How to Pick a Planner

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Learning how to pick a planner is hard. There are so many different ways to plan, schedule, track, and journal that it’s difficult to know where to start. I love planning, some would joke that it’s my life force, so I have tried out a lot of ways to do it. 

Not to fret! I am here to help you navigate the murky waters of picking a planner. In my humble opinion, the best types of planners are on this list. Depending on how much of a habit you have around planning and your specific needs, we can match you up with just the planner for you.

There are three types of planners that we’ll go through in this post, a blank planner, planners with schedules and a bullet journal. Each has pros and cons that make them better suited for particular people. Read through each section and then decide which makes the most sense in accordance to what you need it for.

• Related: How to Start a Bullet Journal For Beginners 
• Related: Why You Should Start Planning Your Days 

Blank

Blank planners are great to start with if you’re new to planning.

A blank planner is literally just that. It typically has a set of blank monthly calendars and then 7 daily sections for every 2 pages. But there are no dates or anything else.

It takes a while to get in the habit of writing things down then actually checking it.  Because of this blank planners are awesome since if you miss a day, week or month, you can just write in the current date as if nothing happened.

This way you won’t waste tons of paper as you’re getting in the habit of using your new-found planner. Just write in the dates and use the space as you need. I wrote in times of meetings and reminders when I was starting out and then any small tasks that I was likely to forget.

 Here’s a great blank agenda to check out if you’re thinking this might be right for you.

Separated by the hour – Weekly

When I was running my own sales company and being a single parent, saying that I was busy was an understatement. My solace came from a wonderful planner that gave me a weekly spread where each day was separated by the hour.

This was amazing since I managed to get one that was from 7am-7pm. There was even room for notes at the bottom to put my goals. I would block off time in a colour that corresponded with my major task categories. With this colour-coding system, I could tell at a glance what was happening through the week.

I used blue for family commitments, yellow for 1 on 1 work meetings, orange for recruitment initiatives, green for team events, and pink for sales calls. If there was white space then I could pick a smaller task off my to-do list to check off at that time. My to-do list was on a separate post-it that I added to my agenda daily and swapped out each morning. 

This is great if you like to look ahead or are continuously needing to add to your schedule. Most of these give you very little space however for to-dos or notes.

Take a look at this agenda if you think a weekly view is best for you

Separated by the hour – Daily

Some planners will give you a page a day. Which is great if you like to journal or if you have a lot to do or write with a large lettering.

This will also keep you focused on the now if you find you can be easily distracted by “tomorrow”.

When I switched to this agenda I kept the colour coding that I had previously used in my weekly version of the scheduled agenda but found I had a lot more space.

In this new space I added a to-do list as well as specific daily goals. I still had to keep some of my post-it systems in this agenda though. I had one post-it with tally charts for my work’s daily goals. And another for tracking my recruiting goals on a weekly basis. This second post-it migrated page over page so I knew how close I was to hitting my weekly goals.

These things were helpful since it was always in front of me so I had a focus on hitting my goals through this visual representation. As they say, where attention goes, energy flows, and results start to show.

Here is a great daily agenda with room for everything!

Bullet Journals

Bullet Journaling is a method of planning and organization that is totally free form.

A bullet journal can be any notebook; you can literally use anything you want. However, most that you’ll see online are dotted journals and this is my preference as well. I like them since they feel very organic. They offer a lot of space to experiment while keeping it easy to keep things even and well spaced due to the dots. Meaning: you don’t have to use a ruler like you might in a completely blank notebook.

Bullet journals allow endless possibilities too, as the creator of the system says, track the past, organize the present and plan the future. It centers on 4 initial elements:

A Future Log: A yearly calendar

Monthly Log: A monthly calendar and monthly master task list

Daily Log: Where you write in your tasks, events, and notes on a daily basis

Collections: Most commonly lists on similar content that you want to be able to refer to in the future.

With these elements, you can add anything else that you want. Brainstorming pages for projects, meeting notes, grocery lists, trackers for progress on things in your life. Literally, anything you want.

What I like the most about a bullet journal is that you can turn it into exactly what you need in order to be your most productive.  As you saw in my previous agendas I always had to add something to them (usually post-its) so that I would have somewhere for everything I wanted. With a bullet journal I just had to write it in.

If you’re interested in trying out a bullet journal enroll in the free mini course

You can keep it as simple as you like or make it mega complex and decorative. It also allows you to change the style, layout, and sections at any time. I love this since it allows you to really make it your own and have it work for you. If you only need a monthly calendar and a spot for appointments awesome, do that.

Maybe you wanted to add a space to write new words your little one is learning. You can set a page for it and list it in an index. If you want to have a list of personal and business tasks add a box for the week and label it. Do what you please.

If you’re interested in learning more about bullet journaling check out my How to Bullet Journal post.

This is the bullet journal I’m currently using and loving

Did you Pick a planner?

Learning how to pick a planner is daunting but don’t be afraid to try some stuff out and see what works. Starting is better than procrastinating, even if it’s not perfect. Really all you need is any notebook you have lying around so NO EXCUSES! Click here to get a blank journal so you can start now 

Start in a blank notebook and after a month see what you used it for. What was helpful? What did you wish you had? Look for a planner with their features or start in on that bullet journal and make sure you include those elements in order to get the most out of it.

Want to read a bit about why planning your day can make a difference? Read this post