Top Digital Planners in 2024 For Productivity

New Year’s marks the beginning of new dreams and goals. Proper planning well in advance can significantly contribute to achieving objectives step by step. It’s evident how people nowadays embrace the trend of using fancy planners. If you enjoy planning and journaling to supercharge your productivity, there’s no need to wait until next year to start. Fortunately, you no longer have to search for physical planners; you can go digital with a custom digital planner that offers flexibility and personalization options. If you aim to get organized in 2024, consider this proactive approach to enhance your efficiency. Many digital planners are also compatible with mobile devices, making it easy to plan on the go.

In this article, we will discuss📝:

• Various digital planners, free and paid: Before looking into the list of top digital planners, I’ve also given a small explanation of what a digital planner is, along with everything you need to know before trying a planner.
• How you can make use of a good digital planner: Here, I have also carefully thought out about how you can use a digital planner for productive days ahead.
• Personal Tips: I know there is a lot of information given to you, but here I am giving you extra tips on how to make your digital planner more personalized and good-looking.

KEY POINTS: Digital planners are tech versions of traditional paper planners, accessible on devices like tablets, smartphones, or computers. These planners are designed to organize daily tasks, create schedules, set reminders, jot down notes, and manage various activities. Users can interact with digital planners using a digital stylus or keyboard. Digital planners have various features, including goal tracking, customizable stickers, interactive calendars, and more. They help streamline personal and professional workflows, enhancing productivity, habit tracking, work goal management, and keeping up with to-do lists.

If you need to kickstart your productive days ahead, it’s your sign to check out the top digital planners. There are many types of planners, and digital planners come with different options. I’ve done thorough research and shortlisted free and paid options for you. Read this article to learn more.

What is a Top Digital Planner?

A digital planner modernizes the conventional approach of using a physical planner for organizing your workflow and personal life. It serves as a useful digital tool to plan out appointments, tasks, and notes efficiently.

If you’re wondering how to engage in digital planning, there are two primary options: smart digital planner apps or a PDF-based digital planner.

A PDF-based digital planner tool adopts a paper layout in digital format, complete with tabs, links, and other digital features. This format seamlessly transitions from traditional planning methods to the digital realm.

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What I like most about digital planners is that the Digital planner apps often provide advanced interactive features and organizational tools, allowing you to use them like a personal diary with easy navigation within the digital book. These apps can also integrate with other apps, consolidating tasks from various platforms to enhance productivity and create a seamless workflow.

Whether you opt for a smart planner or a more traditional digital planner, the choice depends on your personal planning style. The appropriate tool for your needs hinges on whether you require capabilities for tracking assigned tasks, managing timesheets, enhancing collaboration, etc. There are many digital planners that can be used within goodnotes or other note-taking apps from the app store.

You can also customize your digital planner with the help of online tools. These tools enable you to create templates that align with your interests, vibe, and style. In today’s trends, people are actively engaging in bullet journaling and using their planners as a design space. This can be incorporated into your digital design practice and allows you to build a good portfolio.

15 Top Digital Planners For 2024

Here are my favorite digital planners for 2024. Check this list for the top 15 digital planners.

1. Notion

I’m starting off the list with Notion. Notion is considered one of the best digital planners due to its flexibility. Whether you’re a designer, brand manager, or a student, Notion serves as your canvas, and you are the artist. You can shape and craft your life exactly the way you want through this planning app. Notion’s customizable project management system allows tech-savvy small business owners and entrepreneurs to create personalized setups tailored to their specific needs.

Organize Your Life: Build a Digital Planner with Notion pic.twitter.com/N6XzgeiSuz

— Frank Anaya 🚢 (@peoplewhogrow) May 17, 2024

Starting from scratch, you can add various plans and organize your life using the simple function “/.” Clicking on “/,” a set of options pop up, allowing you to select what you require. With hundreds of template choices, you can opt for a business planner, monthly planner, habit tracker, or even a mood tracker.

The free version can be used individually as a student planner, and if you desire, you can share it with others or collaborate as a team. It allows you to plan in your way, on your terms. Notion is the easiest option to begin with digital planning, providing the push you need to be more productive. You can also check out other designers’ profiles on YouTube to get inspired by their creative and unique planning ideas.

I think Notion also excels in handling recurring tasks efficiently, easing the mental workload for users with organizational challenges.

Pros:

• Compatible with iOS, Android, and web.
• Features nesting and linked databases.
• Offers multiple planner templates.
• Supports slash commands for efficiency.
• Allows free users to embed YouTube videos and attachments of files up to 5MB.
• Includes a calendar view.
• Easy to track and navigate through multiple projects.

Cons:

• The initial understanding of the app can be time-consuming.

Pricing:

• Basic: Free for personal use.
• Personal Pro: $4/person/month.
• Team: $8/person/month.

2. ClickUp

When you explore, you’ll find it a renowned project management tool that doubles as a digital planner app. It provides individuals, teams, and small organizations with various premium task management tools at no cost. ClickUp allows you to personalize your own planner according to your preferences, from choosing colors, themes, fonts, and more.

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With intuitive features designed for teams of any size, you can easily stay on track with various projects. The platform enables collaborative planning and work, creating a space that is easy to access and navigate to any page for everyone involved.

Pros:

• Compatible with Android, iOS, and the web.
• Allows for collaborative documents with organized comments, attachments, and documents.
• Offers integration with over 1000 other tools.
• Provides a notepad feature for writing down ideas within ClickUp.

Cons:

• It can be overwhelming and is not the easiest task tracker and planner to use.
• Requires the use of Zapier to sync with your Google Calendar.

Pricing:

• Basic: free forever
• Unlimited: $7/person /m
• Business: $12/person /m

 

3. Goodnotes

While some individuals still cherish the traditional paper planner experience, Goodnotes is specifically designed to provide that nostalgic feel in a digital format. Compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows, Goodnotes is particularly crafted with Apple iPad and Apple Pencil users in mind. However, if you have a stylus, you can write and sketch as naturally in GoodNotes as if you were using paper.

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This app offers the option to use customized drawings, personal sketches, and copy-and-paste digital stickers according to your preferences. Additionally, Goodnotes helps you organize and visualize all your tasks, making it easier to manage your daily schedule. You can explore other digitally available planners and download them from the GoodNotes store. I’ve mentioned a couple of such planners in this list that can be used on GoodNotes. Rest assured, most of these templates sync with Google or Apple Calendar and cater to specific needs.

Pros:

• Handwriting recognition and stylus integration.
• PDF markup feature.
• iCloud syncing for seamless accessibility.
• Organizational features include notebooks and folders.

Cons:

• Primarily focused on note-taking and may lack advanced task management and collaboration features.
• It is not as specialized as other dedicated digital planning apps.
• More suitable for iOS users.

Pricing:

• Individual: $6.99 per year with a 1-week free trial.

 

4. Google Calendar

You might be wondering why I added Google Calendar to this list, but believe me when I say you can make the most of every day just by using Google Calendar. You can use it as a daily, weekly, or monthly planner, providing multiple views of your day, week, and month.

A planner that you can use free at any time, anywhere. There are other features like prioritization, guest invites, and more. Rest assured that it safely backs up your data, ensuring you don’t lose your schedule even if you lose your device.

Pros:

• The format is suitable for online, digital, and mobile apps.
• Easily create events in a few taps with suggestions for event titles, places, and people.
• Your added events are displayed in your calendar.

Cons:

• It lacks many features found in other advanced planners.
• Limited customization options for users seeking more specialized functionalities.

Pricing:

• It’s entirely free.

 

5. Todoist

A versatile digital planner for your daily motivation, Todoist stands out from other digital planners by offering all the tools needed for a daily or weekly planning app. It excels as a productivity app where designers, engineers, and communicators unite with a common goal.

Todoist serves not only as a task manager but also as a project management tool. In Todoist, there’s an inbox view for easily adding new tasks, a today view to organize your daily to-do list, and an upcoming view to check your future plans. Todoist is a great digital planner like Goodnotes. The advantage of this simple app lies in its ability to create projects and divide tasks into subtasks for detailed planning.

Pros:

• Natural language input.
• Compatible with Android, iOS, web, Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Offers options for labels and filters.
• Allows you to add attachments, notes, and assignees.
• Features reminders, due dates, and notifications.

Cons:

• Limited to adding only one member to a task at a time.
• Free features are very limited.
• Not robust enough to handle complex projects or an extensive number of tasks.

Pricing:

• Basic: Free digital planner.

6. Samsung Notes

One of the best note-taking apps for Samsung device users, Samsung Notes is completely free and can be utilized by people who’d like to preserve the handwriting feel of paper planners. The tool offers seamless integration capabilities with other Samsung services and tools, including S Pen, DeX, and Samsung Cloud.

Create your own templates and add other PDF planners to use as a daily planner app.

Pros:

• Handwriting recognition feature.
• S Pen integration for annotating and providing a physical touch to your planner.
• Capability to add photos, audio, and attachments.
• Completely free.

Cons:

• Compatible only with Samsung Android and Windows devices.
• Lacks advanced planning features.

Pricing:

• This app is free for individuals.

7. Evernote

While Evernote is renowned as a note-taking app, it also has basic planner-like features that can benefit you. If you’re looking for simpler to-do list features and templates to manage your small tasks, events, and notes, you can use Evernote as a daily planner app. It helps you stay organized and keep track of everything in one place.

Evernote has tasks & calendars together.

With an aim to become more of a planner in this part of the application.

Interesting! pic.twitter.com/Vje5uQBzGt

— Francesco D’Alessio (@FrancescoD_Ales) May 22, 2024

You can plan out your day by creating tasks, adding due dates, tags, priorities, setting reminders, and recurrence. This list can be shared with people; if needed, you can delegate the tasks as well. Evernote is worth considering for a straightforward digital planner app. You can also connect to Apple or Google Calendar.

Pros:

• You can add notes, sketches, pictures, audio, and other attachments.
• Features a search functionality for easy retrieval.
• Task management features include color flags, tags, and due dates.
• Compatible with Android, iOS, and web.

Cons:

• Lacks advanced planning features like customizations.
• Limited ability to add detailed design elements.

Pricing:

• Basic: Free to take notes.
• Premium: $7.99 per month.
• Business: $14.99/person/month.

 

8. The Advanced Business PDF Planner by Chattan Designs

If you’re looking to start a side project or business, how are you going to handle the hustle? You need a planner to help you organize your daily plans. This advanced business planner could be utilized effectively in 2024. Specifically created for business owners using an iPad.

It allows you to plan and organize your workdays, weeks, and months alongside your business goals. The planner offers business planning templates for you to easily add tasks and stay on top of your entrepreneurial endeavors.

Pros:

• Best business planner for entrepreneurs, business owners, and self-employed individuals.
• Includes 24 additional note paper templates, including lined paper, dotted, graph, and columns.
• Offers 100+ digital stickers, including sticky notes, labels, and task lists.
• Templates encompass various options like planning pages, meeting notes, customer feedback logs, competitor analysis pages, and more.

Cons:

• It can only be used in the GoodNotes app.
• It might be a bit confusing for beginners.

Pricing:

• One price: $9.99.

9. Digital Personal Planner

This digital PDF personal planner is designed for use in your everyday life, whether it’s your hectic professional life or simple personal life. It accommodates a variety of everyday activities, and its options include a habit tracker, monthly and daily planner, along with an Eisenhower Matrix, note-taking, meal planners, and more.

The planner has you covered with numerous templates that you can customize in your GoodNotes app. You have the option to choose between a year preference or an updated version, providing flexibility to suit your planning needs.

Pros:

• You can use hyperlinks to navigate through the planner.
• Offers light or dark mode for your comfort.
• Provides a diverse selection of pages.

Cons:

• There are other planners available in the market at a lower price.

Pricing:

• Standard: $24.99
• Bundle: $39.99

10. Trello Daily Planner

This is best suited for people who are visual thinkers. Trello is designed as a card-based system, making it an excellent digital planning tool. It comprises three key elements: boards, lists, and cards. Each of these elements can be customized to match your taste or interest, allowing adaptation to suit your planning needs, whether it involves managing multiple tasks or creating to-do lists for daily, weekly, or project-based organizations.

You can start your digital planning from scratch or make use of convenient daily planner templates. However, it’s worth noting that Trello’s existing features may not include every template you imagine, such as a monthly calendar view or time-tracking functionality. Still, you can explore Trello’s power-ups to find and add the features you want to your boards.

Adding to its exciting features, Trello offers Butler, which acts as your personal assistant to help you with your workflow. With Butler, you can easily automate tasks and further streamline your planning and organizing process.

Pros:

• Compatible for Android, iOS, web, Windows, and macOS.
• Offers drag-and-drop functionality.
• Rich template library.
• Utilizes Kanban-style boards, lists, and cards.
• Allows for team collaboration, adding comments, attachments, and due dates.
• Features automation with the Butler tool.

Cons:

• Lack of built-in calendars.
• Lack of time-tracking features.

Pricing:

• Basic: Free for individuals.
• Standard: $5/person/month.
• Premium for small teams: $10/person/month.
• Enterprise: $17.50/person/month.

 

11. Ticktick Online Planner

TickTick can easily be compared to Todoist because they share similar design features and vibes. However, giving TickTick a chance reveals that its feature set is more extensive, but these features are strictly for personal use.

For example, TickTick offers an additional calendar view, which helps the whole planner page settings. It also comes with handy Google Calendar sync if you require one. Additionally, it comes with a habit tracker, white noise features, and promo timers. Considering the easy user interface and various features, TickTick stands out as one of the best online digital weekly planners for 2024.

Pros:

• It features a calendar view with daily, monthly, and weekly options.
• Includes a habit tracker, promo timers, and white noise features.
• Allows the addition of lists, tasks, and subtasks.
• Supports attachments.
• Organizes tasks into Inbox, Today, and Next 7 Days categories.

Cons:

• The free plan has limited calendar functionality and lacks collaboration features.
• Basic collaboration functionality in the premium plan is basic compared to other digital planner apps.

Pricing:

• Free: For personal and individual use.
• Premium: $35.99 annual subscription.
  

 

12. Monday.com

If you’re looking for a digital planner, then Monday is a digital planner software app. Monday is made for users to plan and manage their daily lives efficiently and effectively on this intuitive platform. It is considered a flexible tool that helps you manage the perfect workflow balance of your personal and professional that well suits your needs.

If you’re a small business team, you can enable communication across all members, making it easier to manage and track different projects easily. It has a real-time data analysis feature, which helps you know how to make calculated decisions about the progress of your business. Furthermore, by utilizing automation, you can integrate all your useful apps for everything you need for a perfect planner.

Pros:

• It has flexible and easy customization features.
• Integration with various online apps to streamline workflow
• Team management features that give easy communication across teams.

Cons:

• It lacks advanced planning features.

Pricing:

• Basic: Free plan.
• Standard: $8/person/month.
  

 

13. Undated Digital Planner by Thiss planner

If you’re paying for a PDF planner, then you should double-check the setup before using it. The undated digital planner gives you access to download a free sample to test it out and get a feel before committing to purchasing the full planner. You can download it in Portrait or landscape format.

After purchasing, you can use this planner forever with the undated option. This is especially helpful if you’re a basic planner lover and don’t want to spend much on planners each year. It contains templates for every category, from health to fashion to lifestyle and finance. If you love to take notes, you even have a choice of eight notebooks to customize with the included eight notepaper templates.

Navigation is pretty straightforward, with tabs, icons, and options to take you wherever you want to go. It might seem a little difficult to get to your daily pages at first, but on the monthly calendar, you can use the little box for date clarifications. As a bonus, you get access to a variety of cover options, stickers, and frames to help decorate and personalize your planner.

Pros:

• Offers a free sample for testing purposes.
• This is an undated planner version that you can use forever.
• Various extra sections for customization and specialty planning.

Cons:

• Daily page links are not intuitive.
• You’ll have to fill out the dates every year, which is time-intensive.
• Landscape and Portrait offer separate features

Price: $11.90

 

14. Sarah Renae Clark’s 2024 Digital Coloring Planner

This 2024 digital planner stands out due to its uniqueness and exciting features. Coloring, even for adults, can be a stress buster, and this planner combines relaxation with productivity in a delightful way. Each page of the planner, whether it be weekly pages or monthly pages, provides something to color while still leaving plenty of space to plan out your year.

With each month having its theme, it’s easy to identify which month you’re in. This approach resembles journaling and can also help you enhance your design skills. Month tabs on either side of the page allow for quick navigation to different sections, although there are no hyperlinks throughout the planner.

As a bonus, there are extra pages between each month for taking notes and coloring, eliminating the need to squeeze in additional details. One major drawback is the absence of daily planning pages, which might be a dealbreaker for those who are detail-oriented. An additional highlight is the inclusion of colorable stickers and frames to decorate your planner. 

Pros:

• Pages have coloring spaces, and they’re designed and themed for each month.
• Includes extra note pages between sections.
• Features stickers and frames.
• Very simple and elegant to use.

Cons:

• Lacks daily planning pages.
• A bit difficult to navigate through each page.
• Double-page spreads offer less space.
• There are no hyperlinks.

Price: $2

 

15. ADHD Planner by Manifestable

For individuals with ADHD, having a planner designed to keep in mind their unwavering needs can be a game-changer. That’s where Manifestable steps in with the 2024 ADHD Planner, featuring beautiful, calming colors and an intuitive layout. This design minimizes overwhelming feelings and helps users stay on top of things, making it easier to organize workflows and track various tasks simultaneously. You can download this digital planner from Etsy.

Digital Planner good for ADHD
byu/proud2Basnowflake inADHD

The planner includes both morning and evening anxiety journals, as well as a gratitude journal, making it beneficial for those aiming to improve their mental health during challenging times. Affordable and diverse in templates, it offers multiple monthly and yearly planning pages, along with monthly habits and reflection pages.

The only complaint is that the design includes smudging around the edges, which might be distracting for users who prefer a clean look.

Pros:

• Plenty of template features at an affordable price.
• Extra areas on planning pages.
• Designed for those with neurodivergent brains or ADHD

Cons:

• Pages are packed, requiring you to zoom in to write.
• The design looks dirty and smudged around the pages.

Pricing: $9.98

How to Use a Digital Planner

To get started, I hope you went through this long list of digital planners available on the market today. I think you can choose one that most resonates with you, but before that, you should have an idea about how you’re moving forward with the planning journey. Do you have a theme in mind? Do you want it to be a more minimalist design, or is it very basic or with more graphics? So, getting to answer all these kinds of questions before starting the planner can also be a factor in choosing a planner of your style.

Once you have your planner set up, begin by inputting your essential information, including important dates, deadlines, and recurring tasks. (Yes, that’s what planners are for, and it doesn’t require your crush’s details, LOL) Utilize features like color coding, tags, and reminders to categorize and prioritize your tasks effectively. You can also create sections for daily, weekly, and monthly planning, allowing you to break down larger goals into manageable tasks. I feel like you can also enhance your planning experience by incorporating templates for habit tracking, meal planning, or project management. Now, you can start maintaining the information on a daily or weekly basis and regularly review and update your planner to stay on track and adjust your plans as needed

Personal opinion✨

Normally I’ve seen my colleagues using a traditional diary or planners to keep their tasks and daily activities organized, but to be honest I love my digital planners. I love using digital planners because they sync across all my devices. I can access my plans on my phone, tablet, or laptop, which is super convenient. So, even if you forget your handy book, digital planners can save your day.

Here, if you consider yourself a neat freak, planners are a super way because they don’t allow for mistakes; you can delete the tasks and erase whatever is convenient for you in an easy way. Imagine a paper planner; ugh, where would I have to cross things out? Here, I can add stickers, links, and images, which makes planning more enjoyable and personal. So, as a personal opinion, if you’ve really taken time to read this article, I’d suggest you just try out planning apps and use different graphics and get the gist of it.

 

To Wrap Up

Picking the right planner is often considered a challenging task. Many individuals have shared that the need to choose a specific design can lead to confusion, causing them to abandon their plans for organizing their thoughts. For my fellow readers, let this not be a reason to give up on trying out planners this year. Selecting the right one depends on whether you need to track assigned tasks, manage timesheets by using time tracking software, streamline automation, and more.

Both paper and digital planners are considered to satisfy the same purpose. If you prefer the traditional way of keeping up with your daily notes and tasks, you can always do so. You may find that this approach helps you focus on your tasks and organize your life better. Incorporating planners and journaling into your routine can bring about a positive change in your life. I hope this list of top digital planners helps you choose the right one that’s more suitable for you. Happy planning!

FAQ

Which is better for digital planners, apps, or PDFs?

You can always choose planners that best suit your interests and preferences. Apps or software offer more interactive features and organizational tools, boosting your productivity goals and facilitating collaboration with your team. This can be particularly helpful as it is available anywhere and anytime, especially with a cloud-based saving system. PDFs are simple and can be downloaded on devices with real-time editing features. PDF planners are compatible with formats for iPad with Apple Pencil or Android tablets that can access a stylus. You should always consider usage and required features to determine which option is better for you.

Is there a best digital planner for Android devices?

There are various digital planner apps for Android devices, offering a wide range of features for organizing to-dos and events. Some worth trying include entirely free options like Samsung Notes, Google Calendar, Outlook, or Todoist. These apps can help you efficiently track your workflow and balance your professional and personal life in a single place.