Choosing a digital planner
A good digital planner is one you can reach from your phone and your computer, that starts small and grows with you, keeps your words private, and doesn't nag when you skip a day. Planye is a free planner app built that way, with a journal and trackers for habits, mood, money and cycle in the same place.
- Check where it runsYour phone and your computer, kept in step.
- Check what free meansNo trial running out with your plans inside it.
- Check how it treats a bad weekA missed day should be a gap, not a red number.
- Check who reads itWhat you write should stay yours.
- Try it before signing upPlanye opens without an account.
What to look for in a digital planner
- It is on every screen you own. Plans get made on a phone and laid out at a desk. A planner on only one of them is a planner you forget on the other.
- It starts small. A planner that opens with every feature switched on is the one you close by February. Look for one where the extras wait until you ask for them.
- Free means free. A trial that ends puts your plans behind a payment. A free plan with no time limit is a planner you can actually stay in.
- It doesn't keep score. Streak counters and red overdue badges feel motivating for a week and guilty for a year.
- Your words stay yours. A planner holds a diary's worth of your life. Check what the app says it does with what you write.
- You want to open it. A planner works because you look at it every day, and how it looks is a real part of whether you do.
Those six are the ones Planye is built around. For what it promises about your words, see Privacy.
The kinds of digital planner
"Digital planner" names four quite different things, and most disappointment comes from buying one while expecting another.
| Kind | Good at | Leaves to you |
|---|---|---|
| A PDF planner, used in an app like Goodnotes | Handwriting and the feel of paper, on a tablet | Totals, moving tasks and repeating habits |
| A template in Notion or a spreadsheet | Building exactly the system you want | The building, and making it work on a phone |
| A calendar app | Meetings and anything with a time | Everything without a time: tasks, habits, money |
| A planner app, like Planye | Days, weeks and the year, with the sums done | Handwriting, since it is typed and tapped |
They also combine. Planye can show your Google or Outlook calendar on your week, so the calendar keeps the meetings and the planner keeps the rest. See Connect calendar.
A planner for ADHD
Planye is not a medical tool and doesn't claim to treat anything. These are the parts of it that matter most when attention is the scarce thing, and the ones people looking for an ADHD planner usually ask about.
- Almost nothing to set up. A new planner opens with five pages, and nothing has to be configured before the first line.
- Nothing to feel behind on. No streaks to break, no overdue counts, no red. A missed day is a gap.
- Unfinished things move forward. An open line can be carried on with a tap instead of copied out again.
- The week in one look. On a computer all seven days are on one screen, so nothing hides on another page.
- Reminders you choose. In the phone app a task can remind you at a time you set, and nothing else buzzes unless you turn it on.
A planner for students
- A category per class. Name them after your subjects and colour each one, and every task files under its class.
- The timetable on the clock. The Time view lays the week out by the hour, for lectures, shifts and study blocks.
- Big assignments as projects. A thesis or a term paper gets stages with their own checklists.
- Exams on the year. The year's calendar shows the whole term on one spread.
- A budget for the month. Envelopes for rent, food and going out.
All of that is on the free plan. For the hourly view, see Week - Time.
A digital bullet journal
The bullet journal method maps onto Planye closely, without the hour spent drawing spreads.
| In a bullet journal | In Planye |
|---|---|
| Rapid logging | Lines on your week, each with a square, a circle or no box |
| Future log | The year's calendar |
| Monthly log | The month |
| Migration | Moving an unfinished line forward with a tap |
| Collections | Lists |
| Trackers | Habits |
| The decorated spreads | Journal pages with photos, tape and stickers |
The difference is that nothing is redrawn each month. Next month's pages are already there, and last month's categories are offered again as suggestions.
An aesthetic digital planner
Planye is made to be nice to open. A theme changes the paper, the ink, the colours and the fonts at once, and any colour can be your own from the colour wheel.
Pages can wear a background, stickers and washi tape, and a journal page is a canvas you arrange by hand, photos included. Free comes with a selection, and Planye+ opens the full collections of themes, papers and tape.
See Themes and colour and Stickers and tape.
Questions about choosing a planner
The details, for when you want them. Nothing here is required reading.What is the best digital planner app?
The one you will still open in March. If you want your week, your habits, your money and a journal in one place, on your phone and your computer, free to start and with nothing keeping score, that is what Planye was made for. If handwriting is the point, a PDF planner on a tablet will suit you better.
Can a digital planner send me reminders?
Planye's phone app can: a reminder on a task at the time you set and, if you turn them on, a note in the morning and in the evening. A browser cannot schedule notifications, so on the website your planner stays quiet.
Can I try a digital planner without making an account?
Planye opens without one. What you write is kept in that browser, and making an account later carries all of it in. See Trying it without an account.