2021 Planner Planning

My planning history

For several years I’ve kept a paper diary in conjunction with a digital calendar. I enjoy having a diary with me, to jot things down in, track things from several places together and to refer to quickly without having to deal with my phone. I like writing and making a diary nice to look at is fun for me. I wouldn’t consider myself a full diary planner or layout expert though I know a few people who are.

I’ve tried different styles with varying levels of enjoyment and usefulness. There was a time when a page a day was what I needed because my notes were vast. I’ve had various weekly spreads and have tried to incorporate bullet journal elements. Never been fully lured into the bullet journal style in gridded notepads. Simply can’t conceive of starting with a blank page and ending up with the lovely spreads I see others make.

A little over 4yrs ago I struck the ideal balance of a weekly spread that’s useful for me, daily tracker spreads and quarterly reflection pages as well as having somewhere I can put various crafting notes. The last 3 years my diary has been a Stickplaner and I’ve really enjoyed many elements of it. However I’d come to realise I simply don’t use the knitting project features that Martina has put into place in the Strickplaner and I’m really not big on pink.

So if not a Strickplaner, then what?

I went to the source of the brilliance behind the structure, features and layout of the diary, Weekview. I stalked the Weekview website… heavily. I initially thought the Compact Planner would be the right next diary for me. However upon looking at the features of the Business Planner it was more in alignment with my monthly goal setting habits that cover both my crafting and non-crafting life. I was keen, I was eager and I was impatient for the 2021 English diaries to be released.

And then they weren’t.

Due to covid, the Weekview team explained, they wouldn’t be producing International (English language) planners for 2021. To say I was disappointed was putting it mildly.

What do I do now?

Do I get a German language Weekview planner and muddle through with my very basic German skills? Do I look for something else? I asked my social networks what diaries they have and love. I made a list and went to searching. Because I like to categorise, the table below has some I was pointed towards. I also added in some others that I happened across along the way.

Being really clear about what I wanted made it very easy to discard suggestions and develop a shortlist. Deciding what I really was firm on having (or avoiding) and what I’d like; but could live without or adapt to include. I have access to stickers and stationery companies that have products I can use to fill in gaps I encounter with an otherwise good option.

My 2021 diary requirements

book/thread bound
hard cover
similar size to current diary, definitely not smaller
weekly spread format
notes/lists area in the weekly spread not connected to any specific day
additional notes pages; grid or dot preferred.

With notes pages I can recreate the annual projects page and other trackers I desire as well as having space to take notes like I have for the last many years.

So how’d my searching go? I’d say fairly decently as making this table took most of a day. Prices were converted to AUD using currencyrate.today.
Planners listed that don’t have a language indicated are printed in English.

Planner	Reqs met?	Price incl post	Remarks
Weekview Compact Note (German)	Yes	$40AUD. €18.95 + €4.80 post.	Strickplaner is heavily based on this diary. Despite being in German I know where everything is and how I’ll use it. I know some German too.
MiGoals 2021 Weekly Spread A5	Yes	$41.90AUD $34.95 + $6.95 post	Australian company! Great weekly layout for what I want. Room for monthly goals in that spread. Goal focussed, which I like. Can likely recreate project spread in note pages.
Leuchtturm Weekly Planner & Notebook Medium	Yes	$55.90AUD $47.95 + $7.95 post or $50AUD from here	Same weekly layout at Moleskine. I really like the idea of a booklet for birthday tracking. Has project tracking pages with 5 lines per day. Only 8 totally plain notes pages. Do appreciate they have an AU website.
Emma Kate Co. 2021 Planner \| Weekly	Yes	$69AUD $59 + $10 post	Fairly minimalist layout, narrow week day columns & great wide weekend ones. Lots of note pages. Honestly none of the 2021 colours are appealing to me. The black has a soft cover, also get a little bit of a live, love, laugh vibe from this company.
Midori Notebook diary 2021	Yes	$51.50AUD £18.00 + £9.99 post	Weekly spreads are undated and presented as 8 sections. High flexibility about how spreads can be used. Plain notes pages. Cover to be purchased separately. Can see how this diary appeals, a little too minimalist for me.
Agendio	Close, wire or spiral bound	$81-85AUD. $42-45USD + ~$15 post	Honestly this diary option looks amazing and if the binding was different I’d heavily consider it despite it being really expensive.
Plum A5 Planners	Close, spiral or unbound	$41AUD+ $29.00USD + ?? post	Similar idea to Agendio. Seems pretty cool and could be useful. Also allows for receipt of the printed diary unbound if I could find somebody local to bind it.
Moleskine Large Week to View	Close, missing notes pages	$39.95AUD at Officeworks	Very accessible to buy in stores. I’ve had one before and struggled with it. However now I have labels and stickers to get functionality I want on the notes side of the weekly spread.
Resilience Agenda	Close, no week spread space	$45.90AUD $39.90 + $6 post	Looks pretty good, though there’s no free form space in the weekly spreads. Another Australian company and could be great if you wanted to focus on mental health improvement.
Hobonichi Techo Weeks (Japanese)	Close, smaller	$77.80AUD ¥1,980 + ~¥3,300 post + ¥500 admin or $47.95AUD from here	The only weekly spread offering from Hobonichi. Too small for my liking. Do like the grid layout and generous notes section. I know no Japanese either.
Archer and Olive A5 Undated Planner	Close, no list space	$72.50AUD $40.00USD + $11.00 post	No dates gives some flexibility. Also no list/notes space on the weekly spreads. Have heard good things about their bullet journals.
Muji Weekly (Japanese)	Close, soft cover.	$14.95AUD + travel to SYD or CBR	From the pictures it could be a contender. There’s absolutely no information about this diary on the website. Also can’t be bought online. That’s a no from me.
Scribbles that Matter	Not at all	$50AUD $35USD for a B5 bullet planner	They have a B5 Bullet Planner and it’s not available outside of the USA. In the Australian store is only an A5 dot grid with 2 cover options in 2 colours. Nope.

I’ll confess there’s a couple of diaries I checked out because they appeared in my FB news feed. Bitching about my original plans going belly-up on Instagram will do that. I also happened across one when I was searching for information about another.

You know what though? It’s the diary that I already have in a shopping cart and haven’t closed the tab because I’d got the required postage amount for this post.

So what am I getting?

I truly thought I’d end up getting the Weekview Compact even though my German isn’t strong. It’s familiar, printed in blue and there’s definitely comfort in repeating a format I know for a 4th year.

However I really liked MiGoals Weekly Spread Diary and am all but ready to hit ‘check out’ on that website. I’m all about supporting Aussie businesses, it meets my needs or can be shaped to, it’s a similar price to the Weekview and will get to me much, much faster (I hope).

All images below and the content they show are owned by MiGoals.