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I received a review copy of The Bubble Planner in the mail last week, so I have given it a shot as part of my new organizer beta-test. The Bubble Planner is an interesting idea, basing your planning and To-do lists on a mind-map-like “bubble page”. From the company website:(Click here to view more details)

The Bubble Planner Unleashes Your Brain’s Ability, so you can:

• Stop Procrastinating
• Quit Overcommitting
• Connect to Your Dreams
• Experience Peace and Fulfillment
• Reduce Stress
• Remove Barriers to Achievement
• Take Back Control of Your Life

The Bubble Planner comes in a Circa-bound notebook (5.5″ x 8.5″) with 6 sections. There are about 100 pages worth of forms in this planner, but since there are so many different types of forms, you do not get too many of each. I have to say that this planner has the seed of a really good idea that can really blssom in the right hands.

The Radar section

“The Radar sections is a big picture view of your life. It is critical to start from this perspective as it answers the question, “What do you want to be, do, and have?”

This section of the instructions is right on the money, but the actual pages for executing this strategy leave something to be desired. There are two types of planning page in this section. The first has three columns of 14 “bubbles” crowded onto a 5.5″ x 8.5″ page; this is no way to plan things like Family, Intelletual, or Social Goals. Mind Mapping is all about spreading out the ideas and looking to see what might be connected. It needs to have more space and less structure.

I do like the second type of planing page, for plotting out the “Future Reality” with start dates, related resources, and tips for guiding one through the SMART process.

The Roadmap section

“Once something appears on the radar, it is time to map it out.”

Again, this section has two types of page, one unusable bubble page for brainstorming and one “Desired Result” page that would be much more helpful if the sections were larger.

The Rest

The following two sections are standard fare for organizers, with a “bubble” twist: the To-do lists are columns of oval bubbles, the two-page-per-month calendar has boxes with rounded corners, and the two-page-per-week calendar consists of one large elliptical bubble for each day, divided like a clock face into four quadrants for allocating your time. This is a unique feature of the Bubble Planner, as I have never seen a planner that breaks down your day into a pie-chart.

“The undated weekly calendars should also be a planning tool to help you visualize your goals coming to pass. It is not meant for keeping appointments and meetings as these activities are handled superbly by software such as Microsoft Outlook.”

I used the Weekly Calendar page to track how much time I spent on various activities throughout the day, which was instructive. I was able to see that the one night that I did not get a full night’s sleep (Weds. 4 hours), my next day was not terribly productive. I liked this part of theBubble Planner very much. It made me think a little more about how I go about allocating my time. It also inspired me to consider making a spreadsheet to enter my time into that would ‘pie-chart’ the cumulative time spent on each task for the week. (It’s on the list!)

The 13 Virtues

This is where the Bubble Planner gets into very interesting territory - “Benjamin Franklin’s plan for regulating his own behavior”. The “Renew” section has 13 pages of pie charts for you to track how well you do (over the course of a week) at maintaining these virtues. I liked this aspect very much, especially when I used hi-lighters to grade myself. This is an innovative feature of the Bubble Planner, and something that I will be adding to my Quarterly Review process.

Overall

The Bubble Planner is a new way of looking at your goals, and as such is worth taking a look at. It is always good to get a new perspective on how you get things done, and where you are going with your life. It will take some time to get used to the concepts involved, but that is part of the benefit - changing the way you look at things.

I give the Bubble Planner a rating of 4 (out of 5) for an Above Average productivity tool.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/59jhtr. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen