Dated vs undated planners - which is better?
Dated vs undated planners - which is better?
By the Roadmap+ Team
Deciding which planner to use for an entire year isn't easy. Trying something new or sticking with the same is a dilemma we so-called planner addicts face each year. The most pressing choice often begins with choosing between the dated or undated format. And if you get it wrong, it costs, but even worse, you have an unfinished planner that you don't like and a starting-somewhere-random-in-the-year planner that you hopefully do like.
Personally, I found my soul planners – yes, there's more than one – over multiple decades, if you include childhood. But unlike my younger self, I no longer need an endless number of undated pages to document serious childhood struggles, such as cute boy info and why it takes so long to reach legal adult status. For the last 12 years, I've been extremely satisfied with weekly dated pages. Kokuyo's Jibun Techo, to be specific.
Figuring out what best suits your needs will make life easier...you'll find more time to actually get things done.
The Jibun is my main, keep forever, logger, tracker, planner, scheduler and day summary planner. I squeeze in everything I track, including dates to remember; details of the day's accomplishments (to dos are stored separately); weather details; what I ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner; "regularity"; as well as books, courses and random lists on dedicated pages at the front. There's even a daily habit tracker section. The Jibun is the whole, perfect package that meets my logging needs. Not the goal of this article, but my selfish wish is greater worldwide adoption, so that Kokuyo may continue the Jibun production for a very long time. And yet, as integral and perfect as it may be, as mentioned, it's not my exclusive planner.
Being a pre-printed weekly planner, I usually supplement the Jibun with another planner, my affair planner – there to provide the free and fun pages that I can do anything with, while my Jibun will always be there for logging, in the morning, the whole day or when I come home at night, ready to hear the details of my day. Right now, my affair planner is the dated Hibino in Camel by Midori – a two pages per day A6 pre-printed diary that I just celebrated a one-year anniversary with.
Within the first month, I developed strong feelings for the Hibino, as it provided me with something I didn't know I needed each day. It's a place to write and manage the day's to dos, uninhibitedly doodle, quickly jot down ugly scratch notes, save difficult foreign vocabulary, and scribble random ideas related to different personal projects without worrying about losing them later. Compared to previous flings with Hobonichis (every size and shape, dated and undated), bare Leuchtturm1917s, optional date Stalogy notebooks, Moleskines (dated and general-purpose notebooks), cute notepads, cute notebooks, cute post-its and official Post-Its, even a regrettable haul of stationery from Shein and surely others I can no longer recall, the Hibino and its two pages per day has become my second secret family. The Hibino could probably be replaced by an undated planner or plain notebook, but having two facing pages each day encourages me to use it daily, it's easy to estimate where a note is via the dated pages, and the fact that it's the supplementary planner makes me less precious about how I use it.
But the Jibun and Hibino combination works for me right now and my needs are probably not identical to yours. So, based on a lot of trial-and-error over the years, here's what I believe needs to be considered when choosing between a dated and undated planner.
Dated
- Dates provide structure.
- Less to set-up and format, meaning you can use it as soon as the first date, but not before the first day/date.
- It is what it is, so it's time-saving, overall, but you're restricted by its predefined design.
- Pre-printed dates help you get a feel for time to come or time that has passed, which is useful when thinking about due dates or reflecting on progress.
- Dated pages let you pencil in future events or deliverables.
- Finding something is easy if you have a rough idea of when.
- The colour scheme or available space for a day/week/month may not suit your taste or needs.
- If you aren't used to planning, you may waste pages or large sections and still need to purchase a new one when the year is over.
- You may feel like you're wasting the planner or even defeated if you don't always use it and see a lot of unused pages.
- Weekday and weekends may be culturally incompatible. Public holidays may be country-specific and not your own.
- Usually not ideal for creativity, such as sketching, brainstorming, mindmaps, scrapbooking or similar. Most focus on being used to make written word notes.
- Easiest for scheduling, tracking, logging, analyses and indexing.
- Many planners have official and unofficial cases or sleeves for protection and aesthetic.
- Often more expensive than undated planners.
Undated
- Undated pages let you structure each day based on your own template(s) or on an ad hoc basis each day depending on that day's needs or your mood.
- You can start using it any time of the year, but you may need to do more set-up in blocks or daily.
- Each day, week or month can take some time to set-up if you have a structure or sections in mind, adding time you need to set aside. You may also want to experiment with layouts before settling on one (or some).
- It's difficult to measure or estimate time, especially weeks or months.
- Without date-defined pages or structure, you can't schedule something in the future.
- Even if you roughly know how to gauge when something occurred, it can be difficult to find something without using dated pages as a time guide.
- Everything is customisable, so you can
- As no page is predefined, if you don't need a lot of space each day or only intend on using it sporadically, you may save paper and money as it's year-free and can be used continuously until full.
- You're under no pressure to fill a certain section of a page each day, because each entry starts after the last – whenever the last entry was.
- You define all weekdays, weekends, public holidays and so on, regardless of where the planner originates.
- Ideal for brainstorming and creativity, including art, sketching out ideas, diagrams, scrapbooking (e.g. stickers, tickets, cut-outs, photos, stamps), calligraphy, etc.
- Requires a lot of effort to effectively plan, track and log. Almost impossible to analyse trends.
- Depending which undated planner you choose, but even more so if it's a general-purpose notebook, there'll likely be fewer case / sleeve options.
- Can be better value overall – more pages, lower cost.
So, is a dated planner for you?
Ideal if...
- Most of the year you live by a schedule or routine.
- You need to plan, time-block, track, log and/or review.
- Looking forward or back is sometimes necessary.
- You like structure.
- It will be used for school, university and/or work.
Avoid if...
- You often need more space than pre-printed planners offer.
- You want to do more than write words in assigned spaces.
- You don't have much to plan, track or review.
- You don't believe you have the discipline to be consistent.
What about undated?
Ideal if...
- You procrastinate or know you're likely to abandon the planner randomly.
- You don't need to plan, track or find information quickly.
- It's rarely about when.
- You want complete freedom over your planner.
- It will mainly be used for personal pursuits.
Avoid if...
- You need to schedule things ahead of time.
- You need to track or manage personal projects, food, habits, exercise, assignments, etc.
- Life often gets busy and you sometimes forget plans or details.
- You don't have a lot of spare time to set-up pages every day/week/month.
If you can't wait for next year to change things up, there are planners that commence in April (Japanese with English options), July or October (e.g. Moleskine), November (Jibun Techo Diary – weekly, non-Biz version), and likely some others waiting to be discovered.
Figuring out what best suits your needs will make life easier when it comes to purchasing and sticking to a planner each year, but also every day. If you aren't distracted by improving your planner situation you'll find more time to actually get things done. But it's also ok to try something different for a few years as interests and circumstances change. Whatever you choose, enjoy and make the most of the process as it's all part of the journaling or planning experience!
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This article is unsponsored.
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