10 Best Planners for College Students 2020
As you prepare your clothes and belongings to head off to college, we doubt that you have academic planner written at the top of your “To Bring” list.
While it may not be located at the top of the list, the fact that you set out in search of the best planners for college students means that it is on there somewhere (near the bottom, perhaps). That’s great!
In our guide below, we will be showing you some of the top planners to help you keep the school year organized.
Check out the top 10 planners in our table and check out all of the useful tips in our “Buying Info” section to help steer you toward the right one.
Top 10 Planners for College Students Table
*Note – Two planners we have included are not dated, which allow you the freedom to insert the dates and not worry about the calendar year restrictions.
How to Find the Perfect Planner for Your Needs
To narrow down the options, here are a few important details to take into consideration as you shop.
- Page Layout. You have options when it comes to the layout of the planner, so decide which would be most useful to you: daily, weekly or monthly layouts.
- Daily. These are set up so that you can keep track of your hourly schedule day by day.
Here is an example of what that might look like:
The At-A-Glance Daily Appointment Book has plenty of space for you to write detailed notes about your daily schedule and activities.
- Weekly. This would be great if you want a planner to help alert you of the most important upcoming events such as exams, finals, study groups, sports activities, etc.
Rather than two days per side, you’ll get half the week on one side and the other half of the week on the other side.
The DayMinder Weekly Pocket Planner is great for those of you who want a slim booklet that will fit in a purse, laptop sleeve or any other small bag.
- Monthly. Monthly planners are available in two versions: a monthly planner only or a weekly/monthly planner mix. Either one would be handy, so based on the way you organize your schedule, it’s hard to say one is better than the other is.
At-A-Glance also has a great monthly planner that allows you to see all days of the month spread across two pages.
- Planner Size. The next thing you’ll need to determine is how large you want it to be. Remember: the larger the planner, the more space you’ll have to write out detailed notes.
Smaller planners are great if you’d like to avoid the bulk and only need to jot down a few important things rather than write out full, detailed descriptions.
The nice thing about planners is that manufacturers usually offer their product in various sizes, so if you like the layout and style of a certain planner, the chances are that they’ll offer you a selection of sizes so you can choose the right one.
- Type. If you’d like to start setting goals for yourself and improve your productivity, then you might consider a Gratitude Journal or a Goal/Success Planner to help you.
These are the kinds that leave room for you to write down certain goals and offer you inspirational quotes that help encourage you to be successful and work hard.
We should also remind you that academic planners usually start in August and run through July of the following year. These make it easy for you to keep all of your academic info in one planner versus having to have the info divided into two separate planners that start at the beginning of each year.
Top 3 Best Planners for College Students Reviews
So, which ones do we consider to be the best planners for college students?
These three, in particular, stood out to us for a variety of reasons (which we are about to look at); however, we also understand that only you can decide which are the best academic planners for your personal needs.
Check out these three options; if they don’t meet your academic planning needs, have a look at the other great options we listed in our table!
1. Bloom Academic Year Daily Planner- Tribal
We really like the fact that this planner from Bloom Daily comes in two versions: one with the regular calendar year and one with the academic year calendar.
As one of the best planners for college students on our list, it features both monthly and weekly pages so you can keep your goals and tasks separate.
A hard, yet flexible, cover with a matte finish, monthly tabs, pockets on the inside covers and the spiral binding means that it will lay flat when you open it.
It’s easy to customize and offers you plenty of space to write down all of your tasks; whether short and sweet or long and detailed. The class scheduling pages were super handy, and the goal planning pages are also quite useful to students who just aren’t in the habit of setting and achieving goals.
It’s cute, it’s definitely affordable and ideal for any busy student looking to stay organized.
2. AT-A-GLANCE Weekly Appointment Book / Planner
If you have a very detailed schedule and need something that can help you keep track of class schedules, work schedules, appointments, meetings, or any other activities that may fill your days, then a planner like this will be very useful to you.
Each day has a column under it with all of the hours in the day. Under the hours, they have included 15-minute increments to make it easy for you to schedule an appointment or task at a specific time.
These columns are useful for your weekly school schedule, and they even organize Saturday and Sunday layouts differently since there is no school on the weekends.
If you’re not interested in the goal-setting and inspirational quotes, then we would definitely recommend a calendar like this to help keep things organized.
3. Blue Sky 2017 Weekly & Monthly Planner
We love the fact that this planner has monthly tabs to help you keep tabs on everything (pun intended!)
As a weekly planner, the left page has Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday laid out in three rows, and on the right page, you have Thursday and Friday in rows with the weekend split into two squares at the bottom.
The layout is pretty basic without a bunch of extras. If you want to write out detailed notes for your daily activities and need plenty of space to do so, then this would be a great choice for you.
While it is not an academic calendar, it is great if you plan to replace your planner annually and don’t want it to start in August and run until July.
It is a budget-friendly option and comes in two different sizes, so check it out to see if it meets your organization skills!
