If any of our products had a harried past, it would be the Hourly Planner.

The 2027 Sprouted Hourly Planner: The Story Behind the Layout + What's New

The Sprouted Hourly Planner is a vertical weekly planner designed for people who like to see their entire week laid out by the hour. Also known as an hourly weekly planner or vertical weekly planner, this format is especially useful for time blocking, appointments, busy family schedules, and anyone who wants to see how much time they actually have each day.

That’s what an hourly planner is in general, so now let’s look specifically at the Sprouted Hourly Planner and its flaky past. 

How the Sprouted Hourly Planner Has Evolved From 2022 to 2027

Unlike the Weekly Planners or Daily Planners, the Hourly Planner wasn’t here from the get-go. It came later in the story, disappeared, came back in a new disguise, disappeared, and now it’s been back for 2 years (2027 included). 

2022: The First Sprouted Hourly Planner

In 2022, I thought it would be “fun” to drop well over $5k to test a new planner on my tiny audience of customers, and for the academic season to boot (AKA, lower buyers). I’m not sure what I was thinking other than…I wasn’t?

But the thing is, I LOVED that planner:

• A5 size inner pages

• Stair-step tabs

• Super unique layout

When I say super unique, I mean it was a vertical weekly/hourly spread that was laid out sideways on the page. Meaning, you had to turn your entire planner vertically in order to plan your week. I still think it's awesome. 

Shockingly, it didn’t sell very well. I fully blame that on my newbie status, lack of real marketing, and it being a tough market - the midyear/academic market, that is. And well, 2022 wasn’t thebest of times. 

So instead of persevering with this planner, I didn’t do one again at all. Until 2024. 

2024: A Completely New Layout

I reintroduced a completely different Hourly Layout for the 2024 year. This layout largely resembles the current layout, except the schedule and notes area was all 4mm grid. It was short and stocky (almost a square), and it still had the stair step tabs. 

2025: The Planner That Wasn't

I wasn’t in love with the layout, and the sales were low, so I redesigned the layout for 2025. I designed the entire thing, and even got a sample of it. Then at the proverbial midnight hour, I decided against mass creating it in order to:

1. Save the cost

2. Save putting something into production that I still wasn’t sure about

2026: Customers Choose the Layout

While in the design phase for 2026, I created (and recreated in some cases) 5 different designs for previous Hourly customers to vote on. The one with the most votes turned out to be the Hourly Planner used for 2026 and 2026-2027. 

In this version, I did away with the stair step tabs 😭I miss them, too. I did this in order to make them simpler to design and less expensive to manufacture.

Here’s what I DO NOT miss about the stair step tabs: having to create 12 separate master pages for each month (multiplied by 5 for the Monthly Dashboard, Monthly Calendar, Notes Pages, Dot Grid Pages, Reflection Page).

Nor do I miss having to print these in color ($$$) for only 12 pages of color out of the entire planner (the color of the monthly “tabs”). 

The rounded corners also make the stair-step tabs tricky since the January and December “tabs” are rounded while the others are square. 

 

After doing one of my 1 Week in 3 Planners videos, I fell in love with the layout and personally changed from a Daily Planner girlie to the Hourly Planner in 2026. Genuinely, it’s been a great planner. 

2027: The Hourly Planner Finds Its Size

While using the 2026 Hourly Planner, it just seemed a little too big. Not ridiculously big but a nagging big. Ya know? 😅Having first-hand experience using it, I knew what my customers meant by that as well (since they were echoing the same sentiment in the reviews + survey feedback). 

When designing the 2027 planners, the first thing I did was resize it to its new B5 size. While I made other changes (keep reading!), this was the biggest hitter. 

Who is the Hourly Planner good for? 

Hourly planners, commonly known as Vertical Weekly Planners, are great for someone who likes to see their entire schedule laid across the week by the hour. Think of it like a Google calendar in weeks view. You may love an hourly layout if you: 

• Have a busy schedule with appointments or meetings or obligations (like kid stuff)

• Like time blocking

• Want to see your entire week at a glance

• Have trouble estimating how much you can realistically accomplish, or

• Like to know how much time you have between things

• Prefer a visual schedule over a list of obligations

• Like or need to track your time

What Makes the Sprouted Hourly Planner Different?

Unlike other vertical weekly planners, the Sprouted Hourly Planner separates your to-do list from your schedule. This gives you the ultimate flexibility of when you want to get things done. 

With the other vertical planners, from the get-go, you have to choose which days to put your to-dos for the week. If you want to brain dump your weekly to-dos at the start of the week, this could be a conundrum if you don’t know which day you want to accomplish certain tasks. Having a separate list solves this. 

Fear not though, there is still space above and below each day for day-specific items (birthdays, to-dos, top 3, meals, gratitude, etc.). 

I like to say this layout is for my Type C people. The schedule part of it feels very Type A, while the separate to-do list is very Type B. 

What Is Included in the 2027 Sprouted Hourly Planner?

From the beginning, the Hourly Planner has been a hard cover, case bound planner. This is unlike the Daily and Weekly Planners, which are spiral bound. This means it's incredibly sturdy and more portable.Here’s the quick hitter list:

• Hardboard cover that’s wrapped in the art

• Case bound (or book bound)

• Rounded, outer corners 

• (B5 size) 6.9 x 9.8 x 1.13 inches; weighs 1.13 lbs

• Smyth-sewn (so it lays COMPLETELY flat!)

• 2 ribbons (that reach well beyond the corners)

• Accordion pocket in the back

• Stencil bookmark included

• Gray-shaded monthly “tabs” printed along the edges (for easier access to the changes of the month)

• Paper is 80lbs (120gsm) and is glorious

The Hourly Planners come in all 4 cover designs this year (last year were limited cover options). 

What Kind of Paper Does the Sprouted Hourly Planner Use?

You can’t talk about planners without talking about the paper. I talk fairly extensively about the paper in the Daily Planner Blog and the Weekly Planner Blog, but I’ll recap here as well. 

I get many compliments on this paper. It’s brighter white paper, akin to your standard printer paper (although my HP printer paper is a little brighter). 

It’s a subtle tooth that’s the goldilocks of tooth - it’s definitely there but it’s not the prominent feature of the paper, if that makes sense. We’re not talking Erin Condren tooth. But it’s not slick. 

It handles all my pens beautifully, and this is a shared sentiment across all my customers. There is no ghosting or bleed, except with super inky markers (such as the dark, dark Zig Clean Color Dots). 

Primarily, I use a Pilot G-2 07 pen, and I love how it works on this paper. I’ve also used other pens that do equally well.

What Does the 2027 Hourly Planner Layout Look Like?

Intentional Prep Pages

The Hourly Planner is one of the 3 Signature Planners, which are the most comprehensive planners we have. All the Signature Planners (Daily Planner, Weekly Planners, and Hourly Planners) consist of intentional prep pages in the front to help you name what and who matters most to you and helps you plan and operate out of those. 

Monthly Dashboard + Calendar

From there, every month has an *updated and simplified* monthly dashboard, and the beloved monthly calendar. The bonus of this being a larger planner than the others is the expanded to-do list, with 14 to-dos, split into 2 columns (7 to-dos in each column). You also get more dot grid space, and more margin around the calendar for decorating, if that’s your thing. 

Notes Pages

If we flip past the Monthly Calendar, we hit 2 notes pages. Each notes page has 31 lines and a header box if you want to label it. These pages are great for brain dumps, finance tracking, general notes during the month, memory keeping, you name it. 

After these two helpful notes pages, we get to our lovely Hourly spread. Take it all in Clark, she’s a beaut. 

Weekly Hourly Spread

The majority of these two pages is taken up by the hourly calendar/schedule. On the left-hand page is your Monday - Friday schedule. On the right-hand page is your Saturday-Sunday schedule, and your to-do list + dot grid space. 

 It’s a Monday start, and each column is 3 cm wide (or 30mm).That equates to 1.187 inches (just 1/16th shy of 1.25 inches). Each hour is 1 cm, with a line dividing it at the 5mm mark (so you can schedule in ½ hours). There is a 1.5cm (15mm) box above your daily schedule, and a 5cm (50mm) box below your daily schedule, which is divided into two (horizontally): the top box is the largest at 4cm, and the bottom box is 1cm. 

The to-do list has 21 spots/check boxes, with a vertical divider towards the end of the lines in case you want to make a list there (groceries, packing, progress bar for to-dos). Underneath the to-do list is a dot grid space where you can take notes, make a tracker, reflect on the week, put a next week preview, decorate, doodle, or whatever your heart desires. 

Obviously, these weeks repeat 4 or 5 times until we get to the end of the month where you’ll find a Reflection Page. 

Monthly Reflection Pages

Added back into the planners this year (but shortened and condensed) are Monthly (and Yearly) Reflection Questions. 

They take up one page, and it’s 6 questions (repeated every month): 

1. What stands out as memorable?

2. What were your wins or things you were proud of?

3. What was hard/challenging?

4. Are you satisfied with how you spent your time?

5. What was occupying your senses?

6. What and/or who gets your focus next month?

Opposite of that page is a glorious dot-grid page where you can put pictures from the month or write out longer reflections. If you want even more of a reflective experience, I also have the expanded 2027 Reflection Booklets. If you aren’t into reflecting, you could tear the page(s) out completely and you’ll barely know it was there. 

What's New in the 2027 Sprouted Hourly Planner?

The biggest change for 2027? Size.

After using the 2026 Hourly Planner myself, I agreed with customers who felt it was just a little too big. For 2027, I moved the Hourly Planner down to B5 size—and that little trim made all the difference.

Here are all the changes to the 2027 version:

• 2 ribbons instead of one

• A stencil bookmark is now included

• Small changes to the Hourly Layout

• Added shaded “tabs” within the months, descending with each month for an easier visual and search for the different monthly sections

• Reflections added back into the planner

• New monthly dashboard design

Is a Vertical Weekly Planner Right for You? Try the Layout Before You Buy

If you’re unsure if this vertical weekly layout is right for you, try planning on the free printable to see if you love it. All of the planner layouts are available as free printables so you can try out each layout and see which one works best for you. 

You can grab that printable here. 

Ready to Plan Your 2027 With the Sprouted Hourly Planner?

Truly, I believe the 2027 Hourly Planners are the best ones yet and I have full confidence in this layout. If you’re sold on the new 2027 Hourly Sprouted Planner too, you can buy it here. 

I’m 90% sure I’ll be using the Hourly Planner for 2027 (though the Daily is making its best siren call to me) and I cannot wait to see what fills the pages. 

For all my devout Hourly Planners peeps, thank you for sticking with me as I tweaked, pushed, and pulled this line. I’m deeply grateful for all your feedback, suggestions, and gushing over the parts you love. 

I know buying a planner for the year is a big decision, and I don’t take it lightly if you’ve landed on a Sprouted Planner.