INTRODUCING THE
Better Living Through Death Planning Workbook
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PLAN WITH INTENTION ✹ LIVE WITH PEACE OF MIND ✹
PLAN WITH INTENTION ✹ LIVE WITH PEACE OF MIND ✹
A guided tool from The Nightside to help you reflect, learn, and make confident decisions about your future, at your own pace.
What you’ll find inside
Whether you’re just starting or revisiting your plans, the Better Living Through Death Planning Workbook offers a structured yet flexible process that works for you. It takes you step-by-step through a holistic planning process, offering a variety of formats and activities to make the experience engaging:
Practical Planning Tools
Easy-to-use forms to document your wishes and preferences.
Reflective Prompts
Questions to help explore your values and priorities for different scenarios.
Creative Exercises
Invitations to express yourself through storytelling and legacy-building.
Organizational Support
Space to gather your documents, notes, and reflections in one place.
Why this workbook is different
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