Quick answer: The thirteen new B5 planner refills do not change the method. Plan, Act, Monitor, Reflect still runs on your Big Blocks dashboard and daily pages. The new templates sit behind the goals that need more room: a project, a budget, a week of meals, a workout log. Start with one.
Before The Perfect Notebook was mine, I was one of you.
I was a customer for years. I loved the notebook, the discs, the cream paper and, most of all, the method. But I always dreamed of having more templates. I wanted pages for my budget, my meals, my projects and the books I wanted to read.
I wanted them so much that a couple of times a year, I would email the previous owner to ask: are there any new templates coming?
In the meantime, I made my own. I drew pages by hand on dotted refills, printed templates I found elsewhere, punched them and snapped them onto the discs. My notebook slowly became a patchwork of pages I had built or borrowed, because I needed them and they didn't exist yet. I saw friends doing the same thing, each with their own homemade pages for the parts of life that wanted more room.
And then, one day, I bought the company.
So now I can finally share with you what I've been working on. The thirteen new templates are based on pages I've been using in my own notebook for years, and on the pages I watched my friends create and use. They've been tested on real weeks and real goals. Now I get to make them properly, for all of you.
What a joy that is.
Not extra pages: deeper pages
I didn't want to change the method. Plan, Act, Monitor, Reflect, in two-week cycles, with your goals living on one Big Blocks dashboard: it's what made me fall in love with this notebook in the first place.
But using it for years taught me something. Every so often, one goal needs more room. A family goal needs a real weekly plan for four people. A health goal needs a place to log workouts. A money goal needs actual numbers. A big work project has more moving parts than one line on a dashboard can hold.
That's what the new templates are for. They aren't extra things to fill in. They're deeper pages for the goals that need them.
The thirteen new templates
Each one is a B5 refill for your disc-bound notebook. Here is what's on each page:
- Project Tracker refill: one page per project. Break it into milestones, each with a due date and a small progress bar. There's an overall progress line from 0 to 100, space for notes and a box for blockers, the things standing in your way.
- Meeting Summary refill: date, attendees, agenda, discussion points, decisions, and action items with owners, so nothing said in a meeting gets lost.
- Brain Dump refill: a page to empty your head onto, with sections to sort it all afterwards into ideas, to-dos and follow-ups.
- Monthly Budget refill: income, fixed bills with due dates and a paid checkbox, variable spending and savings goals, with a monthly summary.
- Weekly Budget Tracker refill: a daily spending log by category and amount, with your weekly budget, what you've spent and what's left.
- Family Planner refill: a column for each family member, Monday to Sunday, plus space for family tasks, appointments and notes.
- Weekly Meal Plan refill: breakfast, lunch and dinner for every day of the week, a space for prep notes and a built-in shopping list.
- Fitness Tracker refill: your workouts across the week, with a weekly goal to aim for.
- Nutrition Tracker refill: one page per day for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, plus water intake.
- Reading List refill: what you're reading now, the books you've finished with a star rating, and the ones you want to read next.
- Inspiration refill: a page for quotes, ideas and images that remind you why.
- Goal Tracking refill: a place to follow one goal closely, step by step, over time.
- Student Planner refill: three dashboards in one refill, for academic achievement, testing and extracurricular activities, built for students creating a real record. See also The Perfect Notebook for students.
The Project Tracker page: milestones, a progress bar, notes and blockers.
The Weekly Budget Tracker page: a daily spending log with what's left for the week.
Where the new templates fit in your method
The dashboard is the map. The new pages are the roads. Here's the simplest way I can explain where they fit.
Your Big Blocks dashboard answers the question what. What matters to me in these two weeks, in each part of my life: Professional, Fun & Recreation, Relationships, Body Time, Personal Growth and Skill Building.
Your daily pages answer when. What's today's step?
The new templates answer how. For a goal that's bigger, more detailed or more ongoing than one line can hold, they give it a proper home. Then the daily pages and the dashboard stay clean and light.
So nothing about the method changes. You still plan your cycle on the dashboard, take one step a day and colour in your icons. The new pages simply sit behind the goals that need them.
Where each template fits: Plan, Act, Monitor, Reflect
Plan is getting clear before you begin. Act is doing the step and capturing what happens. Monitor is seeing your progress. Reflect is looking back so the next cycle is better.
| Stage | Template | What it does there |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Brain Dump | Before you plan a new cycle, empty your head. Write everything down, then sort it. Some of it becomes Big Blocks goals, and some of it you can let go. |
| Plan | Project Tracker | When a goal is really a project, break it into milestones with due dates. Each milestone can become a daily step. |
| Plan | Monthly Budget | The money picture for the month, so your goals and your spending point in the same direction. |
| Plan | Weekly Meal Plan and Family Planner | Plan the week at home before it plans you. |
| Act | Meeting Summary | Decisions and action items from work conversations, so the next steps don't get lost. |
| Act | Weekly Budget Tracker | A few seconds a day to log what you spent. |
| Act | Fitness Tracker and Nutrition Tracker | The daily record of your Body Time goals. |
| Monitor | Project Tracker | The progress bars show how far the project has come. |
| Monitor | Weekly Budget Tracker | The weekly totals show where the money went. |
| Monitor | Fitness Tracker | The workouts add up. |
| Monitor | Reading List | The books fill the list. |
| Monitor | Goal Tracking | The steps you have taken, one by one. |
| Reflect | Inspiration | Quotes, ideas and images that remind you why. |
| Reflect | Reading List | What you've read, and what stayed with you. |
Monitor is where the new pages come into their own. The dashboard shows you that you're moving, through the icons you colour in. These pages show you how much.
At the end of each cycle, your trackers become your evidence. You don't have to remember how the last two weeks went, because the pages show you. That is also what the Big Blocks reflection page is for.
Where they fit in your Big Blocks
If you think in Big Blocks, the pages sort themselves:
| Big Block | Templates |
|---|---|
| Professional | Project Tracker, Meeting Summary |
| Body Time | Fitness Tracker, Nutrition Tracker, Weekly Meal Plan |
| Relationships | Family Planner |
| Personal Growth | Inspiration, Reading List |
| Skill Building | Reading List, Student Planner |
| Across every block | Brain Dump and Goal Tracking, plus the two budget pages (Monthly Budget and Weekly Budget Tracker), because money touches almost every goal |
Why I think they matter
The heart of our method is that big goals become possible when they're broken into small, visible steps. The new pages do the same thing for the parts of life that are naturally detailed: money, food, health, projects, family.
They also keep the notebook honest. It's easy to feel busy. It's harder to see, in black and white, that you worked out three times this week, or that the project is at 60%. That visibility is what keeps people going, and it's what the Monitor step was always meant to give you.
And because the notebook is disc-bound, you only add the pages you need. A student and a parent and a freelancer can all use the same method, with completely different notebooks. When a goal is finished, the pages come out, and the notebook stays light. (If letting pages go is hard, I wrote about that in When a notebook feels too heavy to begin.)
How to start
Don't add all thirteen. Look at your current dashboard and ask: which goal keeps feeling too big for one line? That's your first new page. Add it behind the dashboard, use it for one cycle, and see how it feels.
The method stays the same. The pages simply grow with your life. New to the notebook? Start with The Perfect Notebook, and see how the refills work.
Frequently asked questions
Do the new templates change the Plan, Act, Monitor, Reflect method?
No. You still plan your cycle on the Big Blocks dashboard, take one step a day and colour in your icons. The new pages sit behind the goals that need more detail.
Do I need all thirteen new templates?
No. Look at your dashboard and ask which goal keeps feeling too big for one line. Add that page first, use it for one cycle, and see how it feels.
Who are the new templates for?
Anyone using the method. A student, a parent and a freelancer can all use it, with completely different notebooks, because you only add the pages you need.
When do the new refills ship?
They are open for pre-order now, and pre-order items ship together by December 10, 2026. Each refill is $11.
Is there an early-order offer?
Until November 15, buy any 3 of the new refills and get a 4th free with the code EARLYPAGE.
Pre-order the new refills
The new templates are open for pre-order now and ship by December 10, 2026. Until November 15, buy any 3 and get a 4th free with the code EARLYPAGE. See all the new refills. Planning by the calendar? The 2027/2028 monthly calendar is in the same pre-order, and you can browse every calendar refill for B5 disc-bound planners.
Until the next page,
Alice
The Perfect Notebook · perfect-notebook.com
