I need to tell you about a paper planner that has no business working as well as it does.
It’s not smart. It doesn’t sync. It can’t integrate with literally anything. It won’t remind you of deadlines, won’t ping your phone, and has precisely zero artificial intelligence.
It’s just paper. And a hardbound cover. And some very clever psychology disguised as page layouts.
I bought my first Full Focus Planner in July 2018 after reading Michael Hyatt’s “Your Best Year Ever.” Six and a half years later, it’s sitting open on my desk—the only productivity tool that’s survived every job change, cross-country move, and professional reinvention I’ve thrown at it.
Here’s the thing that still surprises me: when I flip back through those six years of planners and look at the goals I wrote down, I’ve accomplished almost all of them. The enrollment growth at Purdue. The retirement savings targets. The career transitions. Nearly everything I committed to paper actually came to pass.
That’s not magic. That’s what daily visibility does.
The Great Digital Betrayal of 2024
Let me start by admitting that after six years of unwavering loyalty, I cheated on my planner.
The iFLYTEK AI NOTE Air 2 got me. You know—those sleek e-ink tablets that promise the best of both worlds. Write like paper, sync like digital. AI-powered handwriting recognition. Cloud backup. Infinite notebooks. The paper-feel screen that’s supposedly just like the real thing.
The marketing was chef’s kiss. “Finally, paper without the limitations!”
I appear to be highly susceptible to promises of having it all.
So I bought it. Spent an entire Saturday setting it up—organizing notebooks, syncing calendars, customizing templates, learning gestures.
It was beautiful—a productivity work of art.
Day 1: I felt ahead of the curve, using a futuristic tool while others relied on traditional paper.
Day 7: I’ve opened this exactly twice. Both times to fiddle with settings.
Day 14: I placed the device back in the drawer and returned to the paper planner. My enthusiasm diminished.
Here’s what killed it: The friction. Every time I wanted to plan my day, I had to locate the device, turn it on, wait for it to boot up, navigate to the correct notebook, and find the right page.
My paper planner sits there on my desk. No power button. No loading screen. No “which notebook?” decisions.
Just open it. See your goals. Plan your day. Get to work.
That experiment taught me something valuable: sometimes the “limitations” of paper are actually its biggest strengths.
What Makes the Full Focus Planner Actually Work
After six years of daily use through three significant career transitions, here’s what this system does that no other system can match.
The Quarterly Goal System (Three Goals Only)
This is where Hyatt’s system either converts you immediately or makes you think he’s insane.
Most planners recommend setting annual goals. On January 1st, you’re motivated. February 15th, you’ve accomplished nothing and feel like garbage.
The Full Focus Planner runs on 90-day quarters—long enough to accomplish something meaningful, short enough that you can actually see the finish line.
Here’s the constraint that changes everything: three goals per quarter. Not five. Not ten. Three.
When I first saw this, I stared at that page like it had personally insulted me. Three? I had seventeen urgent priorities!
But this forced prioritization is where real progress lives. If everything is necessary, nothing is essential.
Three goals get your full attention. Three goals get protected time. Three goals actually happen.
Seventeen goals become a wish list you’ll feel guilty about for 90 days.
The quarterly system has been the constant through every significant career move—community college to Purdue to Iowa State. Same framework, bigger scope. New quarter, new goals, same system that compounds over time into a career transformation.
The Daily Big 3 (Execution Layer)
Every morning, you write down three tasks that matter most today. Not ten. Not seventeen. Three.
This sounds simple until you realize it forces an uncomfortable question: What if I could only accomplish three things today?
Most of us operate with endless task lists that make us feel productive, yet accomplish nothing important. The Daily Big 3 flips that script. You identify your highest-impact work before the chaos starts.
Running hospital operations means dealing with constant emergencies and attending back-to-back meetings. But those three tasks? Non-negotiable.
By 5 PM, I can review those three items and determine whether I’ve made progress on what matters or just stayed busy.
This daily discipline—showing up every morning and writing three things by hand—that’s what compounds over six years into the kind of results that look like luck from the outside.
Weekly Review (The Part Everyone Skips)
Every Sunday evening. Twenty minutes.
What got done? What didn’t? Why? What adjusts next week?
This is what separates people who use planners from people whose lives actually change. The weekly review forces honesty: Did I work on what matters? Or did I stay busy?
Most weeks, I’m on track. Sometimes, I get pulled into urgent nonsense. But I always know where I stand.
That visibility—that accountability to yourself—prevents the slow drift into “I’m so busy” while accomplishing nothing meaningful.
Work-Life Integration (Not Just Career Goals)
Here’s what surprised me: the planner doesn’t just track work goals.
Hyatt’s system includes space for health, relationships, personal growth, and finances—all the domains we say matter but often overlook when we’re overwhelmed by professional obligations.
The structure prevents the trap of sacrificing everything else for career advancement, only to wonder years later why you’re successful yet miserable.
Professional goals matter. But so do retirement savings targets, fitness goals, and relationships worth protecting.
Morning and Evening Routines
The planner includes prompts for bookend routines—how you start and end each day.
I’ll be honest: I ignored this section for months. Seemed too “self-help guru” for me.
But deliberate routines compound like everything else. Morning planning takes eight minutes. Evening reflection takes five.
That daily discipline—showing up consistently—creates the conditions for goals to actually happen instead of just existing on paper.
Habit Tracking Without the Nonsense
There’s space to track daily habits—exercise, reading, whatever matters to you. Simple checkboxes. No gamification. No badges. No “you’ve maintained a 47-day streak!” notifications.
Just visibility into whether you’re doing what you said matters.
Why Paper Still Wins
When I write “Launch advisory board” with a pen on actual paper, it feels more real than when I use a stylus on glass ever did. Handwritten goals stare back at me every morning, holding me accountable.
My planner sits open on my desk all day. Not hidden behind browser tabs. Not buried in my phone. Just there. Visible. Present.
Paper doesn’t crash. Doesn’t need updates. The battery never dies. Works on airplanes. Works during power outages.
The so-called “limitations” of paper are actually its most significant advantages.
The Real Result: Almost Everything Got Done
Here’s what makes this system work: daily visibility on written goals.
I’ve been through six and a half years of planners now. When I flip back through them and look at the goals I wrote down—the enrollment growth at Purdue, the retirement savings targets, the career transitions, the professional milestones—I accomplished almost all of them.
Not because the planner is magic. Because I looked at those goals every single day.
You can’t forget about goals that are staring at you every morning. You can’t drift away from priorities that you write down by hand every Sunday. You can’t ignore progress when you’re tracking it every week.
Daily visibility creates daily decisions. Daily decisions compound into quarterly results. Quarterly results compound into a career transformation.
That’s the real power of this system.
The Investment: $0.38 Per Day
Each planner is $42, but I buy the annual bundle for the discount—roughly $140 for all four quarters.
That’s $0.38 per day.
Over six and a half years, I’ve spent approximately $900-$1,000 on a system that has helped me actually accomplish meaningful goals instead of just staying busy, navigate three major career transitions without losing momentum, and build the kind of career trajectory I didn’t think was possible.
Thirty-eight cents a day for clarity and focus that compounds over the years? Not an expense. An investment.
Who This Isn’t For
This planner isn’t for everyone.
If you love digital everything and need cloud sync, this will frustrate you.
If you want unlimited flexibility to add seventeen goals per quarter, you’ll likely struggle with the system.
If you’re looking for a magic bullet that requires zero discipline, keep looking. This thing demands you show up every day.
But if you’re tired of being busy without being productive? If you want actually to finish what you start? If you’re ready to choose where your career goes instead of just reacting to whatever’s loudest?
So ask yourself: is it worth $0.38 a day to take control of your goals? Invest and see what happens.
Six Years Later
I’m sitting in my office at Iowa State. Executive Director of Hospital Operations at Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center. Managing budgets, leading teams, making decisions affecting thousands of patients and hundreds of students.
And sitting on my desk is the same planner system that’s been there since July 2018, right after I read “Your Best Year Ever” and decided to try Michael Hyatt’s approach.
Same three-goal structure. Same Daily Big 3. Same Sunday reviews. Same questions: What matters most this quarter? What matters most today?
When I look back over six years of written goals, almost everything I set out to accomplish got done. Not because I’m remarkably disciplined or talented. Because I looked at those goals every single day.
Daily visibility on written goals—that’s why this planner has been the foundation of my progress. If you want a system that delivers real results through steady attention, this is it.
The Full Focus Planner isn’t magic. It’s really good at helping you see your priorities every morning before the chaos starts.
And after six years, I can tell you: that’s worth everything.
Worth every penny of that $0.38 per day.
The Full Focus Planner uses strategic constraints—three quarterly goals, daily priorities, and weekly reviews—to force focus and drive results. Based on Michael Hyatt’s “Your Best Year Ever” system. Available at fullfocusplanner.com.