About Us

Hi I'm

Robyn Pineault

I’m the creator of The Essential Planner, an undated paper goal planner that helps busy, multi-passionate moms plan their year around how they want to feel and what they value. After writing out lifestyle category goals, you can map them out into simple weekly steps.

I’m also a twin mom, the author of two books, a full-time marketer, and a woman who has loved goal setting for as long as I can remember. I built this planner because I needed it first.

The year I hit every goal and felt nothing

One year, I set somewhere between 30 and 50 goals. Write three blogs a week. Read a book a week. Grow the side hustle. I checked off every single target.

Then I sat with my planner at the end of that year, exhausted, and felt completely empty. The workaholic pace had worn me down, and my body paid for it.

That’s when it clicked. I didn’t need more goals. I needed meaning behind them.

After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014, I couldn't afford to subscribe to hustle culture anymore. Burning out isn’t something I’m willing to risk again. So I had to learn to go after big things in a way that honours my energy.

What changed

I stopped starting with a to-do list and started with two questions:

How do I want to feel this year?
What matters most to me?

My goal-setting method grew from Danielle LaPorte’s The Desire Map, a Values Reset retreat with Allison Villa, Chalene Johnson’s book Push, and more than 10 years of refining it in my own goal-setting. In 2024, I turned it into The Essential Planner.

Robyn Pineault, the Essential Planner Creator with her Family

What planning this way has helped me do

Publish two books: Love Lost, Life Found and Resilience Redefined: Thriving With Autoimmune Disease
Launch The Essential Planner and The Focus Framework online course.
Move my family from the suburbs to 160 acres in the country.
Start a short-term glampground with my husband on our 160 acres.
Write out value statements with my husband, Mike, before we set any goals. The couple value statement alone has helped us save our marriage during a rough patch.

Picture of Norther Lights on the Pineault's 60 Acres

Life on 160 acres

Today I live just outside Ottawa with my husband, Mike, our boy/girl twins, and our husky/German shepherd. I work full-time while raising twins and building side businesses. I know what it’s like to finally get 30 free minutes and have no idea where to start.

Who I made this planner for

If you’ve got sticky notes everywhere, a full calendar, and a stack of half-used planners collecting dust, I made this for you. You’re not failing because you’re disorganized. You’ve likely been chasing goals that look good on paper but don’t mean much to you.

The Essential Planner helps you choose goals that feel like yours. Then it helps you follow through, week by week, while avoiding burnout and overwhelm.

Planner you don't use are so yesterday.

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