Which Planner is Right for You Based on Your Enneagram Type
You are special and uniquely interesting; just ask the people around you. No one looks or dresses exactly like you, or has the same philosophy or goals in life, so why would a single planning system work for everyone?
What is YOUR style? You know a lot about yourself, but you may benefit from some assistance in how to pick a planner. Here’s an interesting look at our planning products through the lens of your Enneagram style.
The Enneagram is a system of personality typing that helps explain our core beliefs, personality traits, and helps to describe how we see and interact with the world and our emotions. The model is ancient and has recently resurfaced and become quite popular. If you have never taken the Enneagram test, you can take it here.
Although many planners and calendars can work for you, there may be some that work better for your Enneagram type than others.
Which Planner is Right for Type 1-The Reformer
As a Reformer, you dislike disorder, and your feet are firmly on the ground. You’re idealistic, while rational. You are tough on yourself and always act with integrity. You like to be right, and always strive for improvement. You may be an advocate for change, or a teacher (formally or informally). Often thought of as inpatient, you have high expectations for others, like you do for yourself.
A natural organizer, you need products that support what you do organically. For planning ahead, get the 2022 AT-A-GLANCE 3-month reference wall calendar, and complement it with a 2022 planner from the Signature Collection. Choose the vertical layout with hourly planning every day. The bottom section has space to keep notes and priorities.
An undated Signature Notebook keeps everything together and goes with the planner which keeps your daily schedule and priorities. The notebooks are gently guided and offer an index, so you can easily refer to notes and previous conversations. Notebooks are clean and polished with soft, leather-like covers. Take your pick: tan with red or blue accents, or heather gray; they all have smooth, thick paper to resist ink-bleed, and two bookmark ribbons, index pages in front, and to-do lists and future planning months in the back.
If you have others in your household, get a 2022 wall calendar from any of our collections to keep your family abreast of upcoming events.
Our 90/120 Day Horizontal Erasable Wall Calendar might be a fun choice, as you and the family can write in all the things going on in your lives, as well as chores, goals, etc.
Which Planner is Right for Type 2-The Helper
The Helper is warm, generous, and possesses a genuine concern for–and is helpful to–others. If you are a Helper, you are caring and self-sacrificing, sometimes to a fault, as you may tend to lose track of your own needs. You want to love and feel loved and are probably sentimental. You can be emotionally self-aware, but need to guard against taking on everyone else’s difficulties and situations.
As a Helper, you can benefit from a 2022 weekly/monthly planner from the Badge Collection. It offers some design and personality, and you’ll have lots of room to download your thoughts and plan your days. You may also want to consider using a Signature Notebook for more space to record thoughts and feelings.
Record all the dates you need to remember. Birthdays and other special days can be put in right away, but then be sure to jot down appointments and invitations as they come in. Try writing in monthly goals and breaking them into smaller week-size bites, then make sure you PEN (not pencil) in some time to recharge.
Roomy layouts in the Badge Collection have a column for notes down the left side. Choose from two weekly layouts. Both have a Notes & Ideas section apart from the spacious daily boxes. There’s plenty of room to keep your priorities front and center, while still keeping track of those special moments you don’t want to forget.
Another great choice is a wall calendar or desk pad with some style, like the 2022 Floral Wall Calendar from the Badge Collection, to jot down notes about social events, keep track of birthdays, and other special days.
Which Planner is Right for Type 3-The Achiever
The Achiever wants to contribute in order to feel valued. You have a lot of drive and energy and are focused on accomplishment. But sometimes you worry too much about what others think. Don’t worry! You are competent, as well as charming and authentic. People probably look up to you without your even knowing it. Being so focused, you sometimes need help with work/life balance.
The Elevation Collection was created for you! With its sleek aesthetic, the line is progressive and stylish–and serious on the inside. Check out the year-in-two-pages spread, so you can look at your whole year–and in your case, to be sure you take a few days here and there to recharge. The Elevation 2022 Monthly Desk Pad Calendar and Elevation 2022 Wall Calendars both have perforated cards so you can take lists or priorities with you, so nothing ever falls through the cracks!
This planning line was created to give customers the wide-open space they were asking for, with a choice of two layouts. Check them out, considering your work/life balance as you do, and decide which will suit your lifestyle best.
The divided format offers blank and check-box daily blocks, as well as a Wins of the Week section to keep you motivated.
The block format has a block for each day on the left side, and three sections on the right page: Goals of the Week, Focus on This, and Notes.
Which Planner is Right for Type 4-The Individualist
The Individualist is creative, reserved, and honest with quiet strength. Self-aware and honest, even about your own shortcomings, you are often too hard on yourself. Make self-care a priority to prevent melancholy. You care about creating and expressing your identity, and like to surround yourself with beauty.
Try our Seasons in Bloom Horizontal/Vertical Erasable Yearly 2022 Wall Calendar to keep the year in view. Block time to spend on yourself and your closest loved ones.
As an Individualist, you would benefit from a 2022 weekly/monthly planner from the Harmony Collection. It offers plenty of space to brainstorm, make lists, and plan ideas.
The Harmony Collection has soft-to-the-touch, durable covers on the outside, monthly tabs and weekly pages on the inside. But the specially designed monthly and weekly pages are what makes Harmony different, and will help you remember to take one day at a time and not be so hard on yourself. Use the Big Idea box to keep your focus, and Monthly Goals to keep big ideas achievable. The monthly layout also has a large Pursuits and Possibilities section and a motivational quote. Weekly pages help you concentrate on current needs, while looking ahead, celebrating wins, tracking habits–and they still provide ample space for planning. The colorful stickers appeal to your creative side as you plan your days.
Which Planner is Right for Type 5- The Investigator
You are intellectual, alert, and focused. You can be very intense, which can be good for you, or overwhelming at times. Your friends may look at you as a visionary; someone who is competent as well as innovative. Often feeling scattered under stress, you need to guard yourself against becoming overly isolated.
You need planning products that give you stability and balance–knowing what is coming up, yet not confined. Check out the Contempo Collection or the Emily Ley Collection.
The Contempo Collection offers great 2022 desk pads, 2022 wall calendars, as well as a 3-month reference calendar so you can keep events on track. The planners come in small (5" x 8") and large (8 ¼" x 11") and have sections for priorities on both the monthly and weekly layouts.
There are two layouts to choose from: the vertical column and horizontal block. Contempo also has special Notes and Meeting Notes pages in the back for musings, notes, and innovative ideas.
If you would like a bit more guidance, The Emily Ley Collection may suit you. Read more about her collection below under The Loyalist.
Which Planner is Right for Type 6-The Loyalist
A responsible, hard worker, you can spot trouble a mile away, which makes you an important cog in any wheel. You stand up for others, and expect others to stand by you as well. Sometimes lacking in self-confidence, you seek outside support, yet you don’t like to be controlled. Because of your tendency to worry, keeping things organized will help you stay calm and feel supported.
The Emily Ley Simplified® Planning System might be a great fit for you.
Designer Emily Ley has a message of joy and simplicity that she spreads through brightly colored calendars, desk pads, planners, and accessories. Her Simplified® by Emily Ley for AT-A-GLANCE Collection provides minimal, meaningful planners and tools. Her method is explained in some special pages in the front of each planner, helping busy people live simpler lives.
The planners are offered in small, medium, and large sizes. Her special pages teach you how to declutter, simplify, and create margin for the good stuff of life. Every month has a Simplicity Tip, and the weekly pages offer a quote above vertically ruled columns for planning up to seven subjects or activities, plus open areas for notes.
The collection also offers 2022 wall calendars in two sizes, and desk pads complete with a left-side column for notes and TO DOs to keep everyone in your house organized.
Which Planner is Right for Type 7-The Enthusiast
If you are an Enthusiast, you are the life of the party. Fun-loving, and valuing your freedom you’re playful and spontaneous, yet practical. Your excitement sometimes gets you into too many things at once, because they all sound so amazing to you. When you get overextended, your mind can spin into overwhelm. Keeping track of your life with planning products will help you stay calm and at your best.
Downloading all your thoughts often is important, so keep a notebook from our Signature Collection nearby. Choose from strong twin-wire binding or case bound. Every page is perforated, and lightly guided formatting includes a corner date prompt and a lower section for noting action items and key takeaways.
An hourly planner is not for you, as you are spontaneous, and enjoy a fluid schedule. Take a look at the Signature Collection 2022 planner’s monthly/weekly unique block layout. With your free-spirited nature, you want your priorities and TO DOs in front of you, but don’t want to be confined. This layout lends itself to be anything you need it to be, and leaves lots of room for list-making.
Since you tend to have a busy social life, keep a 2022 wall calendar with events somewhere everyone in your house can access. In fact, you may even want to take a larger desk pad, like this Dreams 2022 Monthly Desk Pad Calendar (a full 21 ¾" x 17") and hang it on your wall. You’ll have lots of room to use colors and stickers to remind the family of fun upcoming events and celebrations.
Which Planner is Right for Type 8-The Challenger
The Challenger is charismatic, decisive, and independent. Being in control of your life and feeling “in charge” is very important to you. You are confident, strong, and at times, inspiring. Under stress, you tend to get intimidating to others. You may have trouble creating a healthy work/life balance.
There are many AT-A-GLANCE Collections that will work for your style. Take a look at the Elevation, Contempo, and Badge Collections.
To keep everyone in your house on the same page, use the Elevation Collection’s 2022 wall calendar with perforated cards to take priorities and lists with you as you hustle out of the house. In your workspace, keep a 3-month 2022 reference calendar for helping you plan projects.
A paper planner could be a real game changer for you, if you don’t already use one. The best choice is one that allows for project–as well as personal life–management. The Elevation Collection was designed to give you more space, and comes in large (8 ½" x 11"), medium (7" x 8 ¾"), and small (5 ½" x 8 ½") sizes.
The Elevation Divided Format 2022 Weekly/Monthly Planneroffers blank and check- box daily blocks as well as a Wins of the Week section. The Elevation 2022 Block Format Weekly/Monthly Planner has daily blocks on the left page and Focus, Goals, and Wins to keep you motivated on the right.
The Contempo Collection (which you can read more about above, under The Investigator), has two layouts to choose from, and comes in sophisticated, solid colors with metallic accents.
For a bit more style, check out the Badge Collection, which is described above in The Helper section.
Which Planner is Right for Type 9-The Peacemaker
Peacemakers are acutely aware of the spiritual and physical worlds around them. They are creative, optimistic, supportive, and want everyone to be in harmony. If you are a Peacemaker, you are probably trusting and a stable influence on those around you. On your best days you are accepting and gifted at helping people see others’ perspectives. On your worst days, you may go along with things you don’t necessarily believe in to keep the peace. Peacemakers also tend to try to avoid conflict through numbing out. Taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do for yourself, as well as those around you.
Designed to be gently guided planning, the Harmony Collection helps you focus on what expresses the life you desire most. The planners feature specially designed pages to help you pursue possibilities. Other areas help you concentrate on current needs while looking ahead, remembering wins, and tracking goals, as well as provide ample space for planning.
If you’re a Peacemaker, the Harmony Collection gives you the support you need and reminders to tend to your own needs. Harmony provides wide open space to dream, brainstorm, and brain dump all the complicated thoughts you have every day. Each week gets two pages, with tick marks across the page for custom planning. Additional sections on the weekly layout include a motivational quote, a habit tracker, notes, top three goals, TO DOs, and wins of the week.
If you’re a Peacemaker, check out the Harmony Collection. While many of our collections will work for you, make sure you have self-care as a planned priority.
Make Your Planner Work for You
There are all sorts of tools–like the Enneagram–to help you understand your own personal style. Knowing your style, and what works and doesn’t work for you, should help you make good decisions.
Many different planning products can work with your lifestyle, as long as you make it work FOR you, not the other way around. The important thing is that you consider your life stage and lifestyle, activities, what you value, as well as your personality, before you choose planners, calendars, notebooks, and other products.
Once you get your new planning products, set them up for what success looks like for YOU. You can get more information about set up and use in our blog post How to Successfully Use Your Planner.
As you gear up to choose your planner for the upcoming year, spend a little time considering your style and what will help you the most.
Be sure to share this post with your friends who might like to up their planning game!
