AARP Hearing Center
.jpg?anchor=17,8&q=80&color=ffffffff&u=8wsalu&w=375 "Fall Movie Preview 2026")
The Annual Hunt for the Perfect Paper Planner
Digital calendars are convenient, but many of us still love paper. Here’s what I’ve discovered has changed, including what’s gone wrong, in calendar design
4-minute read
What are the necessary elements of a perfect paper engagement calendar?
AARP (Getty Images, 4)
Ah, autumn! The time of year my thoughts turn to … choosing next year’s appointment calendar.
Apart from autumnal celebrations, this is a seasonal rite for me and countless other loyal consumers of paper engagement calendars, weekly planners and agendas. We older adults may use and even depend on electronic versions that have snuck onto our cellphones and computers. But there is a reason paper versions are a multimillion-dollar industry. We resolutely unreformed users want to be able to hold these annual records, mark up the pages, flip through them, maybe stuff in a tree leaf or (hold the laughs) a newspaper clipping as a souvenir.
Author Alison Owings’ collection of engagement calendars over the years.
Courtesy Alison Owings
The big question is which calendar design to commit to for a year. Will the theme be, to name former favorites of mine, American quilts or the Sierra Club? Georgia O’Keeffe or “The Far Side”? My eyes skip over the animal-themed (sorry, kitties), the sci-fi and the too woo-woo. If nothing pulls, I sometimes gravitate toward a version without artwork but with well-done graphics.
There’s also the question of size, often a dilemma for me. Do I want something small and portable, maybe 4 by 6 inches, or something larger and not quite so portable? My current 2026 model, by Flame Tree Diary of London, with a Vincent van Gogh almond blossom rendering on the cover, is 6 by 8½ inches. It stays on my desk unless I’m traveling, when it joins my laptop.
Owings’ current paper planner has most of the features she looks for.
Courtesy Alison Owings
Paper stock is important, too; it’s one reason why my annual foray must be in person. I want to touch before buying. Nothing too glossy, nothing too flimsy.
Another detail not to be overlooked, at least by me: a binding that allows the planner to lie flat.
Only recently did I discover a few serious drawbacks to my lovely London Flame Tree diary. Its plethora of international commemoration dates (for example, Vaisakhi on April 14, Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Day on June 16) broadens my limited knowledge of global observances. But what about occasions relevant to my country? Where is the date for the irritating yet practical daylight saving time? (It’s November 1 this year; I wrote it in.) Also, this is a midterm election year, Flame Tree, and the stakes are especially high. But what do you list for November 3? One event: Culture Day in Japan. (I finally realized the reason for the lacuna; the calendar publisher is British.)
More Ways to Benefit
- Related Benefit 1
- Related Benefit 2
- Related Benefit 3
- Related Benefit 4
- Related Benefit 5
Even worse, and a cause for both pique and alarm across calendar lovers: Someone’s been messing with our weeks. Two widespread and unwelcome alterations have usurped the familiar.
Number one: Virtually all weekly planners now start on Monday. Accustomed as I had been to a Sunday-through-Saturday format, I have written down an appointment a day later than I meant to. Beyond annoying.
Number two: The alteration of the seven-day week itself. What’s with the neatly spaced-off five days, then a squooshed mini area for Saturday and Sunday? I’ve seen a calendar for clergy; even they get truncated weekends. No blessings there.
Find Your Documents in One Place
No more searching through file cabinets, boxes or drawers. The AARP Digital Vault helps you securely organize important or treasured documents and records online, so they’re easy to find when you need them. The add-on AARP membership benefit is just $20 a year.
Why the change? And why did Saturdays and Sundays get mashed together and slighted, rather than Meatless Mondays with Taco Tuesdays, or plain old Thursdays with TGIF Fridays? Despite what planner designers may think, some of us are employed and/or otherwise busy on Saturdays and Sundays. Yours truly, who worked for years in television news before writing books, rarely had a Monday-to-Friday schedule. Hospital employees, firefighters, police officers, gig workers from musicians to cooks to rideshare drivers, essential workers and parents all contend with erratic schedules, too.
This is the main reason I shop in person. I can buy engagement calendars online, but they generally don’t indicate if Saturday and Sunday have equal spacing. Some websites allow “a peek” inside, though not to the weekend.
My annual fall trek sometimes led to a Paper Source stationery store near my home in San Francisco. I’ve used its planners because they list every day equally, if at the top of a two-page spread. It’s not graphically ideal, yet the left page, be still my heart, did start the week with Sunday. One edition also included 182 reminder stickers for such occasions as manicures, none of which I used. (They were also a reminder that paper planners seem not to be a guy thing.)
One year, when I went to buy a Paper Source planner, I found that it, too, had succumbed to the Saturday-Sunday scrunch. A helpful saleswoman searched the store’s stock with me for an exception, commenting that, this being a working Saturday for her, she could also use an unscrunched version.
No luck. After we shared a sisterly harrumph, I made my way up the street to an independent bookstore, Browser Books. There I found a contender. It features sprightly sketches of food, flora and fauna. It does not start the week on Sunday, but it contains seven days evenly spaced, and it lies flat. Two out of three wishes? Sold!
Here’s to us holdouts. May better days be ahead. Starting with Sundays.
AARP essays share a point of view in the author’s voice, drawn from expertise or experience, and do not necessarily reflect the views of AARP.
AARP Membership
Join AARP for only $15 per year with automatic renewal. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of benefits, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP The Magazine.
You Might Also Like
I Was Widowed at 39. I’m Never Dating Again
My friends tell me that at 53, it’s time to make a dating profile. But I’m not looking
Seeing My Life on Parade Gave Me New Hope
A 60th college reunion provided a moment to reflect on generations past and present
Residents Stand Up for Their Mobile Homes
Companies are taking over mobile home parks, evicting residents