Why I Picked the Faded Chronicle Planner for 2027
It’s planner season and I’ve recently received the one I’m using for 2027: the Faded Chronicle Planner. Over the years I’ve tried a LOT of layouts and styles, from larger planners like the Simplified by Emily Ley and Erin Condren to smaller planners like Hobonichi Weeks to Amazon finds like the Passion Planner and Clever Fox. I’ve learned a lot about what I love and what I don’t.
So this year, I’m beyond excited to have found a planner that I think combines my favorite features: the Faded Chronicle 2027 Planner in a B6 Compact size.
What I LOOKED For in a 2027 Planner
I’m a planner and journal fiend, with a whole ecosystem that includes a garden journal, a line-a-day five-year journal, a sort of grimoire, a commonplace journal, a journal of ideas and thoughts to come back to, and finally, a planner.
I use the planner every day for work and life, as well as planning upcoming goals or events. I don’t use the planner as a journal (I mean, every planner sort of acts like a journal), I actually use this for planning. This is my workhorse planner so it needs to have a few things that work for me.
Planner Must-Haves
- Dated
- Horizontal weeks
- BUT have a good way to see appointments and meetings for the week easily
- AND somewhere to write on the opposite page with decent room
- Book bound, no rings or discs or spirals
- Plenty of blank pages at the back
Planner Nice-to-Haves
- Not too big, with room to write – definitely not bulky
- The print isn’t dark or heavy
- Some kind of habit tracker
- Some way to quarterly plan
Many, many planners have some or a lot of these but I hadn’t seen one with all of these before so I knew it was a tall order.
Dated vs. Undated Planner
I am currently working with an undated dot grid blank journal that I’m cobbling into a sort of Hobonichi spread each week. I hate undated planners. I have no reason for this. It makes perfect sense to have an undated one for those times you don’t really use it, so you aren’t wasting planner space.
I can’t explain it. I just hate not having the dates printed. So, it’s a dated planner for me please.
Planner Sizes and Formats I Considered
My commonplace journal is a B5 size and it’s fantastic. So much room to write and add stickers or ephemera. And I really considered getting a larger planner this year. But I’ve been down this road and it doesn’t work for me. My planner often sits open on my desk or goes along with me in my bag, it needs writing space sure but not bulk. A5 has been my go-to and that size has worked for me really well.
I need horizontal weeklies more than anything else. I don’t have a job where I have a ton of meetings or things scheduled at certain times, and so a vertical hourly format isn’t really necessary. But I do have deadlines or tasks that I like to plan out so more writing room is important.
However, there are sometimes meetings and there are sometimes things scheduled. A way to see the weekly scheduled plan would be so nice. Typically, I’m shoving this information off to the side in a little column I draw but that cuts into my day block and for whatever reason, doesn’t catch my eye like I want. It ends up feeling like clutter rather than something that needs attention.
I considered a daily layout, but that felt like way too much. I also considered a vertical layout (not hourly, just stacked) but none of them looked like enough writing room either. I also looked at creating a custom planner but decided against it. Too many choices and the fear of regret stopped me every time.
The Planners I Almost Chose
I started the year with a Clever Fox planner (after learning that the Legend Planners are based on them) and it didn’t work for me. It’s a completely fine planner but I felt like I had no space due to the design of the weekly spread. Additionally, I chose the “colors” version and turns out, the printed matter in the planner is visually too much for me – and again, takes up a lot of space.
(That being said, I LOVE the Clever Fox One Line a Day Journal 5-Year Diary.)
I also don’t need sections for each week’s “wins” or “how to improve. Those are things I can add if I want to but otherwise I feel like these kinds of sections take up space I’d rather use differently. I definitely looked harder at layout this year.
Sterling Ink A5 Horizontal Compact Full Year 2027 Common Planner
(None of the following links are affiliate, just hopefully helpful.)
I looked really, really hard at Sterling Ink this year. I think their Mulberry and Mist colors are beautiful. I like that this one has a nice weekly layout and I like their tracker pages. I also liked their Flex Planner layout.
Wonderland 222 2026 A5 Weekly Planner | Core | Horizontal
This was another serious contender. And the layout looks like it would work well. I like their end of month review on the same page spread as the next month’s overview. Wonderland 222’s horizontal layouts only seem to come in this compact Core version and it didn’t feel like enough blank pages at the end though (88 pages) for me.
Hemlock and Oak 2027 Horizontal Planner
Ooh, I loved this one. There are so many colors to choose from and I liked Rivière, Moonflower, Woodlands, Mulberry, and Fawn the best. I would have had a hard time choosing between them! Another bonus here is that Hemlock & Oak has coordinated sticker sets for each color. But it also has a lot of space dedicated to habits, goal-setting, and personal cultivation – which are great but not something I use my daily planner for.
My 2027 Pick: The Faded Chronicle Planner B6 COMPACT
I was this close to buying the Sterling Ink when I saw a mention of the Faded Chronicle planner. It was just a brand I hadn’t yet looked at but it actually checks so many boxes for me. It also has a few elements I’m excited about. I chose the Emerald Green but I also liked the Mushroom color.
It’s dated with horizontal weeks with a twist. The top of the weekly 2-page spread has small boxes for each day. Then on the left side are horizontal days with the right side a space for habit tracking and four boxes writing. But they are BLANK and unlabeled, so you have ultimate freedom here. Because the print is light, you can write across the page as with any notebook or you can organize within the four boxes.
Rather than the A5, I ended up choosing the B6 Compact this year. I thought it might be a tad more portable in my bag but once it got here, it felt a little small. It’s a little less than an inch smaller from top, and about half an inch smaller on the sides from an A5. The teal planner below is an A5 and the brown cover commonplace journal below is a B5, for scale.
I’m hoping it works out just fine once I start writing in it.
The planner is book-bound with a soft cover and lay-flat thread binding. There are 168 blank pages at the back and quarterly planning with all the quarters together up front. The paper is soft white, which I’m glad for because while I hate yellow pages I also am not a fan of bright white. The paper is Tomoe River Paper (Sanzen), which I know some have had issues with a few years ago but I don’t use fountain or brush pens. I expect it will write nicely for me.
Planner Review
Once I’ve actually lived with the Faded Chronicle Planner for a month or two, I’ll come back with a full review to see if it holds up to my initial excitement. If you’re planner-shopping too, I’d love to hear what you landed on!
