Tested: The 8 Best Paper Planners for Staying Organized

At this moment, there’s a good chance that this is just one of a dozen browser tabs you have open along with your email client, maybe a budgeting spreadsheet, and probably your social media manager. You’re also likely to be getting texts periodically, and receiving alerts from your calendar. It’s overwhelming, and the truth is that human beings have a saturation point when it comes to technology. Too much and we become inured to it, practically ignoring the conveniences that they were made for. This is why, rather than another screen to keep yourself organized, you should consider a paper planner. When you’re ready to go low-tech, our guide to the best paper planners for this year will save you from the machines. Look ahead as we test our favorites.

How We Tested

Let’s face it, you can walk into any Target or Walmart and pick up a planner, but we’re here to let you sift through the noise to find the best options available. We started by looking at brands we know and love from the stationary sphere and created a shortlist based on a few criteria, such as type (e.g., weekly, daily, etc.), paper and cover quality, visual aesthetic, size, and price.

From there, we sourced our units for testing and got hands-on with each and every planner, writing inside them as our very own scheduling and planning tool. We looked at construction even further, along with the experience of using each booklet and its various features. All of our findings are detailed below.

What to Look for

Size: Even though planners are usually pretty easy to lug around, this is an EDC guide, so we’ve made sure to include the measurements of each pick. But everyone’s loadout is different, and if you don’t have much space to work with, then go for something like a pocket planner.

Time: Planners range from daily to yearly, and each option provides something different. These differences are primarily found in the space allocated to each day on the pages, with daily planners using a whole page for one day (making it convenient for those with packed schedules). Weekly planners offer up to a handful of pages each week, and monthly/yearly planners are great for big-picture planning and general organization.

Material: If you’re looking for longevity and value the look and feel of a notebook, you may want to go for a hardcover (or leather) option. On the other hand, some just want a quick and light way to stay organized, and a softcover notebook can be more in line with that.

Word Note Books 2024 Standard Memorandum

Best Starter Planner: Around the 1900s, the standard memorandum was everyone’s smartphone, calendar, data planner, and notepad. Around a decade ago, Word was inspired by these vintage booklets for its modern take, cut slim for fitting into your back pocket and being taken everywhere. This slender frame increases portability, but it won’t allow you to write more than a couple of lines per day, and even those are going to be crowded. Good for those who can take concise notes or anyone who uses a larger supplementary planner, it’s also handy for chronicling your life or basic journaling on the go. Choose from their selection of leather covers if you plan on sticking with this for the future, if you work and play especially hard, or if you just want a better look to the already minimalist design.

The Good

If you’re looking for a super compact planner to bring with you everywhere you go, Word’s Standard Memorandum is a great choice. Its straightforward layout eschews complicated features for those who just want a simple calendar in their pocket. The vertical design gives you a great spatial orientation for visualizing each week (Sunday through Saturday), paired with the following week (or the previous week) on the opposing page.

I really liked the coloring here, which contrasts dark blue with red lines to separate the days. Other cool features are the full- and half-moon markers every couple of weeks, the five-inch ruler on the inside cover, and the holiday index in the back. I also love the Reminder Index in front, which is a compressed two-page yearly calendar that lets you denote the most important entries with some sort of code.

The Not So Good

If you’re an incredibly busy person, the Word planner might not be the one for you. With only four small lines per day, there’s not a ton of room for more than a couple of events per day. In other words, you won’t be able to use this as a daily to-do list. Another main issue some will have with this planner is the inability to bookmark your week. Most other planners come with this feature but this only adds a few extra beats before writing down your itinerary. However, the moments might be crucial in a time crunch.

Verdict: Not for the busiest people in the world, the Word Standard Memorandum serves as a basic, straightforward calendar for your pocket. There’s no bookmark to save your spot but there are enough cool features that make this a worthy choice. We loved the Reminder Index in front and the vertical orientation of each week to give us a clear orientation.

Field Notes 56-Week Planner

Best Ring Planner: Based in Illinois, Field Notes always produces quality materials with a no-nonsense methodology. Previously they released an “Ambition” set of notebooks that included a weekly planner. This is that planner but pumped up and ready to stand on its own. It uses a dual-ring design to help it lay flat and not spring up or catch like standard spiral binders. At 4.75 by 7.5 inches in size, it’s a little bigger than normal, but that space is used to increase the writing area so that you can add more information. Meant to survive in a shop environment, this can take a beating and keep coming back.

The Good

You might know Field Notes for its superb EDC notebooks, which are available in an array of covers. While the planner version only comes in the brown chipboard cover (and is at least twice the size of the 3.5″ x 5.5″ booklets), it maintains the company’s design ethos through and through. This can be seen in the construction quality, which is detailed on the brand’s website, from the machines used to the local companies that helped with everything from printing to binding. The chipboard is also really sturdy and can survive a crowded backpack with ease.

Unlike a typical calendar-based planner, each pair of pages is set up from Monday to Sunday, but allows you to fill in the month and date yourself. This means that you don’t have to worry about getting this planner once the year has already started. You could begin your planning from, say, December 9th if you really wanted to. Similar to the Word planner above, the inside back cover features a 7-inch ruler, along with other interesting information about Moon cycles and Leap Years. Field Notes also urges you to use this planner as a daily journal since there’s a good amount of space for each day.

The Not So Good

There’s not much to dislike about the Field Notes 56-Week Planner, but some might not love that they have to fill in the dates themselves. For regular planner users who like to start off January 1, this is a needless omission and one that prevents you from looking ahead if you haven’t filled the dates in yet. And it also leaves room for human error, which could be catastrophic if you’re off by just one day, for instance. In terms of my own experience with the planner, I wish there were more extra pages for notes, which are always nice for jotting down random miscellaneous ideas or bursts of inspiration.

I should also point out that, also like the Word planner, there’s no attached bookmark here. However, you could easily attach some sort of ribbon to the ring binding. Also, the spiral binding allows you to keep the book open to the current week if you want to.

Verdict: Building off of Field Notes’ expertise in the pocket notebook sector, the 56-Week Planner is a great choice made with the finest American construction methods, albeit it’s not pocket-sized. We loved how you’re able to fill in each week manually instead of being tethered to the calendar dates of a given year. However, some will find this an annoying extra step when trying to look ahead. Nevertheless, for the price, this is a really great planner with enough room on each day that it could double as a journal.

Leuchtturm1917 Weekly Planner

Best Weekly Planner:  Many of the EDC planners we found increased their girth to give people more room to write all their thoughts and feelings, or perhaps do sketches of unicorns. Not the organized people at Leuchtturm1917. They have project grids for planning timelines, lots of little boxes for appointments, and we’ve counted a half-dozen ways in which they’ve found new strategies for recording all the things you need to get done. You can get a 3-year overview, just in case a 5-year plan wasn’t specific enough, and for note-taking there are detachable pages that let you put down your daydreams while not interfering with your hard-and-fast plans for the future.

The Good

While many planners run an entire year’s worth of calendar days, the Leuchtturm1917 Weekly Planner stretches for a year and a half, with start months that are constantly updated with each passing month (currently, the planners run from November 2024 to February 2025). I loved the number of blank pages in the back, which I used for sketching and various note-taking. These pages are perforated here for tearing out; I remember one of my main complaints about the brand’s pocket notebook was that the pages ripped out sloppily. Also, this planner has an integrated expandable paper pocket on the back cover, which is great for receipts, ticket stubs, and the like.

A lot of leatherbound notebooks and planners stick you with a black (or maybe brown) option and that’s it, but I love how you get some unique color options with the Leuchtturm1917. We got to work with the maroon-red version you see above. The cover is really crisp and clean, and edged nicely at the binding. You also get two different color bookmarks, which is really cool and something that most planners don’t have. This is great if you’re trying to go back and forth between two dates, perhaps, or simply want to mark an important deadline in the future.

The Not So Good

There’s not a lot to complain about with the Leuchtturm1917 Weekly Planner. The construction is top-notch all around and the small features really add up to greater than the sum of its parts. I’d say I would add some lines for each of the days, just to help guide a smaller penmanship. I also found myself adding a vertical line between Saturday and Sunday. Many planners bunch these two days together to save space, but Leuctturm1917 doesn’t separate the days distinctly enough.

Verdict: Attractive and well-constructed, the Leuctturm1917 Weekly Planner is a classy take on the traditional planner, with a useful long-term project planning calendar in front and wide spaces for you to write in your daily tasks. We took advantage of the dual bookmarks and the perforated blank pages that you could tear out. We didn’t have much to complain about here but some users might want lines on their pages.

Moleskine Classic Planner, Large, Softcover

Best Softcover Planner: About the size of your standard tablet, Moleskine has perfected the simple art of the notebook planner with this 5″ x 8.25″ option. Set up like a classic planner with every two pages covering one week, from Monday to Sunday, the book also has a monthly calendar for long-term planning. You also get acid-free paper for archival purposes. A classy strap holds the notebook closed, a bookmark helps you find your place easily, and inside the back cover is a little document pocket that’s oddly the perfect size for a second, smaller planner or notebook.

The Good

Spanning from January to December, the annual planner from Moleskine is a good choice for faithful planners who know they’ll need a new book come the start of the calendar year. Lined to help you with saving space, the thin pages help lessen the thickness of this book. It has just as many pages as most of the other 52-week planners but is significantly thinner. The flappy cover also helps with this. I really liked the traditional monthly calendar built into the front of the book, which is great for delineating between the more important dates and the daily to-dos. The company also puts the week number at the top of each page set, helping you figure out how many weeks away a given event is. There’s also a section for “Ideas and Goals,” a travel map, and an 8-inch ruler. Inside the back cover, there’s an expandable pocket that holds stickers for labeling and decorating your pages.

There’s no branding on the front or back covers but I really loved the subtle debossed “2024” at the top, which gave this a hand-made look. The leather-like wrap on the softcover elevates the classiness of the book too. There are also a few color options available. Plus, Mokeskine is available at most stores like Amazon and Target so there’s always a chance you can strike a deal.

The Not So Good

I’m still not sure how I feel about the thickness of softcover planners in general, which always look like they’re sturdier than they are. The first few times I picked up this planner from the front, it bent in my hand because I kept forgetting it wasn’t a hardcover. The planner’s size might have something to do with the deception. Or it’s just me! On the other hand, the back cover is slightly thicker to help add some rigidity to the overall planner.

Also, the blank pages in the back didn’t tear out very well; they weren’t perforated like the Leuchtturm1917 planner above. I did notice that the elastic band that keeps the planner closed was a bit too stretchy. I kept feeling like the band was going to come off by itself; I wish this were a little bit tighter.

Verdict: A fan-favorite for a reason, Moleskine’s Weekly Planner not only benefits from a good price and ubiquitous availability but a clean cover design as well. While we did wish the cover were a bit sturdier and the elastic closure band a bit tighter, we loved the look and feel of this planner. Its thin pages helped to keep the book compact and the intuitive design of the interior features.

Shinola 07/52 Weekly Planner Pad

Best Minimalist Planner: You might know Shinola from their stylish, vintage-inspired wristwatches today, but the Shinola name goes back much further. Rising from the ashes of a defunct shoe polish company, the Detroit-based firm has only been around since 2011 but it’s since carved out a position for themselves as a leading purveyor of U.S.-made timepieces evocative of old Americana. Shinola no longer makes its straightforward weekly planners but this planner-calendar hybrid is a unique choice for minimalist lovers.

The Good

Made in the USA, the 07/52 Weekly Planner Pad is a unique specimen. It reads each week from left to right in a horizontal orientation, from Monday to Sunday. Unlike most planners, this gives Saturday and Sunday the same amount of real estate as the rest of the week, which is great for those who like to get a lot done on the weekends. Best of all, you can go week-by-week. And if you skip a week, the planner is designed to adapt: The top of each page has a designated spot for the dates covered on that page. While there’s no bookmark to save your spot, the planner is designed to easily rip out pages as you go so you always stay current.

On a visual level, the Shinola sports a cool, almost-vintage aesthetic that totally falls in line with the brand’s ethos. There’s minimal branding on the top binding and the big, bold “07/52” numerals on the front cover are enough to be a conversation starter.

The Not So Good

As I mentioned, the design of this planner –– be it the minimalist, week-by-week orientation or the desktop calendar-style setup –– isn’t the best for those who want to plan ahead. This is truly for those who want to take life one week at a time. Speaking of desktop calendars, I almost wish this planner had a sort of permanent stand affixed to the back so you could prop it up on your desktop.

Also, literally half of the planner (the back half) consists of lined pages for taking notes. This is an interesting detail that I took advantage of, but found it slightly impractical unless I was ripping the pages out as I went. Otherwise, I had to rifle through the planner to find what I wrote down. Needless to say, this also makes the book rather thick.

Verdict: Although it’s thick and half of the book consists of blank pages, the Shinola 07/52 is a unique, horizontally oriented weekly planner that’s perfect for your desktop in both look or function. If you take a vacation week, you simply start the week from whichever date you want, while you can tear out weeks once they’re finished, putting them behind you. Priced really fairly for what you get, the planner also has a great aesthetic that blends Shinola’s vintage-focused ethos with straightforward function.

Monk Manual 90-Day Planner

Best Planner-Journal Hybrid: For those who want a nice middle ground between a weekly and a monthly planner, this pick is for you. It covers 90 days, and, in addition to the traditional planning options, it also features personal monthly check-ins and reflections, so it doubles as a journal as well. The notebook is made with a vegan leather cover, and comes with 240 pages of acid-free paper with soy-based ink, making this a sustainable pick to boot.

The Good

If you thought Leuchtturm1917’s dual-bookmark design was useful, get a load of the (count ’em) three ribbon bookmarks on Monk Manual’s 90-Day Planner. And once you dig into the book a little more, you’ll instantly see why the trio of ribbons is completely necessary and useful. This planner is multi-faceted, allowing you to view your next 90 days (a quarterly period) in a micro and macro scope. Not only can you start your quarter from any day you want during the year but you can prioritize your weekly and monthly tasks. There’s also a small section in front with some tips on how to optimize this planner best.

With this being a planner guide, I was admittedly not prepared to think so introspectively about my days and weeks, but after using this for some time, I found myself using this along with whatever “regular” planner I was using at the time.

The Not So Good

The first thing you’ll notice about the 90-Day Planner is how thick and heavy it is, in part due to the thick cover and the number of pages (240). On the other hand, this produces a classy aesthetic that makes the planner look like a book of some sort; a journal that you might want to archive afterward.

My other minor quibble is that the three bookmarks attached to the binding are the same color. I do wish there was a better delineation between the trio of ribbons. It also goes without saying that this Monk planner won’t be what you’re looking for if you want a straightforward calendar-focused planner.

Verdict: Not your average planner, the Monk Manual 90-Day Planner lets you plan your life on a quarterly level, with sections for months, weeks, and days, marked with a trio of ribbons so you can find your current place more easily. Admittedly, the planner is thick and heavy but classy nonetheless. We found ourselves using this alongside our straightforward planner, giving this an advantage over the others here.

Hobonichi Techo Planner A6

Best Daily Planner: The Japanese have a reputation for efficiency, and the Hobonichi Techo Planner (A6) shows exactly how they do it. It’s got everything you could possibly want in a planner: Good looks, lots of space, a grid for your own personalization, places for notes, places for appointments, and the capacity to personalize. Each page bears a full day on it, so if you’re a heavy note-taker, this will save your life and prevent your poor hands from needing to crunch down and write in a small space. You can tackle each day on a granular level. Fountain-pen friendly, the book lays flat for easy writing on both sides, and can still fit into large pockets or bags without sucking up space.

The Good

I’m the kind of guy who likes to be ambitious with my days (also, I write large), so the Hobonichi Techo Planner was the standard planner I kept coming back to among the ones on this list. As far as daily planners go, the booklet is highly attractive with a vintage-looking squared design on the binding and subtle texturing on the cover, accented with golden Japanese characters. I don’t typically mind softcover planners either, but I prefer them to be small and compact like this one, which measures around 4.5″ x 5.5″ and is incredibly lightweight. It even fit into the pockets of most of my pants.

Going from January to December of the year, the planner gives you a grid for each day, with a “12” at the vertical center to mark the middle of your day if you choose to approach the planner temporally. If you don’t wanna ditch your monthly calendar entirely, there are calendar pages in the front, which even start December the year before. The side of the planner has markings for each of the twelve months, dictionary-style, so that you can navigate the book a bit easier. As a bonus, the bottom of each page features an inspirational quote from a Japanese figure, while the back section of the booklet has things such as international size conversation charts, self-reflection prompts, and information about Japanese pancakes (?).

The Not So Good

For being a daily planner, the book is surprisingly thin and lightweight, thanks to the ultra-thin pages. However, while the pages feel great under the pen, their thinness might be a bit difficult to turn at times. Also, not like I expected it, but the booklet could use some form of a bookmark. You’ll have to supply your own here.

Verdict: Sporting a beautiful cover aesthetic, the Hobonichi Techo Planner is an incredibly lightweight and compact planner that gives you the ability to really plan your day on a granular level. The thin pages feel great under the pen but can be difficult to turn at times. However, the book has some other useful features that other books don’t have, such as the ability to lie flat on a table and information on Japanese pancakes.

Rite in the Rain Complete Planner Kit

Best Planner Kit: Just because you’re not at home or in the office doesn’t mean that things aren’t still happening. Anyone who spends a portion of their time in the wild – be they natural scientist, hunter, outdoor nudist colony event planner, or just a person who camps – needs a solid planner for their ideas, but also a way to protect it from the elements. That’s where this planner cover from Rite in the Rain comes in. They rewrote the book on tough notebooks, and this is no exception. Able to handle extreme temperatures, wind, water, and everything else nature throws at you, the kit comes with a tactical pen that can write through water, a 6-inch ruler, and weatherproof plastic sleeves for storing important papers or documents. Also, it comes in a super sturdy CORDURA nylon zippered bag with a Velcro carrying handle at the binding.

The Good

 Not just great for the outdoorsman but for the urban commuter as well, Rite in the Rain’s Complete Planner Kit transposes their weather- and water-proof notebook construction to the world of weekly planners. In this CORDURA kit, you’ll find an exterior zippered pocket and a main zippered compartment housing the planner itself, which comes in the way of a ring binder. This is great because when you want to replace pages, you can do so without buying a whole new kit (although refills cost upwards of $40). While the pages, which go from Monday to Sunday, are blank, allowing you to fill in whichever dates you need, it’s easy to navigate the planner with the month tabs on the side. The back of the kit features an address book, also equipped with alphabetical tabs.

Unlike most weekly planners, which maximize space by putting Monday through Wednesday on the left page and Thursday through Sunday on the right, the pages in this kit go from Monday to Friday all on the left side, which helps with visualizing the week a bit better. However, this does come with some drawbacks (more below). There are also small monthly and yearly calendars in the front of the book for planning ahead. I particularly loved the six empty tabs in the back, which let me add my own sections for notes. This could be useful for school or project planning.

The Not So Good

Admittedly, $200+ is a lot to pay regardless of the quality of the planner kit. I love Rite in the Rain but I think the price tag could be dropped by at least a hundred bucks. Also, when scheduling my days, I found that I didn’t have enough room in the allotted space. The bottom of the right-side pages features a large area for “notes,” but I found that I would have rather had more space for each day. The Monday-through-Friday orientation on the left was useful for visualizing my week but the drawback is less room for writing.

Verdict: A great option for outdoorsmen, urban commuters, or students, the Rite in the Rain Complete Planner Kit comes with waterproof pages, a waterproof tactical pen, and an address book in the back. However, the $213 price tag is pretty darn steep. We do love the durable CORDURA zippered housing and the replaceable planning pages, but just wish this were more affordable. On the other hand, there’s nothing else like it around.

Paper Planner Comparison Chart

Why Should You Use a Paper Planner?

The idea might seem archaic, but scientifically speaking, it has been shown that writing something by hand stimulates your brain in a totally different way than texting or typing. You have to think more and work harder, making it much more likely that you’re going to remember it. In addition to helping your memory, with a planner, you have a schedule that won’t run out of batteries or shatter when it hits the pavement, making it the best for the tough world of everyday carry. 

Honorable Mentions

MochiThings makes a really stylish minimalist planner that actually alternates between weekly and monthly pages. However, we didn’t love the color schemes as much as the ones covered above.

For an affordable option made from recycled paper, check out Muji’s Weekly Planner. However, there’s budget-friendly and there’s cheap; we felt like this was a bit too low-end for our taste.

Ringed notebooks are kinda antithetical to EDC but this Vertical Weekly Planner from Laurel Denise is a sleek option, perhaps marketed towards the female consumer.

Agendio makes made-to-order custom planners with a ton of cool features. However, we just weren’t able to get hands-on with one for testing.

Tested: The Best Pocket Notebooks for EDC

If you love jotting down lists and ideas wherever you go, check out the best pocket notebooks from our recent guide.