I’ll Never Buy A Dated Planner Again

I’ll Never Buy A Dated Planner Again

BY JULIE LAUFER

Every time I buy a dated planner, I’m filled with hope. The neat boxes, each with a purpose, speak to my desires for order and structure. I enter appointments and tasks in their respective boxes, looking ahead excitedly at the year of productivity to come. But each time, I abandon it by April. 

Yet come New Year, there I’ll be, buying another one. Instead of opting for the undated version, I’ll tell myself that this time will be different. I’ll stay on top of it, stick to it, not let my novelty-seeking derail me.

It’s never different. 

Throughout my life, I’ve been inundated with productivity hacks that work for neurotypical people. “Just buy the planner and use it,” or “make a to-do list and cross things off,” they say. The advice is well-intentioned, but it’s just not that simple. 

Once I understood I was neurodivergent, I went down a similar path. Surely, the tools and apps aimed at people who share similar brain chemistry should work for me, right? 

I used to think that's what it was all about — finding the right tool, the right system, the perfect blend to keep track of it all.

I’d test different to-do apps, cover my wall with sticky notes, and sign up for an annual subscription to anything promising. And of course, dutifully carry my dated planner, even if I don’t actually open it for months on end.

I have a desire to plan ahead and a tendency to be a bit rigid. I function best when structure and routine are within reach, but I also crave the freedom to break out of those structures. Add to that my strong need for creativity, novelty-seeking, and originality. These traits are difficult for my ADHD brain to wrestle with, and for a long time, I thought those parts would always inherently be at odds. 

 I wish I could tell you I’ve found my perfect system for getting it all done, one that’s easy to follow and enables me to get everything done how I want, exactly when I want. I want to tell you that I’ve cracked the code on ADHD productivity and have been perfecting my system for years. 

Unfortunately, that's not the case. 

Instead, I use these apps or tools for a while, finding a bit of a groove, then eventually forget about them, following whatever new shiny system my brain wants at that moment. A dated planner staring at me with its blank pages, an annual subscription to an app going unused for 10 more months.

For a long time, I thought this was part of the list of things that were “wrong” with me, proof that I couldn’t be organized enough to make anything work. How can I be trusted to do the work if I can’t even figure out how to manage it? 

But then I realized something: my habit of bouncing around to different systems and tools was working — just not in the way I thought it should. Or the way it did for other people. 

When I was in a desk job that consisted of many structured daily tasks, I gravitated towards writing everything I needed to do directly in a notebook. The dated planner felt too rigid — the once-helpful boxes and rows felt stifling in a way the running list of to-dos didn’t. 

But when I lost my job, that system stopped serving me. My days more fluid and my list of tasks endless, I found myself dusting off an old Notion template that offered the flexibility I needed. What would've felt cumbersome with paper and pen, Notion made simple.

I started to think of my desire to move between systems more as an ability than a flaw — my ADHD gives me the ability to be flexible, to go with the flow.

I can’t use the same system for months and months at a time, because my need for novelty and productivity levels change. I’ve had to reject advice aimed at the masses and figure out what works for me. By letting my brain step into the driver’s seat, I’ve found I can be more productive and more organized, even if on the surface things look a bit chaotic. And that’s okay —

in letting go of the performance of productivity, I’ve found a way to actually make productivity stick. 

So now, I recognize that my best system — and the only thing that has worked so far — is to follow whatever system I need in the moment, abandon it when I need to, and know I can always come back if I want to. I’ve stopped paying for apps I’ll only use for a few weeks, and am okay with my notebooks, lists, and other tools having months of missing context as I float around. 

So no, I guess I haven’t cracked any ADHD productivity codes — but I’m finally ready to embrace the magic that is following my brain and letting it decide what tools to use in the moment. 

And I think I’m ready to say that I’ll never buy a dated planner again. 

BIO: Julie Laufer is a person with ADHD (among other things). She writes about shifting identities and the nuance of the moments that shape our lives, and has long coveted being a person who uses a dated planner. You can find more of her work on her Substack, This Might Be Cringe. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, toddler, and cats, Maude and Mathilda.