For advice on what to look for in a planner and insight into why paper planners are so popular in this digital age, we spoke to Shu Yao, co-founder of JetPens; Erin Condren, creator of the hugely popular Erin Condren LifePlanner; Sarah McNally, owner of McNally Jackson Books and Goods for the Study; and Kristin Damian, who runs the planner-sticker company Krissyanne Designs.
The leather, which looks pristine when new, quickly becomes worn with visible scuffs and scratches. (We think this just adds to the character of the planner.) One of our 10 staff testers thought the regular size was too big for the portability he wanted, but using the passport size, and keeping fewer notebooks inside, would address those concerns.
We tested the classic spiral-bound planner, which you can customize with a wide range of removable, interchangeable laminated covers. The planner is sold through the Erin Condren site but also at Staples if you just want to pick one up in a store. The high-quality coil binding allows the pages to move smoothly, so when the planner is open, it sits flat on a desk.
Senior staff writer Jackie Reeve has been using Erin Condren planners off and on since 2015, and she still enjoys their durability, layout, and range of available third-party accessories. She found the LifePlanner to be an ideal planner for PTA meetings. Her one function-related complaint is that in 2019 the company changed the layout of its pages slightly, so the perfectly sized stickers she had stockpiled from various Etsy sellers no longer fit.
Paper planners encompass a broad range of options, from minimal, undated books with little formatting to neatly partitioned pages that give you space to flesh out your day, week, and year in detail. Some of the planners we looked at had no adornments or decorations inside, while others had pretty themes and swirly fonts with cheerful, motivational messages throughout. We looked at the whole spectrum and decided to make several picks in different categories.
We researched dozens of brands to narrow down our testing picks, and we asked Wirecutter staffers what they would want to pay for a new planner. You can generally expect to pay less than $50 for a good planner, with a few exceptions. A planner should fit your specific needs, and you may discover that a simple, inexpensive planner you find at a big-box store works better for you than our picks.
Plenty of space for writing: We wanted planners that had enough room for us to jot down tasks, appointments, and notes. We looked for tall, well-spaced lines or boxes wide enough to fit two or three words in a row.
Customization: We looked for planners that offered different covers, in various colors and designs. For ring-bound planners, we wanted a standard paper size so that we could swap in any inserts from any compatible brand.
A variety of sizes: We looked for brands that offered both smaller, portable sizes and larger desk sizes. Especially for refillable planners, which are often a more expensive initial purchase, we liked size options that were standardized across a few brands of planners and inserts (such as the A5 size, which fits 5.83-by-8.27-inch paper).
Availability: We decided to focus on brands that were readily available online and preferably in at least some physical stores. Our interviewed experts gave us some great suggestions for smaller planner companies, but many of those could be difficult to source and were too niche for this guide.
In our original testing in 2017, we had nine Wirecutter staffers help us test 19 different planners to make our original picks, then in 2018 we tested a new batch of 10 planners. In 2020, we tested eight academic-year planners. In 2023, we tested six additional planners against our existing picks, including weeklies, ring-bound options, and multitasking journals.
The At-A-Glance weekly appointment book is a classic business planner available at office supply stores, but it was a bit too big, too businesslike, and too narrow for us to write in the hourly format.
The Leuchtturm1917 Week Planner features the same cream-color paper as our Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal pick, but the dark ink used to print its weekly spreads is slightly visible through the page, which can be distracting. Plus, the four-column layout design is narrow and difficult to write in.
We passed on a range of memory-keeping planners. The Happiness Planner, Purposeful Planners (with some faith-based sections), Get to Work Book, and Simplified Planner offerings are all coil-bound and about the same size as the Erin Condren LifePlanner but have goal-tracking features like the Panda Planner Classic. All of these companies are smaller, so we were worried about stock.
In a lovely B6-sized (12.5cm x 17.6cm / 4.9in x 6.9in) cahier-style notebook with 68gsm Tomoe River paper are an assortment of differnt weekly page layouts to try. Most weekly styles include two weeks of the layouts but a couple just have one week to try. There are also a couple options for monthly overview pages as well to test out. Honestly, Yoseka, you had me at B6.
A: Choosing the right planner depends on your needs and preferences. Consider factors such as layout (daily, weekly, monthly), size, design, and additional features like goal-setting pages or habit trackers. Assess your organizational style and find a planner that aligns with it.
Is there a way to create a board/dashboard in Jira, where a person would see their tasks in a weekly schedule, like - which tasks do they have for Monday Thuesday, etc? I imagine a board with 5 columns and tasks divided into those columns, according to deadlines. Is this possible?
Put your entire week into perspective with Day-Timer weekly planner refills. The weekly refill pages can be easily inserted into your current planner so you can see all of your goals, tasks, and appointments for the week with a simple glance.
The Works Vertical Weekly Planner is as complete as a weekly planner can get. This weekly planner is printed in a 12 month vertical layout. Monthly views, weekly views, to-do lists, budgets, goal keeping, trackers, vision boards, meal prep, personalization and more. Our works planner also comes in a 12 month horizontal weekly layout and a 6 month daily layout.
A 12-month planner measuring 6 x 8". Features a week-at-a-glance format, an inside pocket, colorful mylar Monthly tabs, a sticker sheet, book binding, protective gold corners, and a ribbon page marker.
Embellish your collection of presentations with this new template. Despite being focused on natural science, its beautiful design, full of flowers and plants, will touch the hearts of your audience. Or you can use it for yourself as a planner. As you can see, the possibilities are aplenty!
Our best-selling planner features a vertical weekly layout with hourly time slots for scheduling, alongside dedicated spaces for goal-setting, self-care, and to-do lists. Enjoy additional organization and self-improvement tools like monthly and yearly calendars, reflection pages, and core value journaling exercises.
If your item is damaged upon arrival, please immediately take pictures and/or a video, and send it to he...@hemlockandoak.com along with your name, order number, and a brief summary of the issue. We will get back to you as soon as possible to coordinate next steps. Please ensure the planner is packaged carefully to protect it from damage during shipment. Thank you!
The minimalist weekly planner was my first Hemlock & Oak purchase- and I have been blown away by the quality of construction. As a person who has sought after just the right planner/journal for years, this has far exceeded my expectations. As a NFP board meeting last night, two people inquired about my planner because of the distinctive look. Thank you for making such an amazing product!
Would also love a weekly view! Not necessarily based on hours, just the possibility to see 5-7 columns full screen with tasks for each day (kanban style). It would be much cleaner and let to actually manage the project from the calendar view.
@AmeliaDaguet You need to use the third-party app to move the buckets and tasks to another plan (archives) in a click. By this way, your production plan will be out of mess. More labels are coming soon to planner.
Plan your time effectively using our 2023 weekly and monthly planners. Our planners also double as journal planners and as a bullet journal calendar, giving you the freedom to plan out your schedule the way you want.
STAY ORGANIZED AND BE INSPIRED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR: Celebrate your daily adventures with the whimsical and uplifting artwork of Katie Daisy as your companion. Each month of this colorful planner begins with a captivating two-page color spread of illustrations in Katie's signature watercolor style.
Create your own weekly planner using our Free Printable Weekly Planner template for Excel. Our weekly planner was designed to allow you to print weekly planner pages for letter-size 3-ring binders. If you're schedule is extremely packed, you can try our daily planner.
If you need something really fast, go ahead and print one of our free weekly planner pages that are downloadable in PDF format. We also have a free weekly meal planner and a monthly planner template that you might want to take a look at.
These two printable weekly planners are free PDF files that you can download and print very quickly. They may be useful if you don't care about showing dates or don't mind writing the dates in manually.
This Weekly Planner spreadsheet lets you print a weekly planner page for any week or year. You can enter birthdays, anniversaries, and other annual events. When you change the week, up to 3 holidays or events will be shown under each day of the week (see the screenshot as an example).
Quick Fix for Old Bug: If you are using a customized older version of this weekly planner template and have noticed the January 2013 mini-calendar display problem, you can fix it by updating the formulas in the following two cells in the Events worksheet (after unhiding the rows): B3=YEAR(theDate), B4=MONTH(theDate)
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