New Year, New You
The Best Digital Planners for Organizing Your Paperless Life
Whether you're a student, entrepreneur, or in the school of life, these paper-free organizers will keep you on track
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Getting more organized tends to be among the top New Year’s resolutions, but it’s something we should be keeping top of mind throughout the year as well. If you’re looking to keep your schedule, ideas, to-do lists and motivational notes-to-self in one place, one productivity tool that never gets dated is a good planner. And if you’re equally committed to the environment, then a digital planner might be your best bet.
For those who are already tethered to their tablet (say, an iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, or an Amazon Fire device), smartphone, or smart notebook, these virtual organizers allow you to keep tabs on your schedule and tasks while eliminating the need to throw yet another book inside your bag.
Another advantage? If you’re too busy to pick up a planner at a brick-and-mortar shop, or you don’t want buy one online and risk a delayed delivery, the best digital planners let you download and use your organizer immediately. And if you’re concerned about the environment, a paperless planner helps eliminate waste and the carbon footprint that comes with shipping traditional books.
What Are the Best Digital Planners?
The best digital planners are designed to be used with PDF annotation apps such as GoodNotes and Notability (which has an embedded digital planner option) on iOS and Android-friendly Xodo. They also include convenient indexes with hyperlinks, allowing you to quickly navigate to specific dates, weeks, lists, and other sections in your planner.
What’s also great about digital organizers is that you’ll never run out of space (unless, of course, your device is out of hard drive memory). Many planners allow you to insert additional pages, including templates for budget tracking, meal planning, detailed meeting notes, and blank pages for doodling or taking notes with your smart pen (also called a digital or stylus pen), to name a few options.
To help you get more organized, we’ve rounded up the best digital planners for entrepreneurs, students, teachers, and others. Check out our top picks below.
1. The Planners Collective Ultimate Digital Planner
We like the versatility of Planners Collective’s 2023 planner, which is compatible with iOS, Android, and Microsoft devices, including tablets, smartphones, laptops, and desktop computers. The two-year dated planner offers four layouts so you can choose the format that fits best for your lifestyle, as well as an index and daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly pages.
Organization enthusiasts will also love the variety of cover pages (there are 15 options), and dozens of templates for lists, tracking, and note-taking; just a few examples include a gratitude journal, an emergency contacts page, a vision board, meal planners, and trackers for bills, expenses, bills, fitness and wellness, passwords, sleep, mood and more. Those who prefer to add colorful visuals to their planner will appreciate the over 650 digital stickers and “sticky” notes.
Buy The Planners Collective Digital Planner $10.68
2. My Daily Planners 2023 Digital Planner
Available for iPads (including Pro) and Mac computers, this 2023 portrait planner features a minimalist, professional-looking design with daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly pages and a handy index. (It’s also available in landscape format.) Daily pages give you space for planning your schedule from 6 a.m. to midnight, plus room to jot down the day’s priorities, to-do list, and miscellaneous notes.
Weekly pages include to-do lists and sections for goals and notes, and you have the option to start your weeks on Sunday or Monday. You’ll also get pages for budget tracking, project planning, and meeting notes, plus six project folders to further customize your planner. It’s compatible with GoodNotes, Notability, Noteshelf, and other PDF annotation apps for iOS.
Buy My Daily Planners Digital Planner $19.92
3. Evo Printables Fitness Digital Planner
Healthy living enthusiasts can keep track of their workouts, fitness progress, meal plans, and more with this digital planner. It works with iOS (GoodNotes, Notability, Noteshelf, and Xodo) and Android (Xodo), and also includes access to Evo Printables’ library of over 500 planner templates and more digital planning templates.
In addition to a customizable cover, this digital fitness planner includes an index, a 12-week workout plan, daily and weekly planning pages for workouts and meals, and trackers for weight and wellness. You can also save your favorite recipes to your organizer and take notes on the dotted, line, and graph pages.
Buy Evo Printables Fitness Digital Planner $19.99
4. The Daily Planners Undated Business Planner
This iOS and Mac-friendly digital business planner works best on GoodNotes, which syncs across multiple devices. It’s got an index and undated daily, weekly, and monthly planning pages, plus templates for tracking finances (such as sales, budgeting, taxes, expenses, and inventory), invoicing, order forms, and more small business resources.
Other handy features include goal and project planners, office organizers, social media content and tracking guides, and plenty of blank note pages.
Buy Undated Business Planner $32.90
5. Amethyst and Garnet Ultimate Student Planner
This student planner scores an ‘A’ in Organization 101, thanks to grade and homework trackers, subject and chapter reviews, essay planners, and class lists. As far as planning, it includes daily, weekly (in three different layouts), monthly, and yearly pages for planning and goal-setting. School-life balance also takes priority, so it’s got helpful trackers for chores, hydration, sleep, debt tracking, fitness, and reading as well as 30-day challenges and birthday reminders.
Other bonuses include 400 digital stickers, recipe pages, a food journal, and a vitamins and supplements log. Its creator recommends using it on GoodNotes or Notability apps for iPad.