5 years and $1,000+ in Full Focus Planners. No more.
Overall, I loved them for the tactile experience, but they were too expensive.
I needed something that was connected to my calendar, gave me better feedback on pursuit towards goals, and still had that tactile experience.
I have this weird magnetic attraction to the Hobonichi Cousin. Every December, I think about buying a January start. Every spring, I think about getting an April start. But I've purchased three in the last eight years and have never seen one through to completion.
I get planner envy and then once it's in my hands I remember the grid size is too small for my handwriting and the pages require a blotter or pencil board because they take forever to dry.
I used about 8 months of one back when the paper was OG Tomoe River Paper. That was my best effort. The last one lasted three weeks.
I guess I'm asking whether others have this same pull toward a planner which isn't working for them? And should I buy an April start Cousin to see if THIS is the year I finally complete one?
It's an expensive compulsion!
When I say neurospicy I have some diagnosis (the whole holy trinity of dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, plus I have Aphantasia) but I'm 100% sure there's more in there so I just use the "neurospicy" term for now. Got a sticker on my bottle saying the same haha.
Anyway, this is fake hobonichi, so I don't mind my kid getting their hands on it - in fact they love it so much that when we go out for groceries, they hold it the whole time for me to read the shopping list (in later months that is located on the right page, far left).
My kid often steals the diary and writes in it, that's why it's so messy - next year I'll likely get the real deal (I have A6 hobo for daily journal that's the real deal and I keep it out of their hands since the paper is far more delicate and it was far more expensive). I put stickers off some of the apples in (we eat about 3-4 apples a day lol, if one keeps a doctor away we are immortal by now).
The habbit record evolved and shrunk because at some point I got better at some of them and didn't need to track them. For the nosy people, my Duo streak is 224 days - learning Spanish.
I only really use the weekly spread, plus the monthly to plan out events, but I forget to check the monthly so... It's always in the kitchen and goes in my back when heading out.
I’m a little late this year to the planning game.
I got this on clearance at Ross for $5. I couldn’t afford one at Michael’s.
Nobody tells you addiction robs you of the little joys. Forgetting to take care of my mental health. Taking the time for myself. Making sure I’m happy.
Happy is lists, stickers, highlighters and ball point pens.
Wishing all you other planners a good Tuesday ❤️
This thing is pretty near perfect! It seems to be the perfect balance between a daily bullet journal that doesn’t require any setup. Thank you to all who have mentioned it lately! This is what I’ve been looking for!
I’m curious from a planner’s perspective what’s one part of event planning that clients consistently think is “simple” but is actually way more complex behind the scenes? It could be timelines, coordination, styling, vendor management, or even small details like tablescapes and guest flow. Would love to hear real experiences or common misconceptions you deal with on the job!
Anyone and everyone that still keep planners for any reason, I have a question for you. I recently designed my own “do all” planner. Thanks to my very lovely, very strong ADHD, I always had to carry a planner, a note book/binder (sections), and a small notepad for quick jotting - then would get overwhelmed with things being in different places so I just wouldn’t use any of them 😂😂
What I’m getting at is:
What does your ideal planner include? If you could add in your own parts (to-do list, shopping list, debt tracker, meal planner etc) like the happy planner but less hands on & more “plug and play” what would they be?
How do we all feel about a 3-ring binder style planner? I still haven’t completely decided how I would create that while staying away from the traditional binder look, but of course that would always be an option too.
I have a small handmade business, I’m thinking of expanding into this as I have LOVED every second of making my own. So I’m just trying to get feedback on whether this would be a path worth walking or if it’s more of a “me” thing 😂
Thanks for reading my rant 🫶
Looking for cheap retractable pen recommendations for smooth planner paper please!
I currently use Zebra Sarasa gel pens in a Wonderland222 2026 planner, but the combo feels weirdly slippery and my handwriting looks messier than it does in my Stalogy notebook. My 2025 Hobonichi somehow feels better too.
I write pretty fast, so I think some paper/pen combos just have too little feedback/control for me.
I’ve tried a Platinum Preppy fountain pen but I don’t really love it, it feels a bit too sketchy/light for how I write.
I prefer:
I’m broke so unfortunately I’m not looking for £200 fancy pens 😂
Would especially love recommendations from other fast writers! Thanks!!
I’m planning to get a pocket-sized personal organizer.
Could you share your experiences using this size?
I’d like to use it to keep track of my study progress and stay motivated as I prepare for my certification exam this fall.
I got a Sterling Ink Complete planner as an experiment with the B6 size. This is very much a creative planner where I test out daily / weekly spreads so I'm not too precious with it.
Thus, I ripped off the hard cover and made my own cover out of cardstock and fabric scraps so it could fit in my Moterm B6.
Conclusion: I love it! The size is great, small enough to fit in my bag without being too heavy but big enough for all my plans. The cover is perfect and I'm very excited to customize it more.
I’ve used a ton of planner only recently go really into Moleskine my favorite paper is Midori MD either I purchased a new A5 leather cover it’s about a 2 inch spine maybe bigger either way I’m kinda happy about the paper results FYI I don’t use sharpie while planning and journaling I just wanted to test it out
I have a 18 month daily planner and a Moleskine expanded in the cover
Solo iOS dev. Most modern planner apps drop you into AI rewriters, project trees, tag systems, and subscription gates in front of pretty basic features — after watching that pattern repeat for years, I decided to build my own clean alternative. Took roughly a year to ship. It's called DayPlan.
How it works in practice: open it, drag a task onto the timeline, you're done. No account, no onboarding gate, no come-back-please notifications.
The free tier is ad-free and gives you the actual planner — visual time blocking via drag-to-schedule, a smart inbox with on-device date parsing ("sport tomorrow 6pm" lands as a scheduled task), subtasks, recurrence patterns, per-task reminders, routines you can drop into any day with one tap, streaks, native widgets, Live Activity, and iPad universal. Premium adds the Week + Month views, iCloud sync, custom categories, day notes, and the Watch complication — the kind of things that mostly serve heavier planning, not the daily flow.
Two extras worth mentioning: Auto-Schedule slots your inbox into the day's free intervals with a single tap, and a one-slot day template lets you repeat a well-planned day on demand.
Built it mobile-first, dark-first, privacy-first. Nothing leaves your device unless you choose iCloud sync. No AI, no LLM telemetry — date parsing is deterministic regex on-device.
Try it for free: https://apps.apple.com/app/6766088035
Honest feedback from this sub would be appreciated — UI, naming, whatever stands out. And if a couple of you plan a day with it, that genuinely makes the year-long build feel worth it. 🙏
Hi everyone! I've been thinking about ordering a Filofax because I love journaling and scrapbooking, but I was curious if the binder rings make it difficult to write on the left-hand side of the page around the ring area. I've had a planner with spirals in the middle and I really hated how my writing would always get messed up as I got closer to the spirals (I'm right handed). Do you guys just take out the left page and write on it freely? I feel like that would be too much and the rings would lose their sturdiness over time with the frequent opening and closing just to write. Thanks!
I've seen some examples of what they write in their planners and I'd like to know if this design is suitable or what they could adjust, change, or suggest.
i know it’s quite a few months before 2027 but i would like to get everything a bit before the end of the year. i’ve been using a midori a6 grid notebook for daily writing and i’ve been enjoying it a lot! so i want to get a 365 day planner for next year. i’m currently torn between the hobonichi techno and the stalogy 365 day notebook and looking for something in between.
i like the hobonichi because it has monthly calendars, the 4 months over 2 page layout with the days of the month and the pages it has in the back, however im not the biggest fan of the day to day layout. i would do the planning more in those monthly sections and would prefer to do daily writing on the day pages.
with the stalogy i like the day to day layout because it’s quite simple and leaves decent space to write and i also like that you can get some b6 sizes (torn between sizes too 💔) but i wish that it had the monthly pages like the hobonichi does.
so i would like to know if there’s any planners out there that are a mix between the two having the monthly pages like the hobonichi but the simple day to day layout with grid paper. it would be nice if it is easy to get in the UK and won’t cost a lot in shipping and fees. if a planner like that doesn’t exist i would love to know which of the two you guys prefer and how do you use them!
I’m really struggling to stay on top of both normal house stuff and the bigger, grown‑up planning things in the background.
By that I mean things like bills and budgets, insurance, important documents, and the “if something happened to me, would anyone know what to do?” kind of thing. I keep putting this stuff off and then feeling guilty and overwhelmed about it.
On top of that my dad has cancer right now, and it’s made me think a lot more about this kind of thing. There's so much to what people would need to know, where everything is, and how hard it is to deal with all of it when you’re already stressed and scared. It’s driving home how much of this stuff I haven’t sorted out for myself and I feel like panicking.
The frustrating part is there's so much I don't know that I don't know about this stuff. Just trying to get one thing done feels like a research project, and always just seems to open a can of worms and lead to a litany of new tasks for my to do list.
I’d love to hear how other people handle this (or don’t). I’m really hoping I’m not the only one who feels behind all the time. I've tried getting started, but nothing I've tried really sticks. What do you use to keep track of day‑to‑day life and household stuff (chores, errands, bills, schedules)? And do you use anything different for the more serious long‑term things (insurance, wills, important documents, emergency info)? How does that actually look for you?
After over a year of trying to find my perfect planner and getting a Happy Planner which has been serviceable, I have decided to spring for an Agendio. My work year goes July to July so I am looking to order here soon but of course it is pricey so does anyone know if Agendio typically offers deals at any point in the year or if there are any coupons floating around? Figured it never hurts to ask.
