If you’re trying to find the best planner layout to manage a busy life, Alma’s story might sound familiar. She came to us overwhelmed by the many roles she juggles - volunteer work, a part-time job, seminary studies, parenting, and housework.

Even though she already used a planner consistently with daily task lists and project dashboards, she still struggled with accountability and procrastination. Initially, she was using the Nancy layout and doing fairly well with it, so we assumed that moving her into a larger Nancy planner with more note space would solve her problem. But something still wasn’t clicking.

During a live session, one simple question revealed the real issue:

How do you naturally picture your week—side-to-side or up-and-down?

Alma instantly said side-to-side, which matches the layout of our Anne planner, not the up-and-down layout of our Nancy planner.

That small insight changed everything. By switching her to the Anne layout, she finally had a planner that matched how her brain organizes time, with the added benefit of optional time-blocking.

If you’re unsure which planner is right for you, Alma’s experience is a great reminder that choosing the right weekly layout can make planning easier, more intuitive, and way more effective.