I have to say, ever since I started making lenses about planners, I’ve been amazed at how hard it is to find good ones. That is: planners that are dated, that start at the beginning of the calendar year or academic year and have a horizontal writing style.
For some reason organizers often have square boxes to write in. I mean, who prefers writing like that? And all those columns… This is probably partly a culture thing. Dutch planners are ALWAYS dated. They go on sale in January, so the few people who are late buying them, get a bargain. But they’re the minority. I guess Dutch people are generally an organized set, compared to the US? Dutch agenda books usually have horizontal writing and hardly ever have columns. I do remember one planner I used for several years that did have columns. But the columns were wider, because the planner was horizontal.
I’m also stunned at the quality - or lack thereof. I remember that when I went to Middle School in the US (I lived in Austin TX one year) we all got a planner that had boxes, was printed on flimsy paper and fell apart very quickly. My fellow students were amazed at me trying to use it at all… Now I realize that one reason it was so flimsy is that it had to be cheap. But being so flimsy, nobody used it. It was testimony to my teacher’s wish to have us all become organized. But it was also enduring proof (well, it didn’t last VERY long) of their inability to actually get us to that point.
The year after that I went to a Dutch Middle School and the planners I used there (and we all had one, it was mandatory) were much more like the college planners I put up on my student planner page. The usually had a hard cover, always had space for writing down our schedule and contacts - and notes too of course. There was a wide variety of planners: funky ones, girly ones, planners based on popular cartoons etc. Horse planners for girls, the boys went for their favorite music group I think. No spiritual ones though - I guess that’s for adults. Student planners go by the academic year of course, but our Dutch planners had the full year as a matter of course. No missing months for us - maybe a week lost in the summer holidays. Most Dutch planners even have a few weeks overlap - so you can plan in advance. And year planners for the coming year of course.
In contrast one student planner publisher says proudly on his amazon page: Now 308 pages to cover the full school year! - I wonder since when are there 308 days in a year?
While I’m ranting, the lack of consensus on how to call these things seems like a symptom to me. I mean, they can be called planners, organizers (both of which can also be people), engagement calendars, date books, appointment books and pocket calendars. Have I missed any? Then the planners for students can be called: academic planners, student organizers, student agendas, student day planners, school agendas, kid planners, student planners etc. And that’s without mixing in phrases like ‘High school’, ‘Middle school’, ‘Elementary School’ or any of that. In the Netherlands we have two terms: agenda for any planner book and organizer for the loose leaf variety (always dated of course). Much easier to keep track of.
All in all the thing that puzzles me most is professional organizer sets not being dated. I mean really, what manager has the time to fill in dates? No wonder the advice is to set apart 15 minutes each day to fill in your date book… You may need that if you want to keep up with office holidays and and so on. Can’t they add the dates in a starter set that costs over 50 or even 100 dollars? I mean really!
Am I just being picky and European about this, or have I stumbled on a real problem with the US planner market?
