Choosing Your Planner, Part 3: Types of Weekly Planners

In this post I will focus on formats of weekly planners, since weeklies are the most popular planner style.

There are lots of different formats of weekly planners. In this post I will give examples of the most popular weekly planner types, and I'll discuss uses for each.

The Horizontal Weekly format is the most basic weekly format. It has the day spaces across the page with Monday through Wednesday or Thursday on the left page, and the rest of the week on the right page. These formats sometimes have a space for notes on the weekly page to add symmetry to the layout.  The horizontal format is the most popular weekly format in the US, and nearly every planner brand has a version of it. Below is the Plan-It Planner's horizontal weekly format. (Plan-It planners also have monthly calendars embedded between the weeks.)

(Click here to see my review of the Plan-It planners.)

Below is the Paperblanks weekly planner, with an extra space under Sunday:

(Click here to see my review of Paperblanks planners.)

The Vertical Weekly format has days as columns, which is useful for seeing your day chronologically down the column. Some planners have timed columns, some lined without times, and some blank.  Vertical columns are especially useful for planning how long activities will take, seeing how much time you have between events, or for blocking out periods of time. Another useful feature of days as vertical columns is that undone tasks can be arrowed over to the next day without re-writing.  Below is the Moleskine vertical weekly format (see my review here):

Below is the Success Planner's vertical weekly format (click photo to enlarge image). I'll review the Success Planners next week. Be sure to see Rori's excellent review of it here.

The Week + Notes format is great because it allows lists and notes to be written alongside the weekly schedule. This lets you see what you need to do (on your lists) and when you have time to do it (in your schedule).

Week + notes planners can combine notes and lists with either a horizontal or vertical daily format.

Examples of week + notes horizontal are the Moleskine weekly notebook:

(Click here for my review of the 2011-2012 Moleskine weekly notebook.)


And the Ecosystem weekly (see my review here):

Examples of the week + notes vertical are the Quo Vadis Trinote:

(Click here to see my posts about the Trinote.)


And the WeekDate planner:

(Click here to see my review of the WeekDate planner.)
 
The vertical week + notes format works best for me and that's how I designed my Plannerisms Going Places Planner:

Uncalendar planners have week + notes planners with mixed formats. The Full Size Uncalendar has columns for weekdays and blocks for weekend days (click here for my review):

The Half Size Uncalendar has side by side blocks for the days (see my review here):

These are only the most popular formats of weekly planners. There are other formats available but they may be harder to find. One example of an alternative weekly format is the Redstar Ink planner, click to see the page layout in their academic year and undated planner.

Do you use a weekly planner? Which format do you prefer?

Choosing Your Planner, Part 2: Size Matters

Now that you've had a chance to think about whether you need a monthly, weekly or daily planner, the next step is to decide what size planner you need.  It's not as easy as it sounds.

What size planner you choose is a balance between portability and page space.

If your planner will stay at home or work all the time, it can be as big as you want.

But if you will carry your book everywhere with you, make sure it's a size you can stand to carry in your bag or hands all the time. Everyone has their own size threshold. Do you need a book you can slip into your pocket? Do you carry a big bag and don't mind a large book?

When looking for a planner to take with you everywhere, it's tempting to get the smallest planner possible. But you must make sure the spaces are large enough to write in everything you need.  I've had many a Planner Fail due to too-small day spaces.

Something else to consider is the size of your handwriting. If you have tiny, neat handwriting you'll be able to get away with a smaller page size (and therefore smaller book) than someone like me who has large handwriting.

Book size may affect what format of planner you choose. If you need to write lots of details every day and you want to take your book everywhere with you, you may prefer a pocket size day per page planner instead of a desk size weekly planner.

Another size issue has to do with whether you choose a bound book or a ring binder to use as your planner. Ring binders are bulkier and heavier than a bound book of equivalent page size, yet they have some advantages over bound books. Click here for my Ring Binder vs. Bound Book post to help you decide.

What size planner do you use? Do you carry it with you, or leave it at home or work most of the time?

Choosing Your Planner, Part 1: Daily, Weekly, Monthly?

The first part in my Choosing Your Planner series is deciding if you want a daily, weekly or monthly planner as your Main Planner.

Wall calendars (whether monthly, weekly, wipe-off etc.) can supplement your Main Planner by showing other people in your household what's going on. But for your own personal use, you need your own Main Planner where you write all of your appointments and whatever else you want to write (which could include tasks, lists, and goals). Your Main Planner is your Mission Control. This Choosing Your Planner series will focus only on your Main Planner.

Planners have monthly, weekly or daily formats. Many planners have a daily or a weekly format with monthly views too, which is very useful for seeing daily details and monthly overviews. I personally use all three: daily, weekly and monthly, and I know several other people who do too (click here for Jotje's example).

Let me walk you through the three main types of formats and ways to use each.

Monthly:  There are planners that have monthly-only formats. Some examples of this are the Moleskine monthly notebook and Uncalendar's Monthly Planner, but there are others available in stores and online.

If you don't have much to write each day and prefer an overview of your month, the monthly planner is perfect for you. Alternatively, you could use a separate monthly planner along with your weekly or daily planner to have the books open side by side to see the monthly overview alongside your weekly or daily activities.

Monthly calendars are best for seeing overviews of things like bills due, travel, holidays, deadlines, and seeing patterns over a period of weeks.

Click here to see my post on Using Monthly Planners for more details.

Weekly:  This is the most popular format of planners, because it allows you to see your entire week at once and plan your schedule easily.  There are various weekly formats including week + notes, horizontal or vertical (days as columns). I will compare these different formats later in a separate post.

Weekly formats are good for most planner situations because they allow for detailed daily planning while giving the overview of the week.

I've reviewed loads of weekly planners, click here to see.

Click here to see my post on Using Weekly Planners for more details.

Daily:  Daily planners, diaries, or day-per-page planners allow you to focus on each day. The downside of these planners is it can be difficult to plan ahead with only two days visible at a time, so if you use one as your planner I highly recommend combining it with a monthly planner.

Daily planners are excellent for people who have lots of appointments each day, or who want to record details such as phone calls, expenses, tasks, or other information. Click here to see my post about other ways to use a day per page planner, and click here to see how I'm using mine as my log book.

So to summarize:

For long-range planning or if you don't have many appointments, use a monthly planner.

For most planning needs, a weekly planner will probably work well for you.

To record lots of details of your days, you'll want a daily planner.

Which format(s) do you like to use? Why?