The 4 Best Planners of 2026: Roterunner, Hobonichi, Cloth & Paper

There's nothing like the feeling of a brand-new planner. If you're looking to get a little more organized or just love having somewhere to write everything down, there's no wrong time of year to get a new planner. After testing dozens of planners myself, my favorite ones are often either customizable or undated, making it easy to pick them up whenever you want.

The world of planners might seem simple if you've only browsed your local Target or bookstore to see what planners they might have on hand. But there's a wide world of options out there that can perfectly suit your needs, especially if you're willing to build your own travel notebook or write in the dates on an undated paper planner, or open to trying your first Japanese-style planner. After trying dozens of planners over the last year, these are my standout favorite styles of planner that I think everyone could benefit from trying.

Updated March 2026: This guide has been reorganized and features the Cloth & Paper Travel Notebook as a new pick.

The Best Planners

If you need a single planner that can do it all without costing more than $30, this is the one. The Roterunner Purpose Planner is an undated planner that has monthly spreads, weekly spreads, and two full open pages for each week, so there's plenty of room to write longer lists or a project brainstorm. Each monthly and week spread has a ton of premade checklist sections for you to use, too. There's even space to track your meals, water intake, and gratitude. It's a planner that actually helps me stay organized and gives me space to track and take notes without running out of room.

The undated nature makes it easy to pick up anytime and use for whichever months you need. Fell off the boat for a few months? No problem. No pages will go wasted when you can fill them in as you go. It only covers six months, but I actually like that; it once again feels like a feasible commitment, especially if you're waffling on how much paper planner you want to promise to use. I love the massive B5 size, since it's finally enough space for me (almost too much, which is a rare find), but there's also a smaller (and cheaper!) A5 ($25) size.

This year, I'm all about the travel notebook. A travel notebook uses bands to connect three or four notebooks together, and I love using this system to build a customized planner designed for my exact needs. It makes it easy to change the design, too, since you can just switch out a single notebook when it's full.

I really like Cloth & Paper's Travel Notebook Collection. There are 13 different notebooks you can choose from to include in your travel notebook, ranging from classic weekly and monthly spreads to more unique options like a daily wellness notebook and a task planner. It's really a great option if you want a couple of specific things, or even just a regular monthly and weekly notebook plus a blank notebook in the back you can fill with to-do lists and replace anytime without needing an entirely new planner.

I tried both the A5 Slim and the Pocket Plus size, and I really prefer the A5 Slim for a traditional planner experience. The Pocket Plus would be fun to bring on a trip; I wish I'd had it on my latest trip to store little mementos and important things like parking receipts, and could have also written out notes and the plan for the week-long trip. You'll want the Clear Vinyl Travel Notebook Cover ($23 to $25) no matter which size you choose, which includes elastic bindings to bring all the notebooks you buy together, and you can also pick up more colorful elastic options to add a little more personality to your planner.

If you're getting into planners, there's no way you won't hear about Hobonichi at some point. There are a few different planners the brand makes, with the Techo being the most popular model. I tested the similar Hobonichi Cousin, which adds weekly spreads to the front of the planner after the monthly overviews. While I don't typically prefer a daily planner style, I was surprised by how much I liked using the Hobonichi Cousin. All of Hobonichi's planners use Tomoe River S paper, which is super thin but won't bleed through the other side. It's also super smooth to the touch and to write on. I liked using the Cousin's weekly spread section to plan my week, and then, for the daily pages, I sketched a box to separate my to-do lists and habit trackers from my hourly agenda for the day. The Cousin is an A5 size, while the standard Techo is the smaller A6. I found the larger A5 to be plenty of space for my daily lists and schedule, and it gave me a little extra room for other notes or thoughts I had that day.

There are tons of colors, covers, and other accessories you can get for it, too. I recommend picking out a protective cover since I did ding up my soft cover quite a bit, and that was just from being used around the house with an occasional trip in a bag. (The Techo also has a nice faux leather cover option, if that's more your style than a protective cover.) There are little quotes in the corners, but I got a Japanese version instead of an English one, so I can't actually read mine. But honestly, I'm glad I did; I prefer the Japanese lettering to distracting English words on the corners of each page.

The Kokuyo Jibun Techo is another Japanese planner (as indicated by the Japanese word “techo,” meaning “notebook” or “planner”), but this one is a travel-notebook-style design, making it more customizable with a cover and multiple books that fit inside it. I've started using the Jibun Techo First Kit, which comes with three books that fit into the included cover: Diary (labeled simply with the year 2026), Life, and Idea. The Diary is in the center and is the true planner, with monthly spreads and weekly spreads for the whole year, plus other fun pages. The Life book goes in the front and features lots of specific prompts, like the 100 Wishes List and places to track specific information, like passwords. Finally, the Idea book, which goes in the back, has just grid paper, so you can write out whatever you'd like in whatever style.

It's a really fun planner thanks to all the interesting pages it comes with, and how much space you have to work with. I love turning the project planner pages into a habit tracker, for example, but I also love using the prompt pages like 100 Wishes as they're designed. Similar to the Hobonichi above, the Jibun Techo uses a super-thin, super-soft paper that makes it possible to include all these pages and books without making the whole planner super-thick. It's also smooth and satisfying to write on, thanks to that nice paper. It's a bigger investment than the Roterunner and I don't use every single page so far, but it's still a fantastic planner if you want an option with tons of different pages you can use for planning and reflecting on everything in your life.

Honorable Mentions

Like I said, there's a huge world of planners out there. Here are a few that the Reviews team and I at WIRED have tested and enjoyed.

Planner Alternatives

Not everyone needs or wants a rigid planner. If you just need daily to-do lists or are a fan of bullet journals, consider getting a great notebook instead.

Former WIRED reviewer Jaina Grey opts for a plain, lined notebook. After trying dozens, her favorite is the Midori MD Notebook with paper made from cotton pulp (just like money!). It comes in lined, unlined, or dot-grid. Grey says there's just something meditative about turning over a blank page at the beginning of each week and carefully jotting down her schedule, plans, and workload. Midori’s notebooks are designed to fit inside notebook or journal covers (which you can find all over Etsy). The pages are a subtle off-white and have a weight and texture that draws you in.

WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson says he doesn't use a planner, but each day he writes down the handful of things he's going to do on a single 3-by-5 index card. The index card with this to-do list stays in his pocket all day.