7 super-useful planners that make adulting way less stressful

Each year when I hear people talking about back-to-school shopping, I get nostalgic. If you love all things organization—notebooks, gel pens, planners, sticky notes, etc.—you know the wistful feeling of wishing you could be filling up a cart full of school supplies of your own. Since I don’t have any classes or kiddos to shop for, my new form of school supply shopping is getting a new planner each year.

While I use my iPhone calendar religiously, nothing can fully replace the satisfaction of jotting down your plans and to-do lists, then crossing them out.

Some years I wait until the new year to swap out my planner, but this year I decided on an academic planner, which generally start in July and go through June of the next year. I’ve tried to stick to just one brand or one type of planner, but each year brings even more efficient calendars with even better page details.

I love the planners that have both a monthly view and a weekly view, but you could also get one with full pages dedicated to each day or with undated pages, so you can fill in the days of the week and months however you want.

Because everyone’s organization styles are different, we’ve rounded up an array of the best planners to shop now to fuel your obsession with organization. Happy planning!

1Erin Condren Life in Little Squares LifePlanner

Stationary brand Erin Condren may be best known for its LifePlanner that you can personalize with your name and choose the cover design for, but the brand’s Life in Little Squares planner goes one step further and allows you to customize the cover with 18 different photos. No matter which design you choose, all LifePlanners come equipped with thick 80# Mohawk paper, a tabbed monthly calendar, and inspirational quotes throughout.

Choose from two 12-month options (September 2019 to August 2020 or January 2020 to December 2020) or opt for a 17-month planner, which covers August 2019 to December 2020. Plus, to really indulge your planning habit, Erin Condren also offers plenty of planner accessories, like planner folios, stickers, and page tabs and markers.

2Panda Planner

With more than 3,400 five-star reviews by Amazon shoppers, the Panda Planner is top-rated for good reason. This agenda is undated but includes daily, weekly, and monthly sections that promote work/life balance and guide you to create daily and long-term goals, evaluate affirmations, make to-do lists, and reflect at the end of each day. Available in four colors, it’s one of the simpler looking soft-sided planners but gets the job done. And if you’re looking for a smaller option, the Panda Planner measures 8.5 x 5.4 inches, so it’s small enough to carry wherever you go.

3Day Designer Shangri-La 12-Month Planner

If you’re someone who loves a full page dedicated to each day, the Day Designer is for you. While it is pretty hefty, with 400 pages and a hard front and back cover, it’s a planner for the perfectionist, with hourly, daily, and weekly planning layouts in addition to monthly overviews. With motivational quotes at the top of each page and specific goal-setting worksheets, you’ll be more motivated in your productivity than ever.

42020 Weekly Black Large Moleskine Planner

For the minimalist who still loves to take pen to paper, a Moleskine planner might be the best option. With a soft cover, the 8.25 x 5-inch planner is lightweight and compact but manages to fit monthly and weekly pages along with ruled pages to jot down ideas, weekly goals, or longer to-do lists.

5Ampersand for Blue Sky 2019-2020 Academic Year Weekly & Monthly Planner

If you like plenty of space each day to write down tasks and reminders, this pretty planner gives you all the unlined white space you could want while also providing monthly pages for long-term planning. Easily get to any month of the year by flipping through the durable divider tabs.

6Rifle Paper Co. Wild Rose 2019-2020 Planner

Rifle Paper Co. makes some of the prettiest planners I’ve seen, and they are still super functional. With 252 pages spanning 17 months from August 2019 to December 2020, you have plenty of space to make things happen. The super chic planner has handy monthly and weekly views, inspirational quotes, a back pocket, and sticker sheets to keep you up-to-date in style.

7Passion Planner

For those who are really serious about getting organized, the Passion Planner is packed with tools to help define short and long-term goals. The weekly views have sections for lists about what you want to focus on and good things that happened and separate areas for work and personal tasks so you can easily help keep life balanced. The day sections are divided hourly so you won’t miss a beat of planning out each day. And, if you’re a doodler, the monthly sections include a large space to create a “mind map” for goals as well as “people to see” and “places to go” sections.

Now go enjoy color-coding and highlighting your brand new planners.