Best planner/agenda?

[person2no]

Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone who's been in grad school has any recommendations for a planner or agenda that worked really well for them?

I used a Day Designer planner from Target last year and loved it! The to-do lists on the side were helpful, along with the fact that it wasn't set up with certain hours. However, I'm also open to other suggestions.

What would you recommend?

[Lblatz]

I'm entering grad school this fall, and I love my happy planner! You can get it at Michaels or hobby lobby with a 40%off coupon every couple weeks. What I like most about it besides the price, is that the pages are removable and you can just pop them back in wherever you want them. 

They sell punches to fit the design of the holes so you can punch anything and place it in the planner, but watch some YouTube videos and see how you can do it yourself. 

It has a monthly view, and a weekly layout. I also use extra paper just for assignment lists each week, that I punch and insert myself. You really have to look up videos I'm not describing its functionality so well.

[meow_schrödinger]

I'm a bit of a planner snob, so I've tried out many of the options available. In my opinion (for my use), you'll want something large enough to handle all of your daily tasks, but also not so large that it will be cumbersome, making you less likely to use it. For my first two years of undergrad, I used the "At-A-Glance" brand (I believe mine came from Staples), because they are about the size of notebooks and have plenty of space for my activities, meetings, lab work, classwork, etc. For my last year of undergrad, I took the plunge and purchased an Erin Condren Life Planner, which, in all its glory, is an excellent planner, but ended up being overkill for me. I enjoyed that it gave me ample space to write down tasks, but there were also so many aspects of it that I felt were unnecessary. To start off my grad school adventure, I'm going to use a bullet journal, which, from my lurking on youtube, seems to be a great way to customize your planner experience and give you exactly what you're looking for. The catch, though, is that it's just a notebook so there will be some work on your end to set one up the way you please, but it can be as simple or as detailed as you'd like. I'm excited to try this method for keeping my tasks in order, but also for accountability for other things like finances and healthy eating.

Edited July 7, 2016 by meow_schrödinger

[kimmibeans]

I just use google calendar. It sends notifications to my phone and I can veiw it from anywhere  

[sjoh197]

The best planner I've ever had is the "Day designer: daily/monthly planner", Its massive though. It has a monthly calendar at the front, and then an entire page side for every single day... with a time slot, to do list, notes, and etc for each day. 

https://www.bluesky.com/planners/day-designer-spotty-dot-academic-year-daily-monthly-8-x-10-planner-jul-2016-jun-2017.html

You can get them at target for $20.

 

 

[travelgirl125]

On 7/7/2016 at 1:32 PM, sjoh197 said:

The best planner I've ever had is the "Day designer: daily/monthly planner", Its massive though. It has a monthly calendar at the front, and then an entire page side for every single day... with a time slot, to do list, notes, and etc for each day. 

https://www.bluesky.com/planners/day-designer-spotty-dot-academic-year-daily-monthly-8-x-10-planner-jul-2016-jun-2017.html

You can get them at target for $20.

 

 

I was using an At-A-Glance planner for two years but just switched over to the Blue Sky/Day Designer planner because it was so pretty and cheap!  I got one just like that except it is smaller - it's still daily and monthly, so technically it's the same thickness.  However, mine is not 8x10 (maybe 5x7?  I'm bad at judging).  I got it at Target for $12.

[person2no]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!

[vonham]

I'm such a planner junky. Honestly, though, I have a hard time always updating them. I dunno, it's like I write down these detailed to do lists. Like let's say I have a paper due, right? So I'll write down exactly what progress I should be making on what day, down to how many hours I should spend on it. And the second I deviate from that (which happens every time since I'm the worst procrastinator) I abandon the planner. And then go back to it again when I'm feeling really overwhelmed. 

I just really like the aesthetics of a planner. I'm thinking of doing that bullet journal-ing or whatever it's called. Problem is I'm so disorganized that I'll have a hard time actually making it structured. At least with a planner it's already structured, and I can fake organize my life, even if I don't carry through with it.