A death planning tool to help you clarify your wishes, understand your options, and organize your documentation.
INTRODUCING
The Nightside Planning Studio
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More than paperwork
End-of-life planning is often treated as just filling out forms, checking boxes, and getting it over with as fast as possible. But a checkbox can’t tell your loved ones why you made a decision, or help them navigate an unexpected situation. The Planning Studio takes the opposite approach: slow down, reflect, and leave loved ones with more than just instructions.
Take Time to Reflect
This platform is designed to help you slow down and engage deeply, allowing you to start planning wherever you feel comfortable.
Clarify What Matters
Explore expertly-designed activities and prompts to examine your values and shine a light on what’s most important to you.
Communicate Your Plans
Discover opportunities for meaningful conversations, and communicate your plans effectively to the people in your life.
Decide With Confidence
Reduce fear and uncertainty by preparing for a range of circumstances, with a flexible plan that can change with you.
How it works
Everything in one place.
This isn’t just a checklist or a set of forms—it’s a comprehensive and guided journey that makes planning approachable, thoughtful, and even empowering.
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This workbook is the culmination of years of research, hands-on experience, and thoughtful design. It reflects deep learning, real-world feedback, and iteration to create a truly transformative resource.
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Covers every aspect of end-of-life planning—emotional, practical, relational, and creative—to ensure nothing is overlooked.
Includes:
Healthcare & Advance Care Planning
Deathcare Options & Post-Death Decisions
Wills & Estates
Ritual & Personal Meaning-Making
Practical Templates & Tools
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Uses a mix of formats—reflection prompts, planning templates, creative exercises, and practical tools—to meet you where you are.
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Perfect for individual use or as a way to collaborate with loved ones, like starting meaningful conversations with your parents or navigating planning as a family.
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Flexible and adaptable, this workbook grows with you as your needs and circumstances change.
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It includes province-specific resources, legal considerations, and guidance tailored to Canadian laws and practices.
Most of the activities, such as reflection prompts, conversation exercises, and planning tools, can be used by anyone. If you're based outside Canada, you’ll want to cross-reference any legal templates with local resources.
Why I created this workbook
Most people want to get end-of-life planning over with—fill out forms, check boxes, move on. And yes, there are quick ways to do that. But when we rush, we miss an opportunity. That’s why this workbook flips that instinct on its head.
Planning for death isn’t just about preparing for the end. It’s about gaining clarity on what matters most, in both death and life.
By slowing down and engaging thoughtfully, you’re not just planning; you’re consciously exploring your relationship with death to clarify your values and priorities, empowering you to make choices. It’s about considering what kind of care you’d want, how you’d like to be remembered, and what truly brings you peace.
These aren’t just end-of-life questions—they’re life questions. And when you approach them with intention, the process can be transformative, offering relief, clarity, and a deeper sense of alignment—both for yourself and for the people you care about.
I created this workbook as a way to make those conversations and decisions feel doable, human, and meaningful. Drawing on my training as a death doula, anthropologist, and designer, I’ve designed this tool to be practical, flexible, and thoughtful. If you’re navigating your own planning or helping someone else, the Better Living Through Death Planning Workbook offers gentle, grounded guidance.
– REBECCA PARDO, THE NIGHTSIDE
Frequently Asked Questions
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The Planning Studio is designed for all Canadians looking to plan ahead. Anyone 18+ should have an end-of-life plan. The best time to start is now!
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$179 CAD (+HST) gets you lifetime access to the platform.
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No. This is not a platform to write your will or other legal documents. The platform provides information about legal requirements and links to external resources and templates for you to create wills, powers of attorney, and so on, and enables you to track your progress on them and document their location.
We do provide templates to supplement legal documents, including documents regarding your wishes, and practical documents covering contacts, personal admin, devices and passwords, and more.
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No. The platform treats everything you create as private by default. The only way for others to see your materials is if you export and share them yourself, and we encourage you to do so.
The platform also requires you to name a Legacy Contact, who can reach out to us if something happens to you and receive a limited selection of materials you’ve created. They do not have access to any of your materials while you are alive.
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We appreciate that end-of-life planning is a highly sensitive topic and have taken care to design the system in a way that protects your information.
Some of the practical documents ask for details that are sensitive even by the standards of this work, e.g. account numbers and passwords. You add those fields at the moment you export, so your completed document has everything in one place while the platform itself never holds that information.
See our Privacy Policy for more details.
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The Planning Studio is designed by Rebecca Pardo, an anthropologist, technologist, and certified death doula dedicated to helping people explore end of life with compassion and intention. Learn more about Rebecca and The Nightside here.