[Vid for students] Don’t use the school planner, use this instead

Good morning, it’s Mesa from sethperler.com.

In this video, I’m going to tell you about planners. I know a lot of you hate planners. This video is for high schoolers and middle schoolers—I’m speaking directly to you if you do not like planners, hate planners, or struggle with them.

I’m going to explain why you shouldn’t use the school planner, and what you should do instead.

First thing: middle schoolers and high schoolers—the school planner your school gives you is often 80 or 90 pages thick. It’s overwhelming, and it makes you not want to use it because it feels like a book.

Second, they add things in there that have nothing to do with planning. For example, the school handbook. Who reads that inside the planner? Maybe one or two people at the beginning of the year. Why are there 15 pages of a school handbook in your planner?

Third, it often includes things like the periodic table, commonly misspelled words, and pages for notes. If you use those, fine—but most people don’t. When you use a planner, you want to learn how to plan better. Get rid of everything that isn’t actually planning.

So these school planners include a lot of extra pages, and that’s the first issue.

Second, they have visual clutter. Months are often different colors—orange, blue, etc.—which can be confusing unless you’re already very organized. They also include famous quotes, tips of the day, and other decorative elements all over the planner.

All you need is a planner. You don’t need all that extra stuff in the background.

If you are a student who struggles with organization, time management, planning, homework, missing assignments, incomplete work, or studying for tests—you do not need anything except the bare minimum: a simple planner.

Many school planners also include both monthly and weekly layouts. That’s overkill. You don’t need that many details.

For highly organized students, it doesn’t matter—they can use any type of planner because their executive function is strong. But if you struggle, you don’t need complexity.

What you need is simplicity.

So here’s what I recommend:

Go to an office supply store and get a planner that is monthly only—not monthly and weekly, not monthly and daily. Just monthly.

You want an academic planner that starts in July, not a calendar-year planner that starts in January. You may eventually remove pages like July if the year has already moved on.

You want a planner with lines if possible. You also want to avoid spiral-bound planners if you can, because students with executive function challenges often damage the spiral in their backpack, which can cause pages to fall out.

If you must get a spiral, that’s fine—just minimize the damage.

You should also write your name clearly on the front and back of the planner so it can be returned if lost. Don’t just write it inside.

This is an example of a planner I recommend: a simple monthly planner with lines. Especially if you have messy handwriting, lines help a lot.

Once you get your planner, remove anything that doesn’t matter. Highlight days off. Use note sections when needed. And because space is limited, you’ll need to write in shorthand.

The goal is to keep it simple and functional so you can track homework, tests, and studying easily.

Now, about this recommendation: I’m not saying everyone must use this planner.

About 90% of my students benefit from this simple system. But about 10% already have systems that work for them—Google Calendar, digital planners, school planners, note cards—if it works, don’t change it.

If something isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

I’m speaking mainly to students who struggle with organization, time management, missing assignments, and keeping track of work. For those students, simplicity is usually best.

The goal is to reduce time spent falling behind and increase time spent being ahead, so you have more free time and less stress during the semester.

I hope that helps. I hope you have a great day.

Also, I have a Jump Start program starting soon—I hope you join us. On Sunday, September 3rd, early bird pricing ends, but registration remains open until September 8th. The program starts on September 9th.

Have an awesome school year. I’ll see you soon.