The 4 Best Planners of 2026: Roterunner, Hobonichi, Cloth & Paper
Wired · LC · trust 32/100
Courtesy of Erin Condren; Hobonichi Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story 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, I think these standout favorite planner styles could benefit everyone. If you're looking for a tech companion to your paper planner, check out my guides to the Best Digital Wall Calendars and Best Digital Notebooks to help keep your calendar and thoughts digitally.
Updated August 2026: The Erin Condren Academic Planner is my new academic planner pick, and I've added a new section on planner accessories.
If you need a single planner that can do it all and won't burn through your back-to-school budget, 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 weekly 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 to waste 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 ($28) size . It's truly my go-to planner since it has so much space for me to both use the pre-made lists and the open space to actually stay organized and put all my ideas, plans, and notes into one planner. Most others make me feel like I need a companion notebook, but not the Roterunner.
The covers come in a variety of simple colors, and in both hard cover or soft, but the butter-soft faux leather soft cover is my favorite of the bunch. Get it in B5 size if you're always looking for more room in your journals and planners—you won't regret it.
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. All of Hobonichi's planners use Tomoe River S paper, which is super thin but won't bleed through to the other side. It's also super smooth to the touch and to write on. I liked adding my own structure to the daily pages; I sketched a box to separate my to-do lists and habit trackers from my hourly agenda for the day, and then would usually freeform the rest of the page based on what was on my mind. The Cousin I tested and photographed is an A5 size, while the standard Techo is the smaller A6. The 2026 Cousins are out of stock at most retailers, but you can still find them on Hobonichi's website .
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. 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. There's no academic year version of the Hobonichi, but there are July starts for both the Techo and the Techo Cousin that will cover the rest of 2026, or buy an on-sale January version and skip the first half of it. The Hobonichi planners for 2027 will be released September 1; details for launch day are on Hobonichi's website .
I've heard a lot of good things about Erin Condren. Founded in 2005 by Erin Condren, it's known for the LifePlanner that's full of various spreads and productivity tools that you can customize, but there's other variations of planners you can find from Erin Condren. While you'll usually customize your Erin Condren planner if you shop directly on the site, there's a predesigned Target line you can shop that won't give you options, but will give you a well-made planner that's ready to go immediately.
I've been testing the Erin Condren Academic Planner you'll find at Target , and it's a great fit for students and people with deadline-style or client-based work they want to organize. Each month has two pages following the monthly spread to set your most important to-dos and dates, but also a full page to track the month's deadlines and what class (or client, or in my case, story beat) they're for. After that, there are weekly spreads with long columns for each day, and seven blocks of four lines that you can label with things like specific classes, clubs, or organizations, or…
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