If you are looking for the best way to organize your life, then it is time to think about finding a planner. There are many different types of planners on the market, so finding one that suits your needs can be difficult. To make things easier, we have put together this list of some of the most common styles and what they offer:
Here are 6 types of planners that can help you to track, monitor, and refine your progress in different areas of your life. It can be helpful to choose a specific type of planner instead of using a general one so that you can more easily focus and achieve a specific goal.
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Types Of Planners
Take a look at these 6 types of planners as well as our examples of each one. If you feel that one of these styles would be helpful to you in your life, then it is time for you to purchase a planner so that you can start using it.
1. Daily Planners
These planners usually come with a year’s worth of pages divided into months, weeks, and days. They also often include inspirational quotes or other inspiring messages at the beginning or end of each day. Daily planners work great for those who want a traditional approach to their organization.
They are very easy to use, as they are just a simple calendar for each day. You can use them to track your daily activities or simply write down notes about the days ahead of you.
Our favorite daily planners:
- Saffiano Leather Weekly & Monthly Planner: This high-quality leather-bound planner provides a clear and straightforward weekly and monthly planner experience. It provides plenty of space for each day so you can write down tasks, take notes, and even make small doodles. It comes with colorful monthly tabs and two bookmarks, making it easy to find anything.
- The Happy Planner: The Happy Planner is a well-organized planner that can help you anchor your daily details as well as your weekly and monthly goals. It includes several inspirational monthly dividers that have an encouraging quote or phrase for you to focus on for the month.
- KAICN Undated Weekly Planner: Sometimes it’s challenging to start a daily planner in the middle of the year or some other odd time that doesn’t align with the start date of January. Undated planners are a great way to start a planner at any time without wasting any pages.
2. Bullet Journals
This type of planner was designed by Ryder Carroll as an alternative system to traditional planners. The idea is that the planner, instead of being month-to-month or day-to-day, can be whatever you need it to be at any given moment.
The system works by using index pages with lists for different categories (e.g., tasks needed to accomplish today). Within this list, there are empty circles that you can check off when each item is completed.
You are then able to create your own index pages for whatever system works best for you, whether it be daily tasks, goals, or anything else!
Our favorite bullet journals:
- Minimalism Art Premium Hard Cover Journal: This large hardcover journal provides plenty of space needed for a creative bullet journal while providing plenty of protection. It has 186 numbered pages, several ribbon bookmarks, and high-quality thick in-proof sheets of paper. You can choose from dotted, plain, wide-ruled, and squared papers depending on your preference.
- Vivid Scribbles Dotted Journal: This bullet journal comes in 7 bright pastel colors for you to choose from. They include several satin bookmarks and a generous expandable back pocket where you can store important documents or pictures. As a bonus, it comes with 2 sheets of journal stickers that can help your organization while adding a splash of style.
- LEUCHTTURM1917 Official Bullet Journal: This A5-sized bullet journal comes with 240 numbered pages for you to fill out. This is over 100 pages more than an average journal contains, so you’ll be creating beautiful pages in it for a long time.
3. Academic Planners
These planners are especially great for students in high school or college. They usually have each month of the year on one page, with room to write in classes and assignments. Many academic planners also include extra pages where you can write notes.
This type of planner is not only great for organizing school, but also work or any other responsibilities you may have!
Our favorite academic planners:
- Rocketbook Panda Planner: This planner is unique in that it’s reusable. Can you imagine using only one planner throughout your entire academic career?!! It would save students some extra money in the long run. Being able to erase and re-write in this planner is also ideal for students who are learning how to use planners and need a forgiving option.
- Legend Planner: The legend planner mixes up the academic planner concept by focusing on creating a legendary and meaningful life, which can help students feel more motivated to finish homework and prepare for exams. It comes with 109 colorful stickers meant to keep progress as well as encourage.
- Global Printed Academic Planner: This colorful marble blue planner comes in two sizes and is wire-bound for extra durability. It comes with tabs for each month and also includes a bookmark labeled “today” that makes it easy for you to flip to the current date.
4. Self-Development Planners
This type of planner is typically designed to be space and goal-oriented. Most often, you will find them in the form of a workbook or journal, but many embrace the format of the weekly planner as well.
These planners include plenty of pages where you can write down your goals and thoughts about yourself, as well as daily activities that help with self-improvements, such as yoga exercises or meditation. They often contain prompts, reflective questions, and inspirational quotes.
Our favorite self-development planners:
- The High-Performance Planner: This is a combination journal and planner designed to help users to strategize their lives with self-assessments, trackers, writing prompts, and calendars. Brendon Burchard, a coach for over 20 years, has distilled all of his best practices into this planner to help you become the best version of yourself.
- Smart Planner Pro: This planner combines weekly and monthly planner sections with accountability systems. Each week contains a weekly score and review section that allows you to track progress on your goals.
- Law of Attraction Life & Goal Planner: This planner is perfect for those who want a journal that can help them in their spiritual development. You will track your weekly successes, embrace a gratitude practice, organize a vision board, and set your intentions for each and every week.
5. Financial Planners
These planners are great for those who need help with their money. They include space where you can track your income and expenses as well as plan out future purchases or savings goals.
Financial planners work especially well to keep on top of budgets, spending limits, and more. They help to keep you conscious of your spending, which in turn slowly helps to change your habits so that you only purchase or invest in things that are meaningful and valuable to you.
Our favorite financial planners:
- Clever Fox Budget Planner: This catch-all planner is perfect for tracking your budget, bills, and other aspects of your finances. It begins with 2 pages that help you to set financial goals and break them down into actionable steps. It also contains a pocket page for each month, so you can keep important documents together and chronologically organized. This planner is the best overall solution for those who want to learn more about their personal
- Monthly Budget Planner: This straightforward and aesthetically pleasing financial planner helps you to budget quickly by simply writing down all of your expenses in line with the month. It comes with a total for each section at the end of each line, allowing you to see your spending patterns over time and make adjustments where necessary.
- Business Planner for Direct Sales: If you need a financial journal to keep track of the expenses in your business, this is the one for you. It includes daily planning prompts, goal-setting prompts, habit trackers, bills, appointments, and calls. This planner could literally pay for itself by getting your professional life organized and in turn earning you more profit.
6. Health and Fitness Planners
This type of planner is designed to help you with your health and fitness goals. They are great for those who want a more social approach to their organization!
Health planners often include spaces where you can track calories, exercise routines, meals, or any other important information that pertains to living an active lifestyle.
Our favorite health and fitness planners:
- Evolway Fitness & Food Journal: This popular fitness planner contains a 100-day workout logbook that is suitable for both dedicated health nuts and beginners alike. In addition to tracking your daily food intake, it helps you to track your mood, water intake, sleep, and weight as well.
- The Fitness Planner: A 12 Week Health and Fitness Journal: This relatable and encouraging planner is perfect for those who want to improve their health and fitness without feeling overwhelmed. It tracks progress beyond the scale and helps you to monitor how much nutrition you’re getting, the quality of your lifestyle, and your emotional wellness. It also includes plenty of tips and tricks to stay motivated and positive on your fitness journey.
- Today is the Day: A 90 Day Food & Fitness Journal: This 90-day planner is perfect if you want to try out a fitness planner without committing to a whole year of tracking. It takes a straightforward approach to track your hydration, food intake, sleep, snacks, and workouts. The layout is very clear with bold inspirational quotes sprinkled throughout the pages.
Are Daily Planners Worth It?
Daily planners are a great way to organize your day, whether you’re looking for help with setting priorities or just want a consistent place to jot down appointments.
They are worth it if you are looking for a more proactive and organized approach to what you do each day. They might not feel useful for the first few days or even weeks that you are using them, but they create long-term habit changes that become easier to execute as time goes by.
In this way, planners serve as personal life coaches for a fraction of the cost. They are also excellent companion pieces to any wellness work such as therapy, dieting, working with a career coach, etc. When used as part of a healthy lifestyle, they can massively boost all aspects of your health.
Expect your planner to become more valuable the longer you invest in it. Make it a habit to check it at least twice a day, in the morning and evening. This will make you feel a sense of control over your life and will help you identify what needs to get done each day.
Is a Paper Planner Better Than Digital?
As we use apps, documents, and computer programs to track more and more aspects of our lives, it can be easy to forget the benefits of a paper planner. They are more tactile, allowing for faster brain-to-hand responses.
Taking the time to write our tasks, goals, and thoughts in a planner slows us down and allows us to more deeply reflect on what we need to do next. When you slow down, your mind is better able to “take a step back” and plan for important tasks or events that are coming up soon.
It also creates a visual reminder. This is why so many people take so much time to beautify the covers and pages of their planners. Because it makes them noticeable and memorable!
Are paper planners better than digital planners? The only way to answer that is by trying out both systems for yourself. Some people even use both so that they can take advantage of the best features of both worlds.
Benefits of Paper Planners
- They help you slow down and plan for the long term.
- You don’t need internet connectivity to access them.
- You can easily customize your planner.
- They are more tactile, allowing for faster brain-to-hand responses.
- It creates a visual reminder of tasks and events you don’t want to forget about.
- Are Paper Planners Better Than Digital? It Depends On Your Needs And Preferences!
Cons of Paper Planners
- You can’t access them from anywhere else except where you physically have the planner.
- They are obviously bulkier than digital apps on your phone.
- They are more expensive to produce.
- You can’t easily share or sync them with other people you work with or make plans with.
Benefits of Digital Planners
- They usually back up your data automatically.
- They are often cost-effective.
- You can access them from anywhere- no need to carry around a physical book.
- They make sharing events and tasks with others a breeze.
- They come with additional features such as alerts, reminders, and multiple calendars.
Cons of Digital Planners
- They may require internet connectivity to use.
- You can’t personalize them as much as paper planners.
- You don’t get a break from screen time with digital planners.
- They are easier to ignore since they don’t take up physical space.
Should I Use Pen or Pencil In My Planner?
Why not both? Pens and pencils can be used for different types of writing, and it’s best to have both on hand.
Pens are commonly used for planners because they are more visible and stand out against the paper. It helps to have a tool with ink that is highly noticeable. Pens provide this benefit over pencils because they create thicker lines on the page than pencils do when writing with them.
Pens can cause a couple of problems as well. If you close your planner before the ink fully dries, you could leave nasty marks on the pages. Also, a pen can bleed through the paper if it’s not high-quality or is too thin.
Pencils are great for drawing little doodles and sketches in your planner. They are also great for setting up templates or structures in your planner before you want to permanently commit with ink. You can use journal stencils to make sure you create neat pages.
They are also helpful for people who have schedules that change a lot. It’s much easier to erase your pencil marks than get white-out and have to cover up ink and wait for it to dry once more.
Pencils don’t have as much contrast as the ink does, meaning that it won’t be as clear if your pencil smudges or if you accidentally write over something.
Keep both on hand and see what you like best.
How Do I Organize My Life Planner?
Some planners come pre-organized, while others allow a lot of freedom in how you want to set them up.
If you’re new to planning, consider purchasing a planner that comes with a set structure and pre-designed layouts. This will help you learn how to use the planner without having to worry about creating your own system from scratch!
If you’ve been keeping traditional journals for years, consider getting a blank or even an undated paper planner instead. You can design your schedule and layout in the way that makes the most sense to you.
Final Thoughts
There are many different kinds of planners, and they can all be extremely helpful when it comes to organizing your day. Take a look at the list above and pick one that will best suit you!