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sebastien_morissette
September 19th, 2014, 05:26 AM
My question is with regards to personal organizers for 2015:

I'm wondering if I should get a hobonichi planner, a midori traveler’s notebook, a fillofax, a techo planner? I’m a bit lost…. :confused:

I never tried any of those but every year since I finished university 16 years ago, I've been using an agenda to plan my hours, my days, my workweeks, my weekends, my months the whole year… and I know that I am going to use the planner that I’m going to get, but, I just don't know which one to get.

I have always used Quo vadis or similar and it's working fine; but I have to use a separate note book for taking notes in meeting, a separate paper tablet for to do lists, I'm also carrying using a separate phone book and a business card holder, so I have to carry all those four or five booklets in a messenger bag. I would like to keep everything under the same cover or the same binder.

More specifically: I prefer the A5 format or similar, I prefer an agenda that shows a whole wee on 1 or 2 pages, I need to do list, phonebook, notepad and I need to be able to add documents and to take out documents: so to move pages in and out, I need to carry business card I would like to have a pen loop at least if not more than one probably two is the best.

I don't mind the material so much it could be leather or other type of fabric. I don't have a preference for either elastic bands or rings as long as it's comfortable to write in when it's open on a desk.

Oh yeah; one last thing! : A use almost exclusively fountain pens!!
So based on your experience what should I get?

bec11mort
September 19th, 2014, 11:28 AM
If you are trying to cut down on the number of books you carry then a Midori TN may be the best bet for you. I use a Hobonichi Techo, which is great for planning and scheduling, but doesn't provide enough space for taking any kind of notes in a meeting (I actually carry my Hobonichi, Midori TN, and a Rhodia dotpad on a regular basis). For a while I used the TN exclusively with 3-4 books in it (including a planner). It was something I carried everywhere. The Midori paper is great with fountain pens, and might be my second-favorite overall (second only to tomoe river, the primary reason I love my hobonichi and have stopped using the TN as often). Really you can't go wrong with any of those!

Lady Onogaro
September 19th, 2014, 12:11 PM
I would second it, mentioning that the passport sized is pretty handy. I have the month at a glance insert (which is undated so you can start using it any time and gives you some blank pages for notes or addresses or whatever), an unlined note-taking insert, a lined note taking insert (for lists of different things--in my case, books I want to check out of the library). The larger size is very nice, too, and if you find the Midori inserts a bit too expensive, you can try the Banditapple carnet inserts.

I love planners, too, and can rarely restrict myself to one, so I use a Quo Vadis desk calendar at work (the Trinote).

I also have a Choo Choo Cat Study Planner which I love and use at home, too (it's adorable). (But it isn't really FP Friendly).

Oh, another option for you could be the Circa Planner or notebooks from Levenger, or the M series from Staples. There are calendar inserts, to do lists, note pages, etc. and it comes in a variety of formats and sizes--you can pretty much design it yourself. Silverbreeze introduced me to these products for notetaking (thanks, Tom), which is very nice paper indeed. It is friendlier to some fountain pens and inks than others, but it's mostly friendly.

sebastien_morissette
September 19th, 2014, 12:21 PM
Thank you both. It is helping me out. I must admit that the Midori is tempting me because of the ability to transform the content over time to fit whatever your needs are and their evolution.

I think I'm going to spend time reading reviews TN's load out options.

Silverbreeze
September 19th, 2014, 12:47 PM
I would second it, mentioning that the passport sized is pretty handy. I have the month at a glance insert (which is undated so you can start using it any time and gives you some blank pages for notes or addresses or whatever), an unlined note-taking insert, a lined note taking insert (for lists of different things--in my case, books I want to check out of the library). The larger size is very nice, too, and if you find the Midori inserts a bit too expensive, you can try the Banditapple carnet inserts.

I love planners, too, and can rarely restrict myself to one, so I use a Quo Vadis desk calendar at work (the Trinote).

I also have a Choo Choo Cat Study Planner which I love and use at home, too (it's adorable). (But it isn't really FP Friendly).

Oh, another option for you could be the Circa Planner or notebooks from Levenger, or the M series from Staples. There are calendar inserts, to do lists, note pages, etc. and it comes in a variety of formats and sizes--you can pretty much design it yourself. Silverbreeze introduced me to these products for notetaking (thanks, Tom), which is very nice paper indeed. It is friendlier to some fountain pens and inks than others, but it's mostly friendly.

(You are welcome Denise )

Look at disc type binder books
Also Hobonichi planners are great as planners but you need another book for long form

da vinci
September 19th, 2014, 01:06 PM
I'd definitely have a look at the staples ARC in A5 and buying a punch.

Silverbreeze
September 19th, 2014, 01:18 PM
I'd definitely have a look at the staples ARC in A5 and buying a punch.

Buy Premuim Arc paper it's a dollar more but is similar to Leuchtturm paper

Also you can use Levenger Circa discs and/or paper

sharmon202
September 20th, 2014, 07:18 AM
Check out Bullet Journal - Google it and watch the video.

Silverbreeze
September 20th, 2014, 08:28 AM
Check out Bullet Journal - Google it and watch the video.

I use a lot of the bullet journal techniques in my journal/notebooks
Doesn't work well for -ME- as a planner though I am sure I will be adding it into my techno

Full disclosure I did back the Leuchtturm KickStarter he has going
http://bulletjournal.com/

sebastien_morissette
September 22nd, 2014, 12:43 PM
Hi all,

thank you for your answers,
bullet journaling seems great but oh boy it requires very methodical approach to things and requires to be very consistent, I don't know if it is for me.... I'll give it a try for sure.

sebastien_morissette
September 22nd, 2014, 12:47 PM
In the mean time I have reached out to Adam from Thedeskofadam.com AKA AdamsFilo

here is his "pro tip" : (sorry the links in the text didn't survived the cut and paste treatment"

I've been looking through a bunch of different systems and think I have put together a set up which might work pretty well for you.

It's based around the Hobonichi. Since you have been using the Quo Vadis and have been used to the bound system I think you won't find much trouble with the Hobonichi. The 'cousin' model of the Hobonichi is in A5 size. Although it's in Japanese it's still useable for non-japanese speaking users. They do make a planner in English but it is only available in A6. Here is the cousin.

The reason I chose the cousin is for a case I think will work best for you. Filofax have a range of notebooks and notebook covers called Flex. They make leather notebook covers in A5 which fit the Hobonichi cousin. This would provide you with a durable cover as well as pockets for documents and business cards. There are two Flex covers in particular that I think will work well for you, here is the first, and this is the other. Both of these have plenty of pockets which I think you may find useful. You may notice on the right side of these covers is a pocket for a jot pad, Filofax have one to fit this, one is supplied with the cover as well as an A5 notebook. However in my experience Filofax paper is far from fountain pen friendly. An option to get around this would be to cut down a notebook such as a Rhodia to fit that pocket and then you will have a second notebook with your Hobonichi. You may notice a lack of pen loops on this cover, Filofax have a product which is basically a piece of laminated card with an elasticated pen loop on it (found here) One is included with each Flex cover. The covers have a pocket on each side facing outwards for this pen loop, so you could purchase a second one and your cover will have two pen loops.

The Hobonichi set up, I think, would be quite useful for you. It has a month on two pages view, week on two pages view (mon-sun) & day per page view. Both the week and day view are timed from 6am to 12am and all have a grid ruling. As you said you like to plan your hours I think the week view will be perfect for that. And you need to take notes during meetings, I think the day per view could be useful for this. As you have a full A5 page per day you could use that to take notes from meetings on that day. The day per page view also has a section at the top of the page with a to-do list so you could have a to-do list per day if needed. The weekly view also has space at the top of each day for 3 to-do's. I believe it also has a few pages at the back with address' but if that isn't enough Hobonichi also make a small bound address book which could easily be slipped into the Flex cover alongside the planner.

The paper in the Hobonichi Cousin is surprisingly thin but works nicely with fountain pens, as long as the pen/ink you're using isn't overly wet. The pages do show shadowing a little but don't bleed. So if shadowing doesn't bother you it should work fine.

I don't think i've missed anything. I may have though, sorry!

If you have any questions about this let me know :)


Best,

Adam

Rusty888
September 27th, 2014, 05:15 PM
One place I looked was van der spek. You can create your own cover. To include all your items you want in there. Still doesn't help for the inserts but if you know the inserts you like this could be an option

spotted and speckled
September 27th, 2014, 06:19 PM
After having my planners fall apart several years in a row (I carry them with me and scribble in them), I decided I wanted a serious leather cover. No stock leather cover appealed to me. And then there were all those other qualities I wanted in a planner.

So this is what I wound up with: http://www.gouletpens.com/Leuchtturm1917_Planners_s/1567.htm and http://www.saddlebackleather.com/biblecover without a closure. The journal fits but it's very tight and I am going to trim one end of the cover about 1/4" (or less) so the spine doesn't break. I've just started writing the info that transfers from year to year into it. So far, so good, stay tuned.