aily, weekly and monthly planners are a great way to organize your tasks and the agenda. It’s also a good introduction to a [productivity system](https://www.maray.ai/posts/goal-system-notion) and a [life os](https://www.maray.ai/posts/life-operating-system-v2) if you are new to Notion or want become more productive.
In this article, I’ll share several ways one can plan their agenda. In essence, you can manually arange the week in columns or use a database to store all your tasks that you can view in different ways.
###### You can duplicate all the planning templates here for free.
## What are the design options for a daily and weekly planner in Notion?
There are several ways to create a planner in Notion.
1. Block type planner divided into columns
2. Database driven planner
## Block type weekly planner
This type of planner is popular in aesthetic-driven templates and dashboards. Although it looks nice, it’s not very flexible and lacks several important features that database type planners have. Let’s have a look at how you can create and use such a planner.
To create a block design planner you need to:
1. Create headings for each day of the week.
2. Create columns from the headings.
3. Populate your to-do list based on the day of the week.
When the week is over, you have two options:
1. Delete the to-do items and create new ones
2. Keep the past week's planning and create a new one with a template button.
Here are the pros and cons of a block design type planner:
Pros:
- looks nice
- easy to start
Cons:
- not flexible
- lacks a lot of useful database features
## Daily/weekly planners based on a database
The database approach is my favourite. I plan in Notion using different databases. Databases or tables are a core feature of Notion and they give you a lot of options and features that you take advantage of.
Here are a few main advantages of planners that are based on a database:
- Different views (table, kanban, calendar, timeline)
- Sorting of items
- Filtering of items
- Formulas
- Conditions
- Ease of use
- Relations to other databases
I mainly use 3 types of planners:
- Weekly view, kanban style, grouped by days of the week
- Calendar view, classic month view
- A table view, a database of my tasks with a GTD concept
## Weekly planner | Grouped view by weekdays
With the recent new grouping feature, it became much easier to create a weekly planner. With a simple formula, we can create days of the week and group the tasks by those days. The result is a kanban-like board where under each column you can plan your tasks and the agenda. Although it is quite a clear view of the week, it has a couple of disadvantages.
First, the current grouping in Notion makes the whole planner too wide to fit on the page. I couldn’t find a way to resize the columns. Second, there is a `Hidden groups` column that I couldn’t hide either.
The sub-grouping database feature isolates a given week under a toggle. It can be useful if you want to see the recent weeks on one page.
Here are the pros and cons of a weekly planner grouped by weekdays:
Pros:
- clarity
Cons:
- doesn’t fit on the page
- the grouping feature needs more development
## Daily planner/agenda | Table view
The table implementation of my planner is my favorite. It’s a simple list that shows me the information I need. Whenever I need to have a broader overview of my tasks, I quickly switch to the calendar view of the same database. Table and calendar views coupled with the concept of [GTD task management](https://www.maray.ai/posts/gtd-notion) proved to be the most productive for me after using it for more than a year.
Pros:
- simple & clear
Cons:
- lacks clarity if you want to view the whole week
## Monthly planner/agenda | Calendar view
You can use a `Calendar view` to plan your days with a clearer overview. In the future, when Notion releases the `Week view` of the calendar, it can become a complete replacement to the design options we discussed earlier. I use the `Calendar view` together with the `Table view` whenever I need to see my agenda a week or two in the future.
Pros:
- simple & clear
Cons:
- only shows the whole month
## Final thoughts
Notion is flexible and provides different implementations for a daily and weekly planner. You can organize your agenda with a simple block design planner or go with a more advanced database planner. Each has its own advantages. It depends on your goals and how much control and flexibility you want.
Planning is a big part of my daily life. You can read more about my [Life OS](https://www.maray.ai/posts/life-operating-system-v2) in Notion and borrow ideas for planning the agenda in your own Life OS.
