planner hopping - does this sound familiar?
description of "planner hopping":
never satisfied with the planner that you are using, always on the search for other options, try out a planner, go back to the old one, try out a new one, use one for 1 week or longer, then go back to the other, use one for a day, longingly look at the old ones, go back to an old one ... and so on ... and so on
I guess you understand pretty clearly what I mean by "planner hopping" 😉
well, I did this since about July of this year!
In the beginning of the year I was pretty much settled with my EDC planner; my monthlies, weeklies and note pages lived in a ring bound planner.
Ok, I wasn`t sure about the size yet, either Personal or A6, but it was decided that I would go forward with a ring planner.
I first had an Aura Estelle Scarlett cover in A6, in Meredith Grey or my other one in light grey outside and pink inside, these covers are wide enough to fit A6 wide pages into them.
Then I jumped on the Filofax wagon again (was using Filofax covers years ago) and was able to get a Filofax Original in Personal Size in the beautiful red color of Pillarbox Red.
I never really liked the Personal sized inserts, these are too narrow for me. The height ok, but not the width.
But this cover is able to accomodate the wider inserts in the size of Franklin Covey Compact!
for comparison:
- Filofax Personal ==> 95x171 mm, 3.75x6.75 inches
- FC Compact ==> 108x171 mm, 4.25x6.75 inches
These Filofax Original covers have an elastic band on the left inside to hold a pen or small things, I removed this elastic band and was able to fit the FC Compact inserts like a dream. They go right up to the edge and with top tabs this was my dream .. well, at that point in about May and June 😉
With 23mm rings, it was ok but I would have liked to have at least 25mm rings or even larger.
I then discovered that Filofax has an Original cover with 25mm rings! These are from their limited Centennial collection, for their 100 years celebration
a beautiful cover in dark grey, with gold stitching and gold rings, with 25mm!!
And, at the same time, I saw that Harrods in UK offered a special edition of these Original covers in black with gold accents, as well with 25mm rings!
ok, both ordered and I was really looking forward to these covers! Personal sized covers with gold rings in 25mm and the beautiful Original series from Filofax.
oh well, I was slightly disappointed when I received them ... well, not slightly but a lot!!
Both covers are very beautiful, the leather great, with gold rings, they look very elegant.
But what did Filofax do?
They put 25mm rings into these covers without adjusting the width of the cover! And without adjusting the strap length of the closure!
This results into larger rings, which could accomodate more pages, but you cannot close it with more pages because the strap is the same size as before.
In addition my FC Compact inserts do not fit into these covers anymore, because the width stayed the same but with the larger rings the inserts now hang out of the cover!
Just about 2mm, but this is exactly the difference of the ring size!
Was I disappointed? Yes, I was for sure!
I was so looking forward to these covers, I always wanted to have a black one (or grey one) with gold rings and gold closure button and now I was not able to use them because my FC Compact inserts did not fit in anymore. And, as mentioned above, the Personal sized pages are too slim for me.
Anyone interested in buying these covers? Head over to my sales page, they are still available 😊
And this started my search and I started planner hopping!
It was clear what my EDC planner needs to have:
- yearly overviews with future logs
- vertical monthlies on two pages
- weekly overviews for my tasks
and small enough to take it with me in my bag.
I create my planner inserts and my stickers myself, I was therefore able to either print my pages out and punch them or use stickers for headers of months. I was therefore not restricted to a bound book or discs or wire bound options.
These are the ones I tried out this year and between these I`m switching back and forth and cannot decided.
The pictures are not in sequence of the appearance 😉
William Hannah A6
These leather covers of William Hannah in UK are disc bound covers.
The discs are not visible on the outside. Beautiful leather covers with contrasting inside suede leather. You can even create customs ones with a color combination as you wish.
The size is A6, I printed everything on Munken Lynx paper.
Citrus Bookbindery B6
Citrus Bookbindery, another shop from UK, just like William Hannah, makes beautful bound books with colorful covers with visible stitches.
They also offer covers for discs. These are thick cardboard covers, available with so many different images in beautiful colors, prepunched for discs.
The size is B6 but B6 wide inserts fit perfectly within the covers, the pages go right up to the edge. And I use a clear cover to procect the covers.
I used Midori Cotton Paper as inserts and printed everything myself.
Leuchtturm A5 notebook
I guess I do not have to explain anything about Leuchtturm notebooks.
I have selected an A5 book with grid layout, this allows me to set up my Alastair weeks easily, I have used stickers to create my monthlies and weeklies.
Stalogy Notebook
The Stalogy Notebooks are exceptionally well made, with very thin white paper. Not as smooth as Tomoe River Paper, the Stalogy paper gives a bit of feedback while writing with fountain pens.
I`m using a B6 book, with 365 pages, I have set it up as well with stickers to create my monthlies and weeklies.
wirebound A6 notebook
After rings, discs and bound books I was thinking about wire binding my books.
Easily done with a wirebinding machine from Fellowes or GBC.
You can use any paper, you can cut the paper to the size that you like (the wire can be shortened), you can print whatever you need.
I will go deeper into my wirebinding story in another blogpost in the future.
For this A6 "prototype" I used Thin Paper and printed out my layouts. This paper is known from the Jibun Techo planners, I was able to order notepads with blank and dot grid paper.
wirebound B6 notebook
For this B6 wirebound notebook I took apart a Stalogy notebook in B6 size.
Added some clear matt cover (that`s why the name of October looks a bit blurry).
I was even able to print on some pages of this Stalogy paper to add my yearly overviews, but my printer does really like this paper a bit too much, he was eating and destroying half of the pages, so not a good idea in the end.
and right now?
Right now, at this point while writing this blogpost, I`m back in my Stalogy but I have no idea for how long 😇
I just cannot decide on one or the other, there are small reasons why I change back and forth between all the above:
- size a bit too small for comfortable writing (A6 wired)
- but great to take with me (A6)
- grid print a bit too light, sometimes I cannot see the squares on the paper (Stalogy Notebook or B6 wired with Stalogy paper)
- but the Stalogy paper is sooo nice to write on, it is a "soft" paper, lovely for most of my fountain pens
- too big to take with me (Leuchtturm A5)
- but paper is just lovely in this Leuchtturm
- my discbound is a bit overstuffed and sometimes the pages do not stay within the discs, especially when you are folding the cover back on itself when you are in a shop to see your shopping lists (B6 discbound) ... and nothing worse than dropping sheets and having your hands full of groceries and paper is sailing away from you underneath the tomatoes shelf (yep, this is real life 😉 )
- there is not enough space for all my sheets (A6 William Hannah)
- The Thin Paper is a bit too thin (A6 wire bound), it`s great to write on, I really love it, but so thin and not easy to turn pages, the sheets stick together.
And all this for my 2022!!! I have not even set up anything for 2023 because I can`t even find a planner for 2022!
But well, part of planning is trying out new styles, trying to find the perfect layout, the perfect paper, the perfect pens, the perfect size! And setting up a new planner is just making too much fun 😀
Have you already found your planner for 2022? or even already for 2023??
Thank you to all, stay healthy and (planner) peace to everyone!
Andrea ✒🖋💖
P.S. I have bought all my planners myself, I paid for them, I state my own personal opinions about them. When you click a link which I have added for you to see the original planners I do not get paid for it.
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