The unapologetically bright, beautifully hand-designed prints are what attract us so much to these agendas. They call to mind blue skies and white sand beaches even on the dreariest of workdays.
The 17-month, ring-bound edition is available in four sizes and comes with a front pocket and tabs, weekly and monthly calendar pages and – our favourite part – two pages of stickers fashioned in the designer’s signature vibrant hues and exuberant style.
US$30, from Lilly Pulitzer
The marble design trend isn’t just limited to mobile phone and laptop cases. You can now get those wonderfully complex, veiny details on the cover of your next planner.
This one includes inserts with inspirational hand-lettered quotes, laminated tabs and soft pink hues between the covers of this 13-month agenda. It’s also got a spiral binding so it opens up flat for you to write in it with ease.
$42.70, from Naiise
Get ready for a fun year ahead with this playful agenda. The loud colours make the 17-month planner feel youthful and stylish while the quirky stickers, artwork and scribbles interspersed throughout reflect a sense of humour.
Complete with weekly, monthly views plus weekend to-do suggestions and a colouring page at the back, this planner has a perfect balance of sass and sophistication for women who are indeed “very busy” and, to quote another declaration printed inside the planner, “serious about fun”.
US$15, from Rachel George
Owning this fills me with Singapore pride. It’s 100 per cent locally produced by a collective of artists that created the hand-painted and digitally designed illustrations.
While its undated format may be exasperating to some, it allows users the freedom to hang on to it and use it in a different year. In other words, it’s suitable for people like me who hoard pretty planners and end up with many more than they could ever need.
$29.90, from Ordinary Original
This is just one of the many gorgeous cover designs by UK stationery brand Paperchase. Inside each planner, the pastel green, blue and pink pages and tabs printed with rounded fonts and absent of harsh dark lines are equally pleasing to the eye.
The diary has a monthly calendar and weekly views. It also contains also ruled and dotted pages for other notes.
£14.00, from Paperchase
Celebrated American fashion house Kate Spade New York doesn’t sell its a line of stationery in stores here, but you can still get your hands on their 17-month planners, as well as notebooks, greeting cards, sticky notes and more, online.
The planners carry that gleeful and energetic appeal we’re grown to associate with the brand. Each one has a hardbound cover which houses golden metallic spiral binding. It includes an interior pocket, monthly and weekly pages and tabs.
US$27, from Papyrus
There’s something charming and old-school about Rifle Paper Co’s beautiful book cloth hard-cover agendas. Couple that with the art deco prints on the endpapers that give it a little flare and you’ve got the prefect diary for artistic bookworms.
But beneath its vintage veneer, the diary is all about clean lines and minimalistic design so it’s also great for those who are meticulous (or overzealously neat). The 12-month agenda comes with a pocket, too.
US$30, from Rifle Paper Co
This 13-month planner looks and feels ultra luxe, in part because it’s made with vegan leather and also because has a gold-zipper pocket in the front interior. Sheets printed with pretty botanical motifs divide the planner neatly into six sections, including monthly and weekly views, and an expense tracker.
RM189, from Paperdorable
I don’t know about you but I live in constant fear that the water bottle I carry around in my handbag will one day leak and ruin everything inside, including my beloved planner.
This ingenious pocket planner solves that problem. Its pages are water-proof, thanks to a special coating on the wood-based, recyclable paper that shields it against moisture. The makers claim that their planners can even survive a spin in the washing machine. Each includes weekly spreads with monthly overviews.
US$9.95, from Rite in the Rain
Customise and personalise your planner from cover design and spiral coil to layout and colour palette. Interchangeable laminated covers allow you to switch things up in the middle of the year should you get bored of your chosen design. There are also permanent cover options that are hard-bound with a synthetic leather finish.
You can pick either a 12-month or 18-month format and one of three weekly views –horizontal, vertical or hourly.
From US$55, available at Erin Condren
Penning down your work and family commitments is made easy with this planner. Plan your double schedules simultaneously on two facing in each weekly spread. A column runs along the outer side of the page for your to-do lists and notes.
There are also pockets between every three months so you can store receipts, notes and more, and a handy little elastic loop to hold your pen.
£9.90, from Busy B
Don’t be deceived by its humble appearance. The Life List Planner is packed full of features that will help you to be more productive in 2017.
On top of your weekly and monthly calendar, there’s a goal-achievement section for you to lay out the step-by-step approach to meeting your goals. The Life List section gives you a system of weekly gratitude boxes to stay positive.
Track your habits, money and time in the tracker section and your poems, doodles and afternoon epiphanies in the ideas section. Finally, when 2017 comes to a close, look back and reflect on how far you’ve come in the year-end assessment section.
US$40.00, from Life List Planner
Set your priorities straight, not just for the new year but for each day.
The Productivity Planner’s daily spreads will help you to keep them in order. You write down the most important of your tasks for the day above all the rest, and keep track on the time you spend on each against a target that you’ve set.
At the end of the day, you give yourself a productivity score and jot down notes to reflect on how you can increase your efficiency throughout the day. With time, you’ll be able to beat procrastination and optimise your time use.
$57, from An Uplifted Day
While this one isn’t exactly a planner, I had to include it because using it brings me so much joy. The creators of The Five Minute Journal applied the principles of positive psychology to come up with a unique daily layout that includes a morning and night “routine” whereby you train yourself to set aside time when you wake up and before you go to bed to introspect and to cultivate gratitude.
Among the various encouraging messages and prompts to chew on, one important question the morning routine asks is, “What would make today great?” The night routine probes, “How could I have made today even better?”
$55, from An Uplifted Day