If I’m to be honest with you, I can probably open a planner store with the number of planners I have in my house. What can I do, I love them all! I love getting a new crisp planner and the promise that it brings.
Over the years I tried planners from different manufacturers and makers, for different purposes and goals. I tried monthly, weekly and daily planners. I tried planners with every 30 min of the day broken out and to be accounted for and the planners that gave me huge empty page to fill in with whatever I was working on. I had planners that were tiny and could fit into my pocket and planners that could only fit on the top of my desk.
Each planner size and design has its reason and its place in our lives and I want to share the few planners that are well-designed and I find really useful.
Weekly and Daily Planners
Get To Work Book by Elise Joy Blaha
I fell in love with Get To Work Book as soon as I saw it – it was perfect and it was so me – black and white, clean lines and graph paper. It’s like Elise knew me. The attention to detail in this planner is visible and appreciated.
The cover is sturdy and the planner is coil-bound – perfect to lay flat when opened. Each month in the planner starts with an inspirational page that is perforated so you can remove the message (which is printed on a cardstock) and frame it as an art.
This planner doesn’t just have your typical monthly and weekly pages (which are designed in a clean and streamlined manner), but also project breakdown pages and goal setting pages.
It has place for notes and brainstorming right on the weekly/daily pages (graph paper, yay!), along with 3 top things for each day and for each week. It also has pages for monthly reflections.
Everything about this planner is thoughtful and intentional. Just looking at it makes you feel calmer and more organized.
Happy Planner (Mini and Half-Mini)
I don’t think I need to introduce the Happy Planner from Me & My Big Ideas to anyone – these planners are well known, loved and available from many stores. Still, I want to talk about the Happy Planner here because I think it’s genius and I love it dearly.
When I first discovered the Happy Planner I couldn’t believe that I lived without it this whole time. The design of it was so genius – any page can be removed or added, swapped or even created on your own – all thanks to an amazing disc system that magically holds all the pages firmly together while allowing them to be moved when needed.
My biggest issue with planners was always their rigid design, with some pages being useful and some pages staying empty. The Happy Planner solved this problem perfectly by creating a planner that is modular and has many add-ons.
You can always get a basic layout and then get a budget pack or planning pack or project pack or note pages or to-do pages and so on. You can add and take away, making your planner just the way you need it.
I am a total sucker for small things and when I found the Happy Planner in Mini size (and my fave mint color) I was in love!
This planner is so precious and perfect to go with me in any of my purses and backpacks. And no matter where I take it, it handles the wear like a champ. I got it and some daily task and note page add-ons in matching colors.
Then, just to make things even better, the Happy Planner came out with Skinny Mini planner, which is size of the Mini planner but cut in half vertically. It is so adorable, I almost danced with I spotted it.
Of course, due to its bitty size you can’t really write lots in it, but it is perfect for daily tasks, quick reminders bullet lists and such. It’s like a planner’s helper.
The Happy Planners are great not just because they are flexible and have a number of inserts, but also because they come in different editions like Budget or Maker or Fitness and so on. The Happy Planners come in 4 different sizes.
Passion Planner Daily
Passion Planner is an amazing brand. Created by Angelia Trinidad in college as a tool to get organized and deal with her anxiety, Passion Planner grew into a company of 28.
The daily version of the Passion Planner came out in 2019 and while carries the same goal-setting and pursuing idea as the original Passion Planner, has more space dedicated to every day.
Even though it also has space for a yearly spread with columns for every month, as well as monthly pages, the main attention is on individual days with spaces for goals, work and personal, spaces for every hour of the day as well as self-maintenance, things that happened today, mood and more.
Every day also has a dot grid page that gives you a free space to draw, doodle, plan, write and whatever else you need to do. This combination of a structured space along with a freeform, creates a great balance of freedom and structure.
The Passion Planner Daily is a space for mindful pursuit of your goals. Planner starts with a mind map that helps you break down your goals and continues with yearly, monthly and daily pages to help you execute those goals.
There are pages for self-check in and reflection and assessment of where you are in your journey.
The Passion Planner Daily comes undated making it perfect to be picked up any month of the year and going from there.
Goal Planners
Passion Planner
I have mentioned the Passion Planner Daily above, but before it came along there was the Passion Planner, the original.
Created to envision, break down and pursue your goals, the Passion Planner is well planned out, streamlined and systematic.
Every monthly and weekly spread has a space for the weekly (and daily) focus, as well as reflection on things that went well and an inspiration to get you going.
Every day in a weekly spready has time stamps for you to schedule your day right. There is an organized space for Personal and Work To-Do lists, as well as free space (Space of Infinite Possibility) to add your notes, thoughts and brainstorm.
Passion Planner comes in 3 different sizes, in dated and undated versions, as well as the Academic one making it perfect for a student, entrepreneur or a busy professional.
Self Journal
Self Journal by BestSelf Co is more than just a planner. It’s a 13-week system “backed by science and success psychology, is designed to optimize your day, tackle your goals, and live a more fulfilled life.”
It comes with an annual wall-hanging calendar to track your goal progress, as well as habit trackers right in your planner.
The planner is designed to take you through your 13-week goal sprint in a streamlines, well-planned out, organized manner.
You have pages for weekly planning where you can decide on your objectives, plan out your events and deadlines as well as review, asses and score the week once it’s over.
Daily pages are designed with spaces for goals and targets, hourly slots and spots for gratitude and achievements. Daily pages help you manage your time by giving you 30 min blocks you can bubble in as you go through your tasks. This way you can record how long each tasks takes you and predict it for the next time.
Each day also has a dot grid page for freeform thoughts, notes, drawings and so on with a mood tracker at the bottom as this planner is here to help you manage not just work but life.
The planner comes with 3 pagemarkers, letting you mark the places in the journal you need to go to quickly.
The planner can be bought individually or as a subscription where a new planner gets sent you every 13 weeks as the previous planner gets filled in.
Living Well Planner
The Living Well Planner was created by Ruth Soukup as a way to organize her life as a busy housewife, mom and a budgeter. Over time it became a goal setting and crushing system that helps you dream up big audacious goal for your personal life, health, money, fun and connections.
It can help you plan out and pursue your weight-loss goals, or budgeting goals or even business goals.
It’s a system for setting up large goals, breaking them down in a bite-size steps, setting priorities every day and week and going after those dreams.
It’s a beautiful sturdy and well-designed planner that comes with a coil binding making it easy to keep open. It is undated with stickers for every month so you can start it in any month and fill dates as you go.
It is a space to keep track of all aspects of your busy life with detailed budget pages, weekly and daily pages with spaces for meal planning and daily must-do tasks.
Monthly and weekly spreads let you plan in advance. There is a space for important dates and information like credit card numbers and passwords.
Business Planners
Plum Paper – fully customizable blog planner
Just like with regular planners, the preprinted business planners have the same issue – some parts are useful and some stay blank. Plum Paper company found a solution to that problem – you can completely customize your business planner.
Yes, you can buy a completed planner from their website, but you can also use their customizer tool and put your own planner together from the many options they have.
The offer various block layouts that are useful in life or in business.
You can personalize the color and the title on your cover, the size and then add sections like blog planning, brainstorming, social media, budget, travel, but also meal planning, college work, fitness and reflection as well as sections of dotted, graph or lined note paper.
Every section comes separated by separator page with a labeled tab for an easy access.
The planner is beautiful, sturdy and lasts you for the whole year.
Your Best Year by Lisa Jacobs
Lisa Jacobs grew a successful business starting with her Etsy store, then appearing on CreativeLive and teaching her own coursework. She’s not just a creative person, but also understands running a business and mindset that goes with it.
Using her experience, and as a tool for herself, Lisa created Your Best Year planner that is a theory, workbook and a planner all in one.
It guides you step by step from reflection on your previous year to goal for the next year, to breaking the goals into steps, to tracking those steps every month.
For several years, Lisa would issue a new updated version of the planner for the year, until at last she created the Final Version that can be used in any year.