Who is Kristine Boyd?
Founder of Flourish Planner, a physical planning system built around wellness instead of productivity guilt. Kristine started the business in 2018 after burning out from using productivity tools that made her feel worse instead of better.
The concept was simple but radical at the time: what if your planner helped you rest as much as it helped you hustle? Turns out thousands of people were asking the same question. Flourish Planner took off with wellness-focused entrepreneurs who were tired of toxic productivity culture.
By late 2024, the business had sold 10K+ planners and built a community of customers who actually use the product daily. Not collecting dust on shelves like most planners bought in January optimism and abandoned by February.
What makes Kristine different is walking the talk. She uses the same reflection practices she's asking customers to adopt. Journals daily in Five Minute Journal. Designs planner layouts in Goodnotes on her iPad. Runs the business with a lean 7-tool stack that doesn't create digital overwhelm.
Everything below comes from her Instagram stories and blog posts where she's shared behind-the-scenes glimpses of running Flourish Planner. These are the Kristine Boyd tools that actually power a wellness business, not just aspirational setup photos.
How Kristine Designs Planners Digitally
Goodnotes is where every planner layout starts. Kristine sketches ideas on her iPad with Apple Pencil, testing different weekly spread configurations before committing anything to print.
The beauty of working digitally first is iteration speed. She can try a new habit tracker layout, get feedback from beta testers, tweak it in 10 minutes, and share the updated version same day. Print design doesn't allow that kind of rapid testing.
Customer feedback gets annotated directly on spreads too. Someone mentions wanting more space for evening reflections? She marks it right on the digital layout with Apple Pencil notes. When it's time to update the planner for next year, all that feedback is already captured visually.
Procreate handles the custom illustrations that give Flourish its look. Hand-drawn florals, minimalist icons, cover art. The personal touch beats stock graphics every time, and customers absolutely notice the difference when unboxing.
She tried Adobe Illustrator back in 2019 but bounced off the learning curve. Procreate's iPad-first design made way more sense for someone who thinks with their hands. The brush engine feels natural, and exporting files for print is dead simple.
Running Flourish Planner With Notion and Trello
Notion is the central nervous system for the business. Product roadmap lives there. Customer support documentation lives there. Content calendar for Instagram and blog posts lives there. Everything in one workspace instead of scattered across 5 different apps.
The database views are clutch for tracking which planner variants sell best. Undated versus dated. Spiral versus hardbound. Weekly versus daily layouts. Having sales data connected to product specs helps her make smart inventory decisions instead of guessing.
When customers email with questions, the support team pulls answers from Notion docs. Consistent responses, way faster than typing the same thing 47 times. The wiki structure makes onboarding new help way easier too.
Trello handles the production pipeline separately. Each planner product gets a card, moving from Design to Print Proof to Manufacturing to Fulfillment. The visual Kanban flow makes bottlenecks obvious at a glance.
She mentioned in a 2024 blog post how keeping production separate from general business ops in Notion prevents things from getting buried. Trello's simplicity works better when you just need to track physical stuff moving through stages.
Practicing What Flourish Planner Preaches
Running a business about wellness means you can't be a hypocrite about self-care. Kristine uses Five Minute Journal every morning and evening since 2019, same gratitude practice she encourages in Flourish Planner customers.
Morning prompts: three things she's grateful for, daily intentions, affirmation. Evening prompts: highlights from the day, what could have made it better. Takes maybe 5 minutes total but keeps her grounded when the business gets chaotic.
She's shared screenshots on Instagram showing streaks of 200+ consecutive days. Not perfect every single day, but consistent enough that the practice actually compounds. That consistency gives her credibility when talking about building sustainable routines.
Goodreads tracks her reading habit, another thing she preaches to customers. 2-3 books monthly on productivity, wellbeing, and entrepreneurship. Finished reads get mined for quotes and ideas that turn into blog content.
Recent favorites from her 2024 shelf: "Rest" by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, "Do Nothing" by Celeste Headlee, "Four Thousand Weeks" by Oliver Burkeman. Books that push back against hustle culture, which is exactly the vibe Flourish Planner channels.
Five Minute Journal
Expand your mind with a journaling system in just five minutes every single day.
Creating Content Without Burning Out
Social media content is non-negotiable for a physical product business. People need to see the planner in action before buying. LumaFusion handles all the video editing on iPad without needing a desktop setup.
Planner walkthroughs, unboxing videos, setup tutorials for new customers. She films on iPhone, edits in LumaFusion during lunch breaks or evenings. The mobile workflow means content creation doesn't require carving out huge blocks of time at a desk.
Instagram Reels are the biggest driver of new customer discovery right now. Quick 30-second clips showing how different layouts work for different lifestyles. LumaFusion's speed controls and transitions make those Reels pop without spending 3 hours editing.
She batches filming once a week. Records 4-5 videos in one session, then edits them throughout the week as time allows. The batching prevents that daily pressure of "I need to post something today" which is how creators burn out.
The whole Kristine Boyd tech stack reflects this balance. Tools that support the business without creating more stress. Each app serves a clear purpose, nothing is there just because productivity Twitter said it's essential.
Frequently Asked Questions About Kristine Boyd's Stack
What apps does Kristine Boyd use to run Flourish Planner?
Notion for business operations and customer support docs. Trello for tracking production from design to fulfillment. Goodnotes and Procreate for planner design work on iPad. LumaFusion for editing social media videos. She keeps it lean at 7 tools total, avoiding the app bloat that most businesses fall into.
How does Kristine Boyd design planners?
Sketches layouts in Goodnotes with Apple Pencil, tests different configurations digitally before committing to print. Customer feedback gets annotated directly on spreads. Procreate handles custom illustrations and cover art. The iPad-first workflow lets her iterate way faster than traditional print design processes would allow.
Does Kristine Boyd actually use the Five Minute Journal?
Yeah, every morning and evening since 2019. She's posted screenshots showing 200+ day streaks. Gratitude prompts, daily intentions, evening reflections. Practicing what Flourish Planner preaches gives her credibility when talking about building sustainable wellness routines. Can't sell mindfulness if you're not doing it yourself.
What makes Kristine Boyd's tech stack different from other founders?
It's intentionally small. Most entrepreneurs juggle 15+ tools and wonder why they're stressed. Kristine runs a thriving physical product business with just 7 carefully chosen apps. Each one has a clear purpose, nothing is there for FOMO. The constraint forces clarity and prevents digital overwhelm.
How does Kristine Boyd create content without burning out?
Batches filming once weekly. Records 4-5 videos in one session on iPhone, then edits throughout the week in LumaFusion during breaks. The mobile editing workflow means she doesn't need huge desk time blocks. Instagram Reels drive most new customer discovery, but the batched approach prevents daily posting pressure.
Why does Flourish Planner use both Notion and Trello?
Different jobs. Notion handles general business stuff like roadmaps, content calendars, and support docs. Trello tracks physical production separately - each planner moving from design to manufacturing to fulfillment. Keeping them separate prevents production tasks from getting buried in Notion's database sprawl. Sometimes two focused tools beat one bloated one.