Time flies and the year 2019 has come to July. For many people, this is a good opportunity to re-plan the second half of the year. As either students or jobbers there are millions of things to keep up with and for the purpose of staying in order, people all need a good way to get everything organized. In this case, planners come in handy.

Some may have the confusion that why writing a planner comes to make sense.

Why write a planner?

For me, a planner is not simply a portable calendar. It enables me to arrange all my deadlines, meetings and appointments in order. With a planner, I can arrange my daily events whenever I want, on working days, during trips or in leisure time. It offers me an opportunity to rethink my past life and gives me a forecast for future. As a result, I finally succeeded in kicking the bad habit of procrastinating.

A satisfactory planner is the beginning of a methodical and efficient life. After a periodic recording, you can clearly obtain the feeling that life all lies in your own hands. That’s the greatest moments of writing a planner I think. Once properly used, a planner works a lot in pushing you to become more intentional with the way you live and helping you achieve your goals.

If you’re currently considering a new planner, here are some tips. Hope these tips would help you save some time spent in stores or on websites.

Tips on choosing a planner

Decide your purpose

First of all, decide your purpose of writing a planner ahead of time. Do you need to keep track of major events so that you do not forget them? Do you just need a record for everything? Do you focus on making detailed plans? And so on... It might even help to write that down.

The most important thing when choosing a planner is to choose one that matches your life style and meets your needs perfectly, which is the base of personalizing your planning system.

Choose a suitable layout

There are usually daily, weekly and monthly planners. Daily planners provide plenty of space to plan your days down to an hour thus trifles will all be in order. A weekly planner is an excellent choice for you if you just want to keep track of vital appointments. While monthly planners are suitable for those who want to set a periodic goal, and at the same time leave a vast space for your free arrangements.

I personally prefer a weekly planner because it helps set a mid-term goal and at the same time allows a few changes in my plan. Therefore, I am generally target-oriented during the week and don’t have to feel depressed when something in my schedule changes by accident.

Select the size

Beside of layouts, the size should also be taken into consideration. It depends on where you put it or whether you wan to carry it with you everyday. Remember to ensure a balance between size and room for writing. Please also bear in mind that a daily planner is usually much more cumbersome and not so convenient to carry with while weekly/monthly planners are much more portable.

Consider the style of design

Since you will be using the planner for an enduring period of time, you’d better choose a style that attracts you indeed. Purchasing a planner of which you’re really fond of will motivate you a lot to keep using the planner. So make sure the style fits your taste, it doesn’t matter what’s your style like, just choose what you like.

As for picking inner pages, it all depends on your planning habits.

Exceptional factors to consider

There are also some other points to think about.

Firstly, the binding style determines how you use your planner. For example, a removable binding style like discbound enables you to alter pages randomly and leaves enormous room for your special DIY.

Secondly, choose a planner containing the extras you need, such as goal setting, yearly overview or budget pages.

Last but not the least is your budget. Writing planners can be a costly habit. Once you start your first planner, you will need to save a part of your budget for the next one. Also some planners can be quite expensive. So make sure to buy planners which are affordable as well as matching your needs.

After getting a planner, the most important thing is to use your planner efficiently.

Keep it in mind that planner is a tool to organize your life. It isn’t going to solve all your problems, especially if you use it in a wrong way, like taking it as a burden in daily life or just making mechanical record without introspection.

Try to design a system that works for you. It’s the key to take full advantage of your planner.

Three Excellent Planners

At the end, I’d like to recommend you three excellent planners.

This undated planner leaves vast freedom and flexibility for you to write and design. With mind map and tracker pages, it intends to help you kick procrastination and keep your life organized. It’s a great choice for those who have their own planning systems. Hope it will stimulate your enthusiasm and imagination to write the planner.

The gorgeous floral planner enables writing to be more pleasing. It covers 12 months from July 2019 to June 2020 and features full monthly view pages for each month. In addition to self-use, the planner is also a perfect gift for friends and family members.

The cork-fabric-cover planner with monthly indented cutaways tabs is professionally designed for your detailed planning. It would be useful for agenda, class schedule, meeting, goal planning and so much waiting for you to create. The cork fabric leather will provide you a natural woody fragrance and more pleasure in writing.