Choosing a Planner for 2021

Planners have always played an important role in my life. Whether it was managing the schedules of a large family to more recently juggling all the aspects of a diverse art career, I have leaned heavily on a planner to keep track of all the things that seem to slip right out of my mind. What has varied widely is the form that planner has taken.

Maybe by taking a look at my planner journey it will help you choose what is right for your creative style in 2021!

For several years I used moleskin soft cover blank notebooks to create my own planner in. Kind of a free for all planning, sketching, notetaking book that actually served me pretty well. Advantages of a blank book:

• totally adaptable to your own style of scheduling
• lots of room for creativity

I used them in conjunction with a wall calendar that had my kids school district schedule on it. But then I started needing something a little more formal, so that I could make my lists farther ahead, so I went to some more traditional planners. While they were better for planning ahead, I honestly felt a little stifled creatively by them, so continued to try out other options.

I used a moleskin weekly planner for awhile with pretty good success, but really didn’t care so much for the horizontal format because I am a list maker! Looking back, I could have just turned the days sideways and made my lists! The monthly calendar is glued in because the months were in a separate section.

I went digital for a couple of years, using Goodnotes on my ipad Pro. I liked that I was still able to write things in by hand with the Apple pencil. There are some definite advantages:

• reduces use of paper
• doesn’t take up extra space
• can copy and paste as well as link to other parts of the planner
• easy to make changes, or move sections from one place to another
• digital stickers or art elements can by used over and over

But oh how I missed the tangible feel of paper!

And of course I did a stint with the Happy Planners! I actually like the vertical layout of my Happy Planners quite well. It allowed me to plan ahead, make vertical lists, and still have some room to doodle and create! I tried both the small, and the large sizes. The only thing that I didn’t like is that they felt kind of bulky with the large rings. I also had some times when the pages didn’t stay put very well. That said, there are plenty of advantages!

• vertical format
• can add extra pages right in place if you get their special punch
• lots of accessories (like stickers!) perfectly sized to use with the happy planner.

Last year I used a Mark’s vertical planner that I got from Jetpens. I like it rather well, but they do not seem to have the same model with vertical days this year. (Do take a look at Jetpens useful review of 2021 planners though!) I also wanted to see if I could combine my daily creativity planner with my functional, week at a view, vertical column planner. I also really like the A5 size, so threw that requirement into the mix as well.

And thats how I landed on the Hobonichi Techo Cousin planner. Of course it remains to be seen how well I fare with it, but here are its persuasive attributes:

• year view, month view, vertical week view, and daily pages all in one
• times run from 5am to 4am so very adaptable to your schedule
• extra planning column on the weeks
• thin but sturdy, and amazingly bleed proof, Tomoe River paper
• wide range of cover options to personalize
• light grid printed on all pages

I got the standard cover, plus the clear protective cover on cover…. but it looked a bit boring until I added in my art inserts! There are three available as perfectly formatted and sized digital downloads that you can print on photo paper and insert into your own cover. You can find them in my etsy shop.

Check out more about my 2021 Hobonichi planner plans on my recent You Tube:

On the video I mention the daily prompts available to my Patrons on my brand spanking new Patreon account. It is like a subscription with different tiers, and different perks available at each tier. My prompts are available as a digital download at any level. Then you can choose whether to print on Tomoe River paper, sticker paper (clear sticker paper is fun!) or whatever you choose!

If you aren’t interested in the Patreon subscription, you can still have the list of 2021 prompts! Download the image below for the full list.