The Work-Smart Academic Planner, Revised Edition

Most student planners give kids a place to write things down. This one, from executive function experts Peg Dawson and Richard Guare, actually teaches the underlying skills — organization, time initiation, goal persistence — that make a planner work in the first place. Students start with a self-assessment that identifies their own executive skill strengths and gaps, then use daily and weekly templates designed around those findings. The revised edition improved the planner pages and added spiral binding for durability. It is especially well-regarded for students with ADHD. The honest caveat: the physical planner format will not suit students who prefer digital tools, and younger users typically need an adult to coach them through the system at the start. Schools and learning specialists use it widely.