The Best Back-to-School Planners, According to Experts

Four of the experts I spoke with recommended the aptly named Order Out of Chaos academic planner for students of all ages from older elementary-schoolers to middle- and high-school students. “Its greatest strength is the simplistic two-page, full-week view, which allows students to see assignments alongside after-school and weekend commitments,” says Craig Selinger, executive-function coach, learning specialist, and owner ofThemba Tutors, who specifically recommends it for student athletes or students with ADHD. “This helps students move beyond simply recording what is due and begin deciding when they realistically have time to complete it, while the dedicated reminder and to-do sections support tweens and teens who may otherwise forget materials, forms, appointments, and other daily responsibilities.”

And while the planner is particularly useful for those with executive-functioning challenges, Sarah Hart-Unger, host of theBest Laid Planspodcast and author ofBest Laid Plans: A Simple Planning System for Living a Life That You Love,notes that anyone can benefit from the clear layouts and simple design. “As a bonus, the OOOC planners are quite gender neutral — a feature when so many planners skew feminine.” It is also a favorite of Brodwin who particularly likes that “students can customize the subject labels once at the beginning of the year and reuse them throughout, making the system much more efficient,” compared to other planners that require students to rewrite their subjects every week.

For elementary-schoolers, two of our experts called out Erin Condren planners. “For younger children, a planner needs to be durable enough to survive a backpack and engaging enough that they will actually want to use it,” says Selinger. He called out a list of features the planner offers including its sturdy construction and goal tracking alongside more creative activities and spots for stickers. “They make planning feel positive and personal while introducing foundational executive-function skills such as developing routines, visualizing time, setting goals, and reflecting on progress.”

“These are fully customizable and packed full of features, from class-schedule layouts to a monthly deadline tracker,” adds Hart-Unger, who has bought these planners for her own children. “Cover options are plentiful and the Erin Condren paper quality is always top notch. A beautiful, functional, and high-quality option for planner aficionados,” or planner aficionados in the making.

“At this age, kids are just learning what a planner even is, so simplicity matters more than features,” explains psychologistDr. Dimitra Robokos. This planner encourages kids to organize their daily tasks by using a dedicated daily box for each subject — including reading, English/language arts, spelling, math, science, social studies, plus two open slots. “There’s also a specific spot to flag missing homework and a section for parent/teacher notes, which keeps communication about what’s due (and what’s late) in one place instead of scattered across backpacks and memory. For young students, this can be a helpful, concrete way to practice breaking a full day into manageable, labeled pieces,” she says.

Ari Fox, founder and director ofCope With School NYC, recommends this planner for younger elementary-school students around grades two to three, because it has a simple layout with clear weekly and monthly views. “Keeping assignments, activities, and upcoming deadlines visible in one place can make it easier for children to remember what they need to do and prepare for what is coming next,” he notes.

“Middle school is where kids start juggling more subjects and more independence, but they’re still building the self-monitoring skills to manage it,” explains Robokos. Beyond the day-to-day layout for managing tasks, this planner also has a built-in reflection piece, which Robokos says “can help build the habit of self-reflection alongside the habit of staying organized.” It also includes academic-success tips, parent-discussion prompts, and writing space for goal setting, plus short motivational messages sprinkled throughout. “This combination can be beneficial as students are not just told to write down due dates, they’re prompted to actually pause and think about how their week went,” she says.

Matt Lundquist, a licensed clinical social worker and clinical director atTribeca Therapy, often works with students with ADHD. “One core challenge is what’s called executive functioning — coordinating the various skills involved in planning, remembering, tuning out distractions, and double-checking tasks,” he says. “While the best planner is one that a student can adapt, we’ve found Banana Planners offer a lot of useful real estate to map out a task, complete checklists for turning in the assignments, and even have an option for parents to sign off.”

“For students who are working through executive-functioning challenges, whether they have an ADHD diagnosis or another condition affecting their organizational and time-management skills, theSet Up Successplanner is designed to help students visualize days, weeks, and months,” notesKatharine Hill, aBrooklyn-based educational therapist. “Any system like this is only as good as the implementation, and the Set Up Success approach is more accessible to help kids and families build regular habits that can provide frequent opportunities for positive reinforcement,” because the company even provides training videos for families on how to use the system.

According to Robokos, “What makes this one a good fit for high-schoolers is how much of it students get to build themselves,” with students being able to really customize their own schedule around their classes, jobs, and extracurriculars. “For high-schoolers juggling more independence and more moving parts than middle school, this level of personalization tends to mean they’ll actually keep using it instead of abandoning it by October,” Robokos adds.

I used a Moleskin planner in high school that never let me down. It has a very simple layout: When opened, the left-side pages are broken down into days of the week, while the right-side pages are lined for taking notes. While I find Moleskin planners to be too minimal now for my adult needs, it worked well in high school when my schedule was mostly centered around clubs.

For college students who like things visually organized and color-coordinated, Robokos recommends this Erin Condren planner, which she describes as a full school-year planner with monthly and weekly layouts, lined note pages, and space to track exams and projects: “It is flexible enough to handle the mix of classes, work shifts, and social commitments that a rigid daily grid can’t always keep up with.” Selinger also loves the fact that students can customize this planner, which he praises for its weekly and monthly layouts, class schedules, deadline trackers, and project- and exam-planning sections. “When students can see both their short-term responsibilities and longer-term commitments in one place, they are better equipped to prioritize, work independently, and avoid the last-minute rushing that can contribute to stress and academic burnout,” Selinger says.

Hill recommends the Leuchtturm1917 weekly planner, which has had a spot on ourbest plannerslist for years. “These planners provide adequate space for appointments or classes on the left-hand side and lists on the right-hand side.” It also features a sturdy, indestructible hardcover and the paper has the right heft — not too thin or thick.

A list of thebest plannerswould not be complete without a Hobonichi Techo. AsNew YorkMagazine deputy editor Alexis Swerdloff wrote in her initial ode to the cult Japanese planner many years ago, “The leather-bound book is hefty and feels like I’m actually holding something substantial (unlike aMoleskine) while still being incredibly compact: It’s little bit taller than an iPhone 6 and about the width of a Kit Kat.” Because of its flexible one-page-per-day layout, it’s probably best for college students, though especially creative high-schoolers might enjoy the freedom it affords, too.

This handsome hardcover planner — which comes in red, green, gray, brown, and navy — is the planner of choice of actressAyo Edebiri, who uses it for both planning andscrapbooking. The layout has weekly pages on the left-hand side and gridded pages on the right-hand side, which she says is the superior layout for writing. “It makes me feel like a scientist, even if I’m writing things as simple as ‘Do laundry’ and ‘Seriously, please do laundry,’” she says.

For those who would prefer an extremely flexible planner, Stalogy’s undated daily planner is a good option. EditorPerrin Drummsays it’s made of onion-skin-like paper that doesn’t bleed through despite its thinness. “This fact really deserves more exclamation points, because if you like inkypensandthin paper, then you’ve never gotten your way,” Drumm explains. “As far as layout goes, the type is minimal and the light-gray printing is unobtrusive,” she says, adding that the fill-in-the-date format means “you can start things off whenever you damn well please.”