Tag: Back to School

There’s nothing like the feeling of a brand-new planner. As the new school year kicks off, we’ve found the best planners to deliver that satisfying rush of a fresh start and a blank page. The sensation of writing things down not only feels satisfying but helps improve retention, and paper planners give a sense of delight in a world that can feel bleak.

A great planner will help you keep your life on track, but that means something different for everyone—do you need room for multiple to-do lists? Places to track all your calls and meetings that week? Open space for whatever strikes your fancy? From daily and weekly planners to planners designed for a specific type of person, here are all of our favorite planners that we’ve tried and tested. Our overall favorite weekly planner is Plum Paper’s A5 Vertical Priorities Planner ($38), which you can customize to start anytime of year and to fit all your needs. If you’re more of a daily planner, try the Day Designer ($68) or the Hobonichi Techo ($40). We’ve also got picks for monthly planners, students, crazy list-makers, and more below. This is a great time of year to pick up your mid-year planners designed for the school year, or customize a planner like the Agendio or Roterunner to start at your preferred month.

Once you find your perfect planner, don’t forget to check out other great gear from stories in our Home Office directory, from the best digital notebooks and computer monitors to everything you need for your work-from-home setup.

Updated August 2025: We’ve added planners from Papier and Moleskine to More Planners We Like, and a new FAQs section.

Our Favorite Planners

From weekly and daily planners to planners for specific use cases (and even a completely custom planner!), here are all the top planners we recommend buying.

If I only bought one planner, this would be the one. The Plum Paper A5 Planner has the perfect amount of customizability without feeling like I have to do too much work to create it, and has a lot of beautiful covers and color options to choose from. I personally love the Vertical Priorities layout, which I customized to include a priority section for my son, but you can choose from other layouts—there are 10 different types of layouts, going from vertical and horizontal to student and goal setting, then anywhere from two to four types of layouts within each type. You also choose from a huge variety of covers that you can customize with things like your name or the year, and choose from a huge range of add-ons like monthly workout summaries, baby tracking pages, and so much more.

The A5 size is easy to use and tote around wherever I want, and you can have the planner start on any month you wish—great for if you want an annual planner suddenly in March or July without needing to skip all those extra months. You’ll find a two-sided folder in the back, which I usually use for stickers and urgent paperwork I need to handle. Speaking of stickers, I love Plum Paper’s chic sticker sets ($5+) that range from matching their add-on pages to cute seasonal stickers, and that I can make my own custom stickers on Plum Paper’s website.

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If Plum Planner’s designs aren’t quite for you, then explore the Erin Condren LifePlanner (ECLP for short). It’s one of the most popular for weekly-spread enthusiasts, with tons of layouts to choose from and room for notes or doodles. You can customize it similarly to the Plum Planner above, though it doesn’t have quite as many options for the pages you can add. You’ll choose the cover first, then fill it with your desired layout from the four options: hourly; horizontal; or our favorite, vertical. Then choose one of the three color schemes and a coil color, and add any cover customizations you want (like your name or a quote) to complete your planner.

There are cheaper Erin Condren planners you can find at Target, but you can’t customize them like you would on Erin Condren’s website. I also personally prefer the cover design options and colors on Plum Paper, but it’s worth checking out both to see which one best suits your fancy.

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Daily planners give you an entire page for each day, and the Day Designer is great for anyone who wants space for both a full calendar and a nice long to-do list for each day. The schedule half of the page goes from 5 am to 9 pm, giving you plenty of room to schedule meetings, plan workouts, or block out client appointments. The other half has a long to-do list you can fill in, plus the top of the page has a space for the three most important things, any due dates, and dinner.

It’s a bit on the bulky side, since there’s a page for every single day of the year along with monthly spreads, but it’s not so big that you can’t bring it in a spacious backpack or tote bag. I also like that it’s not too tall, with a square A5 design, but still has plenty of room for a nice long to-do list.

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Several WIRED staffers recommend the Hobonichi Techo (Japanese for “planner”). WIRED reviewer Adrienne So says it’s the perfect size—small enough to fit in a bag and hold information but also able to lie flat on a desk. There is a monthly overview and then a page for each day, along with a quote that manages to be thought-provoking without being too trite. The cover is a distinctive black, stamped with gold foil and it comes with a wide variety of cute accessories. —Medea Giordano

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Not surprisingly, given the name, there’s nothing discreet about this planner. With its bright-blue cardstock cover and 11- by-14-inch profile too big to fit in any purse or small bag, this is for people who live—or plan to live—large. The companion to motivational speaker and entrepreneur Jesse Itzler’s Big A## Calendar (as seen in our Gift Ideas for People Who Work From Home), this spiral-bound “planner for highly visual people” depicts each month in its entirety across a two-page spread, with oversized 2.5- by 2.5-inch squares for each day. Motivational quotes top each page (sample: “To do exceptional things, put yourself in exceptional situations”), and the back of the planner contains a goal-tracker version of the Big A## Calendar—every day of the year at a glance.

There are five lined pages for notes, a running-pace chart should you find yourself overcome with a sudden burst of energy, and a Year in Review worksheet with boxes for keeping track of year highlights such as “favorite new music,” new things I tried,” and “career milestones.” If sudden inspiration strikes that needs to be shared, there’s a 300-square-inch dry-erase board in the back that can be propped up for impromptu meetings or demonstrations. I feel more energized just looking at it. I do wish the days of the week were on one page instead of across both, so I could keep it open folded in half on my desk (when opened, its footprint sprawls just under 2 feet wide—a significant amount of desk real estate), but as someone who takes copious handwritten notes, it’s a worthy trade-off for me for the sheer amount of daily writing space. —Kat Merck

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If you can’t seem to find the right planner for you, it might be time to design your own. That sounds intimidating, but Agendio makes it pretty easy with its fully custom planners, allowing you to choose from premade pages or designing your own (with some limitations—it’s not as open-ended as a program like Canva) to create the perfect monthly, weekly, and daily spreads. You can also design your own additional pages, like workout trackers or reading lists, that you can either add for each month or to the end of the planner.

There’s both a Pro designer, which I used to create fully custom pages and a specific layout, and a Classic designer, which is much simpler and lets you choose from premade pages. I really liked the cover options, and the default cover size (as long as you don’t add too many pages) will wrap around the planner’s coil to make it look like a sleek folder and protect the binding. It’s a great option if you tend to destroy things in your bag. It can easily become pricey with everything you can add, but it’s a really satisfying feeling to create your perfect planner and have it arrive at your front door, printed and bound.

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There are a lot of quirky planners, but Ban.do is one of the most fun options that’s in just about everyone’s budget. From a page to track the books you read to an entire page dedicated to my astrological birth chart, it’s hard to resist the fun that Ban.do’s planners offer. The weekly layout has enough room for daily planning, and you’ll get fun extras like monthly meal planning and three pages of included stickers. There are also undated ($25) versions if you want full date flexibility.

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This has become my new go-to planner, because I am notorious for multiple lists. Especially as a mom, there’s often one list for work, one list for home and parenting tasks, plus other random lists like which workout outfits I want to wear this week and a packing list for a trip I won’t take for a month. I need a lot of room to corral my ideas, and the Purpose Planner actually has room for it all. The weekly spread includes five to-do list areas, from work to home and projects and stuff to buy, plus smaller checklists for each day and plenty of space to write in my schedule. Not only that, but there are two full dotted pages after each weekly spread for me to doodle, brainstorm, and write more lists all over for that specific week. The monthly spread has six lists, plus six sections to reflect on when the month ends.

It’s a six-month, undated planner, so you can pick it up any time of the year and start using it. You do need to sit down and write in things like the months and dates, but I found that fun and satisfying to do. I also liked adding some color coding with highlighters to add a little fun to the pages. There are also some fun pages in the front to reflect and plan for your roles in life, goals you want to achieve, and books you want to read. I love the massive B5 size since it’s finally enough space for me, but there’s also a smaller A5 ($25) size.

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The Happy Planner has a huge range of planners, with tons of designs ranging from a vertical layout to a large dashboard to even a design made for work. There’s lots of space in these spacious planners, but the design seems like it would be perfect for students, whether they’re full-time or just taking classes in the evenings or after work. The divider pages are cute and sometimes include phrases and quotes, but definitely have a youthful feel to them.

You can choose between Classic, Skinny Classic, Mini, or Big sizes, and dated or undated pages. There are daily planners, ones tailored to teachers and students, among many others. The unique binding design makes it easy to take pages out or add them back in, and you can also get extension packs to add a few more months or to keep track of things like your budget and fitness goals.

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More Planners We Like

While these aren’t our top picks, these are still great options to use as a planner.

• At-A-Glance Simplified by Emily Ley Weekly Monthly Organizer Set for $91: This is a cute organizer set that comes with a refillable binder, planner pages for all of 2025, interior pockets, and even a little interior zip pouch. It’s also the right size for A4 paper if you wanted to add your own paper or pages to this chic little binder. It’s a really cute set, but I found it a little small for my liking. If you’re not a massive to-do list person, this could be a good fit for you.
• Bright Day Kids Daily Checklist for $13: This was our planner pick for kids, but it’s no longer available. We’re hoping it returns since we liked how included to-dos like brushing teeth and making the bed, with extra lines for items to be written in, and could hold up to rough treatment in the school backpack.
• Be Rooted Academic Planner for $16: This is a weekly planner with about a paragraph of space for each day, with an entire week spanning two pages at a time. It includes some stickers in the front, plus some intention-setting sections for each month. What’s especially cool is that Be Rooted is a female-owned small business making paper planners and accessories (like these pen sets), plus other lifestyle goods like candles and wall calendars.
• Blue Sky Weekly Planner for $15: Several members of our team like Blue Sky. Its affordable planners give you space to jot down tasks without cluttering up the page. They’re also a good size—much easier to tote around than some on this list. As with the Happy Planner, you can find different layouts, sizes, and formats to suit you, and there’s a collaboration with Day Designer, another favorite of ours. —Medea Giordano
• Blue Sky Monthly Planner for $10: Blue Sky’s Monthly Planners have a different layout than the weekly, where each day of the month has a few lines for jotting down multiple bullet points, and there’s a notes section for anything that would require more writing room. The yearly overview lets you track from an eagle-eyed perspective. It’s the smallest monthly planner we’ve tried, with 10-by-8-inch pages, but incredibly affordable.
• Brass Monkey Undated Standard Planner for $11: This planner has a ton of fun squeezed into its pages, with things like pop culture birthdays and on this day notes. It’s undated in the sense that it isn’t tied to a year or a weekday, but you’ll get all the days of the month already in there, and you can fill in the year yourself and check off the day of the week instead to make it align with the current date. It’s a little small for my use, but everyone I’ve showed it to has been interested in it for its quirky additions.
• Laurel Denise Horizontal Weekly Edition for $59: I’ve never seen a planner designed like this. It’s wider than a traditional planner, and the left side is for laying out the month—it’s undated—while the right has a spot for the month’s to-dos and a dotted area for whatever else. In the middle are five half-pages for organizing each specific week. You turn the week page and still get to see everything else you already wrote for the month. It’s an interesting planner, but I struggled to use it with the small daily area.
• Levenger Circa smartPlanner Weekly Agenda for $60: This is another solid weekly planner with little frills. If you just need lines and days, this is your match. The brand also sells a leather folio for the planner, which looks very professional but is pricey.
• Moleskine Classic Weekly Planner for $19: This is another weekly planner, and it has a style that reminds me of the popular Hobonichi Techo and Muji planners. It’s easy to use and comes in multiple sizes: large ($19), XL ($31), and pocket ($12). The large size is 5 by 8 inches, similar to an A5 size, which I wouldn’t usually call large. I preferred the B5 style XL, since it gave me more room to write things down for each week.
• My PA Business Planner for $49: The PA stands for personal assistant, but this planner is more than that—it doubles as both a planner and a full-on business plan workbook, helping growing entrepreneurs organize and plan their business plans, ranging from product pitches to social media strategy. The beginning of the book is dedicated to organizing your business plan, and then there’s weekly checklists and goal lists, plus space to track your water, exercise, and meditation. There’s also space at the end of the planner to brainstorm for the year ahead and some extra lined and graph pages for miscellaneous notes. It’s a hefty planner that works best for entrepreneurs with a product they’re selling, but the workbook pages and focused weekly spreads could help any kind of business owner. Plus, it comes in a handful of fun colors and looks nice enough to blend in on a bookshelf.
• Papier Daily Productivity Planner for $35: Papier has incredible cover design options to match nearly any style or mood. For layouts, I like the undated Daily Productivity Planner best. Each week has a box per day, lines for notes, areas for three priorities, a long to-do list, and a habit tracker. Plus, there’s a meal planner and shopping list for every week. There are also a few pages dedicated to outlining each day’s schedule. I didn’t need these pages as much during my usual week, but people with rotating weekly schedules might appreciate it. Papier is also the only brand I found that lets you scroll through every single page before you buy. I’m so specific about what I like and need, this should be standard. —Medea Giordano
• Papier Mid-Year Planner for $35: Papier’s Mid-Year Planner is a chic, simple weekly planner that comes with all the fun cover options Papier is known for. I liked this planner, but I prefer a larger weekly planner or a daily planner for this size, since it has lots of room for notes and daily to-do lists. Still, it’s a nice size if you want to write down meetings and a few to-dos for each day, and lets you map out your life from this summer to the next.
• Papier Wellness Journal for $35: This is a great journal for building daily habits, and if you’re a fan of daily journaling à la The Five Minute Journal. It’s not technically a planner, but it is something you’d use daily and to plan out your day like a planner. The goal is to fill it out morning and night with your intentions for the day followed by the results, and it operates on the focus of six pillars: energy, mind, movement, nourishment, connection, and rest. It’s a lovely journal with a really nice way of looking at your day and how you spend your time, but I did find it easy to forget to do it both morning and day. It would be a great gift for someone you know wants more intentional goal-setting and reflection each day.
• Passion Planner Weekly Planner for $45: This is my favorite weekly planner for mapping out the hours of my day. It doesn’t have as much room for to-do lists, but you do have a section for each week for a single personal and work to-do list, which I use for my primary projects, and some doodle space. I really love Passion Planner’s accessories, and how nice the pages feel to write on.
• Studio Tigress Seasonal Planner for $18 (Per Season): These Seasonal Planners from Portland, Oregon-based Studio Tigress aren’t your standard planner. These are large individual sheets covering an entire three-month season, allowing you to have it pinned on a wall or lying across your desk for easy access. The 10-by-16-inch sheets are certainly bigger than most planners and aren’t easy to travel with, but rather serve as a handy at-a-glance look for your key goals, to-do items, events, and deadlines that you write down. There’re five undated weeks for each month, so you’ll have to check your digital calendar to confirm which dates are where, but that also means there’s plenty of room for each month to write down what’s coming up and extra notes if you need. There are 25 spots on the to-do list, and I liked using it for my main seasonal goals (like apple picking in the fall, seeing the zoo holiday lights in the winter) and major to-do items (like getting my car emissions checked and purchasing train tickets). While it can’t replace a weekly or daily planner if you like daily to-do lists, I loved using these sheets to get a birds-eye view of the upcoming season. —Nena Farrell

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Planner Alternatives

Not everyone needs or wants a rigid planner. If you just need daily to-do lists or are a fan of bullet journals, consider getting a great notebook instead.

Former WIRED reviewer Jaina Grey opts for a plain lined notebook. After trying dozens, her favorite is the Midori MD Notebook with paper made from cotton pulp (just like money!). It comes in lined, unlined, or dot-grid. Grey says there’s just something meditative about turning over a blank page at the beginning of each week and carefully jotting down her schedule, plans, and workload. No missed days to make you feel guilty. Midori’s notebooks are designed to fit inside notebook or journal covers (which you can find all over Etsy). The pages are a subtle off-white and have a weight and texture that draws you in. The soft cotton paper of this notebook makes drawing, sketching, and plain old writing an absolute joy. —Medea Giordano

WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson says he doesn’t use a planner, but each day he writes down the handful of things he’s going to do on a single 3-by-5 index card. The index card with this to-do list lives in his pocket, along with a small notebook in which he jots down notes throughout the day—often the source of the following day’s to-do list. The notebook and index cards fit inside this very cool waxed canvas notebook cover. Gilbertson says he copied this system from one of the most successful people he has known, and after nearly 20 years, it’s still better for him than any other system he’s tried. It’s cheap, lightweight, and easy to manage. —Medea Giordano

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Planner Accessories

Photograph: Getty Images

Maybe all you need is paper and a good pen and you’re good to go. But we like to get creative. Stickers are a popular accessory, and they’re a delightful slippery slope. Once you make your first “spread” (a collection of themed stickers on a planner page, similar to a scrapbook), you will never go back. Etsy is the central hub of planner stickers. You can order printed stickers or buy digital files and print and cut them yourself. You can also opt for a full kit (an entire spread’s worth of stickers) or just the individual components you like the most.