Weekly or Daily Planner: Which Is Right For You?
Published: July 11, 2023
Paper or digital planner? Landscape or portrait? Bullet journal or traditional? Minimal design or loud and colorful? There are so many options out there. But one of the most fundamental choices is: WEEKLY OR DAILY PLANNER.
Here are a few things to consider when picking between a weekly or daily planner.
But before we get there, the most important thing to know is that there’s no one planner for everyone. It’s all about what you prefer and what fits your life best.
WEEKLY PLANNERS
Our digital weekly planners come with multiple layout options so you can experiment to see which one fits your life the best.
Weekly planners are great for getting a bigger picture of your time and general sense of direction for the week.
They’re ideal if you’re in a slower season (like summer), managing multiple schedules (like other family members), or your days are strictly scheduled or repetitive. But there might not be enough room to write down everything if you have a lot of appointments, to-dos, or projects.
DAILY PLANNERS
Our digital daily planners include dated and hyperlinked monthly, weekly, and daily pages. It also comes with multiple weekly and daily layout options.
Daily planners are great if you’re juggling a lot of different tasks and projects (students, small business owners, and content creators jump to mind) or if you prefer to have your tasks broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces.
Many daily planners also include space to keep track of your schedule, which is perfect for time blocking.
And, if you enjoy keeping track of extras there’s a lot of space for things like meals, hydration, and daily check-ins. But with so many options daily planners can be overwhelming compared to weekly planners.
COMPARISSON
DAILY
More space for specifics
Space to break down tasks into bite sized pieces
Can provide more structure
Can also provide more space and less structure (it depends on what planner you choose)
Ideal for busy times and varied schedules
Great for time blocking
Space to journal and for other notes/trackers
Room to brain dump (sometimes you just need to get it all out on paper/screen)
CON: Can be overwhelming with more space to plan or more structure (depending on your planner)
WEEKLY
Bigger picture - general direction
Tip: Add themes to your days (like rest days, content or design days, etc.)
Add only appointments and important tasks for the day
Good for managing multiple schedules like:
multiple family members
work, home, and social
Ideal for slower seasons
CON: less space for specifics
ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS
These questions can help you choose your planner. (Recommendations for weekly or daily are in parenthesis after each question.)
TIP
The great thing about digital planners is that once you have one, you can duplicate it to create as many planners as you want.
What are you using this planner for?
School. Work. Home. A mixture of all three?
Are you managing multiple schedules? (Weekly)
Are you managing a lot of projects or daily tasks? (Daily)
What is your planning style?
Do you find blank pages, long lists, strict structure, or writing EVERYTHING down overwhelming? (Weekly)
Do you enjoy and/or want to keep track of extras like hydration, daily check-ins, meals, and more? Or have space to journal? (Daily)
Do you prefer to see your tasks broken down into smaller, more digestible pieces? (Daily)
Or do you prefer to just get a general sense of the day by noting main tasks and appointments? (Weekly)
What is your schedule like?
Are your days strictly structured and repetitive? (Weekly)
Or is there a lot of variation to your day? (Daily)
BONUS TIPS
FOR WEEKLY DIGITAL PLANNERS
Add daily pages when you need them
Our planners include daily templates that you can copy and paste after the weekly spread.
If your planner doesn’t include any, you can also use a notepaper template to schedule your day, write out task lists, and add planning widgets to.
Combine weekly and daily techniques
Use a weekly planners in conjunction with a basic daily to do list. You can use a notebook, scratch paper, or to-do app.
FOR DAILY DIGITAL PLANNERS
Delete the daily pages that you don’t use as you go to keep file sizes small. It also makes swiping thru pages quicker.
With most digital planners, the hyperlinks will still work unless you delete the page the link goes to.
Use digital stickers and widgets for even more functionality like water trackers, meal lists, daily check-ins and more!
FREE MONTHLY PLANNER
After all that talk about weekly and daily planning… what about monthly calendars?
Most planners include monthly calendars by default. They’re great for getting a big picture of your time and keeping track of appointments and events. And in digital planners they can be duplicated for multiple purposes (link to insta post): like mood tracking, exercise planning, or recording meals.
If you want to give digital planning a try: here’s a free monthly digital planner. It also includes 3 basic notebook papers. (P.S. This makes a great digital bullet journal.)
June 2023 Freebie - Digital Widgets
FEATURED IN THIS POST
Also available
All Mid Year planners include a bonus summer 2024 (May - August 2024) digital planner!
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