Back to School means back to school shopping. One of the most important items on my shopping list is a great academic planner.
You’ll find there are many student planners available. I’ll be sharing why you and your kids will love using the Erin Condren Academic Planner and back-to-school collection.
Note: I would like to thank the Erin Condren team for sharing the 2021 Back to School Collection with me. All opinions here are my own. This post includes affiliate links, if you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Read my full disclosure policy here.
How to Choose the Best Planner for Your Academic Needs
Start Here! What’s in a Planner?
A good planner should be an essential tool for every student. The use of a planner will help your student to stay focused, organized, and able to meet important school deadlines.
When you start looking at planners, consider how you and your child will use the planner and what you need out of the planner. A beginner should start small with a basic monthly and weekly layout. Then they can add more complexity as they go along like yearly and other layouts if necessary.
Make sure the planner has enough space for notes and pictures so your child can visualize ideas before implementing them. For older students, project planning pages are nice, a daily class schedule, and a monthly goals page.
Don’t forget the stickers which add color and fun to every planner.
1. Academic planner or journal?
Keeping a journal is one of the best ways to maintain a long-term academic plan. In a journal, you can keep track of your daily tasks and accomplishments and better stay on top of your school assignments and projects schedule.
A journal is especially good for writing down new things you have learned and reflected on success and struggles and what you can do to improve.
Starting with a journal is a great idea, but it might not be enough for you. You might also need to have an academic planner that you can use to plan out your week and month in advance. The planner helps you stay on top of your assignments, which makes it easier to manage your time more efficiently.
This year, Erin Condren is offering a kids journal and a kids notebook tracker with pages to track habits, chores, allowance, and reading goals to help your younger kids started writing and journaling, too.
2. Softcover or wirebound planner?
One of the most common questions that people ask is whether they should go for a softcover or wire-bound planner. Wirebound planners are easy to carry around and have a lot of space to write down your plans. But, softcover planners are more durable.
If you prefer a lay flat planner, then a softbound planner is your best option. With a wire-bound planner, the spiral can interfere with your writing.
3. What is the best size of the planner?
One of the most common size planners is 7″X9″. This size is perfect for backpacks or tote bags without being too bulky. This is my personal favorite for size.
Many academic planners also come in 8.5″ X 11″. lf you make lots of plans and need space for notes, the larger size will likely work better.
If you just need quick notes and reminders, you could use a pocket calendar. When I was in college, I used a pocket planner to track my weekly work schedule and appointments. It was easy to keep in my purse.
4. Adding extra pages to your planner?
Many planners come with extra pages already, but if you need more, you can add them. It is easy to add pages to the back or the front of your planner. You can also get a new planner and transfer all your important dates from your old one.
The Erin Condren Academic planner allows you to add 40 extra writing and journal pages.
If you like to journal and reflect, you can use an additional journal for writing longer thoughts.
5. What are your academic needs and requirements?
A good student planner will include space for daily assignments and projects due. Additionally, a class schedule page, project planning for reports, and goal setting.
The monthly calendar can be used for big-picture planning.
The Erin Condren Academic planner includes all these pages and more.
6. To-do lists, charts, calendars, and other features: what will work best for you?
To-dos are a very important concept when you are in school, and if you can find a system that works for you, you will more than likely see great results.
A good planner will help you develop your daily, weekly, and monthly to-do list and plan your projects.
To-do lists are one of the most popular tools to use in order to keep track of tasks at school. There are many different types of to-dos: some people prefer writing their tasks down on a paper list, while others may use an app that provides more functionality. Some people prefer using digital calendars or charts for their to-dos instead of traditional paper.
There is no “right” tool or method for keeping track of your tasks – it is all about finding what works best for you.
Don’t miss the additional snap-ins for extra planning options.
A Look at Erin Condren’s New Academic Planner Collection!
Erin Condren is a company that specializes in planners and other accessories. They have recently released a new collection that focuses on academic use.
I’ve been an Erin Condren customer for years now, and this new release of this year’s Academic Planner Collection is nothing short of amazing! These planners are perfect for middle school, high school, or college students. They not only have the standard layouts with space for daily to-do’s, assignments, and appointments but also offer additional pages for notes, monthly layout, and a yearly calendar at the front of each book. The covers are beautiful and there are so many different designs to choose from!
The new Erin Condren Academic Planner Collection is available in both coiled and softbound/lay flat formats. I personally love the coiled format, but the softbound is very nice, too.
During school, I like to keep my planner with me at all times so it’s easy to add new assignments and projects.
The Erin Condren Academic Planner also has a monthly goal and check-in page, inspiring quotes each month, clean page design with plenty of space for notes and planning.
Additional Back to School Organizing & Accessories
In addition to great academic planners, Erin Condren also offers the following organizing tools and planner accessories.
Erin Condren offers gel pens which are a very nice writing tool and look beautiful in your planner.
Or you can use a traditional ballpoint pen for smooth easy writing.
And last, if you like to be more creative with pictures and drawings in your planner, you will probably like the marker set.
You can keep your favorite pens and markers organized with the pencil pouch, accordion zipper pouch, or a planny pack that easily attaches right to your planner with an elastic strap.
Desktop Organization and Accessories
The new ombre desktop organization collection includes 4 items: a pencil holder, a magazine tray/”in-box”, a vertical magazine/file holder, and a letter/note holder. This collection gives you the right items to organize your desktop and make it pretty.
You can also add trinket bowls and trays for paper clips, pens, push tacks, and more.
Don’t forget the “sticky note cube”. If you love sticky notes, you will enjoy this sticky note cube. It has 24 sides with varying color notes.
If you love plastic folders (which are great for kids organizing papers in bookbags), check out these oh so pretty folders. Both of my daughters were already calling dibs on these folders.
Snap-in organizers enhance your planner by giving you more specific functionality. Some of the new snap-ins include:
- A to-do list
- A project planner
- Weekly planner
Snap-ins are erasable bookmarkers. You will need a wet or dry erase marker to write on them. They easily clean with a damp paper towel or wet wipe.
In addition to the snap-ins, you might also like the erasable magnetic page markers that include a habit tracker, to-do list, and more.
Deskpads are perfect for your daily to-do list, project planning, and weekly overview.
Erin Condren offers several must-have desk-pads that will keep your school projects and tasks organized:
- Dream Big – weekly notepad
- Carpe Diem – project, test, and quiz tracker
- Be Awesome – can be used as a daily or weekly goal and to-do list
Are there any Star Wars fans here? You will love the new Star Wars Back to School collection featuring planners with your favorite Star Wars heroes, journals, notepads, sticky notes, and more.
As you can see, the Erin Condren Academic Planner and Back to School Collection are a complete academic planning system with a little something for everyone. Take a look today and grab your favorites.
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