Hemlock & Oak Planner Review – Hopefully It’ll Get Great Use!
I mentioned that I was going to try the Hemlock & Oak planner for 2023 back in September. That was when I pre-ordered the Hemlock & Oak 2023 weekly planner in sage green color.
Why H&O?
It took a while to search for a nice planner because I was extra picky about materials, size, feel, layout, etc. I came across Hemlock & Oak’s website and they posted an unboxing / review video, and they were having a pre-order special, and free shipping!
Planner Arrived in December
It took around 3 months for the planner to arrive. The packaging was nice / minimalistic, but it wasn’t like what I saw in the unpackaging video where there was better wrapping and packaging. A bit disappointed, but oh well.
Weekly Planner Contents and Such
- Starts on 12/26, so this is a MONDAY start date planner. New Years 1/1 is a Sunday, so this one starts the Monday prior to it – 12/26. First week is 12/26 – 1/1 and so forth.
- There are yearly and weekly reflections.
- Also a habit tracker each month.
- Each week contains times so that you can put in what to fill your day with.
- Inspirational quotes or something throughout.
- Graph paper on the back for whatever.
- 3 ribbons as bookmarks.
- Goal settings as well.
- Monthly calendar before the weekly stuff.
- Requires some flipping back n forth, but the ribbons should help with that.
Looks and Feel
The pages themselves feel pretty nice. I am so afraid to ruin them. The cover itself looks pretty, but the part by the spine will definitely break if i stab sharp finger nails against it. Kind of like a textbook to that extent. Great size, and not bulky for what it is.
Loving the Graph Paper Style
It’s so beautiful! H&O has pdf copies of their planner so that you can see each page before committing to the actual product. One can print out the pages, but that doesn’t feel as good as the product itself, so I decided to purchase the planner. My cell phone photos of this planner doesn’t look so great; the actual pages look better than what I posted!
Planner Pocket – I feel Ripped Off!
Go back to my order form and the planner pocket contains colorful stuff. This was an option to add on to the planner for 11CAD or close to 20% of the whole planner cost of 57CAD. I thought I was getting a pocket to attach to the planner and the add-ones – stickers, monthly tabs, etc., because that’s what the photo shows. Also, the unpackaging video mentioned they got pre-order bonuses. Did I get any? NO! So I paid 20% of the planner cost for a thin pocket attached to the end of the planner that doesn’t have anything in there. Thought I was missing something so I contacted H&O and they said that was the planner pocket.
Worth It?
We shall see. I really do enjoy the overall layout of this Hemlock Oak planner, and I really hope that I’ll use it for more than a month. There are so many things I want to improve with myself and to stay organized, and I hope this will help me accomplish such things or lead me to the right direction of such. For example, cleaning my living space… really need to get better about cleaning my areas as well as tossing / donating stuff on a regular basis as opposed to many garbage bins of stuff at once. That leads to piles after piles as we put more garbage to fill the trash bins each week until the piles are gone.
Buy Again Next Year?
It’s not an immediate yes. If I end up liking it after use, perhaps. I’m still a bit frustrated with myself that I thought I’d also be getting pre-order bonuses, better wrapping, and that the planner pocket that was 11 CAD is literally a pocket attached to the end without anything else. Reminds me of those burger ads – they always look better than what is received, but at least those make a bit more sense as the ingredients displayed are present.
