As a student, your life is busy! With a packed schedule, it can be challenging to keep track of where you need to be and what you need to do. A student planner can help keep your schedule organized. With so much to track—homework assignments, extracurricular activities, and more—a good planner is essential. Here’s a list of the best planners for college to help you stay organized, and I’ll explain why they’re effective later.
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- Best Personalized Planner – Bloom Daily Planner
- Best Leather Planner – Ensight
- Best Undated Planner – Little More
- Best Hardcover Planner – Taja
- Most Detailed Planner – Blue Sky Day Planner
- Best Desk Planner – Cabbrix
- Best Basic Planner – Vindora
Our Selection Criteria
Confession: I am a planner and organization junkie. I carry my with me everywhere—along with a bag of pens for color-coding—and it’s so full it looks like confetti exploded. I’m telling you this because I understand how important finding the right student planner is.
Keeping due dates, event times, goals, timelines, and notes in one convenient place is key to organization. That way you don’t have to scramble with sticky notes, or accidentally erase something on a whiteboard. Haven’t kept a planner before? Now is the perfect time to start.
Best Student Planners
Hours of research went into my first big planner purchase, and my guess is (if you’re reading this post) you’re a bit like me. I’ve had my fair share of planners that didn’t work for me and finally settled on some of my favorites that do. So, in order to save you time and research, here’s my list of the 7 best planners for college.
1. Best Personalized Planner: THE ACADEMIC DAY PL
ANNER BY BLOOM DAILY PLANNERS
This is the creative student’s dream planner. You can literally make it all you want it to be by choosing from 16 different cover designs and three sizes. The bigger size might be ideal for more note-taking space, but a smaller option can fit in your bag and not take up space. It all depends on you and what you want out of your planner.
For layout and design, you’ll have a two-page monthly overview spread for a broad view of your schedule and horizontal weekly views that feature priority and habit-tracking sections. The included sticker set allows you to customize the look and feel of the calendar while also adding a special highlight for your most important days.
As a bonus, this planner is packed with details to customize more than just academics. You’ll find a personal mission statement prompt, yearly goal-setting page, vision board, inspirational quotes, monthly spending log, and 13 notes pages.
Key Details:
- Size: 4×6″, 5.5×8.25″, 8.5×11″
- Best Features: Free sticker sheet, front and back pockets, tabs, and bookmark
Shop: Academic Year Planner by Bloom Daily Planners
2. Best Leather Planner: Hardcover Leather Planner by Ensight
These neutral, durable day-to-day planners are both fashionable and functional, coming in green, brown, or black leather.
You won’t have to worry about this planner getting damaged in your bag—the cover is incredibly durable! You’ll also find thoughtful details, such as an elastic closure band for secure handling, two bookmarking ribbons for quick access, and an integrated pen holder.
On the inside, you’ll find a functional layout with weekly and monthly overviews. This is perfect for managing work, school activities, weekly to-do lists, events, and more. Have a hard time remembering holidays? Don’t worry, this college planner has you covered with pre-written holidays marked on both the overview and individual day.
Key Details:
- Size: 8×10″
- Best Feature: The durable, leather cover
Shop: Hardcover Leather Planner by Ensight
3. Best Undated Planner: Undated Weekly Planner by Little More
This planner is affordable and timeless! Since this planner doesn’t have pre-set dates, you can start using it at any time of the year. If you don’t use it every day, the planner won’t go to waste—you can simply continue whenever you need to.
Designed with both style and practicality in mind, this planner features a vegan leather cover, a ribbon bookmark, a pen loop, and free stickers for personalization. It also includes special sections like the ‘Top 5 Goals of the Year,’ a ‘Vision Board,’ and a ‘Brain Dump’ for creative or unstructured thoughts.
Key Details:
- Size: 5.8”x8.3″
- Best Feature: Undated format, vegan leather cover, affordability
Shop: Undated Weekly Planner by Little More
4. Best Hardcover Planner: ACADEMIC HARDCOVER PLANNER BY TAJA
This hardcover planner comes in green, purple, and black and is your key for effortless planning and organization throughout the school year. Designed to help you balance school, work, and personal activities with ease, this planner features clear monthly and weekly layouts, along with dedicated sections for tasks, goals, and assignments.
This planner features an elastic band closure, monthly tabs for easy navigation, a clear double-sided pocket, and monthly motivational quotes for inspiration. Each monthly calendar page has large daily blocks to write in and a to-do list, while each weekly page features reference calendars, weekly priorities, and ample ruled writing space.
Key Details:
- Size: 6.3″ x 8.5″
- Best Feature: Accommodates various lifestyles
Shop: Academic Hardcover Planner by Taja
5. Most Detailed Planner: FLAGSHIP COLLECTION BY BLUE SKY
If you’re all business and don’t feel the need to decorate every square inch of your planner, the Flagship Collection might be one of the best planners for college out there. These daily pages run from 5 am–9 pm. Each day has a space for to-do lists, gratitude messages, your top 3 things, notes, and more. It even has an hour-by-hour schedule. The Flagship collection is available in beginning and mid-year editions, each running 12 months.
Each month is tabbed for easy reading and navigation. Uniquely, each day comes with a proverb or quote that’s sure to inspire. For example, “Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart.”
This is a great option for students who are looking for organization and mindfulness at the same time. Life extends beyond the classroom, after all.
If you’re feeling the need for a bit more organization in your life, there are also a plethora of free printables available. These include bucket lists, notes, organizing your week, gratitude journals, food and exercise logs, and much more.
Key Details:
- Size: 8×10″
- Best Feature: Allows for tons of detailed notes.
Shop: Flagship Collection by Blue Sky
6. Best Desk Planner: SIMPLIFIED DESK CALENDAR BY CABBRIX
Looking for a planner to keep on your desk? This large, stylish calendar is designed with a simple, mid-century modern aesthetic that looks good on any desk. It is backed by a double-layer leather board, which not only protects your desktop but also adds a touch of elegance to your workspace. The calendar comes in apricot, avocado green, black, and brown, allowing you to choose a color that best suits your style.
This planner might not have all the bells and whistles that some planners offer, but its simplicity is its strength. it provides everything you need for effective planning—ruled daily blocks, ample writing space, high-quality paper, and a notes section on each monthly page. When you are done with the month, simply tear it off and start with the next one.
Key Details:
- Size: 21” x 16.5”
- Best Feature: Simplistic aesthetic and ease of use
Shop: Simplified Desk Calendar by Cabbrix
7. Best Basic Planner: ACADEMIC DAILY PLANNER BY VINDORA
The Academic Daily Planner is a hardcover planner with weekly and monthly planning pages. The monthly spread of the academic planner contains an overview of the month as well as a section for notes. The weekly pages allow you to make sure you are on top of all your class assignments and other daily planning activities.
Perhaps best of all, this journal comes with supplemental pages that are jam-packed with information. There’s a holiday list, a year goal tracking page, a website login/password tracker, scheduling templates, plenty of contact info pages, and much more. It also has an awesome academic scheduler placed on the beginning pages. There are places for time, class, professor name, and room, all by day of the week and term.
The cover has a simple, modern, stylish feel to it. My favorite part of this planner is that it holds an inner folder pocket so you don’t lose stray paper. One the best planners for college, this is a great comprehensive option and runs on the less expensive side.
Key Details:
- Size: 6×8″
- Best Feature: Inner folder pocket (oh, and a great price!)
Shop: Academic Daily Planner by Vindora
Tips for Staying Organized
Now that you’ve carefully selected your awesome college planner, here are some tips for staying organized:
- You bought the planner. Now USE IT! It does you no good to buy the planner and not fill it out with your schedule and assignments.
- Make it fun! Use accessories like colorful pens and stickers. It will feel like a fun project rather than a chore.
- Give it time. It may take some getting used to filling all your activities out, but in the long run will help you stay organized, and it will likely remain fresh in your brain.
- Put the important stuff in your phone. Now that you’ve laid everything out in your planner, put deadlines and other important dates in your phone and set reminders to keep you on track.
Favorite student planner accessories:
- Pilot G2 pens
- Post-it multi-colored sticky notes (1.5″ x 2″ size)
- Post-it Study Flags
- Activity Stickers
- Washi Tape
Having the best planners for college are unique as the people who use them. Whether you want to keep it simple, neat, and minimalist, or use color and stickers for motivation, your planner is your own. It can be a great organizational tool that helps keep student life running smoothly.
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Very very helpful, thank you so much!
My son, who is a freshman, just asked me for a planner. I just came upon your site. Very helpful. Thank you.
This is a great list of planners! I used to use Mead’s planners for most of my college career. Senior Year and during my first year in graduate school, I liked using the Quo Vadis Notor planner – it gives you a lot of space for daily to-do’s and notes. And you can customize the format. I currently am using the Happy Planner which I got for a great deal! I talk about my planners in my blog, if anyone’s interested 😉
I use the List It Planner and would highly recommend it, especially for school students with lots of homework (and to do’s!). I love that you can start it when works for you (I needed mine for October) – not just January or mid-year like most planners. I also love the multiple ‘to do’ lists and that I can see my week at a glance. http://www.listitplanner.com
I recommend trying the iSmart.Life app. I use this app to planning my goals, tasks, projects.This is a very simple and free web app. You can see the demo and decide whether it suits you or not …
Thanks for making this list of planners. I could also recommend EverNote app. It’s easy to use and have a lot of possibilities for planning and making notes.