Hello, I’m Sam Smith, founder of HELLO TIME and creator of the award-winning HELLO TIME Planner.

In 2018, I hit a wall. The kind that changes everything. I ran two businesses, burned the candle at every possible end, and slowly fell apart. I knew something had to change.

I realised the root of so much of my stress was this: I had no proper system. I carried a small diary, three notebooks, several to-do lists, and a million scraps of paper. It was chaos dressed up as productivity.

So I went looking for a planner that could fix it. I found lots of options, overcomplicated layouts, prescriptive prompts, overwhelming structure, sections I’d never use. Tools that told me how to plan, without ever explaining why it mattered.

I wanted to fix a problem that no other product, from my research and experience, was able to do.

So I designed my own.

The HELLO TIME Planner was born from burnout, not a business plan and is built with purpose. Minimal, smart, undated. One place to hold everything: goals, diary, to-dos, notes, plans and ideas without the noise. No gimmicky graphics. No boxes to fill you didn’t ask for. Just space to think and download. I often call it my ‘second brain!’.

It changed how I work. Freeing up that mental clutter bought more creativity, more intention, more focus.