planning!

A daily/weekly breakdown of activities and to-dos.

Putting it all together, with space for income goal tracking at the very top.

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I had originally planned to do a video review of the planner, but then I watched Michelle’s own videos and realized I couldn’t cover the material nearly as well as Michelle! So check out the Kickstarter video as well as her tutorial on how to use the different pages.

If you’re catching this before the end of July 2015, hop over to the Kickstarter to help back it! It’s almost at 50% funded at the time of this post!