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Usually, this time of year is spent searching the aisles at Target or HomeGoods, or spending way too much time on Amazon looking for a new planner — one even better than last year. And I feel like planners are getting more and more expensive for something that usually becomes a paperweight by the end of Q1.

If you’ve been looking at paper planner options for 2023, use the criteria below to narrow down and choose one for the year. Then, if you are notorious for not finishing your planners, I want one of those goals at the beginning of the year to be to use the majority of the planner.

 

 

Want to listen to these tips? Here’s a podcast episode for your AirPods.

 

What to look for in a planner

1. Dated or undated?

• Do you religiously fill out your planners or go for weeks on end without opening the book? If you tend to skip days, go for undated which will give you more flexibility.

2. Do you need reflection and motivation?

• Some planners — like the Freedom Mastery Journal and the Clever Fox Planner — include areas for goal planning and monthly retrospection. If looking back and ahead helps you, then you’ll want a planner that has these features included.

3. How do you prefer your days to be organized

• Are boxes enough? A few lines? Hour by hour?
• There’s a difference between daily, weekly, and monthly planners. If you like to have enough lines to add detail per hour – then just having a small box for the day won’t make you feel satisfied – you’ll be looking for some white space to add more details. Planners with hourly/daily will have more pages and tend to be bigger, so keep that in mind.
• If you just need your planner as an overview (b/c you use a digital app or Google Calendar for the small things), then you just need a monthly or weekly planner – no frills necessary.
• Use monthly spreads for birthdays, holidays, and time off.

4. Small additions like habits and wins

• Do you need an all-in-one place to track things like habits and weekly focus?

5. Size

• Consider the size of the planner and how you will travel with it. Will it stay at home or go with you in your purse?
• Smallest size: pocket planner
• A5 – most common for carrying around, yet still able to have details (think Moleskin)
• Large – carry it mostly in your car or just leave it on your desk. Usually too big to carry in your purse

6. Binding

• Most people have a binding preference, so take note of the style
• Spiral
• Soft or hardcover
• Refillable

7. Crafty or simple?

• Do you need space for bullet journaling?
• Would you like a planner that comes with stickers and add-ons?

8. Do you want to achieve a certain goal? If you already use a task manager and don’t need a planner for your whole life or business, look into just getting a specialized planner like fitness or finance.

• Specialized planners like for artists, writers, bloggers and teachers – will have areas for specific goals + planning
• If you need to build better habits and structure your mornings – use a planner like the Morning sidekick journal

9. Price

• Make note of the price. Some planners are quarterly or 6-months which makes a difference when it comes to the price b/c you’ll have to purchase them multiple times during the year. You can end up spending anywhere from $20-80/yr so keep that in mind.

Look back at previous years and journals and take note of the ones you actually filled out and the ones that you stopped using after a couple of weeks. Look at the similarities and patterns in the ones that worked, and look for those in your journal choices.

If you don’t have past journals to look at, take a look at your calendar, task managers and previous notebooks and look at the ways you tend to organize data best. Once you spot those patterns, look for those same patterns in your next journal.

Have you checked out the 12-week planner? It’s a planner with a 12-week overview, Weekly goals and review, 12 weeks of Daily sheets (broken down by time slots), and weekly habit trackers. You can also grab a free digital version with the Productivity Power Pack.