Start the year with the perfect tools for productivity and organization.
The best planner keeps your schedule, deadlines, goals, and thoughts organized.
The best planner for you comes down to personal preference in how you chart your time.
Daily planners
For more detailed planning, daily planners offer hourly breakdowns of your day.
Daily planners are one of the most popular formats.
They tend to be bulkier than weekly or monthly planners but offer the most flexibility.
They’re ideal for scheduling everything needed to complete multiple goals over a period of time.
How to choose a planner
There are an overwhelming number of planner types.
“I’m more interested in the function,” she said.
“Is the layout useful?
Is it something that is going to withstand being your daily friend for 365 days?”
Other people want to track projects and create to-do lists.
The amount of detail per day will start to dictate how much space you need.
Dated or undated
There are many reasons you might decide to buy an undated calendar.
“People might decide on March 28th they want a planner,” said Greer.
“But if a planner is dated, they’re already three months through the year.”
Size
Doctors, nurses, and chefs always want pocket-sized notebooks and planners, said Crown.
“You want your planner to inspire you,” Cavoulacos said.
“It could become more of a person’s little command center,” said Greer.
Hardcovers will stand up to more wear and tear than softcovers.
Binding
It’s important that planners lie flat since you’re writing in them.
Many are spiral-bound, but others are stitch-bound.
Another concern with the binding is whether it will keep the planner together for the whole year.
Some glued-in pages might not hold out as well.
Why not just use a digital planner?
If you’re on the fence, she suggests asking yourself what’s attractive about a paper planner.
“I think for a lot of people, it’s slowing down, right?”
“It’s like the lack of distraction.
It’s the moments to think, to cross things off the satisfaction of crossing things off.”
For Crown, it’s more personal than a phone calendar.
“It’s your life in a book,” he said.
That’s something that the phone doesn’t do that well."
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