How to Choose the Right Planner

Language Level: B1/B2

As a freelance English teacher and small business owner it’s easy to become overwhelmed with times and dates if you are not well organised. Due to the nature of the work, times and dates can change easily from semester to semester, or spontaneous cancellations will occur, and new appointments need to be scheduled. There are always new meetings that arise and in between those there are all the private appointments that need to be fitted into a weekly plan. Therefore, I know the one essential thing to organise all your appointments is a great planner.

Digital or paper planner?

I have tried to keep track of all my appointments digitally on my telephone, or with my email provider. Despite that, what works best for me is to have a paper planner to record everything and then add them to my telephone with reminders.

The advantages of this are:        

• You have an immediate overview of all the appointments without needing to click on dates

• You can easily flip pages to past dates which is especially handy for schedules far in the past or looking for specific data

• You are less likely to make an error entering in a time

• You might forget to hit the save button on your device

Daily, weekly or monthly formats?

How much paper real estate you need can determine which format suits you. Some people write big, while people like me can squeeze information into small spaces.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of each one:

Daily format

Pros: This is great for people who write big or think big. There is space for lots of appointments, notes or doodles. Some daily planners are small and compact making them easy to fit into a small purse or bag.

Cons: There is a lot of page flipping to find particular days. Personally, this is my least favourite choice because of that reason and I like to see more than one day at a time.

Monthly format

Pros: Having an overview of the entire month is really convenient for some people. For example, when I am counting the number of private lessons I’ve had with students or groups I can easily see how many lessons I need to invoice for at the end of the month. Some people don’t have so many appointments to keep track of. For women who are tracking their monthly cycle it’s easy to get a quick impression of the regularity.

Cons: The downside is there is never quite enough space unless you can write small or buy one in a larger paper size. A larger paper size will make it less convenient to carry around.

Weekly format

Pros: This is a great compromise between the daily and monthly format. Some will have the seven days spread out on two pages, while others have the days on one side and space for making notes on the other page.

Cons: Depending on your needs and design, these planners may not have enough space for very busy individuals.

A oder B page size?

A6, A5 and A4 paper sizes are the most common sizes in Europe and Western countries. B paper sizes are more commonly used for posters, envelopes passports and more. It is a common paper size in Japan and personally my favourite for planners.

B6 is slightly bigger than A6, and B5 is a size between A5 and A4. That means they can be a little more generous with paper real estate while remaining compact. It’s a pity not more planners and notebooks conform to these page sizes. A4 can sometimes be too big and A6 is on the other end of the scale.

If you need to take your planner to school or work on a daily basis it makes sense to choose a light, compact planner. If it usually has a place on your desktop then the weight or size of the planner will be less of a concern.