4 Best Digital Planners to Go From Chaos to Order and Streamline Your Life in 2024

a person sitting at a desk, organizing tasks and schedules on a digital planner on a tablet, with a cup of coffee and stationery items

Have you ever felt like your Google calendar is just not enough? Your to-do list is too long and it’s tough to keep track of your daily tasks. I’ve felt the same way, which is why I started searching for a way to stay organized.

This list of the best digital planners is all about online planners that are easy to use, look good, and feel good. The last thing you want to do is waste time fumbling around an app trying to figure out how to add new tasks and see your daily schedule.

I’ll walk you through what I believe to be the best planners to manage your to-dos, organize your days, and have everything you need at your fingertips so you’re never surprised by that meeting you were trying to forget. There’s also an Extras section if you’re looking for more of that old-school personal planner in your hands feel.

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What is the best digital planner?

This is the question that I asked myself before deciding to write this article. I wanted to find something that I could use. A digital planner needs to set reminders, integrate with my calendar, be accessible no matter what device I’m using, and be enjoyable to use. If it’s annoying or frustrating to navigate then it’s no better than Post-its slapped on your monitor, desk, refrigerator, bathroom mirror; you get the point.

These online planners are in no particular order. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. When choosing a planner from this list you’ll be able to decide which is right for you and how you want to manage your important tasks. Or sometimes you just have to go with what feels best.

Best all in one app
ClickUp logo

ClickUp

For collaboration and managing all your projects in one place, ClickUp is hard to beat. With fully customized views you can add any info and get any insight you need never leaving the app. When they say “one app to replace them all” they mean it.

Best for home and family management
Any.do logo

Any.do

If you’re looking to streamline your home and family life but also have the option to scale up to manage your work, then this online planner is for you.

Todoist

Todoist website landing page

Overview

Todoist focuses on task management with an easy and intuitive interface. It takes to-do lists to the next level and offers flexibility from simple personal use to advanced management of a whole team. Todoist’s streamlined approach makes it simple to separate and manage your personal life and work-related projects. The simple approach makes it easy to focus on only what you need to do.

Available on: desktop, mobile, web browsers, and wearables Apple Watch and Wear OS

Key Benefits

  • Separate to-do lists into different “projects”. Great if you want to use this for work-related projects and as a personal planner

  • Quickly create all your tasks in one place, set priorities, and due dates, or move them to different projects with a few taps or clicks

  • AI integrated features. Want to cut out the extra menus while creating a task? Type the way you would speak and AI will set the date/time and priorities for you

  • Organize tasks inside projects into different sections and create repeating tasks

Pricing

Multiple tiers with increasing benefits, and a free tier that never expires.

Todoist pricing
  • Free:
    • All the features and customization you would need for a personal planner

  • Pro: $4/month billed yearly | $5/month billed monthly
    • Unlock a calendar view, task reminders, and the AI Assistant

  • Business: $6 per member/month billed yearly | $8 per member/month billed monthly
    • Unlock a shared team workspace and team roles and permissions

First Impressions

Signing up was very easy because you can log in with your Google, Facebook, or Apple account. As soon as you log in for the first time you’re greeted with a quick question and the option to get a simple tour of the interface which will pop up as you click around.

Todoist initial setup questionaire

I like how you hop right into the action of creating your first task. You can create subtasks, write comments, set deadlines, and labels, and set priority levels all from this one menu.

Todoist adding tasks and task options

You can also set all the details right from the task title by typing what you want:

Todoist natural language processing ability to set task details by typing them in the title

Everything you see in red from the above image is what Todoist’s AI takes as commands to create the task. This is the result:

Todoist task written using natural language set with Blog Post label, priority 1, due today at 4 PM, located in My Work ChrisAssists.com section

The dashboard view is minimalistic and easy to navigate and understand. There are also some prefilled tasks to give you an idea of how you might want to structure your daily planning. The sidebar is a familiar menu style and there’s very little learning curve if you’re familiar with today’s style of apps and websites.

Todoist dashboard

I appreciate the simplicity of the layout. If you’re looking for a powerful and focused to-do list with a lot of customization options this one is for you.

Todoist also gamifies completing tasks through the Todoist Karma achievement system, which I think is a fun addition. Complete enough tasks on time and you can unlock a mystery theme. You can also view your productivity and progress to see how close you are to getting your next achievement:

Todoist productivity and achievement screen

The achievement system I think makes Todoist a great habit tracker because collecting those achievements and watching that experience add up is a great little dopamine hit.

The syncing between web and mobile is seamless and the menus are just as easy to navigate. Writing down those quick to-dos as they come to mind is effortless. Overall the minimal and straightforward approach of to-do lists by Todoist is a great experience.

Any.do

Any.do website landing page

Overview

Any.do is a versatile task management online planner that also has a focus on project management. It was built with features revolving around giving families the ability to keep track of everyone’s schedules, chores, and duties, while also having the capability to scale up to be used as a business planner for multiple teams.

Available on: desktop, mobile, web browsers, and wearables Apple Watch and Wear OS

Key Benefits

  • Quick and easy calendar integration and the ability to add tasks right from that view

  • Great menu design, looks and feels smooth. Has a Next 7 Days screen where you can easily view and schedule your upcoming week

  • AI assistant to streamline your task management and offer helpful suggestions

  • Built to manage multiple aspects of your life from personal to family, and work projects

Pricing

Multiple tiers and a permanent free tier.

Any.do pricing
  • Free:
    • All basic functions including calendar and daily planner

  • Premium: $5/month billed yearly
    • Full access for one user. Unlock repeating tasks, What’s App reminders, AI-powered features, and more

  • Family: $8/month billed yearly
    • Everything from Premium and unlock a family shared space for up to 4 members.

  • Teams: $8/month per member billed yearly
    • Unlock a collaborative workspace, unlimited project boards and team members, and 100+ workflow templates

First Impressions

After singing up Any.do jumps right to business by having you write down your first tasks. They give you the option to pick a plan right away but if you’re not ready yet you can just continue with the free version.

Any.do initial task setup

The layout is very nice, you can access any area from every screen, and it’s got a smooth feeling transition effect when you switch sections.

Any.do My Day screen

Adding tasks is straightforward. You have the expected tags, notes, sub-tasks, and the ability to attach files. The only thing that confused me for a moment was adding a due date; Any.do calls these Reminders.

This actually could be a good mind shift if you have a difficult schedule. It can reduce some of that guilt you feel if you don’t finish a task on time since it was just a reminder and not a definitive deadline. However, you need to be careful because this can also be a slippery slope of letting your tasks pile up.

Any.do all tasks screen

You can also separate your tasks into Lists. This way you can have more control over how you prioritize your goals.

My favorite view is the Next 7 Days. It gives you a quick and easy way to see your weekly schedule and make any additions or modifications you want. You can scroll through your days to plan your week in advance.

Any.do next 7 days screen

The mobile and web versions of Any.do feel nearly the same with their nicely laid-out menus and smooth transitions. Changes made in one version will show up in the other within seconds. The navigation and style feel sleek and it’s easy to collaborate with other people.

ClickUp

ClickUp website landing page

Overview

ClickUp is an all-in-one project management software. It helps you manage personal and work tasks, and shared projects all in one easy-access place. With a focus on allowing you to create a fully customized planner online, you can customize your views, have custom fields, and lay out your workspace exactly the way you want it.

Available on: desktop, mobile, web browsers, and Apple Watch

Key Benefits

  • High customization options in views, and complete workspace customization including the layout, giving you a more personal touch

  • Searchable custom fields so you can easily find what you’re looking for

  • Boost efficiency with 100+ automation for your workflow, routine tasks, and more

  • Easily import your work from other productivity and office apps so you can create one unified planner

Pricing

Multiple tiers with increasing benefits, and a free tier that never expires. Also offers an extra AI assistant add-on.

ClickUp pricing
  • Free:
    • All you would need for personal tasks and small projects

  • Unlimited: $7/month per user billed yearly | $10/month per user billed monthly
    • Removes certain limitations of the free plan and most notably adds custom forms and increases 3rd party app integrations

  • Business: $12/month per user billed yearly | $19/month per user billed monthly
    • Increases or removes certain usage limits from Unlimited, adds complete time tracking features, and adds business features like SSO

  • Enterprise: Custom pricing
    • Contact their sales to tailor a plan to your business needs

  • AI Add-on: $5/month per user billed based on plan terms (requires a paid plan)
    • Write and edit documents. Summarize meeting notes and tasks

First Impressions

After you sign up with your email ClickUp asks you a series of questions to better understand how you’ll be working your online planning. Once that’s done it drops you in front of an informative short video that gives you an overview of what you can do with your online planner.

ClickUp welcome video overview

The initial dashboard view is a little confusing at first because a lot is going on in one place. But there is a “Getting started” helper that will walk you through how to set up and use the different features with a short video and a guided pop-up tour.

ClickUp new account default dashboard view

The hierarchy system that ClickUp uses to organize your tasks and projects is just like a file folder system on your computer so it’s very easy to group everything together. It even can have files in the hierarchy to go with your tasks.

You can set up every little detail when you’re creating your spaces, projects, and tasks down to the status so you know what stage everything is on at a glance. If you don’t know where or how to start they have several templates to get you going, and the ability for custom templates to make it fit your specific needs.

I decided to go with the Content template:

ClickUp space creation and setup

Once you’re done you get to review your settings for your Space and either create or go back and make changes:

ClickUp Space creation confirmation

Just to start you can see below that I made a simple task in my Blog Posts space and made two custom fields “Keyword” and “Complexity” to add columns for what I need to do and keep track of:

ClickUp my first task list view

There are also custom views to give you a clear overview of everything in each of your spaces and the ability to update each of them. To give you even more control of how you view and manage your planner there are custom dashboards that you can build by picking and resizing cards to display different information.

ClickUp custom dashboard

The amount of detail you can go into can be overwhelming and I could write a whole article on how to set up your spaces and projects efficiently, but you can make it as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

If full control and customization are what you want then ClickUp is what you need. It has a ton of powerful features for workflow efficiency and integrations. Although if you don’t need so many features for what you want to do it may be like using a sledgehammer to hammer in a nail.

Notion

Notion website landing page

Overview

Notion is a productivity platform that aims to replace other online planners and office apps and merge them all into one complete package. Its purpose is to allow you to do all your work in one place and never have to jump from app to app and sift through endless open browser tabs. From taking notes and organizing your thoughts, task and habit tracking, to even writing a book Notion has it covered.

Available on: desktop, mobile, and web browsers

Key Benefits

  • Everything is drag and drop giving you complete freedom to customize and organize anything you can think of

  • 1000’s of templates made by Notion and its users to get you started faster for personal or work projects, document writing, and even templates to build your own Wiki

  • Integration with many productivity, tracking, and creative tools like Figma, Canva, Trello, Zoom, Google Drive, and OneDrive, just to name a few.

  • Make any page on Notion a public webpage for things like an online resume, or portfolio

Pricing

Multiple tiers with increasing benefits, and a free tier that never expires. Also offers Notion AI writing assistant add-on.

Notion pricing
  • Free:
    • All you would need to organize your personal and work life

  • Plus: $8/month per user billed yearly | $10/month per user billed monthly
    • Built for small teams, upgrades limits from the free plan and gives custom notion.site domain name homepage

  • Business: $15/month per user billed yearly | $18/month per user billed monthly
    • Upgrades several limits from Plus, adds SSO, and advanced page analytics

  • Enterprise: Custom pricing
    • Advanced controls and support for large scale. Contact sales for information based on your business needs

  • Notion AI Add-on: $8/month per user billed yearly (on any yearly paid plan) | $10/month per user billed monthly (on any monthly paid plan or free plan)
    • Ask questions about your tasks or projects and get answers. Autofill based on your info and brainstorming for new ideas and first drafts

First Impressions

After signing up and telling Notion how you intend to use it they set you up with a great Getting Started instruction page explaining the basics:

Notion getting started instructions page

The first thing I noticed was how many different ways Notion can be used. Make a to-do list, manage daily tasks, create your perfect planner, and organize your thoughts, you can create anything you want. I must have spent 20 minutes just poking around looking at the examples they give you for ideas of my own.

The options feel endless, but luckily there are plenty of templates that do the hard work for you. All you need to do is pick the template and start.

I decided I wanted to create something to help me track my articles so I added a new page to start from a clean slate to see what it looks like:

Notion blank page for Chris Assists

Then went straight to templates, searched for anything relating to blogs, and found a great template:

Notion page for Chris Assists after using a template

Everything is drag and drop, very easy to customize, and powered by databases with information that you enter. This lets you see any data you want with just a few clicks. Each view gives you the ability to modify any category in a simple straightforward way.

I love how they use Kanban boards in the templates to make changing statuses feel smooth and give you a bird’s eye view of your projects or anything else you want to keep track of:

Notion status view using kanban board

Below is a peak at the templates you can use to instantly create nearly anything for work, school, personal, projects, wikis, and docs:

Notion templates window

I’ve barely scratched the surface of what Notion is capable of, it’s a lot more than an online planner. It truly is a one-stop shop for all of your organizing and productivity needs. For people who have a creative flair, there are just enough places to add pictures and cover banners for a personal touch.

If you’re looking to create a whole productivity ecosystem then Notion is the way to go.

Extras

On:planners

Onplanners website landing page

Overview

If you’re looking for that paper planner feel then Onplanners is just what you’re looking for. These are downloadable digital planners. You select a device type and a planner, then you have different options to pick from to create a customized planner.

Onplanner customize planner page

They have templates for all different kinds of work, personal goals, to-do lists, fitness tracking, and the list goes on. You also have the option for digital or printable planners, but you’d have to print it yourself.

If you were just in the market for stickers, both digital and printable, you can find that too with their 2000+ customizable sticker collection.

Available on: iPad/Android, reMarkable, Kindle Scribe, Supernote, and BOOX Note

Pricing

  • Single Planner: Varies depending on the planner. Expect to pay around $10 plus or minus several dollars

  • 800+ Premium Planner Templates: $20 one-time payment

  • 100+ Customizable Digital Planners: $35 one-time payment

  • All-in-One Access: $60 one-time payment
    • 800+ Planner Templates

    • 200+ Digital Planners

    • 2000+ Stickers

  • 2000+ Customizable Stickers Collection: $20 one-time payment

How I chose these digital planners

cartoon representation of digital devices using productivity apps and tiny people working

All the planners I picked had to answer one question: Can I see myself using them for my day-to-day life/work tasks without it feeling like I gave myself an extra thing to manage?

In my experience, if a tool, or software, is too complicated then it will actually take time away from you getting work done and achieving your goals. For software especially, if it’s too difficult to use then you spend more time managing the software than managing your tasks.

If a planner doesn’t make your life easier then there’s no reason to use it.

The planners in this list all do relatively the same thing, just in their own way. Each one will cater more to different styles of planning, collaboration, and task/project management. It’s up to you to decide which one will work best for the way you want to plan your days and how you handle personal task management.

Which digital planner did I pick?

a person relaxing in a comfortable home setting, reflecting on their organized life with a digital planner in hand

For me, Todoist was the winner, for a simple reason. I’m a sucker for gamification. Getting achievements and unlocking the mystery theme for completing tasks is what sealed the deal. I also like to look at charts and graphs and view progress.

But if that was the only thing Todoist did well I wouldn’t have gone with it. In the end, I still needed a planner that I could use anywhere with a simple interface and flexibility of use.

Todoist also has a fun quick productivity quiz that helps you figure out what productivity methods could work best for you.

Notion was a close second because there’s so much you can do with it and customization is a breeze. In fact, I will be using it for personal and work organization, just not my daily to-do lists and planning my daily tasks.

This is also not to say that the other digital planners were worse. Every planner here deserves a top spot, I wouldn’t have recommended them otherwise. Todoist just happened to be the best digital planner for me because it matched my personal needs and style.

Closing Thoughts

little lightbulb robot plugging itself in

Now that you have all the information you need to make a decision it’s time to just jump right in. Since all of these online planners have free versions you can give each one a shot and figure out the one you like best.

With all that extra time, who knows, you might be able to start a part-time business or that side hustle you’ve been thinking about.

I know I’m happy with the choice I made and what I learned from writing this article, and I’m sure you will be too once you find that perfect planner.

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