Can you believe it’s November? Of 2021? (Yes, I just double-checked that I was right.) And it’s time for holiday shopping?
I cannot believe any of that. I also have the added (not) bonus of Hanukkah falling on November Freaking Twenty Eighth so my shopping timeline is a lot shorter this year. There are a LOT of spreadsheets involved over here.
I do love doing the gift guides, though! We gather ideas and suggestions, and I happily shop for ideas for all of you to give and request and add to wish lists. The world is still weird and wearisome, but I hope you can find moments of warmth and light!
The theme for this week’s Gift Guide is Planners and Calendars!
I know some of you just recoiled and some of you probably enlarged the screen to 155% so as to see all the pretty options.
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As you may already know, I’m devoted to Google Calendar to organize my whole entire life. The website has its own calendar, I have a personal one, and I menu plan on a third. I manage birthdays, anniversaries and correspondence using notifications and reminders, and I keep track of everything I can think of using alerts because I never know what time it is.
Or what date. (It’s November! Can you believe?!)
So while Google Calendar is free, I did want to recommend the other half of my organization strategy: ToDoist. It’s, as the name suggests, a To Do list that works as an app, in a browser, or on a phone. What I love about it is that it can manage weird date sequences like, “Every other Thursday until November 30 give the cat his pill.” Or, “On the last weekday of the month, do the bank thing.” I use ToDoist constantly.
While I love, love, looooove looking at planners and calendars and organizer pages (so pretty) I know that my digital system works for me. And I know many of you also love paper planners and organizers and calendars, so we have many suggestions – and of course we want to hear yours!
In years when I’ve kept a paper planner, the planner has become a scrap book of sorts for my past year, and they’ve helped me immeasurably in recording what I spend my time on, and, after examination, what I want to spend more time on.
Among my favorite paper planners: The Passion Planner. When I’m feeling overwhelmed by a project or a particular week, I’ve used one of their free downloads to organize myself. I had a digital version of the planner and the end-of-month reflections were so helpful. Their End-of-Year reflection is also great.
A number of people I know love the Panda Planner, and then there are the folks who love all things Hobonichi.
Then there are the specialty planners! Hey Bridgerton Netflix fans, did you see the Official undated Bridgerton planner?
All images © 2021 Netflix. All rights reserved. BRIDGERTON and Netflix marks ™ Netflix. Shondaland mark ™ Shondaland. Used with permission.
Amanda: Little Inklings has a fun reader planner that my roommate uses. There are both big versions for the year or condensed versions with blank dates.
It has a lot of ways to engage with whatever you read – grading, review spots, favorite quotes, there are lists for the books you want to definitely read this year, and challenges like reading books with titles that make up the alphabet, graphics to fill in and decorate
The yearly versions sell out quickly, but I like that Little Inklings started to make blank date versions and ones without so much stuff too.
There are also printable PDFs for movies and tv!
For fandom themed journals – Icey Designs. I haven’t bought any of these since I have come to terms with the fact that I’m not a journal person, but I’ve purchased pins and candles from them and they were awesome.
One of the fun parts of having a paper planner is…stickers!
One of my favorite sticker shops is CozyCuriosities. Their stickers are great for planners and very cottagecore.
Claudia: I’m a fan of the classic Letts. It’s boring but small and keeps me organized.
They also have navy and burgundy.
Ellen: Steel Petal Press, a local Chicago letterpress, makes some cool notepads for wellness and productivity.
Daily Mood Tracker, $12
I really like the monthly mood tracker!
Sarah: If you’re new to planning or want to try an “all in one” set up, the Clever Fox planners come with stickers and multiple styles of spreads all in one.
And then there’s the old familiar Moleskine daily calendar planner:
I know many people who use Happy Planners and Day Designers. I also learned about two planners that look really cool.
The Ink and Volt 2022 planners come in three models, and focus, like many others, on monthly and weekly goal setting, planning and also reflecting.
And if you want to try the system out, there’s a digital version, which is an editable PDF so you can write on it! The October – December 2021 digital version is $5, so you can test-drive the planner sections.
The Appointed 2022 Yearly Task Planner also looks gorgeous, and focuses on task organization, too.
OK, what about you? What planners, organizers, trackers, and stickers do you absolutely love and recommend?
My favorite for years now is the fully customizable Personal Planner https://www.personalplanner.com/US/
You can start whenever you want, also I’ve been giving gift cards from them to my planner addict friends and family 🙂
My favorite planner is Plum Paper, which you can customize and start whenever in the year you want. https://www.plumpaper.com/
For the last couple years I was very loyal to Paperblanks planners, https://www.paperblanks.com/en/ even though they can be tricky to find. I like the weekly planner, midi size and it has to have a strong clasp or band b/c it gets shoved in my purse without a lot of thought.
They satisfy my shallow need for the outside to be pretty and fancy (with new covers every year!) and the insiders aren’t anything special, but the paper is a nice thick quality.
Unfortunately the pandemic kind of broke my planner habit, but I would like to get back to using it regularly now that there is actual stuff going out outside my living room that I have to remember. Maybe some stickers or trackers would help. Hmm. . .
What I have been doing as life picks up speed again is just writing a loose to do list every day in a nice oversized journal from this shop.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TheFussyCutShoppe?section_id=30923368
I’ve know the owner for a long time (IRL)and she is a super sweet person.
If there’s a time I know I’m busy that day, I write it down, right on the list. For example: 8:00-8:30 AM, drop off boys at school. This has made me magically stop hating to do lists b/c I have to deal with the realities of time and space and not with how my brain dream of how I want time to work. When the do list and schedule were on two different things, it didn’t work as well. I also put self care stuff on there like, nap, green tea, etc.
Plus, the thing I like about these is I journal in them, take PTO notes, Italian notes, etc.
It also
I find I remember stuff better if I physically write it down, so I use paper more than digital. (Notifications are still helpful.)
I started using a Classic size Happy Planner back in mid-2018 and I really like them. So many layout options and I like the advantages that disc systems give.
I do wish they weren’t the one disc system that wasn’t compatible with all the other systems and I think the paper use to be thicker, but I still like them.
So I have a MAJOR personal pet peeve of planners with Month layouts that have a Sunday start, especially when they then contradict themselves by having weekly layouts that start on Monday. Even more so when they put it on the same page like the Letts example above – I am sure it is a fine planner but it will be a cold day in hell when I give my money for inconsistency based on out-dated religion-driven norms. Jobs/school does not work this way – my timesheets all start on Mondays and end on Sundays, and in my place of work we have a 4 week rotation including weekends and it is so annoying when “week 1” is on 2 lines because Sunday is down on the next row. Our weeks in life for the most part revolve around M-F and then the weekend – I want Sat/Sun together on the same line. End rant.
Having said that I really like Leuchtturm1917 planners – I am currently using a monthly one with a dot grid so I can bullet/scrap journal in the back, but they have weekly and daily options too – I usually grab mine from Jetpens.com
@drewbird, Last year I found myself wondering why Sunday was the first day of the week instead of the last and came upon this (from Gizmodo and other sites): “The first day of the week (for most), Sunday has been set aside as the “day of the sun” since ancient Egyptian times in honor of the sun-god, beginning with Ra. The Egyptians passed their idea of a 7-day week onto the Romans, who also started their week with the Sun’s day, dies solis. When translated into early German, the first day was called sunnon-dagaz, which made its way into Middle English as sone(n)day.”. Still a religious origin, I suppose, but more understandable to me. I am in full agreement with your thoughts about inconsistent start day between layouts within the same system.
I do like this feature, @SB Sarah. Especially this week I am heartened to see so many people continue to enjoy physical planners and calendars. And I think that, in a way, your Google calendars are themselves a form of journaling. If you haven’t already done so, you might consider printing them because electronic formats change but paper has remained wonderfully constant through centuries.
Claudia’s comment about Letts reminded me of those I used for years -alternating cover colors- until I discovered Filofax in the 1980s. And that was that for me, I am ever true to Filofax. So although those Panda planners are adorable and I agree that the Appointed looks gorgeous, I would buy them and admire them instead of using them.
I will send this to my relative; I think she’ll get a kick that Passion Planner is one of the first ones mentioned.
I’m a sucker for a planner (or any stationery, really). I like the look of the Clever Fox Planner. Thank you for this post!
For years I used a very specific planner sold by Barnes and Noble, but last year they seem to have discontinued them and I haven’t been able to find a replacement that’s quite right. The one I used this year was *almost* right but wrong in all these little nitpicky ways – mostly in that there wasn’t enough space in the back for me to make notes and lists of things I keep track of. I like one that has both month and weekly layouts and a certain size. The hunt continues…
I use the Peter Pauper Press 16 month Engagement calendars. I can usually find a cute cover, and they are just the right size for me.
I used to buy planners from the National Railway Museum in York-they had lovely pictures. I was excited to see their shop was open online again, but sadly they stopped shipping to the US.
Now that I WFH and don’t need to carry my planner, I switched to an Erin Condren 7×9 vertical but then after the Stuff that happened with her last year went with a Recollections 7×9 vertical for ’21 and actually like it better (white paper vs cream, smooth finish vs toothy). Plus it is hella cheaper.
I gave my husband a different Letts planner than the one @Claudia linked above. He likes it, so I’ve bought him a new one.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097NHXSX4/?coliid=I3K9ZF3ZG2PRNU&colid=1EGHOBGQOQUCA&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Most of my planning is digital (Google Calendar and Todoist FTW), but I love the Clever Fox Planner to keep me focused at work. I like planning out my work week in analog, and it keeps me focused on my bigger goals.
I use Simplified. I had wanted to try the Happy Planner, but they sold out of the cover I wanted, so I went back to Simplified.