Finding The Best Planner To Meet Your Organizational Needs

Buying a planner is one of my favorite things, and I admit that I may have a teensy bit of an obsession with them.  I have spent countless time and money searching for the right one.  I always have difficulty balancing size and space.  In past year, I have gone through 3 different planners, desperately trying to find the one that meets all(or most) of my needs.  I won’t fully admit the amount of time I spent in an office store, picking them up, flipping through them, and then putting them down.  I even bought a new purse to fit a planner that I liked(hubby did not like that stunt).  I am still struggling to find the right planner that fits all my needs.  Here are some of the things I think are most important:

• The planner must have a large monthly view with tabs.  I need a lot of room to fill in various school activities for both my kids, along with church commitments, car appointments, doctors appointments, well you get the idea as to why I need lots of space.  I used to use Amy Knapp’s planner, but it just wasn’t enough space in the monthly view.  And the work week starts on a Monday, not a Sunday.  At that time, I often worked Sundays, and I needed a planner that took that into consideration.

• A planner must have timed-slots.  Let’s face it, while I may be planner impaired, I still like to plan.  And when I use a planner with an hourly breakdown in each day, I find that I am much more productive.  And, it has helped me see exactly how much time I can waste in a day blogging, networking, and just plain fooling around. And now with a more steady work schedule, I can actually plan my week on a Sunday, instead of one day at a time. This planner from Staples starts its week on a Monday, but I like the timed slots so much, that I was willing to overlook it.
  

• The planner must be easy to write in. I have also used a Day Timers planner with a zippered case, and a two page per week format.  It was nice because you could store papers in it, so in case you were waiting somewhere you could write a few checks, even write a few thank you notes to friends. The trouble with this planner is that the rings made it difficult to write in the Wednesday and Thursday slots because you couldn’t get your hand to lay flat. Because of that I have found that a spiral bound works best because you can lay it flat, or fold it back on itself.
  

These are just some of the important things I look for when buying a planner.  Each one has its pros and cons, and you need to decide which ones are most important to you.  There will never be the perfect planner, at least for my picky standards.  It is my dream to work with a planner to create a personalized one that is just for me and my family.  A girl can dream, right?

So what do you consider to be the most important things when choosing a planner?  Do you have one that you have used for years or do you keep changing like me?