If you are on the fence in terms of whether to get a dated or undated digital planner this time, here are some of the pros and cons of a dated version.
Dated vs. Undated Planners
Cost
If you are looking at dated vs. undated, in terms of prices, there really isn’t much in it.
You could argue that being able to use a planner year after year will prove cheaper in the long run, which it will. These planners, however, are usually around £20-£30 at most, so not a huge investment for a year’s worth of service.
If you use it regularly, I think they are great value for money - dated or undated.
Flexibility
An undated planner, aside from the divider tabs, is more flexible in terms of taking pages out and adding pages in. As long as you don’t move or delete the dividers - the navigation structure of an undated planner - you are pretty safe and won’t break (I hope) your planner. Always, always keep a backup!
A dated planner, with its thousands of hyperlinks, is solid in structure - it has to be, to be able to offer speedy navigation. This solid structure has many benefits (see below) but with that strength comes a lack of flexibility.
You can’t simply move or delete pages at will without a link breaking somewhere!
Like I said, always keep a backup!
Pros of Dated Planners
1. Speed of Use
- They are quick. Really quick! You can jump to a specific page in the planner in just a tap or two.
- For example, in the dated daily planner below, you can jump to any month, week or day page from the calendar overview in just a single tap.
- You can tap on any of the month tabs on the right or section tabs on the top to jump to a divider page.
- Once inside a month, you are just one tap away from any page in that month.
2. Ready to Use
- No more filling in dates or deleting layouts you don’t need.
- You can use dated planners as soon as you open them. You’ll be planning in seconds!
- Although you can re-use undated planners, you have to be prepared to put in a little work before you can start using it. Even if that means something simple, like filling in dates for the first month to get you started.
- With dated, the dates are in place. Not only that, every date is hyperlinked so they do more than give you information, they take you to a specific page.
3. Easy to Manage Big Documents
- Dated planners are usually daily planners. You are looking at a minimum of 400 pages. Some have as many as 600.
- There is nothing wrong with long documents. The problems arise when you try to find your way around them.
- A dated planner overcomes that problem. It takes a big document and smothers it with hyperlinks. The example used in this tutorial has over 1,500, if my memory serves.
- Hyperlinks can take a large, unwieldy document and bring it to heal!
- When you know you can jump pages in just a couple of taps, you honestly forget just how many pages there are.
4. Easy to Go ‘Back’
- Ah, the lack of a ‘back button’. Much lamented in digital planning circles. We are just so used to browsing online and hitting that back button to return to where we started. (Unless we’ve gone down another rabbit hole, of course!)
- The lack of a back button is compensated for brilliantly with a dated planner. You don’t actually go ‘back’, that’s true, but with everything just a tap or two away, returning to where you started is so easy.
5. Good Structure
- Hundreds of pages and thousands of hyperlinks demand a good and easy-to-understand navigation system.
- Having a good structure in place, identical on every page, means you soon get used to where everything is. Once you know your way around a new document, your workflow improves.
- In no time, you’ll be whizzing around your planner at lightening speed!
Cons of Dated Planners
1. Day Pages
- As I’ve mentioned above, dated planners are invariably daily. The mass of hyperlinks is what makes a daily planner workable.
- This means, if you are more a fan of a monthly or weekly spreads, and find you only use daily pages occasionally, dated daily planners aren’t a good investment.
- The bulk of the pages are obviously the daily spreads. If you are not using them at least a few times a week, you are buying and downloading a big document (and larger file size) for no reason.
- If you are still keen on dated but not daily, then look out for weekly dated planners. Much lighter, they still offer the benefits of hyperlinks, and you’ll make use of pretty much every page in the planner.
2. Only Use Once
- This is the con that is most often quoted. It’s true, you can only really use a dated planner, and gain all the advantages that brings, once.
- I know people suggest putting stickers over dates and writing the new dates on top. This is certainly feasible but is really time consuming. As someone who designs dated daily planners, I can tell you there are a lot of pages and dates to work through!
- The other problem with using stickers is the file size. As I’m sure you are aware, the more you put in the planner in the form of images, the bigger the PDF becomes, and the dreaded lag rears its ugly head.
- For me, the biggest disadvantage of trying to convert an old dated planner is, you lose all the benefits of being able to jump to specific pages. That speed, for me, is the reason I’m a big fan of dated planners.
3. Rigid Date Range
- As with paper planners, if you buy a dated planner later in the year, you pay for pages you will never use.
- You can get around this to some extent. Many digital planner designers now create mid-year planners.
- If you are converting to digital mid year, keep an eye out for one of these.
Pros & Cons of Using a Dated Digital Planner
I hope that has helped you better understand the advantages and limitations of a dated planner.
I love the speed of my dated planner and don’t need the flexibility offered by undated planners. And yes, it does help that I design my own, so don’t need to worry about buying a new one each year!
Having said that, I would strongly recommend a dated planner if you are looking for a fast and efficient workflow.
If you like jumping around your planner from page to page and back again, you will find the rigid, hyperlink-heavy structure of a dated planner a joy.
