Best Planners for 2021

Are you a planner addict? I have used a planner for what seems like forever. In fact, before they were available for purchase, I made my own using a small notebook, a tiny Hallmark calendar book (remember those??) and a wall calendar. I called it “my life in a book”.

Here are the ones I tried. Some planners were gifted to me to review.

Paper Planners

iBloom

iBloom is a planner made for the Christian woman and is one of my favorites! It has a weekly scripture to help inspire you each week. What I like most about this planner is the sections for reviewing what has gone well and not gone well in your month, goal setting pages, project management pages, etc.This planner used to be sold in hard copy but is now only available as a printable version. It comes with the option to purchase a 2-day planning retreat which I have attended for the past 4 or 5 years.

Price Point: $50.00 for the spiral-bound edition and $30 for the printable edition. Hint: get the spiral bound. It will cost you more to print it yourself.

Simplified by Emily Ley

It’s the least customizable of the customizable planners but as the name implies, it’s simplified.

Their planner features six different cover options (each available in a daily or weekly format) and they offer 2 12-month editions: academic and calendar, both of which are available in daily or weekly formats. They also have one called Dapper Desk which has bookbinding.

She also has a new book coming out called Growing Boldly.

Price point: $48-00 – $60.00

Savor Life Planner

The Savor Life Planner which is called “My Next 90 Days” is a self-customizable 90-Day planner that works with a 90-Day vision plan. If you work on quarterly goals, this may be the planner for you. Of course, you’ll need 4 for the year and it comes in 7 colors. It chunks your goals down into 12 tabbed weeks.

Their “mission is to help you nourish to flourish, create daily rituals, and organize your gorgeous chaos, so you can savor the sweet parts of life.”

Price point: $29.95 but you’ll need 4 per year.

Erin Condren Planners and Accessories

The new Daily Life Planner Duo by Erin Condren is the planner I’ll be using this year. I loved that I could customize the cover to add my own photos and that I could order extra interchangeable covers. For there other planners, they offer the ability to choose between 3 layout styles – vertical, horizontal and hourly, between a colorful and neutral page theme as well as a 12-month or 18-month option. Additionally, they have a Teacher Lesson Planner.

Lots of beautiful Erin Condren sticker books and sticker packs are available on the site as well as other stationery needs. You can even make your own custom stickers!

The inside front and back cover could be used as a whiteboard.

If you like a more neutral planner, her new FOCUSED Collection may be for you.

Bloom Planners

This is not a repeat. Bloom Planners are different than the iBloom planner although, they have a similar style, perhaps because they are both created by women for women.

Bloom was founded by two female University of Delaware alums and now has a full-time team of dedicated girl bosses. They started with planners but now have more than 100 products including dated and undated planners, planning pads, wedding and teacher lines, planner accessories and more.

Their theory is that anyone can be a #bloomgirl – the common thread is simply a commitment to continual self-improvement. And they give back! They donate planners to organizations and people in need around the world and volunteer their time at local organizations. To date, they have donated over 3 million products. They also love to practice Random Acts of Kindness.

Choose Joy

Joy has been my word of the year several times and it’s a constant theme in my life. I love this planner because it has a dot grid section, a sketching section and some coloring pages – great for me because I’m always multitasking on calls and when I’m listening to a podcast or audiobook!

Teacher Planners

Their teacher planner is a full year beginning in August. It has monthly pages, weekly pages, a page for grades, and a year-end review.

Meeting Notepad

I attend a lot of networking events and have my own team meeting each week so I was excited that they had notepad specifically for meetings!

Notes, Goals and To-Dos Book

This book is very handy to keep at your desk or bedside table when planning out your day.

I also love their wall calendars and their new product Mom-pliments – a cute card deck with compliments and affirmations.

Bullet Journal

This method of planning was definitely the one that kept me the most organized and I still use it in conjunction with my regular planner. The reason I stopped using it as my primary planner was that I was following too many bullet journal enthusiasts on Instagram. Their layouts were like artwork and I was feeling bullet journal shamed! If you’re interested to see how they use theirs, follow the hashtag #bulletjournal or #bulletjournaling.

For how to use bullet journaling, see my post here.

You can choose any blank journal for your bullet journal but you’ll want to be sure it has at least 35 lines if you’re going to use it as a running monthly calendar. Many people choose to use a dot-grid pattern for the inside as it’s easier to make boxes for your monthly horizontal calendar or other.

Price Point: $5.00 – whatever you choose

Agendio

Agendio is the most customizable of all the options I tried. It offers literally dozens of custom planning options such as the types of pages to include from dailies, weeklies, monthlies and note pages, the color and layout of the pages, the holidays, birthdays and events you’d like included, the tabs, types of elastics and page markers you’d like included, as well as the size of the planner itself. They also sell customizable inserts that you can add to your Franklin system, Filofax or other binder systems.

I thought this would be the planner I would use this year but I became overwhelmed with the options! I’ll probably try it out next year. They do offer examples of different planners to aid in your decision-making.

Price Point: $50.00 to over $100.00 depending upon what you add. The option I was creating was $90.00

Digital Planner for iPad Goodnotes app

If you prefer a digital planner, Etsy has some good ones. Many of them are designed for the Goodnotes app on the iPad. Many can also be used with Notability or XODO. I have not used this type as I prefer pen and paper, but one of our Rotary club members loves it.

Here’s one that I found on Etsy. It is colorful and customizable and is dated monthly, weekly, and daily with a vertical layout and even comes with stickers. It also has lots of great reviews.