I decided to try a completely new planner system and layout in 2026: the Wonderland222 “Core” system. I’ve experimented with other planner systems in the past, including both Hobonichi and Kokuyo Jibun Techo, but have never been able to find a specific layout that met all of my needs in a single volume. I instead found myself juggling too many planners and notebooks, which is neither convenient nor sustainable.
Even with the year 3/4 complete, this A5 planner remains relatively compact and not overly thick.
This past year with my Wonderland222 Planner has been an unparalleled success. Their A5 Core Stacked layout has everything that I look for in a planner, and best of all it remains slim enough that I can take it everywhere, and even carry it in a Roterfaden A5 Taschenbegleiter with other notebooks. Nothing about this planner will change for 2027, at least in terms of layout, so I’m running it back and plan to use the exact same book. The news that garnered the most attention was Wonderland222’s decision to return to Tomoe River Paper for 2027, but that’s less important to me as I’m fine with either TRP or the excellent paper in the 2026 Planners and Notebooks. Increasingly, much of the writing in my planner is done with a gel pen or mechanical pencil.
I used planner tabs (a mix of Midori and TRAVELER’S Company) to help me flip between all of the various views and layouts in the Core System. I will do this again next year.
Wonderland222 Core System: Great for Those Who Need a Multi-Level Planning System
Wonderland222 Planners are organized around what they refer to as their “Core” planning system, a multi-level planning system with four-year, annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily layouts all included in a single volume. In addition to the calendars, the planner includes a task tracker or logging page, as well as blank “review” pages at the beginning and end of each month to assist with summaries and transitions. All of these are laid out in an intuitive format that make periodic reviews and monthly/weekly transitions easy - especially important if you have a lot of tasks going on at once. To be clear, all Wonderland222 Planners include the multiple calendars. The terminology can get a bit confusing because “Core” is also used to refer to planner size - more on that below.
Each quarterly calendar has three months on the left-hand side, with a blank page for notes on the right.
In addition to the weekly calendar layout, which I will discuss in greater detail below, my most-frequently used planning tools are the quarterly calendar and the monthly calendars. Monthly planning functions include convenient pre- and post-monthly review pages, which I use to close out open tasks from the prior month, and sometimes journal on how things went, prior to listing tasks and ideas I am carrying over into the next month.
Monthly review/preview pages shown for October and November.
Vertical Weekly Layouts Make Time-Blocking Easy
The heart of the Wonderland222 Planners is the weekly layout. Most options include a vertical weekly calendar, which I prefer because it allows me to time-block individual days while also viewing a week at a glance. The calendar features a Monday start, and Saturday and Sunday can either be stacked (single column) or unstacked (two additional daily columns), depending on how much structure your weekend requires.
A simple example of time-blocking, and also showing how the “stacked month” layout works in the Wonderland222. In the “unstacked” version, Saturday and Sunday each have their own column rather than sharing one, but the columns are narrower with less room to write.
Horizontal layouts are also available. These will be familiar to fans of the Hobonichi Weeks and TRAVELER’S Company Weekly+Memo formats. If you don’t time block or plan by the hour, or alternatively if you tend to use your planner more as a journal or daily logbook, you might prefer a horizontal layout as it gives you additional room to write.
Weekly horizontal layout - Photo courtesy of Wonderland222.
I’ve Discovered That I Don’t Need 365+ Daily Pages
Wonderland222 Planners are available in two page-count variations: the All-in-One and "Core” versions. Here’s where it gets slightly confusing - both the All-in-One and Core planners get you the “Core” planning system (the yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, etc.). The difference is the number of daily pages the planner contains. The All-in-One allows you to plan every day on a daily level, with 376 undated daily pages that can be used for planning each day down to the half-hour, or for notes or journaling. The Core planners contain 88 daily pages, for those of us who don’t necessarily require a full page for every day, or who simply want a smaller number of blank pages for notes. I tend to use the 88 blank pages at the back of my current planner for notes, brainstorming, to-do lists, and specific project management. If I'm traveling and don’t have room to carry a stand-alone journal, I will also use these pages for personal journaling.
The Undated “Daily” pages are grid pages with a 24-hour calendar on the left hand margin, as well as a header and a faint quadrant rule.
A Wonderland222 A5 Video Walkthrough
As you can tell, I’m pretty enthusiastic about this planner system, mainly because it works so well for me personally. If you would like to see a video walkthrough of the Wonderland222 Planner System (A5 Core Stacked Layout), visit our YouTube Channel where I walked through my blank 2027 A5 Core Stacked planner. In video format, I can show you each of the various pages without having to worry about covering up personal information, and also offer a better sense of how each segment flows through into the next. It’s an intuitive system for those of us who need more functionality than a basic calendar provides, but there is something of a learning curve to fully maximize all the potential here.
Now that we have additional online retail capacity, we decided to bring Wonderland222 Planners and Notebooks into the TGS Shop. We have these in our Nashville store in addition to online. Currently we have most of the layouts in sizes that include A5, B6, and A6. As with most dated planners from the boutique planner brands, Wonderland222 may run out of certain variants, so if you want to pick up a specific planner please don’t wait until year-end as we cannot guarantee availability.
