I know it's not even close to 2027 yet, but planner season is starting! Some brands already have their pre-orders up or will have them up shortly and that means decisions must be made.
For 2026, I have two different writer planners going. One is a pocket-sized horizontal and the other is a 7X9 dashboard planner.
I knew I didn't want another dashboard planner because the full week is on one page and instead of going down the left column and then down the right column (which makes total sense to my brain!), this planner goes left, right, left, right, left, right.
While I love stickers, I'm less of a fan of being forced to buy them to correct a layout issue that makes me insane.
The second option I'm using was more tempting for 2027. The small size is nice and it's portable so I can slide it in a pocket if I want or put it in my purse, although I don't generally take my writing planner out of the house.
I also considered a daily duo, which is a planner that has a horizontal and vertical spread for each week of the year. I'm intrigued by that layout, but I'm not sure I need that much planner for what I keep track of.
And the final option on my possibilities list was a planner that has only the weekly pages and next to zero notes pages. It's called the Core planner. For 2026, it was vertical only and vertical is not a layout that my brain can use. I was hopeful, however, that this year it would come in a horizontal option, too.
So where did I end up?
This year, I also bought a monthly 7x9 planner. This is basically just a monthly calendar spread with blank notebook pages behind it. I actually had a plan for it this year, but I didn't write that plan down, and while I waited for a sale and waited for the planner to arrive, I forgot my plan. I still haven't remembered what I thought I was going to do.
My plan for 2027 is to re-date the 2026 monthly planner and create my own weeks pages on the blank notebook pages behind it. The calendar is a Sunday start which I would re-date anyway because I prefer a Monday start. The funny thing is that by changing to a Monday start, the dates all fall correctly for 2027 so all I need to do is re-label the days of the week.
It also gives me the flexibility to create a mini-bullet journal on the blank pages. I started with an elaborate setup for my current writing planner, but it included sections and information that I wasn't keeping up with and wasn't using. That means I only need to create something simple and I think this will be fun.
I hope.
