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The Best Academic Planners for 2024/2025

Are you looking for the best academic planner to get you through grad school? There’s no denying that graduate school is a busy time that may sometimes have you feeling out of your depth. When you add work and family, it can get even more challenging to balance.

Paper planners aren’t for everyone, but the best academic planners (below) might change your mind. We’ve also included a buying guide for the best planner for college or graduate students. Let’s get started!

Table of Contents

The Best Academic Planners At-a-Glance

The Best Planners for Students in 202 4

Here’s the more detailed guide on academic planners. I’m highlighting those that will best help you prepare for exams, homework, and (most importantly) academic goals. In the past, The GradCafe recommended six planners. I’ve narrowed that down to two. Both have appeared on the list in the past. The difference? These stood the test of time.

1. Class Tracker Student Planner: College Edition  – Best Academic Planner Overall

Key Information :

• Size : 7 x 8.5 inches
• Months : 12
• Starting Month : July
• Paper Type : Thick, but thickness unspecified
• Cover Type : Soft-touch laminated cover; coil bound, rounded corners
• Cream and pale pink
• Cream, ocean blue, and seafoam
• Cream, pale pink, and salmon
• Cream, poppy, and bubblegum
• Cream, violet, and bubblegum
• Ocean blue and seafoam
• Pine and cream
• Class schedule pages
• Notes pages
• Goals pages
• Self-care tracker

If you’re looking for a tried and tested option, the Class Tracker Ultimate Student Planner  is an excellent option. This dated planner has monthly and weekly pages that start in July and end in June of the following year. It includes various features to make your life easier, such as weekly pages with self-care trackers, class schedule pages, goal pages, notes pages, monthly pages, and more.

This planner (featured by Wired, CNN, and College Life Made Easy) has plenty of space for you to write everything you need. To help maintain focus, the pages have an unassuming design to restrict distractions.

Another element that makes The Class Tracker Ultimate Student Planner one of the best planners for college students is perfect for people who want to start at their leisure. The undated planner has more cover options and the same features as the dated planner.

2. Live Whale Undated Planner  – Most Flexible Planner for Grad Students

• Size : A5 (5.83 × 8.27 inches)
• Months : 12 months
• Starting Month : N/A; Undated
• Paper Type : 100% recycled 120 GSM with satin-reinforced edges
• Cover Type : Hardcover, vegan leather
• Grey/silver accents: Black
• Yellow/gold accents: Blue, Pink, Purple, Red
• Vision board pages
• Dreams and goals pages
• Health and wellness pages
• Expense tracker pages
• Three ribbon bookmarks
• Hidden back pocket
• Riveted pen loop

The Live Whale planner is one of the best college planners for students who need extra flexibility. Because it’s an undated planner, start planning any time you’d like. If you stop using the planner for any reason, come back and start fresh whenever you want. That’s one reason we like this college planner again for the current academic school year. If you bought it two years ago, you could still update the due dates and use it this year.

This planner offers monthly and weekly layouts to help you stay organized, as well as plenty of other features that might come in handy. The paper is 100% recycled and thick at 120 GSM, making bleed-through unlikely.

Thoughtful design decisions went into the color and accent choices for this planner, making it an aesthetic choice for those who aren’t into busy prints or flashy colors.

Recommended Accessories for a Graduate Student Planner

Even if you have the best planner for Ph.D. students, it can still sometimes feel as though you’re struggling to stay organized. If you find yourself on this boat, the following list of accessories might be able to help.

How to Find the Best Student Planner

Finding the right grad school planner can feel challenging – not all planners are made the same! Additionally, a planner can be deeply personal, so what works for others may not work for you. Consider some of the criteria below to find your perfect planner:

• It’s Designed for Students: Compared to a traditional option, academic planners have certain features that make them better for students, like detailed pages for class schedules. Designers also make other considerations, such as offering flexibility, adding prioritization methods, and more.
• It Fits Your Needs: Check out product pictures to see what the inside of the planner looks like and determine whether the features you need are included. Look at product reviews to see what others have thought about their purchases. Additionally, you can look into some of the additional tools each planner can offer. Some have pages for mind maps, habit tracking, goal-setting (and tracking), budget tracking, to-do lists, and contact lists. Consider whether the planner includes the organizational tools you need. Many students will purchase a planner for its function over its form, but it’s possible that a better-looking planner will motivate you to use it more often. We recommend balancing your aesthetic tastes, learning style, and time management methods.
• The Start Date Aligns with Your Schedule: ‘Normal’ planners start in January, while academic planners may start in different months (such as June or July). If you start on a non-standard date, consider using an undated planner. Undated planners allow more flexibility, letting you plan only for the weeks and months you need.
• Check How Many Months the Planner Has: Some planners offer six months of pages, a typical 12 or even 18 (for some college student planners)! The amount you require is a matter of preference – so it’s up to you to decide!
• It Has Plenty of Space: The best planners for grad school will have plenty of space. As a grad student, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ll be incredibly busy. Make sure that your academic planner has plenty of space to accommodate school activities, schoolwork, tasks, meetings, and even your real-life stuff. You may even get enough space to help accommodate some notes!

Why Have a Planner When You Have Electronics?

Digital planners often work with some of the  best note-taking apps  on tablets. However, there are many reasons to choose physical planners for college students (rather than digital alternatives). These reasons include:

• Paper Is More Tangible A digital student planner works perfectly fine, but sometimes the best academic planners for grad students are paper-based. A physical paper planner feels much more tangible and might better remind you of your tasks, deadlines, and meetings. When you have a book to look at, it can help make your schedule and priorities feel more “real.” Plus, it’s just nice to have something you can chuck in your backpack  and keep with you wherever you go!
• Fewer Distractions A planner app or to-do list on your phone has its benefits, such as giving you reminders and notifications when something important is imminent. However, the downside to a digital solution is that the chances of distraction are far greater. Getting a notification while checking your calendar could lead to wasting an hour on social media. Another fantastic reason to choose a paper planner over an app or other electronic service? There are few-to-no distractions.
• Writing By Hand Offers Many Benefits Finally, numerous studies and articles state that handwriting is simply superior to typing when it comes to memory retention, deeper comprehension, and learning. Choosing physical planners for a college student or a grad student can help you more deeply comprehend the importance and urgency of the tasks at hand. It can also help you commit important dates to memory (though digital reminders are great for dates that shouldn’t be missed).

Top Tips for Staying Organized in Grad School

It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed when you’re starting — or are in the middle of — grad school. Things can get hectic fast. Without time management and organizational skills, you might find yourself struggling to keep up with necessary tasks. To help you out, we’ve put together some of the best tips for staying organized in grad school.

1. Use Your Planner!

It’s not enough to have an academic planner: You need to use it! Make it a habit to check your planner in the morning so you know what you need to do that day. Always add new tasks, deadlines, and meetings as they come up.

It takes time to get accustomed to using a planner, so stick with it! If you struggle to remember to use yours, keep it in plain sight so you remember.

2. Work Out an Organizational System

A color-coding system can help you instantly recognize items at a glance. Use various tools and stationery like Post-it notes, flags, stickers, and colored pens to make important events (as well as coursework, research, and notes) stand out.

3. Use Digital Alarms and Reminders

Just because you’re using a paper planner doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use technology to supplement your daily planning. Digital reminders and alarms will help you remember when the most important things are happening.

4. Develop Your Time Management

To stay organized while earning your master’s  or Ph.D., you’ll need to work on your time management. Everyone has a style that works best for them, so find yours and stick to it.

It’s also a good idea to do as much as you can without procrastinating (if it’s possible). Procrastination is one of the biggest reasons that many grad students get derailed! While there is such a thing as productive procrastination , too much can lead to problems!

Frequently Asked Questions

What should be in an academic planner.

Features included in an academic planner may vary, but you can generally expect:

• A monthly calendar spread with space to write important dates and deadlines
• Weekly calendar spreads with plenty of room to write down assignments, coursework, important meetings, and more
• Note pages if you forget your other notebooks
• Some academic planners may also have pages for your class schedule.

What’s the Difference Between an Academic Planner and a Regular Planner?

There’s not much difference between a regular planner and an academic planner. Regular planners start in January, while academic planners often start before the fall semester (June-July). Academic planners may also have more space for writing down tasks, as well as a few pages for your class schedules.

How Do I Organize My Academic Planner?

Organizing your academic year planner is a personal experience and can depend on your preference. However, you can try techniques (such as color coding with pens, using Post-it notes, highlighting important dates and deadlines, and using stickers to draw your attention). If you experiment, you’ll eventually find your preferred method of organization!

Do Students Use Planners?

Yes! Many students (of varying levels) use planners to help them stay organized and stay on top of deadlines and important dates.

Having the right tools can make academic life much easier, especially if your schedule is exceptionally busy. A planner might take some getting used to, but getting into the habit can make a massive difference in how well you organize and manage your time.

We hope this list of the best academic planners has helped you find the right productivity companion. If you think we missed a great addition to this list, tell us in the comments below!

If you prefer digital planners, check out some of the best planner apps for students !

Chriselle Sy

Chriselle has been a passionate professional content writer for over 10 years. She writes educational content for The Grad Cafe, Productivity Spot, The College Monk, and other digital publications.  When she isn't busy writing, she spends her time streaming video games and learning new skills.

• Chriselle Sy https://blog.thegradcafe.com/author/chriselle-sy/ When to Apply for Grad School: Easy Monthly Timeline [2025-2026]
• Chriselle Sy https://blog.thegradcafe.com/author/chriselle-sy/ Best Laptop for Programming Students in 2024
• Chriselle Sy https://blog.thegradcafe.com/author/chriselle-sy/ Graduate Certificate vs Degree: What’s the Difference? [2024 Guide]
• Chriselle Sy https://blog.thegradcafe.com/author/chriselle-sy/ The 18 Best Scholarships for Black Students in 2024-2025

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Our Favorite Paper Planners

By Jackie Reeve , Kaitlyn Wells and Melanie Pinola

You can find plenty of phone apps to help you keep track of your life, but stationery lovers know the power of writing it all down on paper.

It’s hard to beat the satisfaction of crossing something off your to-do list with a sharp pencil or a smooth pen. And unlike calendar and to-do list apps, paper planners let you color outside the lines, literally and metaphorically.

Because scheduling needs vary from person to person, and we all like to plan our time differently, we focused on planners that are customizable or offer more versatility than standard dated planners. (But we also list a few quality, straightforward monthly-and-weekly planners, in our other good planners section .)

We’ve researched 149 planners and tested 65 since 2017, and we’ve discovered that most (but not all) of the best planners cost $50 or less. There are so many good planners that we can’t recommend a single standout; instead, we’ve found six, in a range of styles, that people with different priorities will love.

These include a minimalist, undated weekly calendar , a modular traveler’s notebook , a refillable ring-bound organizer , a customizable planner with colorful pages , a planner with simultaneous monthly and weekly views , and a planner you can design yourself .

If you’re not sure which type of planner is for you, we cover how to choose the right planner . You can also see how we made our picks .

Wherever possible, we’ve chosen options that are widely available and come in different sizes, layouts, and colors.

The research

Why you should trust us, best minimalist calendar: muji recycled paper weekly planner, best compact, modular option: traveler’s company traveler’s notebook, best ring-bound planner: filofax the original organizer, best highly decorated option: erin condren lifeplanner, best planner for multitasking: laurel denise mini horizontal weekly planner, best customizable planner: agendio planner, other good planners, what about hobonichi planners, how to choose the right planner for yourself, how we picked and tested, the competition.

For advice on what to look for in a planner, and to gain insight on why paper planners are so popular in this digital age, we spoke with Shu Yao, co-founder of JetPens ; Erin Condren , creator of the hugely popular Erin Condren LifePlanner; Sarah McNally, owner of McNally Jackson Books and Goods for the Study ; and Kristin Damian, who runs the planner-sticker company Krissyanne Designs .

This guide builds on the extensive work of planner lover and senior staff writer Jackie Reeve, who also follows the online planner community: Planner enthusiasts share photos and tips for setting up their planners, decorating their planners, or using their planners for more than simple scheduling. She uses nearly half a dozen planners, from various brands, to compartmentalize and organize facets of her life.

Senior staff writer Kaitlyn Wells considers her productivity style to be “organized chaos.” After college, she found it difficult to maintain a paper planner habit, and she favors reminders scattered across her mobile device, sticky notes, and reporter’s notebooks. Still, she went into this guide excited to explore several variations on hacking one’s to-do list. She found several planners she likes, and she is confident you’ll find one you enjoy using, too.

Senior staff writer Melanie Pinola is a die-hard stationery fan who has tested and reviewed notebooks , pens , and mechanical pencils for Wirecutter since 2019. Prior to joining Wirecutter, at Lifehacker she wrote extensively about productivity topics, including planner reviews and time-management techniques. She’s always happy to discover and try a new planner or productivity system.

Muji Recycled Paper Weekly Planner

Best planner for simple scheduling.

This bare-bones planner is our most inexpensive pick. It’s a thin, cardboard-covered booklet with undated pages for each week in a year—no more, no less.

Buying Options

Why it’s great: If all you need is a slim calendar to keep track of weekly tasks and appointments, the Muji Recycled Paper Weekly Planner has a minimalist, elegant design, and it costs much less than any other pick on our list. It’s a no-frills planner with simple boxes for each day of the week on every page.

This planner is small and thin, so it fits easily in a bag, but the layout still leaves sufficient room for writing. Depending on how much you have going on, you can split each day’s wide box into sections for work and personal deadlines, or tasks and meal plans, or any other way you want to compartmentalize your days.

Because the planner is undated, you can start your year whenever you’d like, and you can skip weeks guilt-free. As the name implies, the planner is made from recycled paper.

This planner has understated, medium-gray lines and fonts that are less distracting than those in our previous slim planner pick, the Jstory Large Weekly Planner . Despite the Muji’s dollar-store price,its smooth, cream-colored paper holds up well to all types of writing instruments, including markers and fountain pens. The stapled book doesn’t lie quite flat when opened, but it comes close.

Muji also offers a monthly recycled paper planner , which you can pair with the weekly model. It’s the same size and price.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

With this planner, you’ll find no bells and whistles, like extra room for notes. Yet the Muji Recycled Paper Weekly Planner’s simplicity is part of its appeal. If you typically have a very packed schedule, you’d be better off owning a planner with a different layout or more room for each day, such as the Erin Condren LifePlanner , the Filofax The Original Organizer , or the Agendio Planner .

Size: A5, approximately 8.3 inches by 5.7 inches

Traveler’s Company Traveler’s Notebook

Best for combining a planner with different notebooks.

This planner is a cross between a simple calendar and a beautiful journal. And you can fill it with a range of inserts for any type of planning.

May be out of stock

Traveler’s Company Traveler’s Notebook, Passport Size

Best pocket-size modular planner.

This more-compact version can fit in large pockets or small bags.

Why it’s great: Of all the planners we considered, the Traveler’s Company Traveler’s Notebook was the most popular with our testers. The simple leather folio holds thin notebooks inside (secured with an elastic band), and you can invest in whatever notebook inserts fit your planning needs. There are over a dozen options for inserts on the company’s site as well as on Amazon . Because of its compact size and its ability to add things like a zipper pocket and card holder, you can use the Traveler’s Notebook as an all-in-one organizer and wallet for wherever life takes you.

This is the original Traveler’s Notebook, a style of planner often interchangeably called the Midori (the company’s name before 2015). You can find many other brands of this style inspired by the original (they’re sometimes called “fauxdori”). And some of them are great options if you like more colors and patterns.

But the original Traveler’s Notebook is more widely available. It also has a large following in the online planner community, and the Instagram hashtag #midoritravelersnotebook is full of inspiration. While testing, we discovered that several staffers already own the Traveler’s Notebook and love it.

How the Traveler’s Notebook has held up

Senior staff writer Jackie Reeve has been using the Traveler’s Notebook since 2016, and she said it just gets better with age. The leather is soft and beautifully worn in, plus she said it’s easy to throw in her bag without damaging it.

Several of our staffers still use and love theirs, including senior editor Marguerite Preston, who said the system of swapping notebooks in and out works really well. And she said it leaves a lot of room to experiment with formats that work well for her. “My system has definitely evolved over time,” she said. “It’s also fun that you can find third-party sellers of all kinds of variations of inserts on places like Etsy.”

• The leather, which looks pristine when new, quickly becomes worn with visible scuffs and scratches (we think this just adds to the character of the planner). Also, the notebooks won’t lie completely flat. One of our 10 staff testers thought the regular size was too big for the portability he wanted. Using the passport size and keeping fewer notebooks inside would address those concerns.
• Note that the Traveler’s Notebook comes with a blank notebook by default, so you’ll need to buy a planner insert (normally $10 to $15) separately. Options include undated monthly , weekly vertical , and weekly horizontal plus notes section .

Sizes: regular, 4.9 by 8.7 inches; passport, 3.9 by 5.3 inches

Colors: black , brown , camel , blue

Filofax The Original Organizer (personal size)

The best refillable planner.

Though expensive, this Filofax planner is the highest-quality leather option we tested, and it’s small enough to fit in a bag. You can also purchase refills for it from multiple other brands.

Filofax The Original Organizer (A5 size)

A larger refillable planner.

This bigger, A5-size Filofax is just as good as the smaller version, but this one has more writing space. It works with any A5 inserts, so you can purchase refills from whatever brand you like.

Why it’s great: If you want a high-quality refillable planner for business, we recommend Filofax’s The Original Organizer (which is still made by the English company that made the high-quality leather organizers iconic in the 1980s). The layouts come with a good amount of writing space for each day, and the planner has plenty of plain paper in the back for notes and lists.

We looked at several other business planners in stores, including synthetic-leather versions of the Day-Timer and Day Runner planners, and we tested leather and synthetic-leather planners from Franklin, Levenger, and Quo Vadis. The quality of the Filofax planner stood out—the leather looked and felt exceptional, and the stitching was neater. We also prefer the Filofax planner’s overall look, layout, and color choices.

Filofax’s The Original Organizer comes in fewer sizes than other three-ring planners (only two for the model we tested), but it offers more insert options , including dated and undated calendars and an August-to-July academic diary . Third-party companies on Etsy also sell inserts specifically designed to fit Filofax planners. We tested the Personal size, which would be good for carrying in a handbag. The Original Organizer is also available in a larger, A5 size, which works with any A5 paper insert. Be cautious with the Filofax personal-size inserts—some planner brands change the size slightly so that it doesn’t fit a Filofax, or they call it something else, even if the paper fits.

How Filofax’s The Original Organizer has held up

Senior staff writer Jackie Reeve, who has owned and used The Original Personal Organizer in the Union Jack print since 2016, notes that “the leather itself is in great shape, and there’s no real fraying at the stitching or along the edges.” One Wirecutter staffer has had problems with the rings misaligning on her Filofax organizers, but that hasn’t been a universal experience.

Our testers thought Filofax’s The Original Organizer was austere and expensive for a planner. But once you purchase the cover, you only have to buy inserts in subsequent years. If you’re looking for a more affordable ring-bound planner, or if you’d prefer faux leather to real leather, you might like the Simple Stories Carpe Diem A5 Planner (a former also-great pick). It comes in the same personal and A5 sizes, as well as several bright colors and feminine designs. Jackie has had a Filofax planner since 2016, and it still looks new.

Sizes: ring-bound personal, 5.38 by 7.38 inches; ring-bound A5, 7.8 by 9.2 inches

Colors: 17 colors, including the classic leather, patent leather , and pastel Union Jack print

Erin Condren LifePlanner

A customizable planner with an artsy aesthetic.

This designer pick is decorated on the outside and the inside. It features a cover you can personalize, and there are three layouts to choose from.

Why it’s great: If you could use a bit more color in your life, and you’d like to motivate yourself with inspirational quotes and fun stickers, the Erin Condren LifePlanner will give you the most options. At 7 by 9 inches, it’s bigger than most of our other picks, and therefore it has more writing space per day. Our testers liked that it comes in a choice of weekly vertical, weekly horizontal, or hourly layouts. And there’s also a wide range of removable, interchangeable laminated covers —from Hello Kitty and Star Wars designs to abstract shapes to custom photo collages.

Unlike most other planners that have only a cover design and plain pages, the LifePlanner offers three interior-design themes (floral, typography, or paint strokes). The monthly pages are decorated with the theme you choose, the monthly tab pages feature motivational quotes, and the weekly pages’ colored accents match the tabs. The paper has a slightly toothy texture that’s satisfying to write on, especially with a pencil. Due to the high-quality coil binding, the pages move smoothly, so the planner sits flat when it’s open on a desk.

In addition to the included stickers, there are plenty of accessories—covers, stickers, sticky notes, pens—widely available for decorating the LifePlanner. An Etsy search for “Erin Condren stickers” alone yielded more than 100,000 results at the time of publication, and Erin Condren’s site offers plenty of other accessories . If you’re interested in the planner community, the LifePlanner has active posters on Instagram , in Facebook groups, and on YouTube channels .

The planner is sold through the Erin Condren site as well as at Amazon and Staples, but to customize it you’ll need to stick to the official website. The official site also offers specialty planners, including academic planners with class scheduling pages, teacher lesson planners , and a wedding planner book .

How the Erin Condren LifePlanner has held up

Senior staff writer Jackie Reeve has been using Erin Condren planners off and on since 2015, and she still enjoys their durability, layout, and range of available third-party accessories. She found the LifePlanner to be an ideal planner for PTA meetings. Her one function-related complaint is that in 2019 the company changed the layout of its pages slightly, so the perfectly sized stickers she had stockpiled from various Etsy sellers no longer fit. The official site also offers specialty planners, including academic planners with class scheduling pages, teacher lesson planners , and a wedding planner book .

• Some shoppers may not want to support the Erin Condren brand, due to a June 2020 incident the founder was involved in that inflamed tensions surrounding COVID-era social-distancing policies and the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests . Since then, the company has released planners celebrating identity, including Pride Month and Black History Month collections, and donated some of the proceeds to charity. The company is also no longer owned by Erin Condren herself but rather by her longtime business partner, who is also co-owner of EC Design. This is still the best highly decorated planner because of the customization options. However, if you don’t want to shop from Erin Condren, we recommend The Happy Planner or the weekly or daily planners from the Black-owned Ivory Paper Company .
• As for the planner itself, in our initial testing some of our testers wanted something more portable; it is about an inch thick and best suited for using on a desk. Softcover and ring-bound versions are available, though they’re not as customizable as the coiled-bound model.

Sizes: coil-bound , 7 by 9 inches; coil-bound A5, 5.8 by 8.3 inches

Colors: 80-plus prints for coil-bound

Laurel Denise Mini Horizontal Weekly Planner

A planner with a holistic monthly and weekly view.

This planner’s innovative layout lets you simultaneously see your broad plans for the month, along with the weekly and daily details.

Why it’s great: The Laurel Denise Mini Horizontal Weekly Planner has a layout and design unlike any other. Instead of the standard monthly spread followed by weekly pages (or, worse, a section of monthly pages divorced from their weekly counterparts), this planner combines a monthly calendar with weekly pages in one spread.

Say what? How? Flip open the wide planner (it measures 9.875 inches wide by 7.25 inches high), and you’ll find a monthly calendar on the left, a notes section with a monthly to-do list on the right, and, nestled in between, four to five half-size sheets for the weekly pages. This means you can see your appointments and special events in the calendar view while also seeing your day-specific notes and weekly to-dos at once. It’s a game changer if you’ve ever struggled with balancing long-term planning and day-to-day focusing.

In addition to this unique layout, the Laurel Denise planner offers two yearly pages at the front to plan out goals and things to remember, a monthly habit tracker, a few notes pages at the back, and a page for lists like hobbies, gratitude, and books. We like that these pages are available but not forced on you on every page, as you find with other planners.

The Mini Horizontal Weekly Planner is dated, but Laurel Denise also sells undated planners and vertical weekly planners . These are all substantially larger than the Mini; they are sized like scrapbooks or large photobooks, so they’re not as portable. Other variations include a dated academic planner , teacher planners , and project planners .

To unlock the full potential of this planner, check out Laurel Denise’s guide on how to use the planner system for inspirational implementations.

Even though this planner is a “mini” version, it’s wide when unfolded. You can fold the Laurel Denise Mini Horizontal Weekly Planner back, but then you’ll lose the benefit of seeing each week spread across two pages. So just know you’ll need some space on your desk to use this planner.

Sizes: mini, 9.875 by 7.25 inches; regular, 12.75 by 9.25 inches

Colors: evergreen (mini), various colors and patterns for the larger planners

Agendio Planner

The best customizable planner.

This planner offers a seemingly infinite number of customization options, so you can create one that’s truly your own.

Why it’s great: If you’ve never had a planner that’s been just right for your needs, the Agendio Planner could solve that problem. It’s the most customizable planner we’ve come across.

In addition to offering three planner sizes, three paper thicknesses, three layout formats (days shown in a column, row, or grid), and a myriad of hardcover and spiral-bound printed covers, the Agendio Planner lets you fine-tune just about everything on the page, such as the fonts and font colors. You can add your own events or repeating activities, like monthly meetings or gym schedules, and they can be highlighted in different colors. This is the best way we’ve found to create a one-of-a-kind planner.

We think the best feature of the Agendio Planner is its “pagelets” page sections—blocks that can be used for notes, lists, reminders, and more. You can customize the pagelets’ sizes, labels, background shading, and line spacing. A specific type of section, called the “span,” stretches across a vertical weekly spread, so you can view tasks or projects that overlap multiple days and plan your time better.

For further customization, this planner has an “extra pages library,” which includes templates such as budget, habits, meals, and meetings. And, as with this planner’s other pages, you can place these extra pages wherever you want in the book.

• If you don’t like making a lot of decisions, the Agendio Planner is not for you. It can be as overwhelming as redesigning your bathroom, and going through all of the customization options can take a good part of your morning or afternoon. But we think it’s worth it if you want a very specific, personalized planner.
• The price of this planner changes depending on how many bells and whistles you add. Tabs, extra pages, and detachable corners, for example, cost extra, and you won’t see the full price of the planner until you’ve finished customizing it. The typical cost is between $45 and $95, according to the company.

Sizes: journal, 5.5 by 8 inches; medium, 7 by 9 inches; large, 8.5 by 11 inches Colors: over 150 soft spiral-bound printed covers; 10 synthetic leather hard-cover colors

If you’re looking for a traditional, dated planner: Consider the MochiThings Medium Ardium Planner . The bookbound Ardium stands out from other basic monthly and weekly planners due to its elegant design details, such as the colored page edges that group the months together, the sturdy cover with a grippy feel, and the light brown accent shading on each page. The layout offers a two-page monthly spread followed by two-page weekly spreads with the days of the week in boxes on the left and a gridded note page on the right. MochiThings makes a variety of planners in other formats and styles that may be worth exploring as well.

If you have a packed agenda and need a planner with daily schedules: The Day Designer Daily Planner may be for you. It has a roomy, two-page spread for each day, with sections for top priorities, a daily schedule, to-do list, notes, and prompts such as deadlines, gratitude, and dinner. Because it’s a daily planner, the Day Designer is very bulky, and the pages can be hard to turn. The “mini” size is 6.6 inches wide by 8.3 inches tall, with a 1.5-inch thickness, and it weighs almost 2 pounds.

If you want a customizable planner that doesn’t require a lot of time or effort to create: Check out the Plum Paper planner. It's not as thoroughly customizable as the Agendio Planner, but it’s simpler to design, with fewer steps to make choices and a more-intuitive user interface. A “simplified” mode reduces the number of options to choose from, for an even more streamlined process. To be clear, the Plum Paper planner still requires an investment in time and effort—a bit more than for creating a photo book, for example. Yet it may not be as overwhelming for some people as the everything-you-may-want-and-then-some Agendio. The Plum Paper planner is available with coil or disc binding, and there’s a hardcover with a printed design option, instead of the standard plastic cover.

If you want a planner with goal-setting and habit-tracking prompts: Consider the Purpose Planner . It’s an undated, large (7.5-by-9.8-inch), six-month productivity planner, with sections for lists like “to buy,” reading, bucket lists, and to-do lists for work or home. The Purpose Planner encourages you to think about all aspects of your life and the roles you play (such as parent, employee, sibling, artist, pet owner), so you’re on top of everything that matters to you.

If you need an academic planner: The Class Tracker is the best student-focused planner. It has pages for jotting down each semester’s schedule (including the summer break), and each day in the two-page weekly spread has sections for assignments, tasks, and quizzes/exams/papers/projects. Some sections may feel too prescriptive or unnecessary, such as the habit-tracking “self care corner” and “X weeks until Y” parts. The cardboard cover isn’t as sturdy as those of most of our main picks, and the design looks dated, but the structured layout does the job.

If you’ve researched options for artistic planning, goal tracking, or bullet journaling, you might be familiar with Hobonichi planners. This Japanese brand is known for its Tomoe River Paper , which is ultrathin (almost half the thickness of a piece of copy paper) and known for its resistance to bleeding and feathering from many different pens (even fountain pens). This paper keeps the Hobonichi planners slim and lightweight, even though they are packed with a page for every day. And it makes them very appealing for artists and journalers who like portability.

Several Wirecutter staffers use Hobonichi planners and love them, and in our tests the Hobonichi Techo Original and the Hobonichi Techo Cousin fared quite well. We’re not featuring them as main picks because their availability is limited. JetPens stocks Hobonichi planners, and Hobonichi has an Amazon storefront . Several of the covers we looked at on Amazon had low stock. But shipping time is much shorter on Amazon, and you’ll have a better user experience on Amazon than ordering from the Japanese site, which one staffer noted was very basic. If you find a planner and a cover you like in stock on Amazon or JetPens, or if you can find these planners locally at a stationery shop or bookstore, they’re worth a look.

Planners are for anyone who likes writing things down on paper, and they can be a particularly good tool if you’re unhappy with digital options for tracking your time and your task lists. As Sarah McNally, owner of McNally Jackson Books, told us, “You can approach it on your own terms. It’s calm and still, it doesn’t beep out reminders.”

The best planner will accommodate the way you think and what you want to capture, rather than forcing you to fill in a template that doesn’t fit your needs. Some people use planners not just for looking into the future but also as a sort of journal or scrapbook, for jotting down memories. So finding the right planner that you can use year after year is indeed a win.

To sort through the many options, consider the following:

Layout: If you just want to keep track of your appointments and deadlines, if you don’t use a planner to take notes, or if you’re a minimalist, you might prefer a sparse calendar—for instance, the Muji planner’s weekly horizontal format, which offers a wide block of space for each day stacked on top of the next.

People with a busy schedule—including those who manage a multi-person household—will need more room for each day. A vertical weekly format, where each day is laid out in columns, would divide the days into time chunks for many appointments or events. (Most of our planner picks offer a vertical layout as well as a horizontal one.) Or you might need a thick planner, such as the Day Designer, with one or two pages dedicated to each day.

Dates: Dated planners conveniently print holidays and sometimes other time-sensitive information, such as moon phases, so you don’t have to write those down yourself. Undated planners, however, let you start whenever you want and skip days or weeks guilt-free. If you have an erratic schedule (for example, if you’re a freelancer), an undated planner may suit you best.

Size: Most planners come in “journal” notebook sizes, 5.5 by 8 inches. These are ideal to use on a cramped desk and to take with you on a commute to the office. Larger sizes, of course, offer more room to write, but they also take up more space. So consider where you’ll use the planner most and whether you want it to be portable.

Cover and binding: Softcover planners made of cardboard or laminate weigh less, but they aren’t as sturdy as hardcover planners. Coil-bound planners are easier to fold flat or fold back than stitched planners, but they can snag on other objects in your bag. This can be an aesthetic choice, too. Think about the type of notebook you like to use best, and apply that to your planner choice.

Design: Last but not least, pick a planner that looks great to you. You’re going to use it every day, so it should bring you joy every day.

Our best advice: See if the planner company offers printable layouts (typically PDF downloads). Print them out and spend a week with them. Or check Instagram for that planner, to see how others are using the layouts, and consider how you’ll use them.

Paper planners encompass a broad range of options, from minimal, undated books with very little formatting to neatly partitioned pages. Some have no adornments or decorations inside, while others have pretty themes and cheerful, motivational messages throughout. We looked at the whole spectrum and decided to select planners in different categories, with an emphasis on those that are customizable or offer some flexibility beyond the standard dated monthly-weekly format.

We researched dozens of brands to narrow down our testing picks, and we asked Wirecutter staffers what they would want to pay for a new planner. You can generally expect to pay less than $50 for a good planner, with a few exceptions. A planner should fit your specific needs, and you may discover that a simple, inexpensive planner you find at a big-box store works better for you than our picks.

Since 2017, we’ve tested 64 planners in different rounds, and our testers have included a mix of paper-planner owners, people who wanted to get a paper planner, and those who’d tried paper planners and were dissatisfied. They gave us notes on what they would personally look for in a paper planner (size, writing space, fonts, the feel of the materials) and how they wanted to use one (simple scheduling, goal planning, and so on).

Our testers looked at each blank new planner and gave their feedback, and in some cases they changed their criteria after examining a planner in person. This is what happens to a lot of people—they buy a planner and later realize it isn’t right for them. So we tried to pick planners that worked for what people actually wanted, not what they thought they wanted.

We knew of several brands through the planner community and what we personally used; we also talked to several staffers about what they used, and we interviewed experts, who helped us determine our criteria for picking planners to test. The following features are the ones to look for:

Customization: We looked for planners that offered different page layout options, as well as many cover colors and designs, so more people could find the best fit. For ring-bound planners, we wanted a standard paper size so we could swap in any inserts from any compatible brand.

Plenty of space for writing: We wanted planners that had enough room for us to jot down tasks, appointments, and notes. We looked for tall, well-spaced lines or boxes wide enough to fit two or three words in a row.

A sturdy and low-frustration binding: JetPens’ Shu Yao noted, “Many planners are meant to last the entire year or academic year, so it needs to survive daily wear.” Coil bindings allow for smoother page-turning than disc bindings, which have individual, disconnected discs that don’t move fluidly together. A ring-bound, refillable planner is especially useful if it holds a standard, easy-to-find paper size. Book-bound or hardbound covers are less bulky than the other types. We preferred planners that let the book lie flat when open.

High-quality materials: We wanted planner covers that held up to wear, paper that was pleasant to write on, and sturdy tabs that didn’t bend when flipped. Sarah McNally of McNally Jackson Books told us, “A planner is a physical relationship you are embarking on. You will touch it as much as a wallet for the next year.” Laminated, leather, or hard covers last longer than cardboard or card-stock covers. And the paper should be creamy and sturdy—Yao told us this is a key consideration when JetPens looks for planners to carry. You don’t want paper so flimsy that it tears as you turn the pages or lets ink bleed through to the next page.

A variety of sizes: We looked for brands that offered both smaller, portable sizes and larger, desk-appropriate sizes. Especially with refillable planners—which are often a pricier initial purchase—we liked having size options that were standardized across a few brands of planners and inserts (such as the A5 size, which fits 5.83-by-8.27-inch paper).

Availability: We decided to focus on brands that were readily available online and, preferably, in at least some physical stores. The experts we interviewed gave us some great suggestions for smaller planner companies, but many of those could be difficult to source and were too niche for this guide.

With all of the planners we tested, we paid close attention to the paper quality and how well the sheets held ink from Sharpies and Uni-ball gel pens. We looked at the construction of the bindings and how sturdy the covers were, and we considered how useful the layouts were and how much writing space they offered. We also painted on them with watercolors to see how the paper held water and color.

This is not a comprehensive list of paper planners we’ve tested. We have removed models that are discontinued or no longer meet our criteria.

Refillable planners

The Simple Stories Carpe Diem A5 Planner is a former also-great pick. And if you avoid buying leather, or you want something less expensive than a Filofax planner, it’s a great choice. It comes in fewer colors than Filofax’s The Original Organizer, and most binders and inserts have a feminine design. In stores we’ve seen these only at Hobby Lobby, but they’re still easier to get than many of the imported planners we’ve tested and recommended. It’s also available in a personal size.

The Happy Planner is a highly decorated planner, similar to the Erin Condren LifePlanner. We didn’t like this planner’s disc binding; opening it all the way around to look at one page at a time wasn’t as smooth as with a coil-bound planner. However, one of our staffers long-term tested this planner for a year and told us the format really worked for her, and she didn’t mind the discs. You can technically refill these planners, swap covers, or add inserts, but they’re so often on sale at craft stores that most people just buy a new one each year.

The Levenger Circa Weekly smartPlanner felt more useful than the Franklin planner we tested, but it’s expensive (a leather cover is sold separately), and we’ve found disc-bound systems more difficult to use.

We reconsidered the classic FranklinPlanner Original Weekly Ring-bound Planner in 2018, after initially dismissing other versions we saw in office-supply stores. We tested the compact and classic sizes and found the Franklin inserts to be especially cramped for writing space, compared with what you’d get with the Filofax planner.

Spiral-bound planners

The Papier Planner , available in spiral or book binding, offers a wide range of cover styles that you can personalize with your name or initials. We tested the academic year version, but the majority of panelists preferred the Class Tracker’s higher-contrast pages and darker fonts. That said, two panelists (including one college-bound tester who dislikes planners in general) preferred the smooth feel of the Papier’s pages, as well as its helpful sections such as schedule, deadlines, and project notes. It’s worth a look if you want an academic planner that looks and feels a bit more elegant than basic monthly-and-weekly planners.

The Day Designer planner is a former pick, and it’s senior staff writer Jackie Reeve’s personal favorite for everyday use, but it’s bigger and bulkier than our picks. If you like a weighty planner that you can leave on your desk, this one has a hard-board cover, sturdy spiral binding, and daily page layouts with space for appointments, to-do lists, and notes.

The Planner Pad is another former pick, and we recommend it if you’re looking to group your tasks and appointments by category. Its highly structured format isn’t as flexible as those of our picks, but the layout may match how you like to divide your week and your days.

Our testers weren’t wild about the Blue Sky Weekly and Monthly Planner ’s layouts, which have a pattern on every page. But Blue Sky offers endless print options, so you may find one you like. Blue Sky previously offered an academic year planner with extra functionality for students, and we liked it, but it no longer exists.

We tested the Black-owned Ivory Paper Company’s 12 Month Daily Planner , which is similar to the Day Designer planner. It’s a nice book with a pleasing cover, but the paper felt like copy paper, and the page layouts were less sophisticated. It was hard to see how this planner cost more than a Day Designer planner, which isn’t cheap.

The At-A-Glance weekly appointment book is a classic business planner available at office-supply stores, but it was a bit too big, too businesslike, and too narrow for us to write in the hourly format.

We recommend Field Notes notebooks as the best pocket notebook for jotting stuff down, but our testers didn’t like the Field Notes 56-Week Planner . They said its looks were less appealing than those of other models, and they noted the lines on the paper were too dark for what they wanted in a planner.

Book-bound planners

The only thing keeping us from fully recommending the Muji High Quality Monthly Planner is its limited availability. If you want a standard dated planner, run to get it when it comes out every November to December, because the silky paper is just exquisite.

The Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal 2 is an excellent notebook with guidelines for bullet journaling (also known as “BuJo”). But we eliminated this former pick from the running because it’s really more of a blank notebook than an actual planner, which should have at least some date structure.

Similarly, Rhodia’s Goalbook bullet journal contains only grid-dot paper, with no instructions or tips, and our testers found that design to be too freeform. Our testers thought the cover was too fragile (it was already dented at one corner from shipping) and that the grid dots on the pages were too dark.

The Moo Perpetual Planner is an undated planner with high-quality paper, as one would expect from the company that makes the best business cards . It has a versatile format, with blank space on the top third of each page and days shown in columns beneath that (the week spans two pages). We found the columns a bit narrow (they’d require tiny handwriting to be usable). And we found the colored cardstock dividers for each quarter to be somewhat puzzling to use (they’re all lined differently, with an isometric pattern on one section). However, we like that this planner invites creativity in terms of figuring out how you’ll use the space provided.

The Paperage Planner has the same high-quality, thick paper as the lined journal , which is our budget notebook pick. The planner has a standard monthly and weekly layout, and it’s a good option if you want to spend less than $15 on a hardcover planner with a sturdy cover. We think the MochiThings Medium Ardium Planner feels more polished and special, though it costs more than three times as much.

We tested the Lemome Weekly & Monthly Planner in summer 2020 after seeing it rise in popularity over the previous year. It has a 1950s prep-school charm to it, with a black cover, gold lettering, and a pen holder. After the MochiThings Ardium Planner, it’s the next-best book-bound planner we’ve tried. It’s not very expensive, but the layout is notably basic, and it comes in only one color.

A former pick, the Panda Planner Classic has the most structured layout, with prompts and partitioned sections, such as “Today’s Priorities,” “Morning Review,” and “Things I Will Do to Make This Week Great.” It may be too prescriptive for most people, and it covers only three months, but if you want to try a new productivity system, it’s ideal for goal planning.

The Passion Planner was unpopular in testing because of the inside page design, the cramped writing space, and a cover that showed greasy thumbprints. One staffer liked the visual design of the layouts, but we preferred the Purpose Planner for goal tracking.

The Full Focus Planner is another option similar to the Purpose Planner and the Panda Planner Classic, with prompts to help keep you accountable and productive. In our tests, it wasn’t as intuitive to learn to use, and that might be a barrier for people to stay with it.

The Productivity Planner is also laid out with prompts and involves a system for tracking your time and output. But of all the planners we’ve tested, this one is the most complicated to use—it has 34 pages of instructions at the start of the book. It also lacks simple calendar layouts to track appointments or to plan ahead for projects and goals.

The Jstory Large Weekly Planner is a former pick for bare-bones, simple scheduling. The Muji Recycled Paper Weekly Planner has a less distracting minimalist design, and it usually costs $15 less.

The Ohh Deer Daily Planner offers only enough room for four months’ worth of entries, so you’d have to get three per year, making it one of the most expensive planners we’ve tested. And though this planner is sold in several cover designs, each one features a slightly different interior layout that isn’t disclosed on its product page.

Planners we tested or looked at that lacked sufficient room for jotting down daily to-do lists and notes include the Papier Planner , the regular-size Moleskine planners , and the Leuchtturm1917 Week Planner .

This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.

Meet your guides

Jackie Reeve

Jackie Reeve is a senior staff writer covering bedding, organization, and home goods at Wirecutter since 2015. Previously she was a school librarian, and she’s been a quilter for about 15 years. Her quilt patterns and her other written work have appeared in various publications. She moderates Wirecutter’s staff book club and makes her bed every morning.

Kaitlyn Wells

Kaitlyn Wells is a senior staff writer who advocates for greater work flexibility by showing you how to work smarter remotely without losing yourself. Previously, she covered pets and style for Wirecutter. She's never met a pet she didn’t like, although she can’t say the same thing about productivity apps. Her first picture book, A Family Looks Like Love , follows a pup who learns that love, rather than how you look, is what makes a family.

Melanie Pinola

Melanie Pinola covers home office, remote work, and productivity as a senior staff writer at Wirecutter. She has contributed to print and online publications such as The New York Times, Consumer Reports, Lifehacker, and PCWorld, specializing in tech, work, and lifestyle/family topics. She’s thrilled when those topics intersect—and when she gets to write about them in her PJs.

Further reading

The Best Paper Shredders

We tested top shredders for use at home and in small offices and found easy-to-use workhorses that can help protect your identity.

What a Wirecutter Home-Office Expert Uses to Organize Her Desk

Velcro strips, a glass easel, and a desk pad are just a few of the things our productivity expert uses to get through each workday.

How to Go Paperless With Your Home Office

Here’s how to save your tax records digitally so you can get rid of the paper in your home office

5 Tips to Declutter Your Home Office

Clutter can creep up on you when you work from home. Here’s how to get organized so it doesn’t mess with your focus and productivity.

How I stay organized as a PhD student

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of planning, scheduling and journaling. It’s the main way I tackle executive dysfunctioning and has become a crucial part of my life as a scientist and researcher. Getting the balance between organization and leaving room for flexibility, which is vital for researchers, can be a challenge. I often get asked to share the details of my planning system and how I am such an organized PhD student, so I thought it was about time I wrote a blog post on it!

In this post I’ll try to detail the ways I plan my time, set goals, reflect on my progress, facilitate growth through learning, and build my self-esteem. This system has been developed slowly over time and I’m sure it will continue to change as I learn and grow. I think that’s an important thing to remember: your planning system doesn’t have to be static. It can be moulded to suit your needs at that particular time in your life. Equally, what works for me might not work for you, so I’d recommend trying to experiment with different ways of planning and journaling to discover what suits you and how your brain works. There are plenty of resources online for inspiration! Hopefully, this post can be another resource to help those who might also benefit from the way I do planning, scheduling and journaling.

My organization system is essentially broken up into two sections: scheduling and journalling. I find a mixture of the two works best as scheduling gives me much-needed structure and journalling allows me to be more flexible and free-form.

When I first started my PhD I tried doing all of my planning in a bullet journal, but this ended up not being very sustainable for me as I often didn’t have the energy to layout monthly and weekly spreads ahead of time and the future log wasn’t working for me. So, I decided I’d get a planner that already has the monthly and weekly spreads with time slots I could block out. I find it really useful to see time blocks visually and take my planner with me everywhere so that I can jot down any future appointments and events even when I don’t have internet access. I use a passion planner at the moment but any planner with time slots should work just as well.

In my planner, I use what I like to call a ‘skeleton routine’. Here’s how the skeleton routine works: I have a set of recurring events that happen every weekday (and some continue during the weekend). These include morning and evening reflections in my journal, checking my emails twice a day, an hour-long lunch break from 12-1, and going through new paper alerts. Around these daily repeating tasks, I also have some weekly repeating tasks like a block of time on Monday morning especially for reviewing theory, meetings with my specialist mentor, progress meetings and journal club with my supervisor (these last two alternate week to week but are at the same time). Sometimes the meetings with other people have to change last minute or maybe I am unable to attend, but I know that there will always be those key tasks that are purely in my control to keep me anchored throughout the week. The great thing about the skeleton routine is that I can do these tasks wherever I am, including if I am away at a conference.

This leaves me with quite a lot of free time blocks which can be filled with the priorities for that day and anything that comes up last minute. I find that this balance of structure and flexibility has really helped me work to the best of my ability. It helps reduce some of the unpredictability of PhD life and giving me the comfort of a routine, while also leaving room for that all-important flexibility.

My schedule in my physical planner is coupled with my outlook calendar so at the end of the working day I make sure to transfer any new events I’ve put in my planner into my outlook calendar. This way anyone who I have shared my calendar with (such as my supervisor) can see when I am busy and schedule meetings around that.

While my planner keeps my time semi-structured, it’s my journal that keeps me grounded and focused on my values and goals. It’s also the place where I get my thoughts out of my head and onto a page so they’re not cluttering up my brain and I know I can always refer back to them in my journal. The beauty of the bullet journal system is how it can be adapted to suit any needs, but here I’ll share the way I use the system at the moment.

At the beginning of each month, I sit down to reflect on the previous month and plan out the coming month. This generally consists of a title page, monthly tasks list, monthly inventory, monthly overview, and my priority tasks and deadlines:

The title page is mostly just to mark the new month. I tend to pick a colour palette for the month and attempt to do some brush lettering. It’s a place to get a bit creative!

The monthly task list is something of a new addition to my system. It’s basically a place to put the bigger tasks that are never going to be done in one day or even a week. This way I’m not having to constantly migrate these bigger tasks but I can refer to them when I make my weekly pages and create some sub-tasks to achieve those monthly tasks. I add to this page throughout the month and sometimes these get migrated to the next month and that’s okay! It’s just a place to keep bigger tasks in mind without being constantly faced with them as daily tasks.

I think it’s the monthly inventory that makes the biggest difference to me at the beginning of the month. You can do this on a separate piece of paper as Ryder Carroll suggests in his book ‘The Bullet Journal Method’ but I prefer to just keep it as a page in the journal itself. It’s here where I just dump all the tasks/projects I am currently working on, should be working on, and want to be working on. The exercise is just to get everything out of your head and onto the page. I do a lot of flicking back through the previous month to see what open tasks I have during this process! Once I’ve written all the tasks I can think of, I read back through them and mark a few priorities from each column. The inventory is primarily a place for me to reflect both on what I’ve achieved the previous month and on what I most want to focus on in the coming month.

I just use a super simple monthly overview where I put down any events that I want to remember. This overview couples with my 3-4 priority tasks and any deadlines for the month which just keeps me on track. If I write them down I can’t pretend they don’t exist so I’m more likely to meet the deadlines!

At the beginning of each week, I spend some time thinking about the week ahead and what I want to achieve. My process for weekly bullet journal planning is kind of a mini version of the monthly pages:

The first weekly page contains a focus for each day, list of events and three priority tasks for the week. This is where I have to think really hard about where I want to be focusing my energy for the week in order to achieve my goals!

After this, I do a big braindump. This is something like a more detail-oriented version of the monthly inventory. It’s a big list of all the open tasks I can think of and it’s these that I pull from into my daily pages.

For me, it’s the daily spreads that’s where the magic really happens. Dailies are the pages where I get the most inspired! I start off by doing a morning reflection which is usually just me writing out any thoughts, anxieties and feelings that I’m having to clear my mind. I then write out a daily affirmation. This always feels a little silly but since I started doing daily affirmations I think that I’m actually starting to believe myself which is helping with my self-esteem.

After this, I’ll make a list of the events for that day and any tasks I want to complete. These can be directly pulled from the weekly brain dump or sometimes I break one of those into smaller, more manageable tasks in my daily. I also sometimes write notes and thoughts throughout the day in the daily log if they’re things I want to remember or return to!

In the evening I take some time to sit down and reflect on my day. I check my daily tasks and mark off all those that are completed (if I haven’t done so already!). I also take some time to look at unfinished tasks and ask myself why I am doing this task and whether it is worth my time. If it isn’t I strike it out. If it is, it’ll get migrated onto the next daily to-do list the next morning. After this, I tend to write a little summary of my day focusing on what I learned that day and what I’d like to achieve the next day. I finish off by writing down something I’m grateful for which often gets me into a better headspace before I start to unwind for the evening.

Collections

A key part of the bullet journal system for me is making collections. Collections are pages where you gather ideas together under a theme. I like to use them for all sorts of lists and I often return to them to add more notes. Here are some examples of collections I keep:

• Ideas for new experiments/potential papers to write
• Research pipeline
• Big long-term goals (things like ‘getting my PhD’ and ‘buying a house’)
• Morning and evening reflection prompts
• Blog post ideas
• Places I’d like to pitch a story to
• Youtube video ideas

Morning and evening prompts collection, research pipeline, writing and youtube video ideas collection

You can make a collection about anything and the beauty is that they can be returned to again and again to expand your ideas.

Some resources

Here are some resources that have been useful to me when developing my planning and journaling system:

• https://bulletjournal.com/ – the bullet journal website is a great place to learn about the system and get inspired.
• https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Bullet-Journal-Method-by-Ryder-Carroll-author/9780008261375 – Ryder Carroll’s book ‘The Bullet Journal Method’ is a fantastic overview of bullet journaling as a system and personal philosophy.
• https://dailystoic.com/journaling/ – A great (and extensive) article on journaling from Ryan Holiday of the Daily Stoic. Particularly useful if you’re new to journaling and interested in the philosophical side of it.
• https://medium.com/thrive-global/start-journaling-54ea2edb104 – ‘The Life-Changing Habit of Journaling (Why Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Many More Great Minds Recommend it)’ is a nice medium article and is shorter than the piece on the Daily Stoic if you want a quicker overview of the benefits of journaling.

If you like my work, I’d love your support!

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6 thoughts on “How I stay organized as a PhD student”

Hi Daysi, I've been working on this recently! I organized my schedules on trello, but I want to buy a journal.I read about Stoicism and it help me so much. I'm doing my PhD too (work with biogeography).Thaks for sharing! 😊

Hi Patricia! I like to use a combination of physical and digital tools which works well. Trello is great, especially for collaboration. Hope your PhD is going well!

Thanks so so much for sharing your organization system in such a thorough, detailed manner. The photos help a lot.I have to say, I'm intrigued by the concept of "Research Pipeline" and would love for you to expand on it in another blog post. In fact, it's the first time I've encountered this phrase. So thanks for introducing me to the concept.I love it when I discover the vocabulary for concepts and ideas in my head that I have not yet fully managed to connect and integrate.Great work!

The research pipeline is a concept I came across a while ago and I find it to be really useful. Here's a blog post I found on it if you want to know more: https://www.nicole-brown.co.uk/research-pipeline

Hi Daisy! Just came accross your blog and this article. After spending most of my life trying to find the best way to plan I ended up planning more than actually doing the work! I will give your method a go for my PhD work!Julien (from the applied optics group in Kent)

Hi Julien! I can totally relate to that. Good luck finding a method that works for you.

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154. How to Plan Your PhD w/ Hugh Kearns

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A PhD Plan sounds like an oxymoron, but charting a path to graduation is one of the most important things you can do as a graduate student.

This week, we talk with Hugh Kearns of Thinkwell about why PhD planning is so challenging for students, and learn about some tools that can keep your research on track.

Uncharted Territory

We start the conversation by trying to understand why planning is so difficult and so rare for PhDs.

“They’ve never done a PhD so they don’t know what’s coming,” Kearns observes. “And your previous education doesn’t prepare for research.”

He continues, “Research by its nature is uncertain. Things go wrong. And then what happens is people think that ‘Because I don’t know, we just won’t plan anything! We’ll see what happens.'”

But just because you’ve never done a PhD before, and no one has pursued your particular branch of research, that doesn’t mean you can’t plan ahead.

In fact, there are already tools and strategies, adapted from project management in the business world, that will help you set some guide rails around your winding path to a PhD.

Getting Your PhD Plan Backward

Traditional ‘forward’ planning works great for a well-worn process, like building a house. Builders know from experience that you can’t build the walls until you’ve poured the foundation, and you can’t paint until the drywall is installed.

Each of those activities has a reasonably predictable timeline, so you can plan the construction of a home week by week until it’s finished.

But a PhD isn’t quite at prescriptive. Sure, you know you need to do a literature review, but how long does that take? And how long will experiments take?

The fact is, they’ll take as much time as you give them. There’s no definitive ‘finish line’ for a literature review the way there is for a construction project. You just need to decide how long you’re willing to give the review, and stop when it’s ‘good enough.’

That’s why Kearns recommends ‘backward planning’ for PhDs. You start with an end date in mind (usually when the funding runs out) and work back from there.

His book, Planning Your PhD: All the tools and advice you need to finish your PhD in three years , lays out the steps in detail, and provides some worksheets you can use to create a multi-year Thesis Plan .

In fact, he offers those worksheets for free on the website!

Drilling into Detail

With your Thesis Plan in place, you can begin the process of adding more and more detail to the events closest in time.

This ‘rolling plan’ recognizes that you don’t know what you might be doing on Tuesday March 25 at 3PM three years from now, but you CAN decide on some goals over the next six months.

And don’t stress out if those goals shift, or you don’t quite manage to meet them. If you revisit your plan on a regular schedule, you can adjust and adapt.

If you never set the goal, or never look back at what you planned, you’re guaranteed to drift as the months and years pass by.

Kearns shares some other tools, like his ‘To Day’ list that works in conjunction with your ‘To Do’ list to put a time component on your tasks. That way, you slowly make progress toward your goals, rather than watching your list grow more and more unmanageable.

The Paradox of Choice

Finally, we talk about the surprising fact having more options usually means you are less happy and get less done. Weird, right?

It’s the ‘paradox of choice,’ described by Barry Schwartz in his 2004 book of the same name, and this TED Talk .

For graduate students, that manifests as a list of things you need to get done: pour a gel, set up those reactions, manage the lab animals, read three papers, write a section of a review, respond to your PI’s email, and on and on.

And what happens when you have all those things you COULD be doing? You get overwhelmed and go scroll through Instagram instead.

Kearns recommends that you identify ‘The Next Thing’ (or TNT) and work on that. The smaller you make that task, the better!

We’ve learned over the years that PhD students don’t understand the meaning of the word “small”. Because they’ll say, “OK, I know what the task is: I’ll finish my literature review”. But this is still way too big. So now we use the word micro-task. For example, some micro-tasks are: * Add two paragraphs to the discussion section * Add the new data to Table 1 * Read my supervisor’s comments on my draft Planning Your PhD, by Hugh Kearns and Maria Gardiner

Keeping ‘The Next Thing’ manageable prevents your brain from shutting down and giving up.

And if you stack up enough ‘The Next Things’, day after day and week after week, you’ll soon be making measurable progress on your PhD!

One thought to “154. How to Plan Your PhD w/ Hugh Kearns”

There’s so many people that I’ve already approached and address the subject, and while it’s still needs to be addressed and is of great value to younger grad students… There’s something that I have experienced two times in my graduate student career, that I’ve yet to hear any academic institution discuss… What happens, when you are left alone when your advisor dies, and/or commits suicide? I realize this is a very small population of the onions that you speak to, but to those of us that I’ve gone through this, it is absolutely devastating. I’m the first person from my family to go to college, let alone grad school. Trying to finish my PhD was absolutely, not supported the least. When my advisor died it just sent things out of control. So, how do you propose to integrate maybe even in a small portion… However uncomfortable it may be, if a student is to be in such a situation where their advisor dies, And they are not receiving any support by their department which leaves them in even greater shock.. And perhaps I need them selves in limbo for years. This is what happened to me. But I had extenuating circumstances. I fought as hard as I could, While escaping a very unsafe home situation… Essentially, how do you bring up these topics for students for the worst possible case scenario for when things go wrong? Hopefully, they never do reach a point Were you have to learn that your advisor died or that you were advisor completed suicide in one of the parking garages is in your university. If you happen to plan your research out, let’s say perfectly; you have five research papers and you were on track to graduate and you were ready to give your defense And anticipated your graduation to be the next upcoming semester. You did everything right. Your plan worked. You follow the rules. What advice for students would you suggest, to prevent them from essentially falling apart completely? Because at the end of the day they put their entire lives into what they are doing here to finish up and move on with their lives. They put relationships and marriages and children on hold… So what happens when a disaster strikes? I think that should be a topic you might want to touch on in the future. Like I said, might be a small demographic, but I lost 1 advisor suddenly, An excellent professor to suicide, a remarkable and rising star an excellent lab-mate to suicide as well. I think that if we can integrate mental health and just kind of trickle it into conversations more, and dedicate more time to Just discussing it, and just discussing that mental health is as important as physical health… mental health won’t be as stigmatized as it unfortunately still is at this very day. Overall, I’m happy about the topic of this episode and this podcast in general. However, I think there are modern in inclusive pathways and things that Students really need help with especially regarding mental health and support… Especially when the loss of a lame or a advisor or a loved one… If any of this occurs, and they feel like they cannot reach out, that can be detrimental to your perfect research plan. So at the end of the day, your research plan could mean absolutely nothing. You have to essentially plan for the worst. Sounds sounds like a very pessimistic thing, I understand. But having gone through this myself, I don’t want anybody to ever experience what I have. We can only start making these extreme cases easier to deal with by Integrating it in our discussions. After all, it is quite relatable to your planning of your research and your PhD career. Because when your world gets turned upside down, your “plan” Could be dead or worthless. So where do you go from there? Just trying to provide a thought on my own take Hope it helps thanks for the podcast.

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