Planner vs. Journal
There are so many arguements that can be made about which is better. But truely, a Planner or a Journal is a personal choice. Each has it’s advantages and it’s disadvantages.
What is a Planner?
A Planner is like a giant wall calendar that you can carry with you. There are a variety of sizes and designs to choose from. Planners are mostly preprinted with the dates in a monthly, weekly or daily format; by the calendar year or the academic year. This makes them basically unchangeable.
While they are more structured and great for beginners. Used to keep track of appointments, special days or events, work schedules and class assignments. They only work when used in a specific order and tend to lead to the use of multiple planners.
What is a Journal?
A journal isn’t something you can just purchase, it’s more of a creation. A reflection of who uses it. Bullet Journals or #BuJos have become the new planner, but with bonuses. Almost like multiple planners in one place.
BuJos are unique to it’s creator. The internet has become full of social media accounts dedicated to users sharing their BuJo pages for ideas and inspiration to other Bujoers.
Bullet Journals can be as simple “minimalistic” or as intricately colored as you want. They can be used to do monthly/weekly/daily lists, track “habits” or even to plan a trip. BuJos are completely flexible and you choose how you want to use it.
If you haven’t done any research on how to use a BuJo, they can be very overwhelming. Don’t just jump in with both feet. Test the waters a bit and make it work for you.
Join me on Sundays…
Join me on Planner or BuJo Sundays to learn more planning tips and tricks.
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Never paid attention to the difference. I probably need both to organize our schedules and my thoughts.
Great points! I was able to find one on Amazon that’s a bit of both. Mostly a planner but does have additional goal setting and reflections pages.
I treat my Japanese planners (HononichinWeeks, Kokuyo’s Jibun Techo) as the backbone for my BuJo. The firms are ore established, yet flexible enough to embrace my tweaks. I’ve been with this combo since 2016, the year I banished Leuchtturm. I prefer to plan, not draw, so the hybrid arrangement works best for me. This includes hammering out projects on paper, such as how to approach promotional activities for Telegram and others. Thanks for this article.
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I was the one writing journals when I was a child. Now I prefer planners, but I hav them in my laptop. Beautiful post.
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Planner is great to track things. But I like both Planner as well as journal. Recently I shifted from journal to planner,
I think I could really benefit from using both. I need to pick some up to help me be better organized and self-reflect.
I used to love to journal but today I think a planner would help me most. I just need to find a good one
I love both and almost all of stationery that exists! But I think I’d choose a planner for work and make a bullet journal for fun and weekend activities!
I use my planner every day. I had an Erin condren last year and never went back.
I love my happy planner. I use it for everything. Bills, appointments, notes, lists, whatever…. it all goes in there.
Both are great! I find that a planner is more practical to use as you age; specifically if you have a spouse.
I use a planner most times and I have seen the bullet journal craze go on for some time now. I like the cute name that has resulted, Bujo. I am not sure I would have time for a Bujo though.
When it comes to planner, I’m a great failure. Going to try again.
I did not think about difference before. Because I have the one which has both planner and journal for each month.
A planner does it for me. In fact, I have one hat I walk around with and another on my phone just to keep track of my to-dos.
I love my planner and my journal, just for different reasons. I like having my journal to write down thoughts and ideas, and my planner for to-dos and all of my weekly plans and goals.
It’s great to hear I’m not the only one to use both. Planners keep our day to day moving along, but my journal is where I can just really dump my brain out.
I love the idea of journaling but I am NOT creative and I don’t think it would look very good. I just use my phone to keep track of things.
That’s the one thing I love about journaling Krysten…it’s whatever you want it to be. No creativity required 🙂 I have been checking out what they call the “minimalist” approach and it’s been an eye opener. I’m learning simple can be a lot more time efficient for us.
I have to admit I just have a diary which I jot down appointments in other than that I don’t have anything. I should think about doing something nice though to keep all those special moments in .
My planner still keeps my appointments, but I am slowly moving that into my journal. I love that I can put everything in there and I can keep track of appointments either monthly, weekly or the occasional daily page. I will be sharing a series about journals and planners if you’d like to “test the waters” 🙂
I am a planner type of person. I makes it easy to keep track of things.
I do love a planner since writing down what to do makes me feel like I am on top of my game, though I could use a journal for my thought.
I admit Joan, I am completely obsessed with my planners to keep my day to day organized. Bullet journals have become my “extra” since I only really need to use it when I want to.
I tend to use planners. I love to journal, but I prefer to type things out. I need a planner though to keep track of everything.
I get that Amber, I like to use both. A planner for my day to day busy and my journals for everything else.
Do you believe that I never understood the difference? Thanks for the explanations!
I know exactly what you mean, lol! I always thought a journal was just a diary of what I did today…but then I stumbled on the bullet journal and found out I could make it whatever I needed it to be.
I prefer diaries because they are already organised and I can easily just write down my meetings or the plan for the day. I think a journal is for someone who has more time on their hands.
I admit Joanna, I am guilty of using my planner for our day to days and journals for tracking a lot of our other habits.