It's Planner Shopping Season
Every September we start to see the new planner releases come out for the upcoming year. This is our time! It's exciting and we start buzzing about what we are going to use next year. Those of us who have been perfectly happy with our planners all year start, well, planning.
Not switching, obviously. Just looking. Just seeing what's out there.
Planner theory says that very quickly this can turn into watching release videos late at night, comparing paper types like we’re writing a doctoral thesis, and developing deeply personal opinions about planner covers we absolutely do not need.
Every year I say the same thing, “I’m definitely staying in my current system next year and this time I am not buying a zillion different refills, binders, sizes, brands. I'm just NOT.”
Then approximately 48 hours later, “Well… I mean, I’ll at least look at the new binder colors.”
There’s just something about planner release season that makes us all giddily believe we are on the verge of becoming dramatically more organized people. It feels hopeful somehow. This will be the year!
Meanwhile, my 2026 planner contains crossed-out tasks, messy grocery lists, random notes, and at least one entry that says “make dentist appointment” over and over for several weeks.
I also think planner shopping season causes temporary memory loss. I completely forget every lesson that I learned the previous year and start reconsidering planners that already know won't work for me.
Maybe this FC Monarch will suddenly feel more portable.
Maybe my handwriting will magically become small and neat and look great in this cute Pocket size.
Maybe I can resist getting every size Hobonichi when I never end up using them for very long.
Yeah, maybe.
So, has planner shopping season started for you yet? What are you getting for next year?
Do you ever repeatedly convince yourself something might work this time despite available historical evidence to the contrary?
As always on Fridays, feel free to discuss anything ring planner related. Have a great weekend shoppers!