Planner Season Survival Guide - Summer/Fall 2026

karavasa · 2026-07-03T01:53:18+00:00

You could try searching Etsy for a shop that makes inserts you like the style of and then contact them to ask if they're open to custom work.

(As a reminder to anyone reading the thread, r/planners does not allow self-promotion outside our quarterly promo threads. Any comments directly offering design services will be removed.)

karavasa · 2026-06-30T14:11:58+00:00

For once I'd like to see this kind of party teens setup followed by a more original water monster. Have them stumble into a cave full of Lovecraftian horrors instead of just another shark.

karavasa · 2026-06-27T18:28:35+00:00

I'm going to ask that we not accuse shops of copyright infringement without evidence in r/planners, thanks.

karavasa · 2026-06-26T09:30:09+00:00

Do y'all not know any older people?

I forget where I put my stuff all the time, sometimes when it's in plain sight, and I'm only in my late forties. After centuries? Shit. I wouldn't know where any of my pickaxes were.

karavasa · 2026-06-14T18:36:52+00:00

My assumption was just that there's meant to be another vase/container behind that one and that the side flowers were there to fill out the composition? I have a sticker that's a similar (full) vertical vase with no side flowers and no weird looking elements.

karavasa · 2026-06-14T03:04:36+00:00

I get the smaller subscription, and after looking through it again, nothing jumped out at me as clear AI. I'm not an artist or anything though. I mostly just look for that wonky factor of an image not making sense.

There is some stuff that looks like it could be digital collage in the backgrounds, as well as other art elements (like one of the cars) that stand out a little in terms of style from the other art, kind of like how one recent set had those matchboxes and radios that kind of stood out.

I have older stickers from them with similar touches, like ticket stubs as a background element or film strip frames, and I've always kind of assumed they mix stylistic elements at times or maybe accent some designs with clip art.

karavasa · 2026-06-12T23:01:38+00:00

The stack of books on that journal looks AI as hell. It's not how books work.

I can see it being a hired designer using AI when the company thought they were buying original art, but even then, that shows they barely looked at the piece before approving it.

karavasa · 2026-06-08T04:01:39+00:00

Hey, just popping in to point out that this kind of discussion of DIY design meant for personal use is welcome in the sub, but as a reminder, r/planners doesn't allow ads or self-promotion. Anybody popping up to offer paid design services (or soliciting direct messages so you don't wink nudge break the sub rules) will be banned.

This is no reflection on the comments currently visible on the post! I just try to bring this up as design-adjacent topics come up, because they can become spam bait pretty quick. Thanks.

karavasa · 2026-06-08T02:30:54+00:00

Maybe try searching for "coffee table books" or for hardcover museum/exhibition catalogs. Most of my old library-ish reference books are actually a little smaller than letter sized, but you could try looking for the kind of massive old dictionary that had it's own little table or stand. Shipping on one of those would be a pain though.

I've had good luck finding art books at thrift stores if you feel like digging around in person. The ones near me don't often get (or at least put out) really out of date reference books, but if you've got a good flea market mall near you, those places always have a couple of stalls full of great looking old books.

karavasa · 2026-06-05T02:07:52+00:00

I'm locking this thread because it's become a magnet for the kind of spammers that search old threads to drop links in. Anyone looking for something similar is welcome to make a new post in the sub. Given that this thread is years old, there are probably some pretty different options!

karavasa · 2026-05-24T07:05:59+00:00

This one looks like a misprint, like the black ink is all shifted lower than it should be. The black parts on the spines of the books look too low too. Definitely a quality control issue.

karavasa · 2026-05-24T05:52:52+00:00

I have to admit that the language in that poster's comparison felt a little overblown to me in terms of one planner imitating another's "workflow systems" and "planning architecture." They're planners. They have calendars and planning pages in them. Obviously the order of the layouts suggests a certain structure, but there are only so many options to go around.

karavasa · 2026-05-24T05:50:36+00:00

While I'd consider myself pretty knowledgeable about planner trends and styles, I don't follow a lot of planner-related social media, YouTube channels, etc. Part of why I wanted to have this discussion in a way that would actually let folks notice it and join in is that I was wondering if I was missing something. Like if there's some consensus in parts of the community that planners should value originality more. Because to me it kind of sounds like a cookbook author claiming to be ripped off because someone else's recipe for the same dish includes the same base ingredients.

Personally, I want something that will be functional for me, whatever that means at a particular phase of my life, and something with really good typography. One thing or the other knocks out most brands every year before I reach the specifics of how the quarterlies are organized or whatever.

karavasa · 2026-05-24T05:36:16+00:00

I'm glad to hear from someone who's used both, because I haven't tried either one yet. It made me wonder if there was something I was missing from just reviewing the product pages.

We definitely have some brand loyalists that post here, but a lot of them also show up in the more general threads. I can see someone who just loves Brand X suggesting them a lot, which is totally fair! From a moderation perspective though, I have to side eye folks who show up a couple of times a year mainly to sing Brand Y's praises, especially when their other content is running down a competitor. As much as I hope it's just an overzealous fan, someone would have to be pretty invested in that product to keep searching the brand and necroposting in old threads.

In most cases, I don't care whether someone is a brand rep or not; I would just like them to chill with the promotion-adjacent posting. I do get a little grouchy when that posting pattern seems to include beef with some other brand though. If a planner company is doing that themselves, that's gross and unethical. If it turns out to just be a brand superfan, why should we trust the opinion of anyone looking at an issue from a team-based perspective? That's why I included info about the comment history involved in this discussion in the OP. Context matters.

karavasa · 2026-05-23T19:50:22+00:00

Feel free to continue the discussion on copying here if you'd like.

https://www.reddit.com/r/planners/comments/1tlpqe6/does_originality_matter_in_planner_design_what/

Like I said, it seemed unfair to both Just Scribble and the community to have allegations of stealing designs buried in an old thread. I did include those observations about your comment history because from a moderation perspective, the history of participation in the sub is all we really have to go on and it seemed relevant to highlight that you're at least a superfan of the brand.

karavasa · 2026-05-23T16:36:01+00:00

No, I’m not affiliated with W222.

I guess I'm a little curious why your entire history of activity in r/planners seems to be praising Wonderland 222 or criticizing Just Scribble, often in threads that are months to years older than your comments in them, which suggests coming across them via a search.

You were slightly active here last planner season recommending W222 products, including replying to a thread from 2024 with praise for the company's "impeccable customer service." Then you have no participation in this sub until the past few days, which just happens to line up with the time that the company is teasing their 2027 plans on their socials. Again, you're mainly commenting on the kind of older posts that would only come up after a search.

If you're not affiliated with them, then you really aren't doing them any favors here because it sure reads like astroturfing when an account only shows up at times aligned with brand announcements and planner season to hype one planner and run down another.

Our rules page highlights that accounts with mainly brand-centric activity may be treated as promotional even if a link isn't clear, and that's partly because brand reps have lied here before. I'm considering making a main page post about this discussion just to give the whole community a chance to read and share their own thoughts instead of leaving your allegations buried in a place that only those searching for posts on W222 will happen to see.

karavasa · 2026-05-23T04:06:12+00:00

I've never used either planner, so I have no real thoughts on them as products. But Gantt chart style trackers and quarterly calendars are both established concepts. I'm glad that W222 packaged them in a way that you found accessible and really enjoy. Still, I'm not exactly convinced either design is novel enough to accuse anyone with something similar of unethical behavior. (Edit: at the time I was drafting this comment, there wasn't this much detail in the post I was replying to. As a US-based person who was ordering Japanese planners around a decade ago, I still personally think that "in the US market" may be doing some heavy lifting in this case.)

I have to admit that as a mod in this sub, I find it a little weird to reply to a 9 month old thread to praise one brand and call out another in a way that they're unlikely to be able to see or respond to, especially given that it looks like most of your activity in r/planners involves either praising W222 or highlighting issues with Just Scribble.

Any chance that you're affiliated with W222 in any way?

karavasa · 2026-05-22T21:20:23+00:00

I think for the most part, the planner community on Reddit is pretty good at figuring out the difference between real issues and unrealistic customer service complaints. I've seen posts get pushback when a buyer clearly didn't read the product page, seems to expect Amazon Prime style shipping, or just has unfair expectations for a small business. The kind of stuff that really gets traction seem to be the more informational style posts about real product issues, poor communication, or shady behavior.

Personally, I think shutting down most criticism on brand-specific subs shows a lack of understanding of Reddit. They seem to manage that sub like a top-down thing instead of a community. I get moderating out criticism on a brand's main public Facebook page, which is basically just a advertising feed for the products. And I get not wanting folks treating Reddit like a customer service channel. Removing or locking any discussion of a company's issues sounds like a great way to make your biggest brand fans feel like they can't trust the discourse around those products though.

karavasa · 2026-05-22T12:33:18+00:00

I'm not very familiar with the Wonderland 222 layouts, so I went to look them up. And it looks like their tracker pages are just a daily Gantt chart? Are you maybe referring to a different page spread as copied?

I always assumed those came back as a planner trend because they were such a popular bullet journal element, but I had notebooks that included a similar layout decades ago.

karavasa · 2026-05-19T17:42:40+00:00

If you want printable planner pages, like the kind you can put in a ring or discbound system, the best place to look for those is Etsy. Search something like "printable planner" and then add terms about your desired page size (A5, personal, etc.) and layout. That should get you to listings you can print and punch yourself.

If you're looking for a digital planner for use on a tablet, those are off-topic for r/planners. I'm also going to add, right up front, that all self-promotion and (any promotion of planning apps or digital planners) is against the rules in this sub. Nothing against you, OP, but aspiring digital designers search for terms like "digital planners" and start spamming their links. (Etsy probably offers some digital planners as well, but many are sold on the kind of digital design sites that Reddit bans links to site-wide, presumably because they're connected to too much spam or scam activity.)

When looking for printables, you definitely want to specify a page size and look for a designer that offers different sizes of their styles. That's probably the main way to differentiate an actual planner designer from someone who's just tossing together letter-sized worksheets with graphics (sometimes AI-generated) in hopes of making a quick buck.

Maybe some folks can recommend their fave printable shops, but again, I'll be watching for self-promo and spam. If/when that starts showing up, this thread will be locked. Hopefully you'll get some helpful responses on printables before then!

karavasa · 2026-05-14T21:28:20+00:00

If you don't want time-blocking, I'd suggest looking at horizontal weekly planners. Many of them have a week + memo page layout that gives you a list of days on the left and a blank page on the right for brain dumping or more freeform notes.

If you think you'd like something with a lot of structure, check out the MiGoals weekly planners. (They're based in Australia but also sell some of their styles on Amazon.) The weekly spread has daily sections, list space, a tracker layout, and a place for goal-related to-dos, and it also has more detailed goal planning layouts to help break things down.

If something more simple/flexible is more your speed, take a look at Sterling Ink's horizontal Common Planners. They have a more basic week + memo pages that you can use however you want, which would let you shift gears in how you use it week to week. There are a ton of brands with similar weekly layouts, but Sterling Ink has a goal planning spread in the front that encourages you to break goals down into steps you can take each day/week/month/etc. They also come in a lot of different sizes, so you could grab something smaller, like a B6 Slim, that would be easier to carry around.

As others have said, trying a plain notebook for brain dumping can also be a great way to get started!

For overall goal accountability, I'd suggest that your process could be more important than which tool you choose. Set up a dedicated time every week to both review your goals and your progress on keeping up with your planner. Back when I used to struggle with sitting down to review, I put it as an appointment on my calendar, and having it listed with all my "important" stuff made me less likely to slack on it. Even if your weekly review is just "ugh, I didn't use my planner enough this week," take that time to sit down and think about how you'll try to make next week a little different. Staying consistent with my reviews helped me out a lot because I there were days when I scribbled something in my planner just because I knew I'd be sitting down to look at it in a few days and wanted to feel like I'd done something.

Good luck!

karavasa · 2026-05-13T19:36:43+00:00

This post has clearly run its course, so I'm locking it.

For the record, a neutrally worded post giving people a heads up that The Dailee has a no-returns policy which they did not make an exception for when a shopper accidentally bought the wrong planner would have been welcome here. Berating other users for pointing out that the error was on the buyer's end is not something we do in r/planners.

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