The 4 Best Planners of 2026: Roterunner, Hobonichi, Cloth & Paper | WIRED

Overview

There's nothing like the feeling of a brand-new planner. If you're looking to get a little more organized or just love having somewhere to write everything down, there's no wrong time of year to get a new planner. After testing dozens of planners myself, my favorite ones are often either customizable or undated, making it easy to pick them up whenever you want.

The world of planners might seem simple if you've only browsed your local Target or bookstore to see what planners they might have on hand. But there's a wide world of options out there that can perfectly suit your needs, especially if you're willing to build your own travel notebook or write in the dates on an undated paper planner, or open to trying your first Japanese-style planner. After trying dozens of planners over the last year, these are my standout favorite styles of planner that I think everyone could benefit from trying.

Details

Updated March 2026: This guide has been reorganized and features the Cloth & Paper Travel Notebook as a new pick.

If you need a single planner that can do it all without costing more than $30, this is the one. The Roterunner Purpose Planner is an undated planner that has monthly spreads, weekly spreads, and two full open pages for each week, so there's plenty of room to write longer lists or a project brainstorm. Each monthly and week spread has a ton of premade checklist sections for you to use, too. There's even space to track your meals, water intake, and gratitude. It's a planner that actually helps me stay organized and gives me space to track and take notes without running out of room.

The undated nature makes it easy to pick up anytime and use for whichever months you need. Fell off the boat for a few months? No problem. No pages will go wasted when you can fill them in as you go. It only covers six months, but I actually like that; it once again feels like a feasible commitment, especially if you're waffling on how much paper planner you want to promise to use. I love the massive B5 size, since it's finally enough space for me (almost too much, which is a rare find), but there's also a smaller (and cheaper!) A5 ($25) size.

This year, I'm all about the travel notebook. A travel notebook uses bands to connect three or four notebooks together, and I love using this system to build a customized planner designed for my exact needs. It makes it easy to change the design, too, since you can just switch out a single notebook when it's full.

I really like Cloth & Paper's Travel Notebook Collection. There are 13 different notebooks you can choose from to include in your travel notebook, ranging from classic weekly and monthly spreads to more unique options like a daily wellness notebook and a task planner. It's really a great option if you want a couple of specific things, or even just a regular monthly and weekly notebook plus a blank notebook in the back you can fill with to-do lists and replace anytime without needing an entirely new planner.

I tried both the A5 Slim and the Pocket Plus size, and I really prefer the A5 Slim for a traditional planner experience. The Pocket Plus would be fun to bring on a trip; I wish I'd had it on my latest trip to store little mementos and important things like parking receipts, and could have also written out notes and the plan for the week-long trip. You'll want the Clear Vinyl Travel Notebook Cover (

If you're getting into planners, there's no way you won't hear about Hobonichi at some point. There are a few different planners the brand makes, with the Techo being the most popular model. I tested the similar Hobonichi Cousin, which adds weekly spreads to the front of the planner after the monthly overviews. While I don't typically prefer a daily planner style, I was surprised by how much I liked using the Hobonichi Cousin. All of Hobonichi's planners use Tomoe River S paper, which is super thin but won't bleed through the other side. It's also super smooth to the touch and to write on. I liked using the Cousin's weekly spread section to plan my week, and then, for the daily pages, I sketched a box to separate my to-do lists and habit trackers from my hourly agenda for the day. The Cousin is an A5 size, while the standard Techo is the smaller A6. I found the larger A5 to be plenty of space for my daily lists and schedule, and it gave me a little extra room for other notes or thoughts I had that day.

There are tons of colors, covers, and other accessories you can get for it, too. I recommend picking out a protective cover since I did ding up my soft cover quite a bit, and that was just from being used around the house with an occasional trip in a bag. (The Techo also has a nice faux leather cover option, if that's more your style than a protective cover.) There are little quotes in the corners, but I got a Japanese version instead of an English one, so I can't actually read mine. But honestly, I'm glad I did; I prefer the Japanese lettering to distracting English words on the corners of each page.

The Kokuyo Jibun Techo is another Japanese planner (as indicated by the Japanese word “techo,” meaning “notebook” or “planner”), but this one is a travel-notebook-style design, making it more customizable with a cover and multiple books that fit inside it. I've started using the Jibun Techo First Kit, which comes with three books that fit into the included cover: Diary (labeled simply with the year 2026), Life, and Idea. The Diary is in the center and is the true planner, with monthly spreads and weekly spreads for the whole year, plus other fun pages. The Life book goes in the front and features lots of specific prompts, like the 100 Wishes List and places to track specific information, like passwords. Finally, the Idea book, which goes in the back, has just grid paper, so you can write out whatever you'd like in whatever style.

It's a really fun planner thanks to all the interesting pages it comes with, and how much space you have to work with. I love turning the project planner pages into a habit tracker, for example, but I also love using the prompt pages like 100 Wishes as they're designed. Similar to the Hobonichi above, the Jibun Techo uses a super-thin, super-soft paper that makes it possible to include all these pages and books without making the whole planner super-thick. It's also smooth and satisfying to write on, thanks to that nice paper. It's a bigger investment than the Roterunner and I don't use every single page so far, but it's still a fantastic planner if you want an option with tons of different pages you can use for planning and reflecting on everything in your life.

Like I said, there's a huge world of planners out there. Here are a few that the Reviews team and I at WIRED have tested and enjoyed.

Plum Paper is my favorite classic-style planner, and you can easily customize it to start at any time of year, and design the pages to fit your needs. I especially like the weekly A5 Vertical Priorities layout.

If you're looking for a great daily planner, the Day Designer is a popular option for a reason. It's bulky since it has pages for every single day, but leaves room for both your schedule and a long to-do list.

Looking for more of a monthly planner? The Big A## Planner is a massive planner with a nice monthly spread you can literally spread across your desk, with plenty of writing space for each day. Best for working from home, though; you don't want to have to fit this into your work bag.

If you're looking for another affordable option but want something with more personality than the Roterunner above, Ban.do's planners are fun and colorful, and even come with a page of stickers.

Not everyone needs or wants a rigid planner. If you just need daily to-do lists or are a fan of bullet journals, consider getting a great notebook instead.

Former WIRED reviewer Jaina Grey opts for a plain, lined notebook. After trying dozens, her favorite is the Midori MD Notebook with paper made from cotton pulp (just like money!). It comes in lined, unlined, or dot-grid. Grey says there's just something meditative about turning over a blank page at the beginning of each week and carefully jotting down her schedule, plans, and workload. Midori’s notebooks are designed to fit inside notebook or journal covers (which you can find all over Etsy). The pages are a subtle off-white and have a weight and texture that draws you in.

WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson says he doesn't use a planner, but each day he writes down the handful of things he's going to do on a single 3-by-5 index card. The index card with this to-do list lives in his pocket, along with a small notebook in which he jots down notes throughout the day—often the source of the following day's to-do list. The notebook and index cards fit inside this very cool waxed canvas notebook cover. Gilbertson says he copied this system from one of the most successful people he has known, and after nearly 20 years, it's still better for him than any other system he's tried. It's cheap, lightweight, and easy to manage. —Medea Giordano

Studies show that it's good for your brain to write things down. Sure, you could put your calendar in an online tool, but putting pen to paper activates more brain connectivity. We're more likely to remember and learn things if we write them down by hand, so using a paper planner for your to-do list can make it easier to remember. Plus, it's fun! You're given a creative space to let out everything you need to remember, from appointments to the day's tasks, and customize it in a way that best helps you stay organized.

Paper planners mainly come in two styles: weekly and daily. Daily planners have an entire page dedicated to each day, while weekly planners have an entire week spread across just two pages. These aren't the only options (monthly is another popular one, for example, but not as popular as these two styles), but they're the most common you'll see. I like daily planners for folks who have a really busy schedule they want to plan out and long daily to-do lists. Weekly planners are great if you want to be able to write down a few things per day but don't need an entire page.

Here are a couple common planner sizes. My favorite are the larger sizes since I like lots of room to doodle, but the smaller A5 is a popular choice for a book-sized planner that won't take up too much space. Not all paper planners use the same sizing names—Moleskine, for example, calls its A5 size a large—so you'll want to check measurements before you purchase.

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Key Takeaways

• There's nothing like the feeling of a brand-new planner
• The world of planners might seem simple if you've only browsed your local Target or bookstore to see what planners they might have on hand
• Updated March 2026: This guide has been reorganized and features the Cloth & Paper Travel Notebook as a new pick
• If you need a single planner that can do it all without costing more than $30, this is the one
• The undated nature makes it easy to pick up anytime and use for whichever months you need