📅 🧠 How to customize a planner, even if you hate planners, Executive Function, ADHD Tip

What’s up, parents, teachers, and students? It’s me, Seth Perler.

In this video, I’m going to show you something I just worked on with one of my students. We took her planner—actually, two planners—and created a customized weekly planning system. She resists using planners and doesn’t like them, so we redesigned it to be much more effective for her.

We spent well over an hour doing this, so I’m going to break down what we ended up with. That way, whether you’re a student, parent, or teacher, you can help create a more effective planning system.

Let me show you the starting point and the end result. This is where we started, and this is where we ended. I’ll explain what that means shortly, but first, some background.

This student (a middle schooler using a high school planner) had a planner provided by the school. It was large, with columns for Monday through Friday and lots of text. In my opinion, many school planners are distracting—especially for students with executive function challenges who already dislike planners.

If you hate planners or feel like they don’t work for you, this approach may help.

This student actually had two planners. One had the typical Monday–Friday column layout. The other was a simpler format—Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on one page, and Thursday through Sunday on another. This is the format we chose to use.

As an executive function coach (you can find me at sethperler.com), I often work with students who resist planning. What I teach is something called “Frankenstudy”—customizing and tailoring systems so they actually work for the individual.

So we spent over an hour personalizing this system based on what the student could realistically use. We chose the preferred planner format and then modified it to match how I teach planning skills.

I used one of my planning sheets as a reference. It includes key elements I find important, and we incorporated some of those into this planner—not all of them, just the ones the student had buy-in for.

We literally took a Sharpie and drew directly into the planner. We only customized two weeks at first, because that’s enough time to test the system without committing to the entire semester.

Now let’s zoom in on one day—Monday—to show exactly what we did.

We drew a line across the page, then added another line to create sections. Everything written in italics was added by hand. At the top, we labeled a section “To Do” (or “Assignments”—either works).

Next, we created a column listing subjects: M for Math, S for Science, SS for Social Studies, E for English, H for Health, and B for Band. We also added sections like “Other” and “PE” for additional items.

One key skill I teach is this: write assignments on the day they are due.

So for example, if it’s Monday:

* Math homework (pages 46, problems 1–17, odd) is due
* A quiz on the rock cycle is due in Science
* Nothing is due in Social Studies
* A draft of a narrative is due in English
* Nothing is due in Health
* In Band, the student needs to remember their uniform

Once something is completed, the student can either check it off or cross it out. Personally, I prefer crossing things out—it helps clear mental space.

If working digitally, you could also add links—for example, a link to a study guide.

We repeated this structure for each weekday (Monday through Friday), creating a consistent system across the week.

Then we added what I call “front-loading.” We filled in everything we already knew—tests, quizzes, assignments—by checking school portals and gathering all available information.

In just one hour, the student had more clarity than ever before. You could actually see the confidence shift. At the beginning, there was resistance—“I hate planners, I don’t use them”—but by the end, there was awareness and a sense of control.

That’s what we’re aiming for.

So whether you’re a student, parent, or teacher, you don’t have to use this exact method. The key idea is customization—taking a system and making it work for the individual.

We turned a generic planner into something clear, simple, and usable—with all subjects and assignments laid out in a way the student could actually follow.

Again, my name is Seth Perler. You can find me at sethperler.com, where I have free resources, and at executivefunctionsummit.com for my summit.

If you like what I’m doing, feel free to like, subscribe, and share.

And in the comments, I’d love to hear from you:

Do you have any tips for using planners or creating systems like this?
Any tricks, insights, or questions?

One thing I didn’t cover here is the daily planning process—how to actually work on tasks before they’re due—but that’s another piece of the system.

For now, I’d love to hear your ideas.

Have a fantastic day. I wish you peace in your heart, joy in your life, and connection with the people you care about.

Take care.