How to Pick the Perfect Planner

One of the best tools for improving your personal productivity is a good paper planner. But with so many different choices out there, it is hard to decide which one is right for you.

The decision about which planner to use is very personal. We all use our planners differently, and the environment in which we use our planners is not the same for any two people. So, while I wish I could say “this is the best planner”, it is really your choice to make.

On top of that, it is in your best interest to choose one that you will stick with for an entire year because a good planner can be expensive. And you don’t want to fall into the trap of using too many planners or switching midway through the year because that can also cost you precious time.

So, my goal with this post is to point out some important features that you should consider when you are evaluating which planner to use to help you make an informed decision.

I have tried about a bazillion planners over the years and I now know what I look for and what works for me. I am happy to say that I love the choice that I made this year and am excited every single day to open it up and plan out my week.

This really is your ultimate outcome – to have a single space that you are excited about using every day to make your plans and keep you on track to achieving your goals.

Step 1: Reflect on How You Plan to Use Your Planner

The first step in picking the perfect planner is to reflect on how you actually plan to use it. Here are some questions to give you food for thought.

• Do you mostly use the calendar app on your phone and use a paper planner to supplement it?
• Or, are you truly old school and love using the paper planner full time?
• Do you take your planner with you on the go or keep it at home or at work on your desk?
• What information do you record in your planner – just appointments, or do you use it as a journal as well?
• Do you use time blocking to map out your day?
• Will you use your planner for goal setting and tracking progress?
• Is your handwriting large and loopy or small chicken scratch?
• Do you use ballpoint pens or colored markers?
• Do you like to add pages or miscellaneous documents or notes into your planner?

Your answers to these questions will help drive your decision on things like planner size, binding, layout, space for planning, and even paper thickness.

Step 2: Choose a Planner Layout

It seems like every planner brand offers up their own flavor of a planner layout. Of course, they want to differentiate their product from all of the others on the market.

But, when it comes down to it, I have found that there are really only a handful of basic layouts to choose from. Each brand then takes this layout and dresses it up a little bit to make it their own.

Common layouts include:

• 2 pages per week,
• 2 pages per day,
• 1 page per day, and
• monthly.

The planner layout you choose will largely depend on how much you information you write in your planner and how many days you want to see at once.

My current personal preference is two pages per week because I like to see one whole week at a time. Examples of this layout are the Passion Planner and the Planner Pad (these are my reviews).

But if you make a lot of notes then you might like a one or two page per day layout so you have lots of space to write. An example of the one page per day layout is the Hobonichi Techo (which is an A6 page size). And the Full Focus Planner from Michael Hyatt is a good example of a 2 page per day layout.

Most planners include a monthly layout at the beginning of each month so you can get the best of both worlds. But there are planners that just have a monthly spread with some blank lined pages after each month. This gives you more of a high level glance at your month with unstructured space for notes.

Step 3: Choose a Page Layout

Within these different planner layouts there are different page layouts to choose from as well.

The most common page layouts are as follows:

• hourly,
• horizontal, and
• vertical.

Since I use the time blocking technique to plan my days, an hourly page layout makes the most sense for me.

A horizontal layout allows more space for writing, and a vertical layout is similar to hourly, but instead of dividing each day into hours, it typically divides each day into a few blank sections.

There are also more specialized planners like academic planners, teacher planners, goal setting planners, and wedding planners to name a few. These will have layouts that are specifically tailored for a particular audience.

Step 4: Decide On The Size Of Your Planner

Size is also important when picking the perfect planner.

If you take your planner on the go, then you will want something portable that is not too bulky.

Think about your handwriting as well. If your writing is large and loopy, like mine, then you will benefit from a larger size planner. But if your handwriting is small, then a pocket size planner (like the Hobonichi Weeks) might make better sense for you.

Step 5: Choose Your Preferred Planner Binding

The binding style of your planner is also an important factor.

Common options include:

• spiral or coiled,
• softbound,
• binder style, or
• disc-bound.

A spiral or coil bound planner takes up less desk space because you can flip it open to just one page visible on top.

On the other hand softbound style is less bulky and will often lie flat when open, but it still has a large footprint when it is open on your desk.

And a disc-bound or ring binder planner, like The Perfect Notebook, makes it easy to add and remove pages. However, a ring binder style also takes up a lot of desk space when it is lying open and tends to be a bit bulky.

Step 6: Paper Matters

One more thing to consider is the paper quality and weight.

Thicker paper tends to be higher quality and can prevent certain markers and inks like gel pens from bleeding through to the other side, but this can also add bulk to the overall planner itself.

But there are planners with super thin pages – like the Hobonichi planners, that also resist bleed through and, therefore, are less bulky.

However, you will get some shadowing from your writing on the other side of the page..

Reflect on Planners You have Used in the Past

Another way to hone in on your perfect planner is to evaluate the ones you used in the past.

What did you like and what didn’t work out for you?

One planner that I used in the past and really wanted to love was the Erin Condren Daily Duo.

In fact I tried it twice in both the regular size and the A5 – but it is just not right for me because it is too bulky and because I gravitate towards an hourly, weekly layout. So, as much as I love it, I had to move on to something else.

Sometimes we like the idea of a certain planner so much that we keep trying to make it work, even though it doesn’t. For your new planner, I encourage you to break free of that thinking. It is not you who is using the planner wrong – it is the planner that is wrong for you.

With so many choices out there, you are bound to find one that works with the way you think.

Which Planner Excites You?

Finally, there is something to be said about the excitement factor when it comes to choosing a planner.

Two years ago, I used an Erin Condren 8×11 softbound Life Planner in the hourly layout. But I didn’t choose that style last year – and I sorely missed it. At the end of last year I purchased one for the year ahead – and I could not wait for the year to turn so I could crack it open and start planning. I was excited! And that feeling made me realize that this is the right planner for me to use this year.

Your ideal planner may change from year to year, and is natural and to be expected. What you want to avoid is giving up on your current planner half way through.

Why More Than One Planner Is Bad for Productivity

I know that lots of people use more than one planner. You will see a lot of influencers talk about their “planner stack” for the coming year as the year draws to a close. And who can blame them? With so many amazing choices, it is hard to pick just one.

But when I used more than one planner, I found was that I spent more time planning and less time doing. I also found myself writing the same item down multiple times in all the different planners I was using. As a result, I would forget where I wrote things down, and I was never confident in my schedule because I wasn’t sure if I recorded a time commitment in another place.

Of course, some people can use multiple planners effectively because they are good at compartmentalizing their lives. Thus one planner for each area works well.

Also, most of us use both a paper planner and a digital planner (like Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, or Outlook).

For me, I have decided to stick with my Apple Calendar online and ONE paper planner that I can use to time block my schedule for each day and keep track of my daily to do’s.

For the current year my planner of choice is the Passion Planner. It is a weekly, hourly layout which is great for time blocking. But the thing that I love the most is all the space in the margins for listing to do items and notes.

My word for the new year is ACTION so I don’t want to spend more time than necessary on planning.

Have You Picked Your Perfect Planner?

The perfect planner for me will be different than the ideal one for you.

There are a lot of factors that go into choosing the right one:

• layout
• size
• binding
• trial and error
• and excitement.

If you are having trouble keeping your planner organized – be sure to check out my 10 Tips for Greater Planner Organization here.