When Do Korean Planners for the New Year Come Out?

In Korea, next year's planner is something you shop for in autumn. Stationery brands and bookstores roll out their dated diaries months ahead, so by the time you visit in November, the full lineup is on the shelves and the choice is at its widest. The season runs roughly like this:

This year followed the same pattern. Kyobo Book Centre ran a preview of next year's diaries from early September, and its current diary promotion, which pairs planners with pens, notebooks and stickers, runs until November 30. And for coffee drinkers, the winter round of Starbucks Korea's sticker-collecting promotion ends with a planner made with Moleskine; our guide to the Starbucks Korea winter e-Frequency explains how visitors can join in.

If you're visiting in November or December, you're in the best window. Covers are fresh, the stickers that match them are out, and you can flip through the inside pages before you buy, which is the real reason to shop in person.

What Kind of Planner Do Koreans Use?

Walk into a stationery floor in November and the sheer number of formats can be confusing. Most fall into a few types:

• Dated diaries. Printed with next year's dates, usually with a monthly calendar followed by weekly pages. These are the ones that come out in autumn.
• Undated diaries. Monthly and weekly pages without printed dates, so you can start any time and skip weeks without wasting paper. Many Korean brands make an undated version of their bestsellers.
• Daily diaries. One page per day, popular with people who journal or keep a record of what they ate, read or watched.
• Ring binders. Six-ring binder covers in A5, A6 and smaller A7 sizes, filled with refill sheets you choose yourself: monthly, weekly, grid, to-do lists, even photo-card pockets. Refills are sold separately, so you can build a planner that fits exactly how you use it.

Covers range from minimal fabric and leather-look designs to bright character illustrations, which are a big part of the appeal. Korean design-stationery brands such as Iconic and 7321 Design have loyal followings for their illustrated covers and well-planned inner pages, and big international names sit on the same shelves. The thing to check before you buy is the inside: the layout of the weekly page, the paper and whether your pen bleeds through.

Dakku: Decorating Your Diary With Stickers and Tape

What makes a Korean planner different isn't the planner itself. It's what people do to it. Dakku, short for diary kkumigi, or "diary decorating", is the habit of filling the pages with stickers, washi tape, cut-out paper, stamps and handwriting, so that a plain weekly spread turns into something closer to a scrapbook.

A few things you'll see on the shelves and in the hands of people decorating at cafes:

• Sticker sheets. Small illustrated stickers sold by the sheet, often in sets by theme: food, weather, characters, vintage objects. Many diaries have matching sticker collections.
• Washi and masking tape. Including key-cut tape, printed with shapes you peel off one by one.
• Memo pads and cut-outs. Small die-cut notepaper and printed scraps to layer on a page.
• Tweezers. Serious decorators use them to place small stickers precisely, which is why you'll see them in stationery shops next to the tape.

Dakku is popular with people in their teens to thirties, and many stationery shops sell stickers from small independent illustrators alongside the big brands. For a neighborhood-by-neighborhood map of where those shops are, from the toy street in Changsin-dong to the sticker shops of Hongdae, see our stationery shop guide to Seoul.

Where to Buy a Planner in Seoul

You can find a diary almost anywhere in Seoul in November, but for the widest choice of new-year planners, these are the places to go:

• Kyobo Book Centre and Hottracks. Hottracks is the stationery and gift floor inside Kyobo Book Centre, and in planner season it gives over a large area to next year's diaries from Korean and international brands. The Gwanghwamun and Gangnam flagships have the biggest selections. Our Seoul bookstores guide covers both.
• Design-stationery chains. Artbox, with stores in busy shopping areas across Seoul, makes its own character diaries for each new year, along with matching stickers and tape.
• Independent stationery shops. Smaller shops carry diaries and stickers from Korean design brands and independent illustrators you won't find in the chains.
• Daiso. The budget option. Daiso's dated diaries for the coming year cost around 3,000 won, and its stationery aisle is full of stickers and tape at 1,000 to 2,000 won.

Two practical tips. Diaries are heavy for their size, so if you're buying several, pick slim or soft-cover ones and pack them flat in your suitcase. And if you use a ring binder, check the ring size and hole spacing before you buy refills for one you already own; ring spacing can differ between brands, so compare in the store.