Back to school season is here again, and I’m ready to reveal my favorite easy academic planner for 2023-2024. The OOOC Academic Planner developed by one of my NAPO colleagues, Leslie Josel of Order Out of Chaos, continues to be one of my favorite productivity planners for students and adults. (That is an affiliate link. I am happy to recommend very few products to you, but when I do, they are great ones.)

TL;DR Click here to order your easy academic planner. Add the discount code PLANNER20 at checkout for 20% off before September 30, 2023.

Easy Academic Planner for Back to School and Adults

Is a Digital or Paper Planner the Best?

You may wonder if you or your student should be using a paper planner or digital? I highly recommend learning how to leverage your digital calendar as a planner. Your digital calendar is the one you always have with you if you carry a smartphone. But if you’ve tried that and still prefer a paper planner, then really commit to your paper calendar to get ahead.

If you are wondering what the difference is between a calendar and a planner, it’s simple: Any calendar can tell you what day it is. A planner helps you plan ahead for future commitments. A planner doesn’t have to have any special tools to improve your productivity, but some features like multiple calendar views and additional space for taking notes make a planner more user-friendly. Being able to see time plan backwards is an adult skill.

August 1 is National Planner Day. What better way to celebrate than by treating yourself to a proven, easy academic planner?

The Easy Academic Planner for Students

The Academic Planners from Order Out of Chaos have won several awards for their design and support of students, especially students with ADHD and executive function deficits. The sleek design provides plenty of space for planning without adding bulk to a book bag. This design works well from middle school through college. The professional organizer who designed it, Leslie Josel, is also mom. I love that she’s included several pages of Planner Pointers, a Planner User Guide, Study Planning guide, and Project Planning Guide at the front of the planner.

If your teen is open to it, you can review this with them. If your kids are the “my parents can’t tell me anything” type, let them explore these pages from an expert on their own. Your student can also download a free short video and free workbook to help them make the most of their planner.

Minimalist Easy Academic Planner

This year’s designs come in two flavors: a full-sized planner in yummy colors like blue moon, strawberry, mint chip, and chocolate chip. The slightly smaller notebook comes in blue ices, black raspberry, pistachio, and cookies and cream. You can see the sizes and colors on the order site.

These easy academic planners have a minimalist design that makes them user-friendly right out of the box, including a plastic pocket at the back that you usually don’t get in a planner of this size.

If you crave stickers and accessories, you can purchase those as well on the OOOC site, or use your own. Click here to order your easy academic planner. Add the discount code PLANNER20 at checkout for 20% off before September 30, 2023.

Real Kids Appreciate Easy Academic Planners

My kids are high schoolers, and they ask for these planners each summer. They literally ooh and ah over them. For the first few weeks of school, I ask to see their planner each day, encourage them to look ahead a week or two, and write down when assignments are due. Learning to use a planner is a work in progress, but they get the gist. Don’t expect your student to use any planner perfectly. Instead, get curious about what seems to work for them, and encourage them to write down their commitments, their meetings, and rehearsal dates. Seeing things on paper in front of them makes it easier to visualize time, which is an essential skill for successful students.

Order Out of Chaos is offering a FREE BACK-TO-SCHOOL MASTER CLASS: Smart Study Skills For Student Success: Boost Their Back-to-School Mojo virtual master class on Tuesday, August 22^nd @ 7PM ET. It’s geared towards ALL parents + middle school – college aged students.

My kids have used these easy academic planners since middle school, and will probably take them to college. I’m glad they don’t have to learn another system as they get older.

Easy Academic Planners are Good for Adults, Too

Many adults have trouble with time management and planning, too. In fact, many of my clients tell me that in the past they got really excited about some trendy calendar system, spent a pretty penny on all the stickers and special hole punches, and then got overwhelmed and jumped ship to the next planner system that caught their eye.

With any planner, I ask my clients to commit to using it faithfully for 30-60 days, to carry it EVERYWHERE (even to the gym and to church), and to review it at least once a day, better yet, throughout the day. That’s how you build good planner skills.

Customize a calendar planner system to work for you, not the other way around. If you need to tear pages out or add something in, then do it. Personalize the cover with colorful stickers or a motivational saying. Put your name on it. Your John Hancock means someone can return it if your planner gets lost. Adding your name also makes your planner more yours, which lets your brain attach more fully to the commitment of using this planner.

There is only one place on these planners that says “classes,” and you can replace it with “meetings” or “projects” for your job to make this academic planner work as a professional planner.

Killer Features in this Easy Academic Planner

There is a killer feature built into both sizes of the planners that you might not notice at first, but it’s a big time saver. Because the covers are slightly wider than the interior pages, you can write your class schedule and evening schedules once, and these line up across the weekly and monthly calendar pages as you flip them. This time-saver keeps you effortlessly organized.

The covers on these easy academic planners are thin, flexible plastic, which keeps them in good shape for an entire year, stuffed in book bags and lockers without weighing you down.

I mentioned above the hidden plastic pocket at the back, good for random notes.

Each planner also comes with 1 PageMarker, 1 Monthly Tab Sheet, and 1 Student Sticker Sheet.

The spiral-bound design means a student can lay the planner flat to view an entire week, or it can fold 360 degrees to save space.

Does Order Out of Chaos Have the Best Easy Academic Planner?

At just $21, this planner is worth investing in, and it’s a heck of a lot more affordable than some designer planners that end up being too complicated to use.