Why Traditional Planners Don't Work for Neurodivergent Brains

Traditional Planners Don't Work for Neuro Brains

If you've bought planner after planner only to abandon them after a week, you're not broken. The planners are.

• Sensory overwhelm - Traditional planners often have busy layouts, thin paper that feels awful, and too many colours/sections

• Executive dysfunction - Complex systems with 20 different sections when your brain can barely handle 3

• Routine disruption - When planners don't fit your actual life patterns, they become another source of stress

• All-or-nothing thinking - Miss one day and the whole system feels "ruined"

 

Case Study

"Sarah told us she'd bought 12 different planners in two years. Each one promised to 'change her life,' but the tiny writing spaces triggered her sensory issues, and the complex layouts overwhelmed her executive function. Within days, she'd stop using them and feel like she'd failed again."

 

My Planning Disaster Collection

I'm Lisa, and I'm autistic. Before I created ROARGANISE, I had what I called my 'planning disaster collection' - a drawer full of abandoned planners that promised to change my life but left me feeling like a failure instead.

There was the one with tiny, unclear fonts that I had to squint to read. The overwhelming pages crammed with so much text, colours, and sections that my brain would shut down just looking at them. The busy layouts with decorative elements everywhere when I just needed clean, simple spaces to write. And don't get me started on the flimsy paper that felt awful under my fingers.

Each time I'd start with such hope. This would be THE system that finally worked. But within days, the cluttered pages would overwhelm me, I'd get lost in the chaos of the layout, miss an entry, and I'd abandon it completely. Then I'd blame myself - clearly, I was just 'rubbish at planning.'

The lightbulb moment came when I realised: I wasn't broken. The planners were.

They weren't designed for brains like mine. I needed consistent, clear designs that were super easy to follow. I needed layouts that were clean and professional-looking without being overwhelming. Zero visual clutter, zero confusion - just simple, intuitive spaces that made sense - Check out all the Insert ranges here https://roarganise.com/collections/inserts

So I decided to create exactly that. Every ROARGANISE insert follows the same design principles: black and white colour schemes, readable fonts, consistent layouts, and plenty of white space. Professional enough for work or personal use, clear enough that your brain doesn't have to work overtime just to understand the page - This one being our favourite https://roarganise.com/products/workplace-bundle

Every design choice comes from a lifetime of lived experience with autism, understanding that planning should be effortless, not exhausting.

This is why Roarganise works.
#roarganise
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