The 18 Best Planners in 2021

Most undated planners promise increased productivity and happiness, but the Panda Planner actually delivers with scientifically proven strategies. It splits your schedule into daily, weekly, and monthly pages to organize your goals, habits, and to-dos. The daily pages start off with a space to write what you’re excited and grateful for, and then helps you plan and review your time. The weekly pages set your improvement goals, habits, and projects, and the monthly pages have a calendar-type layout so you never miss a meeting. “Best planner I’ve ever had! I’ll never buy anything different…ever!” reads one of 7,500-plus reviews.

According to one reviewer: “It’s definitely helping me stay organized and learn about what my priorities really are. […] The pages are thick so ink doesn’t bleed through, even when I use markers. The size is just right, in my opinion. There is lots of space and the layout just makes sense. This book makes me answer two questions: “Who do you want to be?” and “What do you want to do?” And there is space and outlines to delve into each of those important areas.”

While undated planners allow you to start at any time, some people prefer structured dates to keep them on track. The Blue Sky dated planner is a best-selling option on Amazon, and it’s gotten more than 14,000 reviews and a 4.7-star rating overall. It’s pretty straightforward with its flexible black cover and weekly/monthly pages, but past buyers love its “simplicity,” “clean design,” and “easy to use” layout. You can get it in three different sizes, too.

According to one reviewer: “The notebook is just overall great. I really like the layout of monthly -> daily, the individual pages are thick and don’t allow pens or markers to seep through to the next page, the print is bright and easy to read, and the lines are well spaced. The front and back cover are made of a durable plastic that seems unwilling to fall out anytime soon, and the little details like the spacing of titles, the nice color scheme, and pretty fonts makes me view this as high-quality, well thought out product.”

With every other planner, you use the pages once and likely never look back. The Rocketbook Fusion Smart notebook, on the other hand, allows you to wipe the pages clean and use them over and over again, all thanks to the whiteboard-like construction and special included pen. (This both saves you money and minimizes waste for the environment.) If you want to save your notes and scheduling, you can simply blast images from your phone to your favorite digital cloud services using the built-in scanning codes. The Fusion has task lists, weekly pages, and monthly calendars, not to mention lined and dotted spreads — but the company also partnered with Panda Planner to make a reusable version of that best-seller, too.

According to one reviewer: “It’s easy to clean — just add water and wipe dry. […] The hand writing recognition transcribes your hand writing to text. Looks like it did a good job.”

Most planners are designed to optimize your professional and personal life, but what if you’re still in school? The Class Tracker academic planner is specifically designed for students because it helps you keep track of assignments, quizzes, projects, and papers as well as quarterly goals and class schedules. It includes both undated monthly and weekly spreads; the latter emphasizes Monday through Friday, but still has a few lines for the weekends.

According to one reviewer: “I love how this planner comes completely blank! It allows for complete customization and also makes me stay on top of planning my weeks out ahead of time. I would suggest this planner to any busy college student.”

Bullet journaling is a flexible system that allows you to record anything you want (notes, doodles, to-do lists, dates) without limiting your creativity. The LUX Productivity planner does just that. It still has prompts to organize your schedules, goals, daily tasks, and reflections, but the dot-grid paper acts as a subtle guide that’s much less restrictive than lines and boxes. As a result, it’s a good pick for the creative person — especially since it comes in a protective, colorful binder complete with pockets and pen holders.

According to one reviewer: “I love this notebook so much because the rings on the inside are a little under an inch and a half, which makes it easier for me to turn the pages as my binder gets full […] The page inserts that come with the binder are top-notch for general and bullet planning.”

“Super impressed with this planner…makes me so much happier,” one reviewer wrote about The Simple Elephant. That’s because it utilizes proven techniques from the study of positive psychology to help you renew your commitment, feel inspired, and live happier every day. In addition to organizing your to-dos and daily plans, you’ll also compose positive affirmations, set goals, and record gratitude statements. It even has focus sections, mind maps, free stickers, and vision boards to keep you optimistic and grateful.

According to one reviewer: “Super impressed with this planner. I have been buying the plum paper products planners and this one makes me so much happier. It provides everything I need and more. I love the vision board pages and the monthly and weekly goals. Definitely is going to help me stay on track this year!”

If you’re looking to change some habits (especially if that habit is procrastination), consider purchasing Lamare Habit Tracker planner. It uses visual layouts that help you build specific patterns and see your progress at a glance, but without the need for wordy prompts or time-consuming journaling. The paper is thick and bleed-resistant, so you can use colorful markers or gel pens, and it’s completely undated so you can move through it at your own pace.

According to one reviewer: “Very sturdy. Pages are really thick, I use sharpies and they don’t bleed through. I love the set up with daily, weekly, and monthly goals/habits.”

Studies have shown that there are both emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing, so recording your thoughts and feelings is a great habit to get into. If you find journaling super therapeutic or want to give it a shot, the Best Journal Ever can help. While it has writing prompts and sections for journaling, it still qualifies as a planner because it tracks your habits, offers affirmations and quotes, and helps you reflect on your progress.

According to one reviewer: “My therapist suggested I keep a journal last year, and I found this one. I liked it enough to buy another one for this year. It has enough room per day to keep note of anything interesting without feeling like you need to fill up an entire page with filler, and the daily “what you’re thankful for” and “self affirmations” are more helpful than I thought they’d be. I probably spend more time just on those than I spend actually journaling. It really helps you find a pattern in what you really appreciate consistently.”

Organizing your life might help decrease stress in the long run, but it can be a little overwhelming in the moment. Loads of studies point to the healing effects of mindfulness based art studies (like coloring), which the Action Publishing coloring planner fully embraces. It lets you split up your goals and to-dos into daily, weekly, and monthly schedules, and each one has an intricately designed image so you can color your way to tranquility. The thick pages prevent bleed-through, and the undated pages last 12 months. Choose from two sizes.

According to one reviewer: “This book is all that it promised to me. The pages are thick so that the designs can be colored in with pen and not bleed through. There are places to write notes, etc. and I love that it’s a monthly calendar that I can start from wherever my last one left off. Very useful…and relaxing to color.”

What is the law of attraction? It’s a string theory-based belief that states that whatever we think about, we bring into our lives through active manifestation. The Deluxe Law of Attraction Life planner shows you exactly how to use it and helps you implement it into your life. The weekly and monthly pages are packed with goal-setting exercises, happiness practices, and positive habit motivators. It’s also got a huge fold-out vision board and sections to reflect on your past experiences. Best of all, it helps you become the best possible version of yourself on a mental, physical, and interpersonal level. “This is a beautiful planner, journal, and thought-provoking tool for my life,” raved one buyer. “Best thing I have bought in a long time to help me achieve life balance.”

According to one reviewer: “I couldn’t be happier with this planner, it includes so many options and is very customizable. I love the idea that it is reusable for many years.”

If you’re a goal-oriented person or you’re looking to become one, the Full Focus planner is for you. Designed by Michael Hyatt (a top productivity expert), it utilizes field-tested techniques to optimize productivity and efficiency, so you can achieve your biggest goals in a single year. Its detail-oriented layout helps you “keep your priorities in full view” and “achieve what matters every day,” and according to reviewers, it “actually DOES help focus [your] daily actions to meet greater goals.”

According to one reviewer: “I didn’t know anything about Michael Hyatt until I read a book of his recently, and I have no connections to him or his company, but the system he put together is really brilliant. He’s figured out how to create a compact planner that combines and prioritizes long-term goals, short-term goals, and daily tasks.”

“Thorough” doesn’t have to mean “big and bulky.” The Clever Fox pocket planner takes the fan-favorite productivity-increasing layout and optimizes it for minimalists who are always on the go. This one measures just 3.7 by 6.7 inches, so it fits in your pocket or bag with ease — but it still offers weekly and monthly scheduling, habit tracking, gratitude journaling, goal focusing, mind maps, and empty grid-dot areas for creativity. Get it in five different colors, each with included stickers.

According to one reviewer: “This planner was well made, and excellent size for travel and can help you stay organized. […] I love the priorities list and the daily trackers.”

Do you schedule your days down to the minute? The TREES planner helps facilitate that with its hourly scheduling spreads that range from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. It even has space to list your priorities, to-dos, and meals, not to mention a few random notes. The flexible PVC cover is waterproof, the twin-wire spiral binding is strong, and the pages are bleed-resistant. “The simplistic style of this planner allows me to keep track of every appointment, with space for my top goals and tasks,” one reviewer wrote.

According to one reviewer: “For some who struggles with major procrastination and gets overwhelmed easily, simply listing what I have to do in a day just isn’t precise enough. Mapping out my day by hour is freaking amazing and so much more effective. The fact it also has a place for your Top 3 things you want to get done and meals is also a bonus.”

Available in three different cover designs, the Bloom Daily Planners undated teacher planner is designed to inspire and organize the educator. While it has undated weekly planning blocks, monthly calendars, and reviews, like most other planners, it also has pages for important dates, substitute communication, student info, and grading charts.

According to one reviewer: “I’m so picky when it comes to my teacher planner and calendar. This one is not only beautiful, but has all of the pages I need.”

Short of using a blank-page journal as a planner, The Perfect Planner is as flexible and straightforward as it gets. It’s undated with only three spreads: empty calendars, weekly grids, and blank pages. (Those last two also use dot-grid paper, so you’re not limited by lines.) As a result, this one is the best pick for people who feel overwhelmed by excessive prompts, visuals, and exercises. It currently has 1,500 reviews, one of which reads “It is simple, yet has everything that you would need, no fluff.”

According to one reviewer: “I had a completely blank bullet journal with dotted pages and I eventually couldn’t keep up with making weekly spreads. I also had trouble – as a person with ADD – organizing school assignments in my bullet journal because everything was handwritten and not uniform. This is great. I loved using calligraphy, decorating my journal, and making unique spreads (habit trackers, doctors, appointments log, etc.). I can do all of that in here, but it is uniform and clean so that I can organize my assignments and thoughts.”

People are in love with Moleskines due to their iconic exterior, thick durable paper, and sleek lined pages. The Moleskine Pro offers all of those things, but does so in a layout that’s optimized for the professional. Whether you’re working on a specific project or just looking to improve your overall work performance, this planner has clear but versatile prompts for goals and scheduling. It also has planning pages that help you break down overwhelming tasks into clear, straightforward steps that you can take one at a time until you’re done.

According to one reviewer: “I usually buy the dotted version for bullet journaling as the lined version doest work well for that method. This is perfect size for my messenger bag and also to be able hold some documents in when needed for meetings.”

As someone who makes their own schedule, my days are structured by tasks — not time. The ZICOTO To Do List notebook is perfect for someone like me, because it prioritizes the things you need to get done on any given day. In addition to a clear-cut list, complete with check-off boxes, each page also has appointments, visual health reminders, a gratitude prompt, and an open box for additional notes.

According to one reviewer: “I’m super picky about planners and usually like a lot of separate boxes for different lists. Definitely hit the mark for me! My art quality highlighters/markers do NOT bleed through. Paper is thick and planner has handled multiple transports. Nice planner for those who like bullet journaling but don’t have time to create daily pages!”

If you don’t want to settle for just one great feature, the Legend Planner Pro hourly edition has them all: daily spreads that break down by the hour, monthly calendars and reflections, yearly goals, journal prompts that hone your life vision, habit tracking, blank dot-grid pages, you name it. It’s available in eight hard-cover color options, and each comes with a few free sticker sheets to keep you motivated.

According to one reviewer: “Its so sturdy and will not rip or tear which i love because i usually destroy spiraled planners. It comes with a quick start guide which was super helpful. Lastly, its SOOO CUTE!! The goal setting pages are adorable and i love that it separates work, personal, and social goals and priorities.”