Thinking about getting a new planner and trying to decide between getting a daily planner or a weekly planner? Before you rush out and buy one, here are some things to consider!

Daily versus weekly planners

Daily Planners

Related post: How to choose the right daily planner for you (7 things to consider)

Pros of daily planners

• Daily planners tend to have lots of room to write so you don’t feel like you need to cram things in
• If you’re someone that needs a lot of space to write down every detail to keep you on track a daily planner would be ideal for you
• If you have large hand-writing
• Usually undated so you can start planning anytime
• They tend to be smaller and easier to fit in your handbag – great if you’re always out and about

Cossac plannerr review

Cons of daily planners

• Easier to get bogged down in the day to day and lose sight of the bigger picture than if you were to plan by week
• Because there’s more room to write more stuff each day, you may end up writing too much then feeling overwhelmed and end up not getting much done
• They tend to have the same layout – a schedule (usually by the hour), accompanied by a checklist, a notes section and then usually a reflection or meal planning space
• Because everything is so spread out you need 7 pages to plan your week and need to flip back and forth a lot to see all your plans
• Not all daily planners have the same amount of space to plan each day (some combine the weekend onto 1 page)
• They can get bulky because you’re carrying more pages

Always Satisfied planner review

• If planners are spit into 6 monthly planners – it can end up being more expensive to buy multiple planners to have enough to last an entire year
• If you only carry enough pages for 6 months you’ll need to add a sticky note or a note taking space if you’re planning things far in advance
• Most stickers are designed for weekly planner layouts (apart from icon stickers), so if sticker decorating (and decorating your planning in general) is something that appeals to you, a weekly planner layout may be better fit
• They tend to be glue/book bound – I’m not really a fan of those types of books as you usually have to hold the page open with one hand while you try and write with your other hand
• They usually don’t have room to write a weekly task list or routines, so you may schedule something to happen one day, but then don’t finish it so you have to re-write it on another day and then you end up taking longer to plan because you’re re-writing things, whereas you can just draw an arrow across the page when using a weekly planner
• They are usually a very structured planner so there isn’t a lot of room to add extra sections beyond maybe adding a sticker to cover a section title you don’t use and adding a hydrate tracking or meal planning sticker
• Can feel ‘wasteful’ if you don’t fill up the entire day

Mi Goals Progress Planner review

Daily planner recommendations

• Agendio Daily Planner (build your own custom planner)
• Day Designer – stylish + simple + functional structured layout
• A printable from my shop (these are quite popular)
• Daily planners with 2 pages per day

See all of my daily planner reviews here

Day Designer (referral link) 

Learn how to make a printable daily planner

WEEKLY PLANNERS

Pros of weekly planners

• You can see everything that needs to get done for an entire week all at once
• Ideal if you have a lot of things going on and you need to plan stuff around things that can’t be changed e.g. work hours, kid’s extra-curricular activites
• Ideal if you’re managing multiple people’s schedules
• They usually come in a large size (anywhere from A5 all the way up to full page size) so are ideal if you have big hand-writing and like to have a lot of white space when planning (e.g. using every 2^nd line when list making)
• If you want an all in one solution – most weekly planners combine checklists, scheduling, meal planning and goal setting
• On the other hand, there are also a lot of planners with very simple, minimalist layouts that you can customise to create your own layout using sidebar stickers, planner stamps, add hydrate tracking, fitness, work stickers etc.

Week 23: Using Limelife Planners Weekly Layout C 

• If you have a lot of projects and things to plan, then a weekly planner would be better suited to you as you can see everything at once (that’s why I tend to stick to weekly planners so I can plan day job around my Etsy shop and this blog)
• They tend to have room in the sidebar for habit tracking – good way to save space rather than re-writing the same tasks out each day
• Can be more affordable than a daily planner. Some daily planners don’t last an entire year. When you add the cost of needing to purchase 2 (sometimes 4 if they’re quarterly daily planners) + shipping, it usually works out cheaper to get a weekly planner

Clever Fox Pro planner review

Some weekly planner layouts

• Dashboard (horizontal weekly spread on 1 page and notes or checklist on the other)
• Horizontal
• Vertical
• Vertical hourly
• Categories (e.g. family planner, student planner)

See all of my weekly planner reviews here.

Cons of weekly planners

• Because there are so many different layouts to choose from, it can be overwhelming to choose one
• If you like to plan your days in detail, you’ll probably run out of space (and will need to add a sticky note or use notes pages in another section of the planner)
• They usually include a pocket folder which is great for storing random stuff… just so long as you remember to empty the pockets regularly

WEEKLY PLANNER RECOMMENDATIONS

Too many to list! We are spoilt for choice these days when it comes to weekly planners. See these posts for some of my recommendations:

• After trying 52 planners, these were my top 7 favorite weekly planners
• My Top 10 Favorite Weekly Planners (after reviewing more than 200 planners
• My 10 Favorite Weekly Planners I tried in 2019
• Agendio Review (custom, personalised weekly planner) 
• Trying out the Happy Planner Dashboard Layout

My 3rd Plum Paper Haul!

Daily versus weekly planners

• Weekly planners come in more layouts
• Daily planners can lead you to get bogged down in the details and spent too much time planning rather than actually doing
• If you’re a bit of a scattered squirrel then a daily planner may have the structure and focus you need to keep you productive and on track
• If you need to keep track of multiple things in your own life, or are juggling managing your family’s schedules as well, I’d go with a weekly planner
• If you’re planning things far in advance then go with a weekly planner as you can get these in 12 month and also 18 month durations. Plus you can quickly flick through the pages to write something in on a certain day, then flick through mountains of paper in a daily planner

Which do I prefer?

Weekly planners. Given that from 9am to 5pm 5 days a week I’m at my day job and have to use work’s digital calendar, it doesn’t make sense to use a daily planner. On the weekends when I have more time to work on my blog etc. I sometimes use a daily planner.

First I note things that have a due date (such as publishing a blog post, paying a bill etc.) and then I add in other things I should get done, want to get done and will do if I have time. Sometimes I allocate these tasks to a day and sometimes I just keep a list to refer to rather than scheduling by day.

Related: Planning by category and task, rather than by day (52 planners in 52 weeks – week 5)

I’m trying out 52 different planners this year. Click here to see the planners I’ve tried so far! 

More posts to help you choose the planner that’s right for you:

• Setting up a new planner: 70 Tasks to add 
• Where to find discs to make a discbound planner or notebook (downloadable comparison)
• 7 Mistakes to avoid when setting up a new planner
• Planning 101: Need versus want versus wish list planner supplies

Planning tips:

• Planner Organization: How to color-code your planner (so you’ll actually use it effectively)
• 130+ functional ideas to use blank notes pages of your planner or an empty notebook
• How to use the monthly notes pages of your planner
• 100 things to put in your habit tracker of your planner or bullet journal (plus free printable habit tracker)
• Favorite washi tape for planning, planner decorating & color coding
• How to make use of blank pages in your planner

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