When should you start preparing for a new year planner?

When do you typically purchase and prepare for new year planner? I used to buy one in December as part of my Christmas gift shopping routine. However, I recently stumbled upon planners on Amazon and decided to get a head start on my new year planning. I’ve got some exciting plans in my mind, and new ideas have cropped up. I was eager to write them down in new year planner.

What kind of planner do you prefer?

There are numerous brands and layouts of planners, including monthly, monthly and weekly, or monthly, weekly and daily formats. Typically, each day is allocated one page, which is great for noting future plans on specific event dates. However, I found that these planners tend to be thick and heavy to carry around all the time, and the space allocated for each day doesn’t always suit my needs – some days end up blank, while others don’t offer enough writing space.

Here is what I have planned for next year

Currently, my planning system consists of a monthly and weekly planner for the year, as well as a journal book with no dates and simple lined or unlined pages.

• Planner – monthly and weekly for a year
• Journal book – no date and simple line ruled (or no line) journal book.

I use journal book to jot down my thoughts, and the amount of writing I do can vary greatly from day to day. Some days, I only use one page, while other days I write multiple pages. For this reason, fixed-date journals with predefined pages per day don’t work for me, so I opt for a simple lined journal.  

Since my journal book lacks dates and predefined layouts for days, weeks, or months, I require a dated planner. My key requirements for a planner are that it should be lightweight and have a straightforward layout with monthly and weekly pages. The primary purpose of my planner is to provide an overview of my monthly and weekly plans. 

Here’s a picture of my planner for next year:

Where to find it?

Link to Amazon https://amzn.to/3LghG83

I started searching on Amazon in early August, and most of the results were for planners covering September 2023 to December 2024, essentially  a year and a half. At the end of August, I cam across a whole-year 2024 planner on Amazon. After comparing a few options, I settled on this one.

The planner weights is 5 ounces and includes monthly and weekly pages, with a few blank pages at the end. Monthly views spans two pages, and weekly views are also spread across two pages. I plan to use some of the blank pages for setting my yearly goals. One drawback is that the weekly pages lack a designated space for weekly focus, so I might draw a line to create this section for my weekly focus, To-Do list and weekly Wins!

For the current year, 2023, I used a very similiar planner, but it was no-dated. While it served its purpose, filling in the dates was a tedious task. If possible, I’d like to avoid this in the future. Good layout of this planner was that weekly page has one page for to do list, goal, priorities and habit trackers and more. 

Benefits to have new year planner early

Securing the moment when a new idea or plan for the upcoming year strikes is crucial. By planning well in advance, we can prepare ourselves to kick off the new year smoothly. It gives us a head start, eliminating the panic and rush that often comes with starting a new year.  

Wishing you all the best in 2023 and the upcoming year, 2024.