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32 of the Very Best Planners

Including daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly options to help you get things done..

In this article

• Best overall
• Best weekly
• Best monthly
• Best quarterly
• Best customizable

Instead of an app or gadget that claims to jump-start your productivity, consider investing in a good paper planner . There is plenty of research that shows how actually writing down your to-do list and schedule for the day — rather than typing it out on a laptop or iPhone — makes you feel more engaged in the task at hand. And once the calendar year is complete, a physical planner becomes an artifact — a time capsule, if you will — of its happenings. Leafing through the well-loved Hobonichi Techo planners I’ve used over the years brings me almost as much pleasure as scribbling in them did.

While I’ve been devoted to Hobonichi Techo for most of my adult life, I’ve covered the Strategist’s stationery beat long enough to know that finding the right planner out of the very vast and very particular world of paper goods can be overwhelming. (I have, after all, updated this list faithfully every January and was tasked with selecting the best 100 notebooks for our massive notebook-testing story .)

So to find the best planners, I talked to 32 productivity experts, life coaches, and people who love stationery (including a few Strategist staffers) about their favorites, then culled our archives for standout styles we’ve written about before. I’ve also included my own thoughts on our best overall planner, which I’ve been testing personally for the past five years. Any of the 33 planners recommended below will surely go a long way toward keeping you on track this year.

What we’re looking for

Arguably, the most essential way to categorize planners is by how they’re broken down: weekly, daily, monthly, or quarterly. According to our experts, daily planners tend to devote an entire page to each day and are best suited for those with lots of daily tasks or for list-makers who need to focus on their day-to-day organization. A weekly planner’s layout allots one to two pages per week and is great for those juggling many weekly meetings, events, and deadlines. A monthly or quarterly planner is great if you have long-term goals and best for big-picture thinkers who have a lot of large-scale projects on their plates. And if none of these layouts sound exactly right for your needs, perhaps you’d prefer a completely customizable planner (which we have a few of below).

Planners come in a range of sizes, which impacts how portable they are and how much space there is to write. Generally, if you’re looking for something super-portable, a pocket or personal planner is best. If portability is less of a factor or if you prefer roomier layouts, then a half- or full-letter-size planner is probably for you. We’ve noted the exact dimensions of each planner so you can easily measure the size before buying.

Aside from style, the cover impacts how well the planner will hold up against daily wear and tear. It also affects the weight: Is it hardcover, softcover, or leather-bound? If you’re less concerned about adding weight to your bag and want something that’ll definitely hold up all year, consider a leather-bound or hardcover planner. But if you need something lightweight, a well-made softcover planner is a good bet.

Best planner overall

Layout: Daily | Size: 4 by 6 inches | Cover: Softcover

The  Hobonichi Techo  is a longtime Strategist favorite, used by three of our present and former staffers (all three of whom have used the planner for years to stay organized). This long-term testing and devotion has earned it the top spot here. As  New York  Magazine deputy editor Alexis Swerdloff wrote in her initial ode to the cult Japanese planner, “The leather-bound book is hefty and feels like I’m actually holding something substantial (unlike a  Moleskine ) while still being incredibly compact: It’s little bit taller than an iPhone 6 and about the width of a Kit Kat.” Former Strategist associate editor Louis Cheslaw praises the planner’s “hard-wearing cover, thin (but quality) pages for a slim profile, lie-flat opening, and compact size.” It definitely falls into the “if you know, you know” category of stationery. I find that it’s the perfect size to chuck into any bag and deceptively durable. I’m not precious with my planners and tend to subject them to a lot of wear and tear. The Hobonichi Techo has never torn on me and looks as good on December 31 as it did when I bought it the previous January. I also love that the light gridding on each page grants every day some order but still gives me the space to dash off notes, lists, and doodles.

Best weekly planners

Best weekly planner overall.

Layout: Weekly | Size: 5.75 by 8.25 inches | Cover: Hardcover

I first heard about German stationery company Leuchtturm1917’s weekly planner from self-described “planner power user” Perrin Drumm. As she writes, the planner’s “hardback is perfect for planning on the go or taking notes in your lap.” Cindy Thompson , the blogger behind Instagram’s Plan Another Day , also loves this planner because it “features a simple weekly layout that can be utilized in many ways.” While I am devoted to my Hobonichi, I did like the layout of the planner, which has days on one side and space for notes on the other. The notebook also features a “project plan” section that I had no use for, but could be helpful to those with long-term vision. Plus, the feel of the notebook itself is quite nice with the sturdy hardcover and paper that has some nice heft. If you’re loyal to the Leuchtturm1917 , it also makes a two-year version of the planner, which is quite cost effective.

Best design-y weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 6 by 8.5 inches | Cover: Hardcover

Both Strategist writer Rachel Griffiths and Strategist deals editor Sam Daly swear by Papier planners. “I like weekly overviews with a lot of space to take notes and doodle, and I don’t need many extras like an address book page or a place to make a list of intents. And my biggest must-have: a ribbon to keep your place,” explains Daly. “Papier’s planners have all of the above, and its products come in so many fun patterns and designs, the hardest part of picking this planner was just choosing one.” Griffiths agrees: “I always look forward to picking out my Papier planner because the designs are really cute and colorful.”

Best weekly planner with tearaway corners

Layout: Weekly |  Size: 4 by 6 inches | Cover: Hardcover

This Rhodia weekly planner , which comes recommended by Strategist senior writer Karen Iorio Adelson, is organized with the days of the week on one side and a gridded page for notes and scribbles on the other. Each day’s schedule is broken down into hour-by-hour lines (from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.), and the pages have tearaway corners to help you keep your place.

Best large weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 7.2 by 10.1 inches | Cover: Softcover

According to Drumm , “if Massimo Vignelli had $15 to buy a planner, he’d surely pick this one.” She loves the “non-nonsense” layout: “There is barely any type on the pages, so the dates, and pretty much everything else, are entirely up to you to plot out.” While the planner comes in four sizes, Drumm prefers the large, “which feels less throwaway than the smaller options.” She adds that her design-y friends go for the black-on-black option, but Drumm prefers the planner in Pepto-Bismol pink.

Best vertical weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 4.3 by 8.3 inches | Cover: Softcover

Strategist writer Liza Corsillo loves this weekly planner from Traveler’s because “it lets you fill in the dates as you please,” so you can start using it at any point in the year. On top of that, because it contains just six months’ worth of undated weekly pages, it’s a great option to consider if you’re picking up a planner later in the year. In addition to those weekly pages, the planner contains a few pages laid out as vertical monthly calendars that you can use to keep track of important dates like birthdays or anniversaries. The paper itself is bleed- and feather-resistant, as well as fountain-pen friendly, she adds. While the planner as-is only has a simple card-stock cover — which Corsillo says works just fine for her — you can get a handsome leather cover to keep it in for an additional $50.

Best weekly planner with hourly columns

Layout: Weekly | Size: 8.5 by 16.5 centimeters | Cover: Hardcover

When it comes to stationery, Drumm calls Fabriano a “gold standard” because “the color combos are next level.” Its planners, which she describes as “objects of beauty,” are made in Italy “by paper artisans who are truly deserving of that overused title.” The Ispira planner’s calendar pages break down each week across two pages; dated columns provide space to jot things down for each day (the columns are broken down into hours for those who plan that obsessively). Drumm notes that the columns are skinny, though, so folks who like to write a lot in their planners may want something with more space.

Best softcover weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 3.5 by 5.5 inches | Cover: Softcover

Hart-Unger says that “a fairly minimal planner with space for lists and goal-setting,” like this one from Moleskine, might be better for folks who’ve pared down. It has a simple layout: When opened, the left side’s pages are broken down into days of the week, while the right side’s are lined for taking notes. Personally, I find Moleskin planners to be a bit too minimal for my needs (I prefer each day to get a full page), but I could see it being useful for someone who keeps most of their calendar digitally.

Best hardcover weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 5.1 by 7.4 inches | Cover: Hardcover

We heard about this planner from actress Ayo Edebiri , who uses it for planning and scrapbooking . The layout has weekly pages on the left-hand side and gridded pages on the right-hand side, which she says is the superior layout to write with. “It makes me feel like a scientist, even if I’m writing things as simple as ‘Do laundry’ and ‘Seriously, please do laundry.’” The handsome hardcover planner also lays flat and comes in red, green, gray, brown, and navy.

Best time-management-focused weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 7.75 by 9.75 inches | Cover: Hardcover

Author and time-management coach Elizabeth Grace Saunders told us about this planner that, according to her, combines the scheduling elements you’d want in a regular planner with the goal-setting elements you might look for in a journal. “It goes beyond being a planner, and is really a clarifying tool for understanding how you want to invest your time.” In addition to its gridded weekly (and month and year at-a-glance) pages, this has space for you to write down both your roles and goals as a partner, employee, and friend, she explains. “It even invites you to track your daily habits” according to different priorities, Saunders adds, allowing users to tackle their goals in a more holistic way.

Best cloth cover weekly planner

In addition to its weekly pages, the Ponderlily planner has monthly ones, too, as well as spaces for jotting down tasks, notes, and things you’re grateful for (as you might in a journal), according to Saunders. Calling out details like “a cloth cover, foiled-copper lettering, lay-flat binding,” and inspiring quotes that begin each new month, she has just one word for this planner: “Beautiful.”

Best weekly planner for heavy notetakers

Layout: Weekly |  Size: 5.75 by 8.25 inches | Cover: Faux leather cover

For those who use digital calendars for scheduling appointments but still want a paper planner to help them make the best use of their time, brand strategist and writer Neha Gandhi recommends her Lemome planner. Instead of writing down appointments and logistics, she outlines each day’s main goal in her planner. That helps her keep focused during the day and track projects over time. “I like this particular planner because it doesn’t waste real estate on huge day-by-day calendars, and instead gives only high-level monthly and note-taking weekly views. I can organize meeting notes by the day they were taken (and can then cross reference the date to the meeting the notes came from in my digital cal), so that I’m not flipping endlessly through a notebook to find one nugget of information that’s somehow always just out of reach,” she says. Gandhi also likes the convenient size: “It neatly fits into any work bag.”

Best weekly planner that doubles as a wallet

Layout: Weekly | Size: 4.7 by 7.5 inches | Cover: Softcover

Wakako Takagi, a co-founder of Los Angeles–based stationery store Baum-kuchen , likes the Jibun Techo from Kokuyo. “I use the weekly pages to keep me oriented with detailed appointments, things to remember, and to document of some of the key ingredients in life (like how many miles I run each day),” she says, adding that it also has monthly pages she uses as “a master planner.” The planner, she adds, has a card-holder insert that can do double duty as your wallet. “I just need to grab Jibun Techo and my keys and I am ready to head out!”

Best splurge-worthy weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 5.5 by 7.5 inches | Cover: Leather cover

If you feel like splurging, writer Leah Bhabha loves the Smythson Soho Diary . “Larger than a pocket calendar, which affords little writing space, and smaller than a desk diary, which is like lugging around a textbook, the Soho is the ideal size,” she says. She likes the formatting, too. “The weekly agenda devotes a sizable square to each day, and there’s a weekly to-do list on the opposite page.” Plus, the paper itself is “half the thickness and weight of normal pages, but suffice to say, they make for easy writing with no ink bleeding through.”

[Editor’s note: All colors of this planner are currently out of stock, but you can sign up for restock notifications on the product page .]

Best (less expensive) splurge-worthy weekly planner

Layout: Weekly |  Size: 4 by 7 inches | Cover: Leather cover

For a less expensive option from Smythson, former Strategist senior editor Anthony Rotunno recommends the Memoranda Agenda he’s been using for five years in a row. “It is roughly the size of an iPhone 11, so it’s taller than it is wide,” he explains. The layout divides its dated calendar pages between full weeks (on the left) and a blank lined page for notes opposite each week of the year (on the right), which “is exceptionally helpful for setting weekly to-do lists; I can start a week by listing my tasks (like schedule that annual physical) in the notes pages, and then, when I get around to each task, cross it off that list and easily add it to the calendar,” Rotunno says. “Oh, and if you’re wondering why all of the Smythson agendas on this list are ‘with pocket,’ it’s because the brand makes versions of its planners with or without a handy pocket on the back cover; those without the pockets are usually cheaper, but I find the few extra bucks are worth it for a place to stash business cards, checkbooks (I keep mine in the pocket), and other small printed matter you might pick up over the course of a year,” he notes.

Best thematic weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 7” x 9.5” | Cover: Softcover

“For more than 30 years, editor Julian Rothenstein has curated his beloved Redstone Diaries with a delightful assortment of artwork, photographs, quotes, and other cultural sundries, all centered around a certain theme — they’re like a planner and a monograph rolled into one,” says Strategist writer Kitty Guo , who bought this year’s planner, which is centered on the theme of beauty. “As someone who grows paralyzed when faced with a procession of blank pages, I’m not really a big notebook person (most of my stray thoughts are scattered in bits and pieces across the Notes app). But opening a journal where half the pages are already filled with something lovely, creative, and valuable takes all the pressure off and may even inspire some beautiful musings of my own,” she says. If you’d rather wait until the new year, Rothenstein’s theme for 2024 is family .

Best productivity-focused weekly planner

Layout: Weekly | Size: 5.8 by 8.3 inches | Cover: Hardcover

“Clever Fox makes my absolute favorite paper planner,” says Jenna Prada, the director of executive functioning at tutoring service Private Prep . She told us about the weekly planner when we reported on the best planners for teachers . With pages dedicated to goal-setting, list-making, and scheduling, we think this would make a great option for non-teachers as well, especially because Prada told us it encourages “breaking down tasks so that they are less overwhelming.”

Best daily planners

Best overall daily planner.

Layout: Daily | Size: 8.3 by 5.8 inches | Cover: Softcover

Strategist writer (and self-proclaimed stationery nerd) Lauren Ro has used the Hobonichi Techo Cousin, which she describes as “the larger, more souped-up version” of my beloved Techo for over a year. It includes monthly, weekly, and daily spreads, “all in a relatively compact package.” While she has mostly relied on weekly planners in the past, the added space has become super-helpful for keeping track of both herself and her family. “I appreciate the gridded daily pages for their structured-but-not-too-structured layout that includes a schedule column on the left and a priority checklist at the top; the rest of the page is open, and I use it for jotting down diarylike musings, family-meal planning, and whatever else I want to commit to paper,” she adds. Because the Cousin does not have the leatherlike cover of the Techo, Ro suggests adding a vinyl protector to reinforce the cardstock cover. But like the Techo, the Cousin goes in and out of stock, so if you want one for 2023, don’t dillydally.

@thestrategist It’s almost time to break in the new planner! 🤗📔 #stationerylover #hobonichicousin #plannertok ♬ original sound - the.strategist

Best undated daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 21 by 25 centimeters | Cover: Softcover

Two Strategist staffers have used a version of this planner from Australian stationery store Milligram. One is Ro, who first wrote about it back in 2018: “With a variety of abstract covers, colorways, and programs, they are the planners of my dreams. I chose the daily ‘non-diary’ with dot-grid pages for each day of the year.” The following year , she tried the brand’s Family Life weekly diary , “which includes space for action lists, budgeting, meal planning, and more.” Strategist editor Maxine Builder (one of the writers of this story) has also used this dotted non-diary to keep track of the Strategist’s editorial calendar, because each page has plenty of space for the day’s to-do lists and notes, and the planner makes it easy to flip months ahead. “It also just looks very nice sitting on a desk, and the linen wears well over the course of a year,” says Builder.

Best softcover daily planner

Layout: Daily |  Size: 105 by 148 millimeters | Cover: Softcover

For those who prefer notebooks or planners with lay-flat binding, Drumm says this undated daily planner from Stalogy not only opens flat but also “bends around to nearly a full 360-degree rotation without cracking or breaking.” She says it’s made of onion-skin-like paper that “feels wonderfully retro” and doesn’t bleed through despite its thinner consistency. “This fact really deserves more exclamation points, because if you like inky pens and thin paper, then you’ve never gotten your way,” Drumm explains. “As far as layout goes, the type is minimal and the light-gray printing is unobtrusive,” she says, adding that the fill-in-the-date format means “you can start things off whenever you damn well please.”

Best hardcover daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 7 by 9.25 inches | Cover: Hardcover

Julie Solomon , a business coach and host of The Influencer Podcast , recommends this spiral-bound daily planner for its clean layout. It’s broken down by month with handy tabs that make it easy to flip around, and there are individually dated pages for each day. Those pages have plenty of space for to-do lists and notes, Solomon says.

Best spiral-bound daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 7.5” × 9.5” | Cover: Hardcover

If you prefer a spiral-bound planner, Appointed’s daily planner comes recommended by Strategist managing editor Kelsie Schrader . “I chose Appointed’s Wire Daily Planner because it has a classy dark-gray cover and is spiral-bound, so it will blend into my desk when it’s closed and lay flat when it’s open,” she explains. “Each day is a full page that’s broken into a column for my schedule and one for tasks I have to accomplish, plus plenty of room below those two columns for any other notes I want to make.” The planner also has a brass-wire binding and a foil-stamped, water-resistant cloth cover.

Best to-do-list-focused daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 7.5” × 9.5” | Cover: Softcover

Strategist writer Latifah Miles was a self-described “die-hard planner user” for many years until she found the traditional calendar layout no longer worked with her lifestyle. “I still really like to write things down and find that a visual to-do list is super-helpful to my general organization, which is why I ordered this undated daily planner from Ban.do that allows me to list my tasks when I want without being chained to filling it in every single day,” she explains. Miles especially loves the cheery planner’s “Priorities” section, which she uses to highlight a few tasks from her longer to-do list that need to be accomplished each day.

Best motivational daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 6 by 8.5 inches | Cover: Hardcover

“For the aspiring planner who has no idea where to begin, I recommend the 5 Second Journal,” says life and career coach Phoebe Gavin . The 5 Second Journal, written by motivational speaker Mel Robbins, has more structure than your standard planner — it asks you to fill in everything from your most important project of the day to what time you plan to stop working (to prevent burnout). There is also a small hour-by-hour planner to help you map your schedule more comprehensively, and a gridded space meant for jotting down ideas.

Best refillable daily planner

Layout: Daily | Size: 5.5 by 8.5 inches | Cover: Leather cover

Christy Whitman , a life coach and the author of The Art of Having It All: A Woman’s Guide to Unlimited Abundance , has been using the Day-Timer for more than 20 years. “I love this brand because the layout of the pages allows me to have a place for the items to be done today, a schedule, and also a page for writing and taking notes. So each day is on two pages and gives me a full look at my day,” she says. “If I have an appointment scheduled, I can write notes next to the appointment and remind myself of call-in information, the name of the person, or any other important information.” Whitman also loves Day-Timer’s customer service, specifically the reminders to get new pages for the new year. “They send me an email with the order number, refill numbers, and it is just easy for busy career people.”

Best monthly planners

Best monthly planner overall.

Layout: Monthly | Size: 3.5 by 6 inches | Cover: Softcover

“If you’re a big-picture thinker, you’ve built a successful life ignoring anything that does not help meet your grand vision,” says career counselor Penelope Trunk . “But there are some things that cannot be ignored, like calling your mom on her birthday.” If this sounds like you, she says this monthly at-a-glance planner is great because it asks you to write down “your one most-important thing each day.” At the end of the two years it spans, you’ll have a record of all the most essential things you did for those 730 days.

Best binder-style monthly planner

Layout: Monthly | Size: 8 by 9 inches | Cover: Hardcover

Darcy Miller — an author, illustrator, and crafter with a meticulously organized office — also likes using a monthly planner, specifically this binder-style one from Minnesota-based Russell + Hazel. “I use it for my day-to-day notes and planning, and then I also have one for each of my kids, where I record things about them over the years, from teacher’s conferences to doctor’s appointments,” she says. The eight-by-nine-inch binder is small and light enough to fit in her bag, but when it’s not in there, “it looks good if it’s out on the table.” She also likes the loose pages, which can be removed and rearranged if necessary.

Best quarterly planners

Best quarterly planner overall.

Layout: Quarterly | Size: 5.75 by 8.5 inches | Cover: Hardcover

While it may be more common to plan schedules by weeks, days, or months, Annie Mueller, the founder of content agency Prolifica , promises that “planning in quarters is life-changing.” She started planning and working this way after reading Brian P. Moran’s book The 12-Week Year . “ A year is an intimidating thing to plan; but a month is too short for those big, exciting goals,” she explains, adding that “with quarterly goal planning, you can push for a goal that’s exciting, and stay focused and see progress soon enough that you stay motivated.” The BestSelf Co. Self Journal is one such planner that helps break down big goals into digestible 90-day chunks, which is why life coach Penny Zenker recommends it. “I use this now because it is a comprehensive goal-setting-and-tracking system with reflection all-in-one. It helps me align my goals and my daily tasks, which makes me more productive.” Liz Sumner , a progress and life coach, also likes the Self Journal. “The basic version has a lot of valuable material for getting started on goal-setting,” she says. “I’ve been using it for several years, ever since I discovered it on Kickstarter. It combines the best parts of a journal and planner.”

One thing to note about this and all the quarterly planners on our list: Because they only cover three months at a time, you need to buy four to get through an entire calendar year. The upside of this system is that it offers a bit more flexibility because you can start using one at any point in the year.

Best softcover quarterly planner

Layout: Quarterly | Size: 5.75 by 8.5 inches | Cover: Softcover

The cool-looking Poketo is the quarterly planner that Mueller herself uses. She calls it “the perfect way to schedule and track quarterly goals and sprints — for work, for your own personal goals, for family projects, for travel. It works for everything.” The planner makes it easy, she says, by “leading you through setting your quarterly goals, tracking monthly milestones, and following a weekly and daily action plan.” With this set of four, you’ll be covered for a full year no matter when you begin using them.

Best hardcover quarterly planner

Layout: Quarterly | Size: 6.25 by 9.25 inches | Cover: Hardcover

Personal-brand expert Richard Janes has “spent a small fortune over the years looking for a planner that can really help with keeping you focused and on task.” He calls the Full Focus Planner by Michael Hyatt, which is also broken down into 90-day chunks, “the best I have found.” The reason it works so well, he explains, “is that the layout provides clear focus on what is important, while still enabling me to empty my head of all the other tasks that are lurking around. But it doesn’t go overboard so that I can easily get to the actual planning of my day, week, and month.”

Best customizable planners

Best customizable planner overall.

Layout: Customizable   

Like Agendio’s planner, Golden Coil’s ring-bound planner allows you to customize pretty much everything about it from cover to cover (including its cover, which you can get in several colors and one of two materials: linen or leather). It’s another favorite of Hart-Unger, who told us the brand has “very elegant layouts and particularly luxurious paper.” In addition to standard calendar pages, the brand offers themed layouts for wedding planning, wellness planning, recipe planning, and more.

Best (less expensive) customizable planner

Layout: Customizable

Hart-Unger calls the Agendio “the most customizable option there is.” That’s because the brand lets you choose between a daily, weekly, or monthly structure for the pages inside of the ring-bound planner. You can also customize the pages’ size and layout and add extras like tabs, elastics, and page markers. Folks can personalize it even further by noting dates for their own special events or activities, she adds. “If you can think of an option, Agendio probably has it,” Hart-Unger promises.

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13 Best Planners for Entrepreneurs to Succeed in 2022

• Entrepreneurship

Being a blogger and an entrepreneur, I appreciate how important goal setting, planning, and creativity is. That’s why I rounded up this list of the best planners for entrepreneurs in 2022!

We all realize that entrepreneurs have hectic schedules, but the lives of a professional blogger can be pretty intense, too. Particularly when you’re blogging as a business, and not just a hobby. Focus is essential, and just getting things done can be difficult if you don’t make lists that you can check, item by item. And, let’s be honest, if you do not place important to-do items on actual lists, chances are that you’ll forget about them.

Which could get you in trouble.

These days there are many digital tools available. Even so, there seems to be a trend towards using paper-based planners. Not just for the nostalgia but as an efficient tool for improved planning, goal setting , general life-organization, and creativity.

I loved reading this article – “ 4 Ways Pen and Paper Can Boost Your Work-Life Balance .” The author says that “Writing makes you more committed.” and “Jotting things down makes you happier.” Who wouldn’t want to be more committed and happier?

Generating Ideas

There are many benefits to using pen and paper as a creative tool, in addition to the apps and tools that you rely on for other things. Taking notes on paper focuses your thoughts in a way that your smart phone or computer just doesn’t.

And I think you just get better results when you write things down.

So I use notebooks a lot, not just for remembering ideas that I have, but also for developing those ideas. One idea will lead to another one, and this active brainstorming keeps on going for a while.

Being an entrepreneur, it’s vital to come up with that one idea that will set you apart. That one idea that you will bet the next few years of your life, and 150% of your energy, on. And these ideas do not always come suddenly, so you need to work them out one by one.

Have you ever heard the expression about “being one thought away from a good idea?” Well, it’s true. Sometimes, that sensational idea you have needs to be taken just a little further to become truly brilliant.

Success in business is the same thing. It is all based on great creative processes.

Well, notebooks and planners help!

Daily Planning

I love planning and feel that a project is halfway there if it has been planned and laid out properly. Paper-based notebooks and planners are essential for this, too, even though there are digital alternatives. If you have something you want to get done, sitting down with a piece of paper, and writing out your goals may help you reach them faster. And what better project to plan, than your own, fabulous life?

Want a tip? Add a few old fashioned paper-notebooks, agendas, and planners to your list of essential tools, and start using them for creative and organizational purposes. Often it is easier to reach for a notebook or planner than to switch on a tablet or a laptop.

There are notebooks in all categories, sizes, and shapes. I have a project planner that I keep at home, but also a daily planner that I carry with me. There are so many interesting, concept-driven planners that I must admit, it’s tempting to buy more than one just to try them out or to switch from one type to another each year.

Best Planners For Entrepreneurs

Here are seven fantastic planners for entrepreneurs that will improve your business and your life.

Passion Planner

Passion Planner  is a system for writing down dreams and goals, and to help you succeed in realizing them. A well thought-out concept that consists of many parts, but also a full yearly calendar with the week on two pages.

The great thing is that the focus is always on how you can implement steps that will help you reach your goals. It also delivers a weekly inspirational quote and a matching challenge. Very inspirational!

Dailygreatness Business Yearly (Undated)

Dailygreatness Business Planner is a visually stunning planner that is focused on business. But highly inspirational, and very comprehensive. It wants to help you in “forming excellent thinking habits while taking action on your most important priorities.”

There are weekly check-ins, challenges, inspirations, and week-to-a-view pages. And the planner has weekly, and quarterly goal planners, plus some cool features like the social media content planner, and the expansion strategy worksheet. Original content, well worth checking out. And a great detail is that the planner is undated, so you can start whenever you want!

Get To Work Book

The design is creative, yet discreet, and the planner offers many helpful features like project breakdown pages, reflect and goal-set pages, and 12 motivational quotes that you can detach from the planner. And there’s plenty of blank space for notes and brainstorming. A very practical and handy, no nonsense planner.

Savor Daily Action Planner

A comprehensive planner that many people love. And note that this is truly a monthly planner, meaning that each book is for 30-days, although you can also get a 90-day version. This may sound like an incentive for people to buy more than needed, but if you think about it, having a whole book for each month is a wonderful idea, and you could immerse yourself in many, monthly details.

Day Designer

This is the planner I’m currently using. I love the vertical layout, the “top 3” for each day and the extra space space for your “to do” list. I actually use this space to jot down things that I think of throughout the day so that I can stay focused on whatever I am currently doing and come back to the list at a later time.

Danielle LaPorte’s Desire Map Planner

The design of the inside of the planner itself is very clean and bright, quite appealing. And the planner has plenty of goal setting pages, to-do lists, and an original focus on “my feelings,” and more spiritual concepts like “soul prompt” and “my core desired feelings.”

Moleskine Classic 12 Month 2020 Weekly Planner

High Performance Planner

The High Performance Planner  is a 2-in-1 day planner and journal based on the world’s largest study of how high performers increase productivity, set goals, prioritize projects, outperform their peers, and create the positive mindset and habits needed to win the day.

High Performance Planner Full-Year Pack

For ultimate high performance: a full year’s supply of the revolutionary  High Performance   planner-and-journal designed by the world-leading coach in high performance and backed by science–featuring calendars, writing prompts, schedules, self-assessments, and a variety of colors.

Clear Habit Journal 

A notebook based on science. A habit journal with 168 dot grid notebook pages, 12 habit trackers, and 12 one-line-per-day journal templates. Created by Baronfig in collaboration with James Clear.

Ifocus Business Planner  

The Best Productivity Planner for Entrepreneurs and Project Notebook for Business!  If Your Goal is to build a Successful Business in 2020, then You need an advanced PLANNER to manage your TIME! 

Ifocus is the BEST planner to be more productive, to plan your next project, to reach your next goal, or simply just manage your business in a smarter way.

Hatch Notebook Idea Journal

TURN YOUR IDEAS INTO REALITY: This one-of-a-kind planning notebook includes 160 pages broken down into three sections to help you structure, organize, and implement your ideas; Each section helps break down your grand ideas into realistic pieces and action items that keep you motivated and on track throughout the process of “ hatching ” your ideas! I love the Aqua color! 

Goal Crazy Undated Planner

Accomplish more, increase productivity, be happier, and track your progress. This life changing Goal Crazy guided planner & journal will give you the structure you need to achieve your goals and become a more satisfied and happier you!

Use the minimalist approach to prioritize and plan your days & weeks quickly to get more done! There are multiple colors to choose from but I think the purple is gorgeous! 

Paper vs. Digital

If you’re still not sure whether a paper planner is for you, you can take a quiz here to help you decide. 🙂

And if just you’re not sure that there is a perfect planner for you, you could always consider bullet journaling. You can read more about it here .

The most popular notebooks for bullet journaling are Leuchtturm and Moleskin, like these.

Did you find the perfect planner for you?

With these examples, you should be able to find a planner you like. I encourage you to pick one up an undated one or a new one for 2021, as a planner can be a great productivity tool for your business.

There are so many planners and goal-setting tools out there, and I would love to hear any tips that you might have. What other planners should be on this list?

Also, what is your number one tip for planning, goal setting or creativity? Leave me a comment. I’d love to know. 🙂

Have burning questions? Future blog posts you’d like to see? Just want to chat? I’d love to connect with you!

43 Responses

Nice post! I use a paper planner from Rifle Paper Co. that’s super visually pleasing and lets me combine my work and blog to-do lists by week and by month. I love it! I stopped using my phone because iCal would occasionally delete appointments, making me seem like a forgetful or unreliable person, and it was so frustrating! I love the quote about being one thought away from a great idea – such a nice one for creatives!

I had not heard of Rifle Paper Co. Thanks for sharing! Which one do you use? The classic, spiral or hardcover one?

I love the cover of the Day Designer! I’m a planneraholic so I could stare at these babies all day! This year I chose a simpler planner and I actually just recently reviewed it on my site! I also have an upcoming post about why the Emily Ley Simplified Planner Didn’t Work for Me! I thought I would love it because it has some great elements and it’s gorgeous but I just couldn’t use it! Great post!

Kaitlyn – went looking for your planner review and just saw the free holiday pictures. They are gorgeous! 🙂

Thank you! I’m glad you liked them!

OMG Chantel! This is a totally awesome post! I really love notebooks and planners, so thank you you took time to put this together. Since you asked, I think http://bulletjournal.com/ could be on this list. It’s a geat tool/system. Also, If I had to pick one favorite from the ones you listed it would be difficult, because you have the best ones there. I’m now checking out #3 Get To Work Book and #4 which I didn’t know about. Cheers, Stella

Stella – thank you for your kind words. I actually did mention bullet journaling at the very end, but I probably shouldn’t have done that in the “Paper vs. Digital section”. Thanks for pointing it out since others may have missed it too. I keep thinking it seems like such an intriguing option. I might try it at some point. 🙂

My friend swears by the Passion Planner and has been using it for years, I love all these types of notebooks but sadly being on the road all the time I always feel that they are so big and bulky and take up room with all the other ‘stuff’ I need to squeeze into a carryon. But I do carry a small notebook because nothing feels better than writing it down.

Faith – did you know that you can print out Passion Planner pages? Maybe you could carry a weeks’s worth with you? http://www.passionplanner.com/downloads/

This is a great topic! I created my own planner ironically. I got a leather empty planner and bought the other things personalized and such.

xoxo Isaly Holland http://www.memoriesbyisaly.com

That’s great, Isaly. I should have mentioned that you can certainly DIY your own custom planner. ?

I love to organize my business for success! Thank you for sharing this!

Divine CEO http://www.ladiesmakemoney.com

Being organized is something that I have to work at constantly. But I’m finding that using a planner *and* Trello is a good combination for me. ?

That get to work planner is right up my alley. It has all the space that I need to write in all my restaurant photography and reviews that need to be done. Plus, its the layout that I love. Gotta go to their site noooooow!!!!

Danielle | FollowMyGut.com <3

I’m glad you found one you like! That one was new to me when I started researching for 2017 options. ?

Goal setting and planning for a weekly content always inspires me. Thank you for such a wonderful post and a planner resources. I think I should try one of above-mentioned planners. All look so gooooood. I think your post will be helpful in writing my upcoming post about goal setting.

Thanks, Arfa! Hope you find one that is perfect for you!

I LOVE a good paper planner or notebook! I agree that writing something down feels more committing and I physically crossing things off my to-do list just makes me feel more productive. Thanks for the great round up of these!

You are most welcome, Steph. Hope you find the perfect planner for you. ?

Great round up! I just purchased the Happy Planner but have heard many good things about the ones you mentioned above. If this one doesn’t work for me I may just have to check out that Passion Planner.

I’ll have to check our the Happy Planner, Damaris. Also, did you know that you can download PDF pages of the passion planner to see if you like it? ?

Thanks for the reviews! I’ll be getting a Passion Planner 🙂

Yay! I think the Passion Planner looks awesome!!

Love them all! I’m too addicted to planners haha

I know, Sarah! I want one of each!

Thanks for the info. I must use a planner to get my life in order. I make my own and incorporate my own needs so it changes every three months or so, in design, to meet my needs. And where do I get my ideas? Other planners of course! Thanks for giving us a glimpse into these.

Margaret – I know what you mean! It is very tempting to want to make my own and combine what I like best about each of these, but… I don’t need another project on my “to do” list. 🙂

Hi Chantel, thanks so much for including my quiz about using a paper or digital planner! I hope people will find it helpful. 🙂

As far as a planning tip, I find it best to review my planner not only in the morning, but in the evening as well. It helps me better understand what took place during the day, and helps me plan for tomorrow.

Thanks again, and best wishes for a wonderful 2017!

Rashelle TheOrderExpert.com

No, thank you! It’s a great resource.

Great thoughts on planning to be unstoppable! Cheers!

Thank you for the kind words. ?

I recently invested in a Ban.Do and I love it! I cannot use my calendar on my computer as I like to use a pencil to mark up my planner, so that I can cross things off. Great round up!

Love this post. I am currently using Wonderlass’ Blog + Life Planner for my blog in 2017. I got my sister a Day Designer for her job though for Christmas and I am so excited for her to get it because it has so much space and I know she will adore it.

I’ve been wanting to try the Passion Planner – I may just have to invest in one, haha. 🙂 Thank you for sharing these!

It looks great, doesn’t it?! I still can’t decide which planner I want for myself and I’m running out of time. Leaning towards an undated one, though. ?

These are some awesome planners! I am totally a paper and many pens girl 😉

I love setting pen to paper to plan myngoals and my life. Even if I don’t constant ly refer to it, the act of writing it down helps me internalize hhings.

Great list Chantel, I always carry a notebook anywhere I go; mostly because I need to jot down ideas or plans that breeze in when I’m not really ready to go for it. It has really helped me on my blogging journey. Thanks for sharing.

I love the idea of writing things down on lovely planners, but I know I’m a digital gal all the way. Good for inspiration though!

Great encouraging post. I agree that organization is half the battle.

These are great planners. They look very well laid out. It is always good to have a way that you organize yourself for maximum productivity. Keep up the great work and live unstoppable!

I don’t even know if you are working on this blog anymore…either way, this was a very informative article on the kind of planners that creatives, entrepreneurs, goal-oriented, and seekers are looking for. I neve heard of at least half of them, so I wanted to take the time to thank you for the well written and concise information provided in this piece. Helped me to make a decision (almost, as I’m teeter-tottering between two at the moment).

Great post. A good planner can make all the difference. Scheduling is a hard thing for so many, I used to just use my phone, but one glitch and I lost so much. Paper is the way to go, less hacking and technical issues for sure. I tried a personal growth Planner and loved it, I learned so much about myself and how I function best. Thanks for the post.

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18 Must-Have Best Planners for Entrepreneurs (2024)

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Last Updated on October 19, 2023

Looking for the best planners for entrepreneurs to make your 2024 business year the most organized yet? This list is packed full of planners to fit any business owner’s busy lifestyle!

As a busy entrepreneur, you know it’s an absolute must to have proper planning tools. Having the right planner can make or break your productivity, so it’s important to choose the BEST planner that’s most tailored to your needs and lifestyle.

But there are SO many planners out there, so how can you know which one is best for you?! 

Don’t fret, I’ve compiled this list of the best planners for entrepreneurs in 2024 so you can sort through them all in one place! It’s a one-stop-shop over here!

I’m including the best daily planners, weekly planners, business planners for professionals, and productivity/goal setting planners for entrepreneurs! Of all the options, you’re sure to find the planner that’s the perfect fit.

Table of Contents

Top 3 Business Planner Picks

• 2024 Business Digital Planner Bundle – Best Work/Business Planner
• Clever Fox PRO Undated Planner – Best Weekly Planner
• 2024 Daily Simplified Planner – Best Daily Planner

This post is all about the best planners for entrepreneurs

Different types of planners for entrepreneurs.

The best planners for entrepreneurs can come in a few different formats. Are you a pen + paper type of person? Love having everything online in one place? Want something you can print yourself on the cheap? There’s a planner for that!

Whether you need help planning how to start a business or you’re a seasoned pro, you’ve gotta have a format that works for you.

Planner Types by Format

Format and convenience are everything when you think about your day-to-day routine with your planner. Do you hate having to grab your physical planner from another room? If so, digital might be your pick. Do you feel motivated by the feeling of pen and paper? Then you may not want to miss out on a beloved physical planner! 

• Physical planners – this is your traditional planner in paper format, typically with the pages bound together. These may come with pre-printed, pre-dated pages, or undated pages so that you fill in the dates and content yourself. 
• Digital planners – If you hate having to carry something around or dislike being unable to access your planner across devices, a digital planner is perfect for you. There are many apps that sync from your phone, to your tablet, to your laptop! This can be as simple as Google Calendar, or you can purchase curated digital planners that are essentially a traditional planner in digital format. 
• Printable planners – one type of planner you may not have thought about is a printable planner. These types of planners allow more room for your own decoration and are frequently found on Etsy. You can print the pages as many times as you like, too! 

Planner Types by Layout

Many planners may be a mix of more than one of these elements, but sometimes they specialize in one layout in particular. Think about your preferences and needs when it comes to the layout and focus of your planner!

• Daily planners – Daily planners can be as general as an overview of your daily plans, goals, and priorities, or they can get as specific as planning by the hour! Think about your preferences on those as you browse the daily planners for entrepreneurs in this post. If you’re a time blocker, you’ll want the hourly. But if that’s too intense, stick with a general daily overview!
• Weekly planners – If you like to take things week by week and plan all your days out in advance, you’ll want to opt for a planner that has a focused weekly format. I find that these are best during years where I anticipate having a lot of appointments. No one likes a dreadful doctor’s appointment creeping up on them day-of!
• Dedicated business planners – yes, standard daily and weekly planners may do the job, but they don’t include the more business-specific things we need to think about to stay on top of our business. As you get more serious about your business, you’ll certainly appreciate having a wide array of business templates in your planner!
• Goal setting planners – Many generic planners have some space for jotting down your goals, but they stop there. They pay no attention to all the systems that need to be in place in order to work toward the goal! That’s why finding a planner with a detailed goal-setting focus, where you can create an action plan and stay accountable, just makes sense!

Format and layout can make or break your schedule, so choose wisely when choosing among these best planners for entrepreneurs.

Want a quick, free, one-page daily planner you can print again and again? Make sure you grab my FREE printable productive day planner below! It’s perfect to use in a pinch before you decide on the perfect planner!

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Top 18 best 2024 planners for busy entrepreneurs

Don’t forget about these life changing planners for entrepreneurs! Pin ’em to come back later!

Best Daily Planners for Entrepreneurs

1. the high performance undated planner.

Starting off this list of the best planners for entrepreneurs, we’ve got a half journal, half planner, full performance agenda!

Start this undated daily planner at any time. You get to work out your day schedule alongside morning + evening mindset journal prompts to keep you focused and aware of what each day brings.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You also get daily goal boxes, weekly habit assessments, monthly project planning, and proprietary whole life balance sheets. Before you know it, you’ll be prioritizing your work/life schedule like a pro!

What’s inside:

• 2-in-1 planner with daily schedule + morning and evening journal prompts
• 60 days, undated, so you can start whenever it’s convenient for you
• Daily pages with morning mindset activities and evening review scorecard
• Weekly pages that allow you to assess your high performance habits
• Monthly Pages that help you strategically outline your long-term goals
• BONUS: you get a free online assessment to track your habits!

RELATED: Gifts for Female Business Owners: 20 Insanely Useful Things She’ll Love

2. Happy Planner Undated Wellness Planner

A very creative option, the Happy Planner has so many cute accessories, stickers, and embellishments perfect for the creative entrepreneur!

This planner is here to help you prioritize wellness in your busy entrepreneur life as you organize your year, reflect on your gratitudes, and practice mindfulness. Undated planners like this one are also perfect if you ever fall off track from your planning because you’ll never waste pages. You just fill in the dates as you go.

• Undated pages
• Unlabeled dividers with month stickers for your own labeling
• Space to write down ways you’re moving, nourishing yourself, staying motivated, and setting intentions.
• Wellness journal sections with reflections, impressions of the day, focuses, grateful moments, and the things you’re loving.

3. Simplified Planner 2024 Daily

What better way to simplify your life than to use a planner MADE for such a thing?! It’s designed minimally on purpose so that you can cut to the chase and get started planning your day the easy way. Pretty much feels the same as starting your day with a breath of fresh air!

• Space for schedule, to-do, notes and meals
• One day per page + shared weekend pages
• Full month views
• 4 notes pages in the front
• Hourly schedule from 6am to 9pm
• 4 pages of Simplified Prep-Work
• Monthly Simplicity Tips
• NEW colorful sticker sheet design
• Pocket inside the front cover

RELATED: New Month Journal Prompts for Goal Setting

4. Daily Planning Package (+ Clipboard + Pen!)

If you’re looking for the full package, this has all of your business planning needs covered! Not only do you get a detailed daily planner notepad, BUT you even get a companion weekly planner.

As if that wasn’t awesome enough… it also comes with a durable clipboard and pen! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a planner come with both a pen AND a clipboard, so this is truly a unique deal.

• 1-Year Daily Planner – 350 pages (50 tear-off pages x 7 days)
• 1-Year Weekly Planner – 50 pages (two-week break for rest!)
• Highly durable clipboard and pen, both made with vegan leather
• Undated and ready to be filled with your dreams, goals, and daily activities

RELATED: Journaling for Entrepreneurs: 40 Business Savvy Prompts

Best Weekly Planners for Entrepreneurs

5. erin condren weekly lifeplanner.

Extremely popular, the Erin Condren Weekly Planner is SO well-designed and ultra-customizable. Aims to keep you organized, reduce stress, and achieve your goals. With its many customization options, you can build the perfect planner that fits your style and schedule!

Also, the covers on these are insanely durable and built to last. I used this planner in high school and would 100% recommend it for any stage in your life, even as an adult. This is one of the best basic entrepreneur planners for 2024!

• Mini months
• Monthly quotes
• Monthly notes and productivity pages
• Dated monthly, weekly spreads
• Additional notes in the back
• Contacts page
• 4 planning sticker sheets
• 1 double-sided pocket folder
• 1 perpetual calendar
• Snap-in ruler

6. Clever Fox PRO Weekly Undated Planner

Straightforward, uncluttered, and easy to use is the Clever Fox PRO planner. I’ve had this planner for years and it never fails me! The weekly view includes everything I could ever want with daily priorities, weekly planning, goals, to-do lists, and habit tracking!

• Short and long term goal planning pages
• Productivity sections
• Undated so you don’t waste pages!
• Vision board pages
• Quarterly goals and mind map
• Monthly review sheets
• 50 dot grid pages in the back for notes

7. Ban.do Weekly Undated Planner

Okay, first things first…what business owner DOESN’T need the reminder on the front of this planner?! I am always having to remind myself that progress is more important than perfection. Anyway…

Ban.do’s planner is perfect for anyone who’s more flexible with their planning needs. They feature weekly note pages, to-do lists, and spaces for reflection. I like that you get the opportunity to think over what went well today and what could be better for tomorrow.

• Artsy cover design
• Concealed spiral
• Sticker page
• Pocket on the inside front cover
• 73 perforated weekly pages and 73 list pages
• Primary layout includes a weekly view on one page and a to-do list on the other

8. Leather 2024 Snap Planner

K, I’ll be honest, you’re going to spend a pretty penny on this planner–but that’s because of the durable full grain leather design (and if you’re on the go a lot, trust me, it’s well worth the money! Nothing worse than torn up planner corners when it’s only halfway through the year.)

This covers all your weekly, monthly, and yearly planning needs. And if you’re a list lover, you will loveee the lists and notes pages for extra checklists, projects, and reminders. This is one classy, high-end planner no doubt!

• 12 month dated calendar agenda
• Full grain durable leather
• 1-Year in Review spread and monthly goals pages for important dates, tasks, and other priorities
• Monthly calendar view and weekly agenda pages for your appointments, meetings, and to-dos
• Lists and Notes pages
• Gold foil stamping on front and back cover; covers made of black cardstock
• Can be personalized

What planners do CEOs use?

Best planners for business owners and entrepreneurs at work, 9. 2024 digital planner bundle for business owners.

This digital business planner has IT ALL! If you need an entrepreneur planner that covers your life and business from A-Z, you’ll want this. There are literally 1,000,000 digital planners in different variations to choose from (yup, you read that right, 1 MILLION!).

It’s highly customizable with 11 different weekly layouts, 8 different daily layouts, and business templates galore. It also helps promote work-life balance by including sections for wellness, fitness, and nutrition too!

Seriously, whatever your business needs are, whether you’re a small business owner or you’re growing like crazy, this will fit them!

• Many business templates like target audience, business goals, sales tracker, tax deductions, content analysis, and so much more
• Productivity, Wellness, Fitness, Nutrition & Finances sections
• Goals section linked to 8 goals pages
• Projects section linked to 8 project pages
• 50,000 stickers in Goodnotes + PNG format
• 500 cover designs

10. Ultimate Business Planner

Rather than a daily/weekly/monthly planner, this business planner takes on a slightly different approach. While it does offer daily and weekly planning and to-do lists, it also goes one step further by including sections for business branding, website building, and social media planning. One of the most comprehensive and best planners for entrepreneurs!

• Over 280 business planner printable pages
• Business planning pages
• Order forms and shipment logs
• Inventory logs
• Business finance planner
• Website building
• Blog planner
• Email planner
• Social media planner
• A year in review

11. Small Business Planner

Unlike the other two business planners and organizers from Etsy, this one is a physical planner! This offers weekly and monthly planning as well as business specifics like branding planning, social media goals, online stats, product idea pages, and more!

• Year At-A-Glance
• Quick Contacts for business-related contacts
• Branding and Demographic visioning
• Revenue chart for a quick look at your profits and expenses
• Recurring Payments tracker
• Social Media goals
• Online Stats tracking
• Events listing/stats and Supply List
• Product Price List
• Product idea pages

Best Productivity Planners for Entrepreneur Goal Setting

12. full focus planner.

This planner stands out because not only does it allow you to plan out your week (as any planner does), but it takes things a step further by helping you reflect on your week in terms of what worked and what didn’t. There is a lot of focusing on properly preparing you for the week ahead, instead of just going through the motions!

Another key feature is the “key projects” pages where you can map out all of your projects for the quarter. Very goal-oriented for sure!

• Designed with a structured achievement program
• Sections for weekly and quarterly previews
• Unique daily framework, separating your highest-leverage activities from your list of daily tasks
• Dedicated goal-setting and project planning sheets

RELATED: 65 Affirmations for Female Entrepreneurs

13. Cultivate What Matters PowerSheets Goal Planner 2024

This results-backed goal planner is organized into 90-day segments–the perfect amount of time to make progress!

This planner prides itself on intention-setting opportunities for choosing the right goals for this season in your life. It also gives you opportunities to revisit and refocus those goals throughout the year.

Before each 90-day window, you can hit the reset button by planning your best routines for the season ahead!

• Streamlined monthly and weekly planning, designed specifically to help you live more intentionally
• Dated weekly planning pages – Monday through Sunday
• Space for your to-do list, top priorities, habit tracking, and a small nudge to tend to what matters most!
• Segmented into 90-day windows with seasonal routine planning

14. BestSelf Journal Goal Setting Planner

This 13-week goal planner is backed by science and psychology, so you know you’ll see results in your productivity. Perfectly designed to better optimize your day, help you crush those goals, and overall live a more fulfilling life!

The Self Journal boasts overcoming “decision fatigue” and helps you focus on what matters most. It’s all about prioritizing your workload, building good habits, and making every day count! This is easily one of the best planners for entrepreneurs. It sets you up for true success.

• Enough pages to guide you through 13 weeks of meeting your goals
• Undated design
• Comprehensive goal-setting page
• Space for everyday bullet journaling
• Space for progress and mindfulness prompts
• Helps to develop daily goal setting and reflection practices through routine encouragement
• Gratitude and self-reflection sections
• Complete guidebook and calendar
• 13-week habit tracker for creating new healthy routines
• Provides space to journal and plan next steps to achieve your goals

15. GoGirl Planner PRO Vertical Hourly Planner

If you love time blocking, this is the planner for you! The GoGirl Planner is a weekly planner with time slots (6am – 9pm) to navigate your daily life the productive way. Also features goal planning pages for all your short and long term goals and helps you create a strategy for achieving those goals. The best perk is that it comes with budget planning pages so you can stay on top of your spending with a monthly financial analysis!

• Weekly planner with vertical time slots + monthly calendar
• Goal setting pages
• Habit tracking pages
• Budget planning sheets
• Comes with a pen holder and 280+ stickers
• Dot-grid pages at the back

16. Poketo Quarterly Goal Planner

Feeling stuck on identifying goals to set? Well, you’re in luck, because this planner has helpful prompts to get your goal ideas flowing!

This quarterly planner is undated and follows all the way through when it comes to goal setting, as you also get to plan the actions you’ll take each week that keep you on track to meet your goals! You get the perfect little game plan to hold yourself accountable for the quarter.

• Quarterly 3 month planner
• Goal setting pages that help you identify potential challenges and plans to celebrate your wins along the way
• Weekly plan that allows space to match your actions/habits to your goals
• Hourly daily layout with short journal prompts to reflect on your day

17. The Daily Grace Quarterly Planner

This quarterly devotional planner promotes spiritual guidance as you navigate your busy life. If you find it tough to manage your business and stay connected to God, this planner will serve as a powerful reminder to prioritize both, if this is your goal!

You’ll get to set quarterly, weekly, and daily goals alongside reflection questions to help you brainstorm those goals and be mindful of your spiritual habits. Includes gospel-centered affirmations to comfort and guide you. 

• Undated devotional planner
• Covers one quarter of the year/roughly 13 weeks
• Monthly spread that gears your attention toward what you wish to accomplish each month
• Weekly actions section with 5 smaller sections: meditate, journal, pray, plan, organize
• Start and end-of-quarter evaluations
• Spiritual disciplines explanation

18. The 12 Week Year Field Guide

This isn’t quite a planner so much as it is a study guide for helping you be efficient and productive. But nonetheless, it is a fantastic business tool you’ll want to have at your fingertips just for the expertise and tips alone!

This is applicable to business growth, career goals, and also just life in general!

Inside, you’ll learn how to…

• Create your own personal and business visions with step-by-step help
• Develop a rock solid 12 week plan for yourself
• Use the many exercises and templates to make your business life a little easier
• Determine a 12 week commitment system that can be applied to your business and life!

Choosing the Right Planner: What to Look For

Every business owner has different needs. When choosing that perfect planner for you out of this list of planners for entrepreneurs, there’s some key features you’ll want to consider before making a decision. Think about what is visually pleasing, what is practical, and what ticks all your boxes!

Dated vs. Undated

When looking at all the planners for entrepreneurs, do you want a planner that already has all the dates filled in for you? Or do you want to be able to pick up and leave off whenever?

Sometimes life gets chaotic and we miss a week or two in our planner. If that tends to happen to you, you may be better off with an undated planner so you don’t waste pages! But if the structure of a dated planner keeps you accountable, that may be your best bet!

The Sections Included

Maybe you want your planner to offer you more than just a calendar. You might want to track expenses, keep lists, track business ideas, brainstorm projects….the list goes on!

If you want a super comprehensive planner that has it all, it may be worth it to seek out a more specialized planner than your run-of-the-mill weekly or monthly planner.

Refillable/Insertable

Some planners allow you to pop in different inserts. This is awesome not only for the customizability, but it’s also far more sustainable, long-lasting, and eco-friendly! Rather than toss out planner after planner each year, you can keep a refillable planner alive forever.

Folders and Pockets

Does the planner feature folders and pockets throughout or in the back? You might not always need these, but they can come in handy for storing business cards, notes, and documents!

Size and Portability

As much as I love a big, large-print planner…sometimes it can get bulky and annoying to carry around.

Especially when it doesn’t fit in my bag! So size and the ability to carry the planner from place to place is definitely something to think about.

If a planner is only going to make your bag that much heavier, it might get old real quick. Think about what will fit in your work bag or backpack and buy accordingly!

Layout Preference

I used to NEED a planner with a vertical, hour-by-hour layout. Now that I use Google Calendar for that function, I like to have my paper planner in horizontal format, where I can just bullet point-list my daily tasks like a to-do list.

Think about what you prefer and what other systems you have in place! If you like to use a digital calendar in conjunction with a paper planner, get a paper planner that offers something your digital calendar doesn’t.

Pro tip: If you’re juggling a ton of tasks, struggling to keep your life organized, AND trying to stay on track with your goals …don’t try to manage your schedule by yourself!

You need to make sure you’re optimizing your time in the best way possible. But what even is “the best way possible”?

Well, you don’t need to waste time figuring that out when the Motion app can literally do it for you.

If you’re sick of feeling like there just aren’t enough hours in the day, Motion can fix that by:

• Automated scheduling that plans your day for you – this app knows exactly how to schedule your daily tasks FOR YOU, in a way that’s most productive for you and your lifestyle.
• Handling emergencies – Motion rearranges everything automatically so that urgent pop-up tasks don’t screw up your day…or your sanity!
• Being a game-changer for ADHD – anyone with ADHD knows the agony of identifying what to prioritize. Motion takes the guesswork out of time management, so you know exactly what to do next!

Motion is the game-changer your schedule has been begging for, so why not give it a shot and lighten your load?

Did these planners for entrepreneurs help you identify the best planner for you?

Whether you’re into goal setting, have a crazy chaotic work schedule, or just want a no-frills simple planner…this list has something for every entrepreneur! From artsy to minimalistic and everything in between, these planners for entrepreneurs offer a huge set of tools to organize your year and make it the best one yet.

Hopefully, your preferences have become a little clearer after weighing all the different variations planners can offer! Because we all know how good it feels to open a fresh new planner that has exactly what we want.

Happy planning!

Don’t forget your FREE productive day planner printable!

More Helpful Tools for Entrepreneurs

Gifts for Female Business Owners: 20 Insanely Useful Things She’ll Love

New Month Journal Prompts for Goal Setting

Journaling for Entrepreneurs: 40 Business Savvy Prompts

65 Affirmations for Female Entrepreneurs

LIKE THESE PLANNERS FOR ENTREPRENEURS? PIN THEM FOR LATER!

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Hey there! I'm Alexa, and I'm a self-care enthusiast and mental health advocate. At Ambitiously Alexa, I'm here to support women like you who are on a mission to achieve allll the things they're passionate about and make time for self care. I make this balance possible through journal prompts, positive affirmations, and self care ideas you'll love! Here's more about me, including my B.A in Psychology...

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Business Planner: Notebook Planner for Business Management and Daily Projects Notebook Organizer for Entrepreneurs Men and women with Sales ... Tracker, Finance & Product, and more. Paperback – Organizer, August 7, 2020

Purchase options and add-ons, updated for 2022 and beyond the ultimate business planner out there.

• This 1-year planner has everything a businessman & businesswoman needs to stay organized and on track. It's stylish, functional and specially made for busy men & women, managers, business owners, and everyone who's planning ahead.
• This planner has unique pages for Annual Overview , Important Dates , Contacts , and Yearly Finance Tracker .
• It Features 12 months/sections. Each section has 3 pages for Product Brainstorming , New Product Planning , and Competition Planner . And also unique pages for Product Inventory , Advertising Tracker , Social Media Planner , Sales Tracker , and Cost/Profit Tracker .
• 100 Papers! with content on both sides. Printed on high-quality paper and is perfectly sized at 6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm). Has a beautiful matte finish that is both soft and easy to grip.
• Print length 201 pages
• Language English
• Publication date August 7, 2020
• Dimensions 6 x 0.46 x 9 inches
• ISBN-13 979-8668599882
• See all details

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08F9B33LF
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (August 7, 2020)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 201 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8668599882
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.5 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.46 x 9 inches
• #9,770 in Accounting (Books)

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The 24 best planners of 2024, from stylish daily diaries to annual agendas

Start the year with the perfect tools for productivity and organization. The best planner keeps your schedule, deadlines,  goals, and thoughts organized. Though no planner is one-size-fits-all, these daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly diaries allow you to chart your goals, appointments, ideas, and more all in one place. Some planners work great for strictly scheduling the hours of your day, while others work better for your long-term goal-planning success. The best planner for you comes down to personal preference in how you chart your time.

Planner styles get even more detailed, and we break down the ways to choose what's right for you at the end of this guide. We spoke with two stationery store owners and a productivity expert to get their advice on how to pick a planner.

"There are lots of different, great planners, and it just kind of depends on thinking about how you want to plan your week and how you want to visualize your week," said Jeremy Crown, who co-owns Little Otsu , a paper store in Portland, Oregon. Whatever style of planner you prefer, we've covered the basics of the best of what's out there.

Daily planners

For more detailed planning, daily planners offer hourly breakdowns of your day. Daily planners are one of the most popular formats. They tend to be bulkier than weekly or monthly planners but offer the most flexibility. These are ideal for students, teachers, and parents who need to keep careful track of a busy schedule.

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Weekly planners

Weekly planners are great for a zoomed-out view of your goals and to-dos if you'd rather look at the big picture instead of the day-to-day. These planners are less detail-oriented than daily ones but will have daily space to keep track of appointments and assignments. They're ideal for scheduling everything needed to complete multiple goals over a period of time.

Monthly planners

Monthly planners are ideal for professionals or students with several projects or classes to juggle over a long period of time. Though they provide less space than daily and weekly planners, they allow for a strong overview of deadlines and key dates. They're also a great option for parents who need to keep track of doctors appointments, extra curricular activities, and events for a big family.

Yearly and quarterly planners

Yearly or quarterly planners provide the most scope for those with specific personal or business goals. For this category, we considered both big-picture goal planners and 3-month planners that really drill down into how much you can accomplish in 90 days. For the latter category, you'll find that 90-day planners often have weekly and daily pages and space to plan out the quarter. That said, they're still distinct from daily and weekly planners because they focus on achieving longer-term goals, rather than plotting out your days. 

How to choose a planner

There are an overwhelming number of planner types. Chandra Greer, who owns Greer , a stationery store in Chicago, Illinois, prioritizes stocking her store with functional, quality options, knowing they might not be the right fit for everyone. "I'm more interested in the function," she said. "Is the layout useful? Is it something that is going to withstand being your daily friend for 365 days?"

To find out what will work for you, you can start by considering what qualities are most important to you. "I think if you sort of start with, 'What is it that I want to use this for?' that gives you a good starting point," said Alexandra Cavoulacos, founder of The Muse and author of " The New Rules of Work. "

Consider daily, weekly, or monthly formats

For some people, a planner is merely a portable calendar, Cavoulacos said. Other people want to track projects and create to-do lists. The amount of detail per day will start to dictate how much space you need.

Dated or undated

There are many reasons you might decide to buy an undated calendar. "People might decide on March 28th they want a planner," said Greer. "But if a planner is dated, they're already three months through the year." 

Plus, with an undated planner, you can always pick up where you left off without wasting days' worth of paper. 

Horizontal or vertical

When someone comes into Little Otsu looking for a planner, co-owner Jeremy Crown first asks, "Are you more of a task-oriented planner?" He thinks people with detailed schedules or long to-do lists may prefer the column format of vertical layouts, while those who like making notes or doodling might prefer the horizontal layout.

Some planners also use a "dashboard" view, with a week or day on one page and the other dedicated to habit trackers, gratitude prompts, and other fill-in-the-blanks. 

Doctors, nurses, and chefs always want pocket-sized notebooks and planners, said Crown. You might want something big enough to hold your sprawling handwriting but small enough to carry around in your purse or messenger bag. 

Minimalist or full of prompts 

Planner aesthetics range from very bare-bones to packed with extras like quotes, charts, and check-ins. 

"You want your planner to inspire you," Cavoulacos said. "I do think the sort of aesthetic piece, the inspiration piece, is also something that shouldn't be forgotten," she said.  

Both Greer and Cavoulacos point out that you can add your own quotes and personalizations to even the most minimalist planner, as long as there's space. "It could become more of a person's little command center," said Greer. 

Paper quality

If paper quality is high on your list of importance, Greer suggests taking a close look at who makes a planner. 

"I definitely gravitate towards manufacturers who have a background in paper," she said, recommending several Japanese notebook or paper companies with planners such as Midori , Paperways , High Tide , and Kokuyo Jibun Techo .

Even if you're not into paper, you'll want to pay attention to the cover's material. Hardcovers will stand up to more wear and tear than softcovers. "Sometimes people will trade that durability for something that doesn't cost very much, but definitely people are expecting [their planner] to get through the whole year and not look like it was run over by a truck," Greer said. 

Binding 

It's important that planners lie flat since you're writing in them. Many are spiral-bound, but others are stitch-bound. Either will let you write on them, but you can flip one side of the book behind the other with a spiral binding. "A lot of people are kind of indifferent between spiral and stitch bound now, as long as it lies flat because that's really what they're looking for," Greer said. 

Another concern with the binding is whether it will keep the planner together for the whole year. Some glued-in pages might not hold out as well. "If you have something that's stitch-bound or spiral, it's very sturdy for the long haul," Greer said.

Why not just use a digital planner?

"I don't necessarily think a planner is for everybody, just like any particular productivity hack or tool," Cavoulacos said. There are plenty of people who prefer to keep their calendars and notes strictly digital, and getting a paper planner might not make sense for them. 

If you're on the fence, she suggests asking yourself what's attractive about a paper planner. "I think for a lot of people, it's slowing down, right?" Cavoulacos said. "It's like the lack of distraction. It's the moments to think, to cross things off — the satisfaction of crossing things off." 

For Crown, it's more personal than a phone calendar. "It's your life in a book," he said. "[By] the end of the year, you have this book that was like, this is what I did. That's something that the phone doesn't do that well." 

You can purchase logo and accolade licensing to this story here . Disclosure: Written and researched by the Insider Reviews team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our partners. We may receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at [email protected] .

• Main content

Notebook Business Plan Template & Guidebook

For today's business startup or expansion, having a robust notebook business plan is essential. With the right plan in place, you can calculate potential profits, determine the viability of a product's success and set a timeline for achieving your goals. This #1 Notebook Business Plan Template & Guidebook is the ultimate resource for building a custom business plan that guarantees success. With clear steps and detailed analysis, this guidebook will ensure you have all the information you need to launch and grow your business.

Get worry-free services and support to launch your business starting at $0 plus state fees.

How to Write a Notebook Business Plan in 7 Steps:

1. describe the purpose of your notebook business..

The first step to writing your business plan is to describe the purpose of your notebook business. This includes describing why you are starting this type of business, and what problems it will solve for customers. This is a quick way to get your mind thinking about the customers’ problems. It also helps you identify what makes your business different from others in its industry.

It also helps to include a vision statement so that readers can understand what type of company you want to build.

Here is an example of a purpose mission statement for a notebook business:

Our mission is to create the best notebooks for students and professionals, offering a wide variety of product designs and organizational layouts that appeal to different learning and working styles. We strive to make our notebooks both aesthetically pleasing and functional, combining innovative features with quality materials that last. Our goal is to give people the tools they need to stay organized, productive, and successful.

2. Products & Services Offered by Your Notebook Business.

The next step is to outline your products and services for your notebook business. 

When you think about the products and services that you offer, it's helpful to ask yourself the following questions:

• What is my business?
• What are the products and/or services that I offer?
• Why am I offering these particular products and/or services?
• How do I differentiate myself from competitors with similar offerings?
• How will I market my products and services?

You may want to do a comparison of your business plan against those of other competitors in the area, or even with online reviews. This way, you can find out what people like about them and what they don’t like, so that you can either improve upon their offerings or avoid doing so altogether.

3. Build a Creative Marketing Stratgey.

If you don't have a marketing plan for your notebook business, it's time to write one. Your marketing plan should be part of your business plan and be a roadmap to your goals. 

A good marketing plan for your notebook business includes the following elements:

Target market

• Who is your target market?
• What do these customers have in common?
• How many of them are there?
• How can you best reach them with your message or product?

Customer base 

• Who are your current customers? 
• Where did they come from (i.e., referrals)?
• How can their experience with your notebook business help make them repeat customers, consumers, visitors, subscribers, or advocates for other people in their network or industry who might also benefit from using this service, product, or brand?

Product or service description

• How does it work, what features does it have, and what are its benefits?
• Can anyone use this product or service regardless of age or gender?
• Can anyone visually see themselves using this product or service?
• How will they feel when they do so? If so, how long will the feeling last after purchasing (or trying) the product/service for the first time?

Competitive analysis

• Which companies are competing with yours today (and why)? 
• Which ones may enter into competition with yours tomorrow if they find out about it now through word-of-mouth advertising; social media networks; friends' recommendations; etc.)
• What specific advantages does each competitor offer over yours currently?

Marketing channels

• Which marketing channel do you intend to leverage to attract new customers?
• What is your estimated marketing budget needed?
• What is the projected cost to acquire a new customer?
• How many of your customers do you instead will return?

Form an LLC in your state!

4. Write Your Operational Plan.

Next, you'll need to build your operational plan. This section describes the type of business you'll be running, and includes the steps involved in your operations. 

In it, you should list:

• The equipment and facilities needed
• Who will be involved in the business (employees, contractors)
• Financial requirements for each step
• Milestones & KPIs
• Location of your business
• Zoning & permits required for the business

What equipment, supplies, or permits are needed to run a notebook business?

• Computer or laptop
• Printer and ink
• Paper and other stationary supplies
• Business license or permit
• Accounting software
• Internet connection and website hosting
• Advertising materials and budget

5. Management & Organization of Your Notebook Business.

The second part of your notebook business plan is to develop a management and organization section.

This section will cover all of the following:

• How many employees you need in order to run your notebook business. This should include the roles they will play (for example, one person may be responsible for managing administrative duties while another might be in charge of customer service).
• The structure of your management team. The higher-ups like yourself should be able to delegate tasks through lower-level managers who are directly responsible for their given department (inventory and sales, etc.).
• How you’re going to make sure that everyone on board is doing their job well. You’ll want check-ins with employees regularly so they have time to ask questions or voice concerns if needed; this also gives you time to offer support where necessary while staying informed on how things are going within individual departments too!

6. Notebook Business Startup Expenses & Captial Needed.

This section should be broken down by month and year. If you are still in the planning stage of your business, it may be helpful to estimate how much money will be needed each month until you reach profitability.

Typically, expenses for your business can be broken into a few basic categories:

Startup Costs

Startup costs are typically the first expenses you will incur when beginning an enterprise. These include legal fees, accounting expenses, and other costs associated with getting your business off the ground. The amount of money needed to start a notebook business varies based on many different variables, but below are a few different types of startup costs for a notebook business.

Running & Operating Costs

Running costs refer to ongoing expenses related directly with operating your business over time like electricity bills or salaries paid out each month. These types of expenses will vary greatly depending on multiple variables such as location, team size, utility costs, etc.

Marketing & Sales Expenses

You should include any costs associated with marketing and sales, such as advertising and promotions, website design or maintenance. Also, consider any additional expenses that may be incurred if you decide to launch a new product or service line. For example, if your notebook business has an existing website that needs an upgrade in order to sell more products or services, then this should be listed here.

7. Financial Plan & Projections

A financial plan is an important part of any business plan, as it outlines how the business will generate revenue and profit, and how it will use that profit to grow and sustain itself. To devise a financial plan for your notebook business, you will need to consider a number of factors, including your start-up costs, operating costs, projected revenue, and expenses. 

Here are some steps you can follow to devise a financial plan for your notebook business plan:

• Determine your start-up costs: This will include the cost of purchasing or leasing the space where you will operate your business, as well as the cost of buying or leasing any equipment or supplies that you need to start the business.
• Estimate your operating costs: Operating costs will include utilities, such as electricity, gas, and water, as well as labor costs for employees, if any, and the cost of purchasing any materials or supplies that you will need to run your business.
• Project your revenue: To project your revenue, you will need to consider the number of customers you expect to have and the average amount they will spend on each visit. You can use this information to estimate how much money you will make from selling your products or services.
• Estimate your expenses: In addition to your operating costs, you will need to consider other expenses, such as insurance, marketing, and maintenance. You will also need to set aside money for taxes and other fees.
• Create a budget: Once you have estimated your start-up costs, operating costs, revenue, and expenses, you can use this information to create a budget for your business. This will help you to see how much money you will need to start the business, and how much profit you can expect to make.
• Develop a plan for using your profit: Finally, you will need to decide how you will use your profit to grow and sustain your business. This might include investing in new equipment, expanding the business, or saving for a rainy day.

Frequently Asked Questions About Notebook Business Plans:

Why do you need a business plan for a notebook business.

A business plan is essential for a notebook business because it contains important information and details about the business. It serves as a roadmap for the business, detailing the vision, mission, objectives, strategies and tactics needed to succeed. It provides valuable data on how to start, manage and market the business. It can also be used to secure financing from banks and other investors. Finally, it lays out all of the risks associated with starting a notebook business and provides a plan for mitigating those risks.

Who should you ask for help with your notebook business plan?

It is recommended that you speak to a professional business consultant or adviser to help you form your notebook business plan. They will be able to provide expert advice, guidance, and resources that can help you create an effective business plan.

Can you write a notebook business plan yourself?

Yes, it is possible to write a business plan for a notebook business yourself. However, it is recommended to consult with a professional business planner or accountant to ensure accuracy and thoroughness. Additionally, you may want to consider attending a business plan writing seminar or workshop in order to gain an understanding of the written components of a successful business plan.

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I'm Nick, co-founder of newfoundr.com, dedicated to helping aspiring entrepreneurs succeed. As a small business owner with over five years of experience, I have garnered valuable knowledge and insights across a diverse range of industries. My passion for entrepreneurship drives me to share my expertise with aspiring entrepreneurs, empowering them to turn their business dreams into reality.

Through meticulous research and firsthand experience, I uncover the essential steps, software, tools, and costs associated with launching and maintaining a successful business. By demystifying the complexities of entrepreneurship, I provide the guidance and support needed for others to embark on their journey with confidence.

From assessing market viability and formulating business plans to selecting the right technology and navigating the financial landscape, I am dedicated to helping fellow entrepreneurs overcome challenges and unlock their full potential. As a steadfast advocate for small business success, my mission is to pave the way for a new generation of innovative and driven entrepreneurs who are ready to make their mark on the world.

Article updated on April 9, 2024 at 9:26 AM PDT

Best Business Laptop for 2024

Need a new laptop for work? Check out our favorite Windows laptops and MacBooks for business users, tested and reviewed by CNET's laptop experts.

Our Experts

CNET’s expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise.

Business laptops typically cost more than consumer models because they usually feature more rugged enclosures and additional security and remote-management features. Expect to spend around $1,500 for a good business laptop and more if you are looking for a high-powered model with discrete graphics for content creation.

Operating System

For the most part, Microsoft Windows and Apple's MacOS do the same things but they do them differently. Unless there's an OS-specific application you need, go with the one you feel most comfortable using. A Chromebook running on Google’s ChromeOS is an excellent (and less expensive) alternative to Windows or MacOS if almost everything you do is in a web browser.

Remember to consider whether having a lighter, thinner laptop or a roomier, heavier model will be important to you in the future. Size is primarily determined by the screen, which in turn factors into battery size, laptop thickness, weight and price.

Considerations for the display include size, type (LCD or OLED in most cases), resolution, what types of content you'll be looking at and whether or not you'll be using it for creative work. Higher resolutions are better for fitting more on a screen and look for a dot pitch of at least 100 pixels per inch (ppi) as a rule of thumb. If the color range is important, look for at least 100% sRGB, or better yet 100% DCI-P3.

The processor, aka the CPU, is the brains of a laptop. Intel and AMD are the main CPU makers for Windows laptops with a staggering selection between them. Generally, the faster the processor speed and the more cores it has, the better the performance will be. Apple makes its own chips for MacBooks, which makes things slightly more straightforward. Like Intel and AMD, you'll still want to pay attention to the number of cores -- the more, the better -- to gauge potential performance.

The graphics processor (GPU) handles all the work of driving the screen and generating what gets displayed, as well as speeding up a lot of graphics-related (and increasingly, AI-related) operations. For Windows laptops, there are two types of GPUs: integrated (iGPU) or discrete (dGPU). For things like video editing, design work as well as gaming, you'll need a dGPU

We highly recommend 16GB of RAM, with 8GB being the absolute minimum. RAM is where the operating system stores all the data for currently running applications, and it can fill up fast. After that, it starts swapping between RAM and the slower storage drive.

You'll still find cheaper hard drives in budget laptops and larger hard drives in gaming laptops, but faster solid-state drives (SSDs) have all but replaced hard drives in most models. A 256GB SSD is the minimum, and 512GB will last longer without getting filled up. Opt for 1TB or more if you work with large video files or plan to store a large game library on your laptop.

What is the best business laptop overall?

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 is our favorite laptop for business users. It’s Lenovo’s flagship business ultraportable and has become the standard against which other business ultraportables are measured. It's a boxy, matte-black laptop that won't be mistaken for anything other than a ThinkPad. While it can be described as "boxy," the X1 Carbon is not clunky or heavy. It's just about perfect in terms of offering room to work while remaining light enough for daily commutes or long days on the road. With outstanding battery life, it will last through those long days on a single charge.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a great pick for traveling execs, but we also have picks for creative pros who need a high-quality display and high-powered graphics. At CNET, we test all kinds of laptops, from budget models for everyday tasks to high-performance laptops for gaming and content creation and everything in between. Each member of our team has decades of experience testing and reviewing laptops. We conduct performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use to assess the design, features and performance of each laptop we review.

You'll find a good number of recommendations here, but we also have more specific picks in different laptop categories, starting with the best overall laptop and also including best budget laptop , best Windows laptop and best two-in-one laptop . If you are looking for a laptop not for work but for play, check out our picks for the best gaming laptop and the best cheap gaming laptop . If you have narrowed your choice to a specific brand, check out our favorites for the best Dell laptop and the best HP laptop . Beyond Windows, we have recommendations for the best MacBook and best Chromebook .

Best business laptops for 2024

• Stellar build quality
• Great compromise between screen size and portability
• Constructed with recycled materials
• Awesome keyboard
• Competitive application performance and long battery life
• RAM soldered on so can't expand post-purchase
• Touchpad is undersized

Best business laptop overall

Lenovo thinkpad x1 carbon gen 11.

It delivers no surprises or revolutionary upgrades from past iterations, but the latest ThinkPad X1 Carbon's security features, build quality and performance remain excellent. Its 14-inch display and 2.5-pound weight are the sweet spot of enough screen space to work long stretches without needing to connect to an external display, while also being light enough for daily travel. With an industry-best keyboard, long battery life and greener construction, the X1 Carbon Gen 11 is a near-perfect business laptop. We are currently testing the Gen 12 version, which will likely be just as good, if not better, especially for AI tasks.

• Excellent build quality
• Roomy display in compact package
• Supports dual webcams
• Comfortable keyboard
• Long battery life
• Baseline display is meh
• IPS panel costs more than OLED upgrade

Best compact business ultraportable

Hp dragonfly g4.

The HP Dragonfly G4 is not your typical corporate machine. Trim and sleek, yet rigid and ready to withstand the abuses of business travel, it is every bit a premium C-suite business laptop. Its 13.5-inch display has an unusual boxy 3:2 aspect ratio, giving it more room from top to bottom, allowing you to read more lines of a document or web page while keeping the Dragonfly G4 compact and effortlessly portable. The little laptop also offers an uncommonly long battery life.

• Excellent screen
• Great battery life for its class
• Merits a better webcam
• Screen notch

Best laptop for creative pros

Apple macbook pro 16.

Apple's latest update to its 16-inch MacBook Pro delivers M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max processors along with a new space black color. The screen is also slightly brighter, moving from a rated 500 nits to 600 nits compared with the previous M2 version. Other than the new color option, the design remains largely unchanged from the previous version, but under the hood, the new M3 Pro chip offers better overall performance and, in particular, big gains in multicore and rendering performance. Battery life is strong, too. We tested the M3 Max model, and it’s our Editors' Choice for graphics pros and creators for its excellent combination of design, performance and battery life.

• Excellent, color accurate OLED display
• Very well designed
• Bottom gets hot when plugged in
• No Adobe RGB profiling

Best compact laptop for creative pros

Asus rog zephyrus g14.

Despite being a member of Asus' gaming-focused ROG family of laptops, the G14 has a more creative bent; it's technically considered an Nvidia Studio model and ships with Nvidia's Studio driver rather than the more common Game Ready version (you can swap them if you want). The compact 14-inch laptop has the performance and the display quality you'll need for creative work, a business-quality 1080p webcam and a full selection of ports and connections. With an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS, GeForce RTX 4070 and 32GB of RAM, our test system proved adept at both gaming and creating.

• Unusual combination of power and portability
• Sharp, fast display
• Rugged chassis
• Long-running battery
• Drab exterior
• Limited storage space
• "Clacky" touchpad

Best affordable laptop for creators

Lenovo slim pro 7.

Geared toward content creators whose work has them on the go, the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 offers an uncommon combination of power and portability. Content creation laptops usually pair a dedicated GPU with a larger 16- or 17-inch display that provides a larger canvas on which to work at the expense of travel ease Unlike those larger models, the Slim Pro 7 is built around a 14.5-inch, 90Hz display and powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 and entry-level Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 discrete graphics.

It’s more affordable than a true business laptop like Lenovo’s own ThinkPads in large part because it lacks many security features you get with a ThinkPad, including Intel vPro processors, self-encrypting SSDs, support for Tile tracking and TPM. And one reason it's more affordable than most content-creation laptops is because it features previous-gen RTX 3050 graphics.

• Gorgeous design
• Roomy, high-res and bright display
• High-res 8-megapixel webcam
• Comfy keyboard with fun RGB lighting
• Haptic touchpad is awesome
• Punchy quad speakers
• Pricey among Chromebooks
• Previous-gen Intel silicon
• Pen not included

Best Chromebook for business

Hp dragonfly pro chromebook.

At $1,000, the Dragonfly Pro Chromebook is too spendy for most consumers looking to pick up a Chromebook as a cheap alternative to a Windows laptop or MacBook. It makes more sense for its target audience of always-connected freelancers and contract workers who'll use it day in and day out. It boasts an all-metal chassis and a high-res and incredibly bright display. You also get a high-res webcam so you’ll look sharp on video calls. The haptic touchpad is awesome. If you spend the majority of your day working via Gmail and Google Drive inside the Chrome browser, then the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook will hold great appeal.

Other laptops we've tested

Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7440 : For a reasonable $1,000, this 14-inch Dell model based on an Intel Core Ultra CPU lets you be productive and remain portable

Alienware m16 R2 : This middle-class option for mainstreaming gaming fares better than average and is a sensible option for 1440p play.

Acer Predator Triton 14 : With fast performance and a bright HDR screen, this mainstream 14-inch gaming laptop can be a great gaming value..

M3 MacBook Air 13 : Apple's 2024 MacBook Air update is a straightforward performance boost to power you through the future of work, school and play at home or away.

Lenovo LOQ 15 : Lenovo's entry-level model is the opposite of flashy, but it's got good performance and it's one of the cheapest RTX 4050 models (at least on sale).

HP Victus 16 : It’s speedy and svelte, but gamers on tight budgets deserve more than this laptop's basic 60Hz panel.

Acer Nitro 16 : With a roomy 16-inch, 16:10 display that's surprisingly bright and vibrant and powered by a full-octane RTX 4050 GPU, the Nitro 16 delivers the goods for gamers on tight budgets.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 : The Helios Neo 16 is essentially a gussied-up version of the Acer Nitro 16. It just so happens to also have ample 3D performance for its budget-friendly price.

MSI Cyborg 15 : It's one of the lowest-cost RTX 4050 laptops, but the Cyborg 15's GPU is restricted from running at full power, which puts a cap on 3D performance. And its display disappoints, too.

Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 2 : It breaks with the ThinkPad tradition in many ways without abandoning the things that make it a ThinkPad.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 : This 14-inch two-in-one for business users is compact for easy travel yet big enough to get work done, but Lenovo's display options for it miss the mark.

Acer Swift Go 14 (2024) : Intel's new Core Ultra CPU gives this unassuming 14-inch laptop great battery life and a bit of a speed boost -- with potential AI acceleration down the road.

How we test laptops

The review process for laptops consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our reviewers. This includes evaluating a device's aesthetics, ergonomics and features relative to price. A final review verdict is a combination of both objective and subjective judgments. 

We test all laptops with a core set of benchmarks, including  Primate Labs Geekbench 6 ,  Cinebench R23 ,  PCMark 10 , a variety of  3DMark  benchmarks (whichever can run on the laptop), UL Procyon Photo and Video (where supported), and our own battery life test. If a laptop is intended for gaming, we'll also run benchmarks from  Guardians of the Galaxy ,  The Rift Breaker  (CPU and GPU) and  Shadow of the Tomb Raider .

For the hands-on, the reviewer uses it for their work during the review period, evaluating how well the design, features (such as the screen, camera and speakers) and manufacturer-supplied software operate as a cohesive whole. We also place importance on how well they work given their cost and where the manufacturer has potentially made upgrades or tradeoffs for its price.

The list of benchmarking software and comparison criteria we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. You can find a more detailed description of our test methodology on our  How We Test Computers  page. 

Factors to consider

There are a ton of laptops on the market at any given moment, and almost all of those models are available in multiple configurations to match your performance and budget needs. If you're feeling overwhelmed with options when looking for a new laptop, it's understandable. To help simplify things for you, here are the main things you should consider when you start looking.

The search for a new laptop for most people starts with price. If the statistics chipmaker Intel and PC manufacturers hurl at us are correct, you'll be holding onto your next laptop for at least three years. If you can afford to stretch your budget a little to get better specs, do it. That stands whether you're spending $500 or more than $1,000. In the past, you could get away with spending less upfront and look to upgrade memory and storage in the future. Laptop makers are increasingly moving away from making components easily upgradable, so it's best to get as good a laptop as you can afford from the start. 

Generally speaking, the more you spend, the better the laptop. That could mean better components for faster performance, a nicer display, sturdier build quality, a smaller or lighter design from higher-end materials or even a more comfortable keyboard. All of these things add to the cost of a laptop. I'd love to say $500 will get you a powerful gaming laptop, for example, but that's not the case. Right now, the sweet spot for a reliable laptop that can handle average work, home office or school tasks is between $700 and $800 and a reasonable model for creative work or gaming upward of about $1,000. The key is to look for discounts on models in all price ranges so you can get more laptop features for less. 

Operating system

Choosing an operating system is part personal preference and part budget. For the most part, Microsoft Windows and Apple's MacOS do the same things (except for gaming, where Windows is the winner), but they do them differently. Unless there's an OS-specific application you need, go with the one you feel most comfortable using. If you're not sure which that is, head to an Apple store or a local electronics store and test them out. Or ask friends or family to let you test theirs for a bit. If you have an iPhone or iPad and like it, chances are you'll like MacOS too. 

When it comes to price and variety (and, again, PC gaming), Windows laptops win. If you want MacOS, you're getting a MacBook. While Apple's MacBooks regularly top our best lists, the least expensive one is the M1 MacBook Air for $999. It is regularly discounted to $750 or $800, but if you want a cheaper MacBook, you'll have to consider older refurbished ones. 

Windows laptops can be found for as little as a couple of hundred dollars and come in all manner of sizes and designs. Granted, we'd be hard-pressed to find a $200 laptop we'd give a full-throated recommendation to, but if you need a laptop for online shopping, email and word processing, they exist. 

If you are on a tight budget, consider a Chromebook. ChromeOS is a different experience than Windows; make sure the applications you need have a Chrome , Android or Linux app before making the leap. If you spend most of your time roaming the web, writing, streaming video or using cloud-gaming services, they're a good fit. 

Remember to consider whether having a lighter, thinner laptop or a touchscreen laptop with a good battery life will be important to you in the future. Size is primarily determined by the screen -- hello, laws of physics -- which in turn factors into battery size, laptop thickness, weight and price. Keep in mind other physics-related characteristics, such as an ultrathin laptop isn't necessarily lighter than a thick one, you can't expect a wide array of connections on a small or ultrathin model and so on. 

When it comes to deciding on a screen, there are a variety of considerations: how much you need to display (which is surprisingly more about resolution than screen size), what types of content you'll be looking at and whether you'll be using it for gaming or creative work.

You want to optimize pixel density; that's the number of pixels per inch the screen can display. Although other factors contribute to sharpness, a higher pixel density usually means sharper rendering of text and interface elements. (You can easily calculate the pixel density of any screen at DPI Calculator if you don't feel like doing the math, and you can also find out what math you need to do there.) We recommend a dot pitch of at least 100 pixels per inch (ppi) as a rule of thumb.

Because of the way Windows and MacOS scale for the display, you're frequently better off with a higher resolution than you'd think. You can always make things bigger on a high-resolution screen, but you can never make them smaller -- to fit more content in the view -- on a low-resolution screen. This is why a 4K, 14-inch screen may sound like unnecessary overkill, but may not be if you need to, say, view a wide spreadsheet.

If you need a laptop with relatively accurate color that displays the most colors possible or that supports HDR, you can't simply trust the specs. Manufacturers usually fail to provide the necessary context to understand what the specs they quote mean. You can find a ton of detail about considerations for different types of screen uses in our monitor buying guides for general-purpose monitors , creators , gamers and HDR viewing .

The processor, aka the CPU, is the brains of a laptop. Intel and AMD are the main CPU makers for Windows laptops. Both offer a staggering selection of mobile processors. Making things trickier, both manufacturers have chips designed for different laptop styles, like power-saving chips for ultraportables or faster processors for gaming laptops. Their naming conventions will let you know what type is used. You can head to Intel's or AMD's sites for explanations so you get the performance you want. Generally speaking, the faster the processor speed and the more cores it has, the better the performance will be. 

Apple makes its chips for MacBooks, which makes things slightly more straightforward. Like Intel and AMD, you'll still want to pay attention to the naming conventions to know what kind of performance to expect. Apple uses its M-series chipsets in Macs. The entry-level MacBook Air uses an M1 chip with an eight-core CPU and seven-core GPU. The current models have M2-series silicon that starts with an eight-core CPU and 10-core GPU and goes up to the M2 Max with a 12-core CPU and a 38-core GPU. Again, generally speaking, the more cores it has, the better the performance. 

The graphics processor (GPU) handles all the work of driving the screen and generating what gets displayed, as well as speeding up a lot of graphics-related (and increasingly, AI-related) operations. For Windows laptops, there are two types of GPUs: integrated (iGPU) or discrete (dGPU). As the names imply, an iGPU is part of the CPU package, while a dGPU is a separate chip with dedicated memory (VRAM) that it communicates with directly, making it faster than sharing memory with the CPU.

Because the iGPU splits space, memory and power with the CPU, it's constrained by the limits of those. It allows for smaller, lighter laptops, but doesn't perform nearly as well as a dGPU. There are some games and creative software that won't run unless they detect a dGPU or sufficient VRAM. Most productivity software, video streaming, web browsing and other nonspecialized apps will run fine on an iGPU, though.

For more power-hungry graphics needs, like video editing, gaming and streaming, design and so on, you'll need a dGPU; there are only two real companies that make them, Nvidia and AMD, with Intel offering some based on the Xe-branded (or the older UHD Graphics branding) iGPU technology in its CPUs.

For memory, we highly recommend 16GB of RAM (8GB absolute minimum). RAM is where the operating system stores all the data for currently running applications, and it can fill up fast. After that, it starts swapping between RAM and SSD, which is slower. A lot of sub-$500 laptops have 4GB or 8GB, which in conjunction with a slower disk can make for a frustratingly slow Windows laptop experience. Also, many laptops now have the memory soldered onto the motherboard. Most manufacturers disclose this, but if the RAM type is LPDDR, assume it's soldered and can't be upgraded. 

Some PC makers will solder memory on and also leave an empty internal slot for adding a stick of RAM. You may need to contact the laptop manufacturer or find the laptop's full specs online to confirm. Check the web for user experiences, because the slot may still be hard to get to, it may require nonstandard or hard-to-get memory or other pitfalls.

You'll still find cheaper hard drives in budget laptops and larger hard drives in gaming laptops, but faster solid-state drives (SSDs) have all but replaced hard drives in laptops. They can make a big difference in performance. Not all SSDs are equally speedy, and cheaper laptops typically have slower drives. If the laptop has only 4GB or 8GB of RAM, it may end up swapping to that drive and the system may slow down quickly while you're working. 

Get what you can afford, and if you need to go with a smaller drive, you can always add an external drive or two down the road or use cloud storage to bolster a small internal drive. The one exception is gaming laptops: We don't recommend going with less than a 512GB SSD unless you really like uninstalling games every time you want to play a new game.

Laptop FAQs

How much does a good business laptop cost.

Business laptops typically cost more than consumer models because they usually feature more rugged enclosures and additional security and remote-management features to protect your data and help your company’s IT department manage your organization's fleet of laptops. You can expect to spend around $1,500 for a good business laptop and more if you are looking for a high-powered model with discrete graphics for content creation.

Which is better: MacOS or Windows?

Deciding between MacOS and Windows laptops will come down to personal preference and budget for most people. Apple's base model laptop, the M1 MacBook Air, starts at $999. You can sometimes find it discounted or you can get educational pricing from Apple and other retailers. In general, it'll be at least $1,000 for a new MacBook, and the prices just go up from there. 

For the money, you're getting great hardware top to bottom, inside and out. Apple recently moved to using its own processors, which resulted in  across-the-board performance improvements  compared to older Intel-based models. The company's most powerful laptop, the 16-inch MacBook Pro, still hasn't been updated to Apple silicon. 

Again, that great hardware comes at a price. Also, you're limited to just Apple laptops. With Windows and Chromebooks (more on these below), you get an amazing variety of devices at a wide range of prices. 

Software between the two is plentiful, so unless you need to run something only available on one platform or the other, you should be fine to go with either. Gaming is an advantage for a Windows laptop.

MacOS is also considered to be easier and safer to use than Windows, especially for people who want their computers to get out of the way so they can get things done. Over the years, Microsoft has done its best to follow suit and, with  Windows 11 here ,  it's trying to remove any barriers . Also, while Macs might have a reputation for being safer, with the popularity of the iPhone and iPad helping to drive Mac sales,  they've become bigger targets for malware .

Are Chromebooks worth it?

Yes, they are , but they're not for everyone.  Google's Chrome OS has come a long way in the 10-plus years  since they arrived and Chromebooks -- laptops that run on Chrome OS -- are great for people who do most of their work in a web browser or using mobile apps. They are secure, simple and, more often than not, a bargain. What they can't do is natively run Windows or Mac software.

What's the best laptop or home or work or both?

The pandemic changed how and where a lot of people work. The small, ultraportable laptops valued by people who regularly travel may be woefully inadequate for working from home. Instead of needing long battery life, perhaps you'd rather have a bigger display with more graphics power for gaming.

If you're going to be working on a laptop and don't need more mobility than moving it from room to room, consider a 15.6-inch laptop or larger. In general, a bigger screen makes life easier for work and is more enjoyable for entertainment, and it also is better if you're using it as an extended display with an external monitor. It typically means you're getting more ports too, so connecting an external display or storage or a keyboard and mouse is easier without requiring a hub or dock. 

For travel, stay with 13- or 14-inch laptops or two-in-ones. They'll be the lightest and smallest while still delivering excellent battery life. What's nice is that PC-makers are moving away from 16:9 widescreens toward 16:10- or 3:2-ratio displays, which gives you more vertical screen space for work without significantly increasing the footprint. These models usually don't have discrete graphics or powerful processors, although  that's not always the case .

Which laptop is best for gaming or creating?

You can play games and create content on any laptop. That said, what games you play and what content you create -- and the speed at which you do them -- varies greatly depending on the components inside the laptop. 

For casual browser-based games or using streaming game services like  Nvidia GeForce Now  and  Xbox Cloud Gaming , you don't need a powerful gaming laptop. Similarly, if you're trimming video clips, cropping photos or live-streaming video from your webcam, you can get by with a modestly priced laptop or Chromebook with integrated graphics. 

For anything more demanding, you'll need to invest more money in discrete graphics like Nvidia's RTX 30- or 40-series GPUs. Increased system memory of 16GB or more, having a speedy SSD of at least 512GB for storage and a faster processor such as an Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 will all help you get things moving faster too. 

The other piece you'll want to consider is the display. For gaming, look for screens with a high refresh rate of 120Hz or faster so games look smoother while playing. For content creation, look for displays that cover at least 100% sRGB color space or, better yet, 100% DCI-P3. 

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Moscow-City – The Moscow International Business Center

• 3 years ago

Moscow-City is an iconic location for life and work in Russia’s capital. Enormous skyscrapers, business centers, the best restaurants and retail spaces – all this is concentrated in one place. The ultramodern Moscow-City towers are truly striking in their outward appearance, and the layout of the apartments inside and the fantastic views that can be seen from the higher floors are nothing short of impressive.

This skyscraper compound, often referred to as Moskva-City, is the Russian take on Manhattan, where businessmen strike multi-million dollar deals daily while ordinary life goes on next door. Its state of the art spaces offer the ultimate convenience. The infrastructure of this business district is so well-developed that anyone can find something interesting for themselves here: from residential apartments to boutiques, clubs, exhibitions and more.

When the foundations for the Moscow-City skyscrapers were laid, a special kind of concrete was used, the properties of which are amplified by many times compared to standard concrete. Even in the event of a plane crashing into one of the buildings, the structural integrity of the towers will be preserved.

The architects of the Moscow-City Business Center have created a unique locality that has integrated into itself the hub of the capital’s business life and a whole ensemble of historical monuments. Anyone can admire the beauty of these skyscrapers from within or without the compound. There are also a number of apartments for sale or rent available in the MIBC itself. But first, let’s have a look at some more interesting facts about the financial core of Russia’s capital.

• 1 How It All Began
• 2.1 Moscow-City Central Core
• 2.2 Tower 2000
• 2.3 Evolution Tower
• 2.4 Imperia Tower
• 2.5 Moscow Tower and St. Petersburg Tower
• 2.6 Steel Peak Tower
• 2.7 Federation Tower
• 2.8 Mercury City Tower
• 2.9 OKO Tower Complex
• 3.1 Afimall City Shopping Center
• 3.2 Bagration Bridge
• 3.3 Expocentre Fairgrounds
• 4 Renting and Buying Real Estate in Moscow-City

How It All Began

The history of Moscow-City goes all the way back to 1992. The government of Moscow at the time wanted to bring into existence its own skyscrapers like the ones in London or New York. And the idea caught on. In 1992 the project for the construction of the huge “Moscow-City” MIBC compound was enthusiastically approved, kick-starting the painstaking preparatory works. The original intention was that the skyscrapers would only house office space. However, as time went on, the towers began to welcome in ordinary residents who wanted to live on the territory of this business and finance hub.

Moscow-City is undoubtedly a city within a city. Its grandeur is mind-boggling. It is perfect in every way: from location to infrastructure. And today, anyone can get a feel of the atmosphere of the “capital city” of Russia’s business world – many of the apartments in Moscow-City are available for rent. Any citizen of Russia and even nationals of other countries can make use of these offers.

What It’s Like in 2021

Today Moscow-City is not just a magnificent and fascinating sight, but also a real hub for the work, life and leisure of thousands. Its infrastructure is organized in such a way that there is no need to leave the territory of the “city within a city” at all. This business district contains everything one may need for work and recreation. And if one does decide to venture out into the larger metropolis, the MIBC’s three subway stations make this remarkably simple to do.

Moscow-City stands on the Presnenskaya Embankment . Each of the buildings in the district has a name, which simplifies its identification. Some of the buildings form complexes that are united under one name, such as the Neva Towers and the Naberezhnaya Tower complex of two skyscrapers and one high rise. There are a total of 16 towers in the MIBC, of which the most popular are:

• Moscow-City Central Core;
• Tower 2000;
• Evolution Tower;
• Imperia Tower;
• City of Capitals (Moscow Tower and St. Petersburg Tower);
• Steel Peak Tower;
• Federation Tower;
• Mercury City Tower;
• OKO Tower Complex.

Moscow-City Central Core

This is the most complex building within the MIBC compound. Its total floor area is a whopping 1 476 378 sqft (450 000 m²). It consists of two massive parts, each of which boasts a truly impressive infrastructure. The underground part includes 3 Moscow Metro stations, a parking lot for automobiles and a shopping mall. The aboveground part houses a concert hall and a hotel.

Tower 2000 is a skyscraper having 34 stories. Its total floor area is 200 318 sqft (61 057 m²), most of which is office space. The key feature of this skyscraper is its direct connection to the Bagration Bridge, which has its own shopping arcade. The tower has everything one may need while working here, including a large parking lot and several restaurants.

Evolution Tower

This elegant structure is 836 feet (255 m) high – that’s a whole 54 stories! The total floor area here is 554 462 sqft (169 000 m²). The Evolution Tower’s key feature is that it has its own Wedding Hall. This skyscraper houses large office spaces, a parking lot and several restaurants.

Imperia Tower

MIBC’s Imperia Tower is the undeniable focal point of the MIBC’s business life. Its height is 784 feet (239 m), which means one can hold conferences and resolve key business matters on the 59 th floor! And that really is amazing! The tower has everything: offices, hotels, restaurants and parking lots. But if you want a truly unforgettable experience, visit the viewing platform! It is situated on the 58 th floor and a simply astounding view of Moscow can be seen from it.

Moscow Tower and St. Petersburg Tower

The Moscow and St. Petersburg Towers are the chief representatives of the MIBC. The Moscow Tower has 76 stories and is 990 feet (302 m) high, while the St. Petersburg Tower has 65 stories and stands 843 feet (257 m) tall. Both towers offer fantastic views of the capital city.

Most of the floors of these two skyscrapers are taken up by luxurious sky apartments. There are also several recreational and entertainment centers, office spaces, restaurants, etc.

Steel Peak Tower

Also known as the Eurasia Tower of Moscow-City, this supertall skyscraper has a total of 680 912 sqft (207 542 m²) of floor space. Most of this is taken up by offices, and the rest – by residential quarters (around 65 616 sqft or 20 000 m²). The tower also houses a number of the greatest restaurants, studios and shopping centers.

Federation Tower

The Federation Tower is a complex of two skyscrapers, known as Tower East and Tower West. Tower East is the second highest building in Europe (the first is a skyscraper recently erected in the city of St. Petersburg). Its height is a colossal 1 223 feet (373 m) and that makes 95 stories! Tower West, on the other hand, is noticeably shorter at 794 feet (242 m).

The Federation Tower is a multifunctional complex.

Mercury City Tower

The Mercury City Tower skyscraper is widely known as one of the tallest buildings in Europe. Its height is 1 112 feet (339 m) and it has 75 stories. It is multifunctional by concept, holding within its walls shopping centers, offices and all kinds of other spaces. It is also possible to rent apartments here.

OKO Tower Complex

The OKO Tower Complex consists of two towers – the North Tower (49 stories and 803 ft or 245 m in height) and the South Tower (85 stories and 1 155 ft or 352 m in height).

Each of the MIBC’s tower complexes has its own recreational and entertainment areas, restaurants and parking lots. The top floors of most of these buildings contain luxurious fully-furnished apartments. At night, the towers shine with bright lights, while inside them the panoramic windows reveal astounding views of Moscow. This breathtaking view of the capital of Russia is why visiting Moscow-City is a must!

What Not to Miss

There are many interesting landmarks within the Moscow-City compound, but three of them are truly deserving of special attention:

• The Afimall City Shopping Center;
• The Bagration Bridge with two galleries and a shopping arcade;
• The Expocentre Fairgrounds.

Afimall City Shopping Center

The Afimall City Shopping and Entertainment Center is located in Moscow-City’s Central Core. It is divided into 4 zones, each with its own theme – one for every season of the year. The shopping center houses the biggest indoor fountain found worldwide. The height of this watery wonder is 118 feet or 36 meters.

The shopping and entertainment center contains everything one might expect from one of the largest centers of its kind:

• Retail brand stores;
• Exhibitions;
• Game rooms;
• and Restaurants.

The main recreational space is roofed with a giant transparent dome, which is an impressive sight to behold.

Bagration Bridge

Bagration Bridge with its upper and lower galleries has a shopping center all of its own and was the first structure to be built as part of the Moscow-City business district. Its lower gallery is a shopping arcade and its upper gallery is an open-air viewing platform with a spectacular view of the MIBC and the Moskva River. The hall of the bridge houses the 23 foot tall sculpture called “Tree of Life”. Having gone through the bridge via either one of its two galleries, a pedestrian would find themselves standing right on the Kutuzovsky Prospekt.

Expocentre Fairgrounds

The Expocentre Fairgrounds exhibition venue is located at the very heart of the capital. The first exhibition held at the Expocentre happened all the way back in 1959, much earlier than the MIBC was erected. Today it is the venue of many interesting events.

Exhibitions with very diverse themes are regularly held at this complex. An up-to-date schedule can be found on the official webpage of the Expocentre. The events can be free or fixed-price entry, depending on their type.

Renting and Buying Real Estate in Moscow-City

Moscow-City is not only a work and business hub, but also a residential neighborhood. Any citizen of Russia can rent or buy apartments or elite sky lounges here. The variety of residential real estate available inside the skyscrapers is impressive, including options for any pocket. The following buildings in the MIBC contain residential blocks:

This skyscraper has a mirror glass façade which reflects the passing clouds. Just imagine how beautiful that looks! Anyone can buy an apartment in the Federation Tower. Such properties are not only a good investment, but also a mark of prestige. The average price of residential real estate here is 45 million rubles for an apartment with a total floor area of 334 sqft (102 m²). The average price of a square meter (3.28 square feet) is in the range of 650 to 700 thousand rubles. There are two- and three-room apartments available in the Federation Tower, each with its own loggia. As for rent, the minimum price of one month’s stay in a three-room apartment in this skyscraper is 300 000 rubles per month.

The Mercury City Tower skyscraper welcomes citizens from all parts of Russia. This building is no less tall than the world-famous Dubai skyscrapers. Living in its apartments is a delight. The minimum cost of an apartment in the Mercury City Tower is 75 million rubles. The average price of a square meter (3.28 square feet) is 800 thousand rubles. And for those looking for a lower price point, some of the properties are also available for rent – in this case you will pay a minimum of 250 thousand rubles per month.

The Imperia Tower is a key cluster of interesting offers. The best options for buying and renting apartments within the MIBC can all be found in this skyscraper. The lowest price of a residential apartment here is 40 million rubles. A square meter (3.28 square feet) in a luxurious apartment in the Imperia Tower currently costs 600 thousand rubles, while the price range of the listings available for rent in this skyscraper is from 350 thousand all the way up to 1 million rubles per month.

This complex, standing on a faceted or “crystal” base, is an architectural engineering project boasting spectacular design. Behind its impressive façades is an abundance of penthouses and apartments having floor areas in the range of 262 sqft (80 m²) to 984 sqft (300 m²). The minimum price of an apartment in the OKO Tower Complex is 40 million rubles (the price of a square meter (3.28 square feet) is 500 thousand rubles). You can rent an apartment here starting from 400 thousand rubles per month.

City of Capitals

The City of Capitals is an exemplary architectural complex. Its sum appearance gives the impression of a huge city. Inside its walls are spacious apartments available for purchase and rent. This complex is considered to be especially prestigious. The prices of apartments here start from 50 million rubles, while the minimum cost of renting is 400 thousand rubles per month.

Please note! The price of real estate available for purchase or rent depends on: the tower, the floor, the total floor area, the furnishings and/or interior design, and other factors.

The key advantages of buying/purchasing real estate in Moscow-City are:

• Favorable location;
• Convenient transportation links;
• Well-developed infrastructure;
• High safety level;
• Efficient architecture;
• Panoramic windows.

Buying real estate in Moscow-City is very much a rational decision, most appealing to those who value the ultimate level of comfort. The residential apartments here boast impressive interior design solutions executed in the contemporary style.

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Moscow's High Rise Bohemia: The International Business District With No Business

• Written by Dario Goodwin
• Published on March 17, 2015

The Moscow International Business Center (Also known as Moskva-City ) was meant to be Russia ’s ticket into the Western world. First conceived in 1992, the district at the edge of Moscow’s city center is intended to contain up to 300,000 inhabitants, employees and visitors at any given moment and, when completed, will house over 4 million square meters of prime retail, hotel and office space to create what the Russian government desired most from this project: an enormous financial district that could dwarf London’s Canary Wharf and challenge Manhattan . Twenty three years later though, Moscow-based real estate company Blackwood estimates that as much as 45% of this new space is entirely vacant and rents have plummeted far below the average for the rest of Moscow. The only press Moskva-City is attracting is for tenants like the High Level Hostel , a hostel catering to backpackers and other asset-poor tourists on the 43rd floor of the Imperia Tower , with prices starting at $25.50 for a bed in a six-person room. This is not the glittering world of western high finance that was envisioned back in the post-Soviet 90s; but what has it become instead?

As one might expect from a project of this sheer ambition, Moskva-City has a troubled past. The economic crash in 2008 hit Russia hard enough to evict the previous Mayor of Moscow , Yuri Luzhkov, who had been a cheerleader for the district, and replace him with the considerably more austere Sergei Sobyanin, who famously declared that the whole idea was an “urban planning mistake.” But as recently as 2013, the Wall Street Journal was triumphantly claiming that Moskva-City had risen from the dead, citing 80% occupancy rates and glowing quotes from industry insiders claiming that Moskva-City was the "place to be." Driven by record highs in oil prices, Moscow looked poised to become the next Dubai .

Instead, Moscow is now in the grip of an economic winter prompted by western sanctions and drops in the price of oil. The large financial groupings that Moskva-City was meant to shelter have been warned off by their inability to issue credit to international markets, for example - but Moskva-City isn’t just an Empire State Building left empty by the Great Depression.

A fundamental problem that is holding Moskva back compared to the rest of Moscow is the simple fact that currently, getting to Moskva-City is nigh-on impossible at peak hours. Moscow has long been plagued with transport problems, ever since the government failed to match the dramatic expansion of the city with a dramatic expansion of the transport system after the Second World War. Despite being only 2.5 miles from the Kremlin , Moskva-City is only just inside the ring road that bounds the city center and which acts as the only real transport link to it (and as a result, is clogged by construction vehicles.) A railway and metro hub has been finished, but so far only runs a one-stop shuttle service to the closest Metro station that is actually integrated with the rest of Moscow Metro. The isolation of the outer districts is a large, negative part of the Moscow psyche, and it’s not surprising that this is driving away the globetrotting financial elite this project was meant to attract.

The project is managed by architectural practice No.6, which is a constituent part of the large Moscow based practice Mosproject-2 , which is itself a public corporation headed up by Mikhail Vasilyevich Posokhin, who is apparently the “People’s Architect of Russia.” Despite all this state involvement, the project has still managed to become bogged down in bureaucratic infighting - each lot is managed and developed individually, which has led to developers competing for occupants by slashing rates.

Much has been written about the way modern financial districts and towers that inhabit them can be unwelcoming, forbidding or even hostile by design, but the skyscrapers of Moskva-City seem even less friendly than usual. The site - a former stone quarry, chosen out of necessity as the only place in the city center where a new district could be plausibly constructed - is isolated both physically and visually, leaving the cluster a stark anomaly on the city skyline. Even the names seem more imposing than optimistic now: Imperia, City of Capitals , Steel Peak.

The Mercury City Tower , so far the tallest completed building on the site, is officially “a strong reference to Russian constructivism, [which] gives the tower a strong vertical thrust similar to the one found in New York's Chrysler building .” It would be easy to criticize the Mercury City Tower for picking ‘inspirations’ that are so totally opposed to each other - The Chrysler building the defining emblem of American pre-crash confidence and Constructivism created with the express purpose (especially architecturally) of extending the Bolshevik revolution into a social revolution - but the way they smash those two inspirations together is almost beautifully ironic.

Even though the High Level Hostel is less an asset to a financial district than it is a PR problem, it’s been a huge success since opening in September, already ranked 27th out of 766 hostels in Moscow by TripAdvisor. According to the management agency for Moskva-City , 58% of the new occupant signings this year have been non-financial, including a number of small to medium size businesses. Other areas of office space have been occupied by a restaurant and a culinary school, while another space has been redeveloped into a 6,000 seat theater.

While Moskva-City is failing to be a financial district that could take on the world, it’s inadvertently becoming a humanized space catering to the very groups that the Russian economic miracle left behind. Taking advantage of rents lower than the rest of Moscow , the world class facilities and the sheer desperation of the developers, the humanization of Moskva-City could well create the world’s first high-rise bohemia.

Of course, these are not spaces designed for a community, or even for people: these are spaces designed for money, and there’s little scope for changing something that seems so baked into the design of Moskva-City . The High Level Hostel is trading off of the irony of being a hostel in a banking tower, but it’s perfectly possible that at some point people will no longer find this joke funny (especially in a building that seems hostile to the very idea of humor). The isolation of Moskva, even though it allowed this community to spring up in the first place, is just as detrimental to a humanized district as it is to a financial one: even bohemians need to move around the city, or the district risks becoming a black-spot instead of a hot-spot.

Moskva-City’s isolation won’t last forever. The end of construction will open the roads up to traffic, and plans to properly integrate the spur lines of the Metro in this area into the wider system are well under way. The integration of the district will inevitably push up rents, and the Russian economy will eventually boom once again. When that happens, Moskva-City is prime territory to be reconquered by the giants of international finance, and it seems unlikely that the municipal or national governments would want to step in to protect this accidental district. For now, though, the towers capture perfectly this moment of Russia ’s schizophrenic understanding of its place in the world.

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Moscow International Business Center (Moscow City)

• Guide to Russia

What can you do at Moscow City?

• Dine in style: Moscow City is home to 100+ cafes and restaurants, including Europe’s highest restaurant and ice-cream shop
• See Moscow like never before: Ascend to one of Moscow City’s observation decks for an unparalleled panorama of Moscow
• Admire world-class architecture: Each of Moscow City’s skyscrapers has distinctive architecture and design
• Learn something new: Visit the Museum of High-Rise Architecture in Moscow or the Metro Museum

Moscow City is a multifunctional complex in the west of Moscow, which has come to represent the booming business of Russia’s capital. Its skyscrapers enrich Moscow’s skyline, contrasting the medieval cupolas and Stalinist high-rises. Visitors to Moscow City can enjoy entertainment high in the sky, as the complex is home not just to offices, but to restaurants, cinemas, viewing platforms, and museums.

Photo by Alex Zarubi on Unsplash

History of Moscow City

Moscow City was first conceived in 1991 by honoured Soviet architect Boris Tkhor, who proposed to construct a business center in Moscow. It would be complete with gleaming skyscrapers rivalling those of New York and London, to reflect the new life and growing ambitions of post-Soviet Russia.

The chosen site was a stone quarry and disused industrial zone in western Moscow, in between the Third Ring Road and Moskva River. Initially, the territory was divided into 20 sections arranged in a horseshoe shape around a central zone. The skyscrapers would increase in height as they spiralled around the central section, with shorter structures built on the waterfront to give the taller buildings behind a view of the river. 

Architect Gennady Sirota, who contributed to iconic projects such as the Olympic Sports Complex on Prospekt Mira, was selected as the chief architect, and many other world-famous architects were attracted to Moscow to realise their visions in Moscow City.

What can you see and do at Moscow City?

Where Moscow’s cityscape was once dominated by Stalin’s Seven Sisters skyscrapers , this is no more. Moscow City is home to eight of Russia’s ten tallest buildings, six of which exceed 300 metres in height. More buildings are still under construction there today, including the One Tower (which will be Europe’s second-tallest building). Once completed, Moscow City will comprise more than 20 innovative structures.

Each of Moscow City’s skyscrapers was designed by its own architect, lending the cluster of skyscrapers a unique appearance. Aside from being a site of architectural wonder, Moscow City is a place for leisure and entertainment with over 100 cafes and restaurants, exhibition spaces, cinemas, viewing platforms, and more.

Photo by Nikita Karimov on Unsplash

Federation Tower

• East Tower: 374m, 97 floors; West Tower: 243m, 63 floors
• Completed in 2017
• Architects: Sergey Tchoban and Peter Schweger

The East Federation Tower is the tallest building in Moscow, and the second-tallest building in Europe after the Lakhta Centre in St Petersburg. Visitors can enjoy a luxurious meal of seafood, truffles or steak at restaurant ‘Sixty’ on the 62nd floor of the West Tower, or visit Europe’s highest observation deck, ‘Panorama 360’, on the 89th floor of the East Tower.

Did you know? The ice cream and chocolate shop on the 360 observation deck are the highest in the world!

• South Tower: 354m, 85 floors; North Tower: 254m, 49 floors
• Completed in 2015
• Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

The South OKO Tower is the third-tallest building in Russia and Europe. Here, you can visit ‘Ruski’ to dine on hearty Russian cuisine cooked on a real Russian stove, and have a drink in the ice bar. Alternatively, visit restaurant, nightclub and performance space ‘Birds’; the restaurant is the highest in Europe, situated on the 86th floor roof terrace alongside an observation deck. The OKO Towers are also home to karaoke club ‘City Voice’.

Did you know? Underneath OKO Towers is the largest underground parking in Europe, with 16 levels and 3,400 parking spaces.

Mercury Tower

• 339m tall, 75 floors
• Architects : Mikhail Posokhin, Frank Williams, Gennady Sirota

Another multifunctional skyscraper, which was designed as the first truly ‘green’ building in Moscow. The Mercury Tower has a distinct geometric shape and copper-coloured glazing, and was the tallest building in Europe upon completion. Visit ‘More i myaso’ (Sea and meat) on the first floor of the tower to enjoy European and Mediterranean cuisine whilst surrounded by greenery. On the 2nd and 40th floors a modern art gallery, the ‘ILONA-K artspace’, has just opened.

City of Capitals

• Moscow Tower: 302m, 76 floors; St Petersburg Tower: 257m, 65 floors
• Completed in 2009
• Architect: Bureau NBBJ

The unique geometric design of the City of Capitals towers resembles stacks of rotating blocks, and is rooted in Constructivism of the early Soviet period (many Soviet Constructivist buildings can be found in Moscow). Visitors to the Moscow Tower can enjoy a range of cuisines – traditional Italian dishes on the summer terrace of ‘Tutto Bene’, Panasian cuisine in the tropical luxury of the ‘Bamboo Bar’ on the 1st floor’, and poke or smoothie bowls at ‘Soul in the Bowl’ cafe on the 80th floor.

Tower on the Embankment

• Tower A: 84m; Tower B:127m; Tower C: 268m, 61 floors
• Completed in 2007
• Architects: Vehbi Inan and Olcay Erturk

After completion, the Tower on the Embankment was the tallest building in Europe, and is now the 13th tallest. It houses the headquarters of several large Russian and international  companies, including IBM and KPMG. There are two cafes located on the 1st floor of Tower C – self-service café ‘Obed Bufet’ (Lunch Buffet) and Bakery Chain ‘Khleb Nasushchny’ (Daily Bread).

Evolution Tower

• 255m tall, 54 floors
• Architects: Philip Nikandrov and RMJM Scotland Ltd

Evolution is Moscow City’s most recognisable tower, and the 11th tallest building in Russia. Its façade is a true architectural marvel, comprising continuous strips of curved glazing spiralling high into  the sky. According to the architect, Philip Nikandrov, the spiral shape of the tower honours centuries of architectural design in Russia, from the onion domes of St Basil's Cathedral to Vladimir Shukhov’s Tatlin Tower, a masterpiece of Constructivist design. Outside the Evolution tower is a landscaped terrace and pedestrian zone descending to the Presnenskaya Embankment, which was also designed by Nikandrov.

Did you know? Moscow’s largest wedding palace was supposed to be built on the site of the Evolution tower, though the project was abandoned.

• 239m tall, 60 floors
• Completed in 2011

Imperia’s interesting design has a curved roof and an arched glass façade. Inside the tower are various cafes including ‘City Friends’ for all-day breakfasts and light lunches, ‘Mama in the City’ for simple meals of Russian cuisine, and ‘abc kitchen’ for European and Indian-inspired dishes. Alternatively, visit ‘High Bar’ on the 56th floor for cocktails with a view. In Imperia you’ll also find the Museum of High-Rise Construction in Moscow (suitably located on the 56th floor), and the Camera Immersive Theatre.

Did you know? Inside Vystavochnaya metro station is the Metro Museum , dedicated to the history of the beautiful Moscow Metro!

• 130m tall, 26 floors
• Completed in 2001
• Architect: Boris Tkhor

Tower 2000 was Moscow City’s first tower. It stands on the opposite bank of the Moskva River, and houses a viewing platform from which visitors can admire an unparalleled panorama of Moscow City. The Bagration Bridge reaches across the river from the tower to Moscow City, and underneath are piers from where you can take boat trips.

Photo by Alexander Popov on Unsplash

Afimall is Moscow’s largest entertainment and shopping complex, home to 450 shops, cafes and restaurants, a cinema, and a virtual-reality game park. The shopping centre is located in the central section of Moscow City, and a cinema and concert hall are currently under construction there.

What’s nearby?

Sechenov Botanical Gardens: The botanical gardens of the First Moscow State Medical University was created for students’ training and research in 1946. Today it is open for free visits, and is home to a large arboretum.

Park Krasnaya Presnya: This park belonged to the Studenets estate of the Gagarin princes. It is a monument of 18th and 19th century landscaping, with Dutch ponds, ornate bridges, and tree-lined alleys. There are also sports facilities, sports equipment rental, and cafes.

Photo by Akkit  on Wikipedia

Essential information for visitors

Website: https://www.citymoscow.ru/

Email: [email protected]

Phone: +7 (495) 730-23-33

Nearest metro: Mezhdunarodnaya (closest to the skyscrapers), Delovoy Tsentr (underneath Afimall), Vystavochnaya (closest to Expocentre)

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