One of my favorite things about turning over a new year is the chance to buy a fresh new planner. I know everyone organizes their lives in their smartphones and Google calendars these days, but I will always be old-school in this department and prefer a paper planner that I can toss in my tote bag to keep track of my schedule, deadlines, to-do lists, and notes. I find that writing down deadlines and reminders helps me commit them to memory.

Several years ago I splurged on an original Day Designer planner and loved the streamlined design that combined a full day’s schedule, to-do list, notes and goal-setting tabs for each weekday on one page. On a recent trip to Staples, I found a 2018 Day Designer for Blue Sky Daily & Monthly Planner that offered the same functionality at half the price of the original, so I scooped it up and I’m excited to use it in the new year!

(If getting excited about planners is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.)

If you’re willing to make the investment, the Filofax Original leather binder agenda is still one of my favorite customizable planners; you can read all my thoughts about the Filofax system in this post. Now I just order new inserts for the upcoming year to refill my binder and I’m good to go.

A tip: TJMaxx is a great place to find agendas and stationery, like this pretty marble planner for $8!