10 Best Planners For ADHD (For Better Productivity)

Getting the best planners for ADHD is one of the most effective ways to handle this special condition. 

image of best planner for adhd

ADHD means Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and it is a different wiring of the brain that affects how one sits still, controls their behavior, and pays attention. 

It is first diagnosed in childhood and teenage age but can continue into adulthood. Before we review the best planners for ADHD, lets take a quick look at the causes and symptoms of ADHD, and how a planner can help.

Causes of ADHD

Well, the specific cause of this condition is not yet known but there are many factors that lead to it and some of them are: 

  • Genes/ hereditary 
  • Brain chemicals being out of balance 
  • Changes in the areas of the brain that control attention 
  • Poor nutrition 
  • Smoking and drinking 
  • Substance abuse during pregnancy 
  • Infections 
  • Toxins in the body 
  • Brain injury or brain disorder 

Symptoms of ADHD

Below are some of the most common symptoms of ADHD:

  • Being late at occasions and being forgetful 
  • Having problems at work 
  • Low self-esteem 
  • Difficulty controlling anger and emotions 
  • Impulsiveness 
  • Addiction and substance misuse 
  • Difficulty staying organized 
  • Easily frustrated 
  • Procrastination 
  • Easily bored 
  • Difficulty concentrating when reading 
  • Relationship problems 
  • Depression 
  • Mood swings

How Planners Help People with ADHD

Photo of a lady writing in a book; there are planners for adhd

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Getting and using a planner system will help you maintain a calm emotion, improve memory, and reduce stress. 

A good planner will also help you manage your time well and get things done. 

With a planner: 

  • You will be able to plan ahead 
  • Remember important information and events 
  • Manage your time better
  • Stay organized 
  • Feel less impact of ADHD on your work and personal life 

10 Best Planners for ADHD

It can be overwhelming trying to get the best planner for ADHD, but don’t worry, we’ve made the process easy for you. Below are some of the best planners for ADHD.

1. Gazelle ADHD Planner

Photo of Gazelle Planner; one of the best planner for adhd

This planner is designed in a way to help you prioritize your long term and short term goals. Its simple format will help you increase productivity and to help you stay focused on what’s important to you. 

It has one page per day planning and the book has pages to last for six months. This daily planning will help you plan and keep you on track. 

It has sections for to-do lists, scheduled events, and projects. It also has the 1-2-3 goal system that will keep all your goals on track from daily to yearly. 

Pros 

  • Has a 24-hour time layout 
  • The paper is sturdy 
  • It comes in many colors s you can pick your favorite 
  • Helps you to make, track, and achieve goals 

Cons 

  • It contains only six months, you will need two of this planner to cover a year 
  • You need tutorials to figure out how to use the planner 

Get it on Amazon.

2. Clever Fox Planner

Photo of Clever Fox Planner; one of the best planner for adhd

This is one of the best planners for adults with ADHD. It is undated and it is designed to help you get organized and achieve your goals. It will also help you get a clarified vision for life. 

The clever fox planner will help you break down large goals into smaller and more achievable pieces.

It has a unique layout that will help you develop healthier habit and positive daily rituals to improve your life. It has many interesting sections such as the gratitude, affirmations, and goal setting sections. 

Pros 

  • Size A5, so you can easily take it around 
  • Comes with a guarantee from the company 
  • High quality binding and paper 
  • Lasts for a whole year 
  • Available in many colors 

Cons 

  • The goal section is very detailed 
  • The pages are not numbered 

Get it on Amazon.

3. Panda Planner Pro

Photo of Panda Planner; one of the best planner for adhd

This is one of the best planners for those who need ADHD organization tools. it is designed to be used daily and by doing so, you will gain full control over your life. 

It makes use of positive psychology and neuroscience to help bring out the best in you. It also increases your productivity and happiness. 

The pages are not dated, this has an advantage by making you not to lose money if you miss a day. 

This planner is perfect for accountability and it helps you to be able to look at all you did or did not do at once. 

Pros 

  • Its size is big to accommodate plenty of writings 
  • It holds you accountable for what you do and didn’t do 
  • It offers all the tools you need for getting on track in life 

Cons 

  • It is only available in black color 
  • It does not last for the whole year 
  • The large size can’t fit in some bags 

Get it on Amazon

4. Moleskine Classic 12 Month Daily ADHD Planner

Photo of Moleskine Planner; one of the best planner for adhd

This wonderful planner includes grid pages and calendar pages to help you increase and also track your productivity. You can write lists, your plans for the future, journals, and anything you want with this planner. 

It is available in many colors and in both hard and soft covers. 

This planner has thick ivory papers that offers the best texture for writing. It has an expandable pocket on the inside and round corners for durability. 

The binding offers easier access to the pages when laid flat. 

Pros 

  • Has an inner pocket 
  • Lasts for an entire year 
  • Includes journal pages 
  • You can personalize the inside the way you want 
  • Available in several colors 
  • Has durable covers and pages 

Cons 

  • You must make your lists and layouts 
  • It includes only calendars and weekly pages

Get it on Amazon.

5. Lemome ADHD Planner – Academic Monthly & Weekly Planner

Photo of Lemome Planner; one of the best planner for adhd

This is one of the least expensive academic planner. It has all the monthly and weekly calendars, a to-do list, and other tools that make it easy for you to track all the necessary information. 

It helps you to stay on track in all you do. 

Also, it comes with stickers that can be used all through the year. All pages of the planner have note columns and places for you to put information all through the year. 

It is also undated thereby giving you the freedom to input dates to meet your needs. 

This planner comes with 2 bookmarks, an elastic closure, and A5 size to offer more convenience. 

Pros 

  • It lasts a whole year 
  • Comes with free stickers 
  • Has a pocket in the back 
  • Has elastic strap for closure 
  • Pen loop 
  • It is undated 

Cons 

  • Available only in black color 
  • You make your own list or tracking pages 

Get it on Amazon.

6. The Happy Planner 

Photo of Happy Planner; one of the best planner for adhd

Well, this planner may look intimidating at first but it is one of the bests planners for ADHD. It comes in three sizes, big, medium, and small. 

It offers two different layout choices. Also, it contains 18 months and it is filled with lots of creative and inspirational art work to make you happy when using the planner. 

Pros 

  • Has unique monthly and weekly layout 
  • Includes foil features 
  • Has sturdy laminated covers 

Cons 

  • It is dated 

Get it on Amazon

7. Passion planner 

Photo of Passion Planner; one of the best planner for adhd

This planner for ADHD comes in various forms for you to make your choice and pick the one that suits you best. It is available in the yearly, academic, and undated forms. 

Regardless of the one you go for, all passion planners have challenges, motivations and quotes, to-do lists (both work and personal), and also blank pages. 

This planner will give you a sense of what is going on during the week at a glance. It will help you remember the big picture by having reminders along the way and allowing you to review your goals. 

It is also full of inspirational quotes. 

Pros 

  • Scientifically designed to boost productivity and happiness 
  • The pages are spacious 
  • It is undated 

Cons 

  • It contains only three months 
  • It is expensive 

Get it on Amazon.

8. Simple Elephant Planner

Photo of Simple Elephant Planner; one of the best planner for adhd

This is one of the best agenda day planner to help you achieve your goals. It increases productivity, passion, and happiness. 

It includes a gratitude journal section, a mind map section, vision board, and bonus stickers. This is a whole lot in one place. 

The simple elephant planner also has helpful tools on their website to help users make the most use of the planner. They have how-to videos, motivational videos, and much more. 

It is undated and you don’t feel like you’ve wasted anything if you don’t use it for days or weeks. It gives you an opportunity to make notes for daily accomplishment. 

You can also set goals and review what went well and what didn’t go well. 

Pros 

  • A motivational goal setting planner 
  • Has a gratitude section to help you manifest the best year ahead 
  • Quality materials with an inner pocket 
  • Has a pen loop and 3 ribbon book marks 

Cons 

  • No con noticed yet 

Get it on Amazon.

9. Living Well Planner

Photo of Living Well Planner; one of the best planner for adhd

This planner can help you tame your busy schedule, plan your meals, conquer your budget, and crush all your goals. It offers a lot more in just one little book. 

It offers a daily to-do list, a year-at-a-glance, meal planning, budgeting help, and shopping all on the same page as your schedule. Also, it offers a step-by-step plan for meeting your goals. 

The lists on your tasks are separated by must do, should do, and would likely do. This makes your to-do list so much easier. 

Pros 

  • Affordable 
  • Best for busy moms struggling with ADHD 
  • One planner that offers so many features 

Cons 

  • No con discovered yet 

Get it here.

10. Rocketbook Wave Smart Notebook

Photo of Rocket Book Wave Planner; one of the best planner for adhd

Well, this planner has a digital touch but gives you the freedom of a pen and a paper notebook. It instantly backup your writings by sending everything you write in this planner into a cloud using your smartphone. 

Each of this planner comes with a Pilot FrixLon Pen that allows you erase and reuse the sheet using your microwave. It has blank pages that allows you to use the traditional bullet journal to enter your tasks and goals. 

One good thing about this planner is that if you lose it, you can still have a soft copy of your tasks and goals. 

Pros 

  • It prevents wasting of paper by giving you the freedom to erase everything written and reusing it again simply by microwaving it. It has just 80 pages
  • You can store your handwritten notes on cloud services, Google Drive, One Note, etc. 

Cons 

  • You need to wait for 15 seconds for the ink to bond to the specialized pages 

Get it on Amazon.

How to Use Planners for ADHD

Photo of a planner for adhd

After getting a planner with a monthly and daily view, you will need to gather all your schedules that you want included in the planner; these can include course syllables, due dates, events and appointments, school schedules, etc. 

Then you will need a pencil or a pen to help you write legibly on your planner. In order to maximize your planner and make it look appealing to you, it should be visually uncluttered. 

Depending on your need, a pencil can be okay but you can also choose to use colored pens so that you can easily see the next thing to do. 

1. Enter your appointments/responsibilities

That planner in your hand is a powerful time and task management system that needs infrastructure to function well just like all systems. So you start by creating your infrastructure. 

You do this by entering your responsibilities and appointments into the planner. If you want to commit to something, write it in your planner. 

Then you use this golden rule to manage your planner: by writing any responsibility and appointment in your planner, you are simply giving yourself the opportunity to act. IT IS NOT FORCING YOU TO ACT. 

This thought will help you retain your free will and freedom at all times and you will not feel overwhelmed. Just see it that your planner is a tool that gives you the option to act. 

2. Add reminders 

A reminder is a note you give to yourself to keep something on your mind so that you can plan ahead or schedule a time to work towards that goal. 

As a parent, you can collect all your child’s school calendar and enter all the important dates and events in your planner. 

If you are a student, you can enter all your syllabi and events into your planner. You should include no-class days, assignment due dates, test dates, etc. 

If you are a professional, you can enter all the critical meetings and dates you have. This includes tax due dates, due dates, and professional license withdrawal. 

For home and auto reminders, you can enter the dates to check the batteries of your smoke detectors, change your car’s oil, change filters, prep the garden, clean the gutters, winterize lawn equipment, perform routine care on belongings, etc. 

You can even include relationship reminders, anniversary dates, birthdays, and other special dates that are important to your friends and family members. 

3. Adopt the right mindset 

For you to succeed at time management, you need repeated interaction and engagement with your planner. Make sure you interact with your planner one to three times daily. 

Why Must I Use Paper Planners?

Photo of a planner

When it comes to using planners for time management and other reasons like ADHD, there is always a debate as to which is better between paper planners and digital planners. 

However, if you desire proper time planning for best results, paper planner is better than digital. Using a paper planner will help you see your time and when you see your time, you will learn how to manage it. 

Below are some of the reasons why we recommend paper planners for ADHD. 

1. Writing things down helps you to remember 

Psychologist and Philosopher, Dr. Nicolas Clausen said: “typing only activates the ‘language’ areas of our brain; whereas writing with a pen or pencil activates multiple brain regions and, therefore, makes the process complex, sensory-rich, and memorable.”

There are lots of research that has proven that students who write by hand have higher retention than those who use electronic devices. 

2. There are no distractions 

There are lots of distractions on an electronic device meanwhile a paper planner has no distractions. 

Imagine picking up your phone or tab to enter an information into your planner or to see what next to do and a social media notification pops up or a text comes in. 

And we know that these can push one out of focus. 

3. Paper planners build and develop time management skills 

A paper planner allows you to see the big picture by using clearly weekly and monthly views to help you create a sense of time and future awareness. 

People who use paper planners a lot appreciate how it makes them see everything in one place. 

Seeing will help you plan, prioritize, and stay on top of your tasks and goals. 

According to ADDITUDE, people were asked which planners they prefer and why. Most choose the paper type and gave their reasons for doing so. 

A commenter said “I use a Passion Planner; using pencil and paper makes events more real and helps me remember things, Paper planners are like glasses for those who are time-blind.”

Conclusion

Paper planners help in coping with ADHD and this post has reviewed the best planners for ADHD. Take advantage of any of them to ensure maximum productivity, effective time management and smashing of your goals.

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