I need a replacement organizer for school.

January 1, 2008 4:13 PM

I am looking for a new academic planner, but I have some picky requirements. Can anyone help?

The past two semesters of school I've been using this amazing planner I got for Christmas last year to keep organized in my classes. It really ended up helping me stay organized since I am both taking a ton of difficult courses, and in the school ROTC and band. Unfortunately, when I went to reorder the planner around a month ago, I was informed it was discontinued, and that it had "no recommended replacement". My planner was an At-A-Glance Cambridge planner that was essentially a full-sized version of this. (This one is way too small to be of any use, though.)

Now, here's where things get tricky. I've been trying to find a replacement, but what made my last planner so awesome is apparently really hard to find. You see, what made my planner so useful was that the second page of each week had a copious "To-Do" section and a "Notes" section, which is how I ultimately organized all of my work (assignments listed under the to-do section, with assignment details under the notes, etc). You can see this same organization in the smaller example above.

However, when shopping for a new planner, I haven't been able to find anything even remotely similar. I've gone to all the brick-and-mortar office supplies places and been googling my little heart away, to no avail. The closest thing I've been able to find is this one but the weekly notes section still isn't big enough to be quite what I need, and the large monthly notes section doesn't quite compensate. Not to mention it's a July-June planner (though I'm starting to care less and less about that).

So, can anyone help me out? To sum it all up, I'd like a full size weekly/monthly planner with a large notes and to-do section (or something equivalent) for each week. School starts in two weeks and I'm getting desperate.

posted by internet!Hannah to Education (14 answers total)

moleskine planners are just the thing, they come in 5*8in (roughly) and for the weekly planner, the week's in one page and a notes page beside it.
posted by drea at 4:21 PM on January 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Moleskine makes a somewhat similar planner, though it's just a "notes" page and not divided into notes and To-Do's.

A Weekdate might not be big enough for you, but the slightly different arrangement (and the back of each page is lined for notes) might work.
posted by ThatSomething at 4:23 PM on January 1, 2008

Have you tried Franklin Covey?
posted by JakeWalker at 4:28 PM on January 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Get any refillable binder type (found at local grocery or stationary store, where you can open it up and check how the pages work), and add your own pages as needed.
posted by anaelith at 4:45 PM on January 1, 2008

Moleskine 18 month weekly planner/notebook is what you need. I use it, it's awesome.
posted by djgh at 5:30 PM on January 1, 2008

I'm not sure this provides enough note-taking space for your needs, but I'm convinced that I'd probably die if I were deprived of my 8.5x11 Academic Time:Master from Payne Publishers. Each day, including weekends, gets one of those big long columns. There is a 5-line smaller box above each day's column for notes, more notespace running horizontally underneath the entire week, and another full-length Things to Do/Notes space next to Sunday on the right.

I have loved the Time:Master with every fiber of my being for six or seven years now and, before Payne had online retail ordering, went to frightening lengths to get them. I imagine the 2007-08s are long since sold out, but the 2008-09s should be available by mid-April -- I already have my reorder date pencilled in, of course.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:48 PM on January 1, 2008

I use page-a-day planners for making long lists and also pasting in things like notes from the doctor's office, flyers from art galleries, invitations, etc. I used a Moleskine last year and they're awesome for being extremely portable and also making you look hip.

I couldn't find the page-a-day Moleskine this year, so I have a different brand and I must say that the paper quality just isn't as good.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 5:49 PM on January 1, 2008

Oh, the Time:Master also includes a two-page calendar for each month, with ample "goal listing" space, a two-page full academic year calendar with little spaces for major goals or deadlines, and a second two-page "forward planning" calendar for the upcoming year.
posted by FelliniBlank at 5:51 PM on January 1, 2008

The Space 24 from Quo Vadis might be a good replacement. It is like the Moleskine Weekly Planner mentioned above, but with the hours of the day marked. Unfortunately it also doesn't have a checklist included in the notes section. Other interesting designs from Quo Vadis are the Classic, the Principal, and the ABP. I just bought the ABP to use at work.

I had a smaller version of the Moleskine Weekly Planner for 2007. It was nice, but weekly layouts stress me out, so I went back to a daily layout. So for personal stuff I use a Moleskine Daily planner - 2008 will be the third year I'm using one.
posted by halonine at 7:26 PM on January 1, 2008 [1 favorite]

Create your own with a word processor, tailoring it exactly as you like it. Then take the pages to Kinko's to get them bound.
posted by Capri at 5:07 AM on January 2, 2008

Franklin Covey has a great academic planner that I wish I had in college. I now use their teacher planner.
posted by nimsey lou at 10:06 AM on January 2, 2008

When I needed something like this in college, I designed the sheets myself in Aldus PageMaker (oh man, I'm dating myself) and got them spiral-bound at Kinkos... using a three ring binder never really worked for me because pages would fall out all the time.
posted by SpecialK at 12:05 PM on January 2, 2008

Best answer: I've owned the smaller, pocket version of this: Harvard Business Planner - Elite, Desk edition. The site is ugly, but I think it mostly fits what you describe.
posted by enfa at 1:25 PM on January 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: enfa, that planner is absolutely beautiful. Thanks for the recommendation!
posted by internet!Hannah at 7:12 PM on January 2, 2008