X47 planner
I bought one of those wonderful X47 planners! X47 is a company based in Germany, they have created planners without any rings, but with a spring system that allows you to add inserts. Due to this system the planners are very thin and not bulky at all.
The organizer itself is made out of leather, either with visible springs on the outside or with nonvisible springs. They come in various versions, with one or up to 4 springs, in A7, A6 or A5 sizes, in beautiful colors (red is my favorite!), with/without a zipper or with a buckle.
The inserts are made out of very smooth paper. The paper of the A5 size is slightly thicker then the paper of A6 or A7 (80gsm versus 60gsm). The 80gsm paper can be used very well together with a fountain pen. There is no bleed through but it would be good to not use any black or dark ink colors. I used red and turquoise, there is no bleed through and shadowing is about the same as in any Moleskine notebook.
For more information head over to their webpage, they are shipping internationally as well :-)
Here is my newbie:
Very soft red leather in size A5, a really beautiful red color, like Ferrari red.
This organizer can hold up to 4 inserts, I have now bought a 2016 calender (which is divided into 2 inserts) and a notebook with lines with numbered pages.
I haven`t decided yet about the calender, I might use it for work, but I`m not quite sure yet. They have other great calender designs, like the weekly clock design (sorry guys, only available in german), and this has a layout which would fit my needs at work.
For my private life I have decided to use the lined notebook as a bullet journal! Ok, the bullet journal adjusted with my ideas and some stickers, but nonetheless more a bullet journal than a planner :-)
Like so many others of you, I do not like any mobile device planners, I like to write on paper with a fountain pen, so I have created a monthly overview for my needs.
I definitely need a monthly overview, I do not have that many appointments but I would like to have an at-a-glance overview and I would like to be able to plan ahead.
My weeks go from Monday to Sunday, I have then divided the weeks by a fine line. On the left page there is room enough for any appointments, with a small column on the right hand side to add any birthdates. On the right page I have created three columns:
the left one for to-dos which I need to do in this special week. For me it is more important to know in which week I have something to do, but not necessarily important to fix a day, in the end everything has to be finished latest by Sunday
the middle thin one for any dot stickers which serve as a reminder, especially for things which you do not need to do daily but once every few days
and then the right column, I have not really decided yet what I want to write in there but I will find something for sure. I wanted to have some free space for any ideas.
Here is an example how a month could look like:
I mark each of the past days with a small sticker, the lines are 5mm apart, so these small ones are just 4.5mm big to fit perfectly well between the lines. I use a different color for each week, just because I like colors :-)
Here is a close up of the left hand page and right hand page.
Each lined notebook has 64 pages, I can fit up to 4 notebooks into the organizer. The total overview might look like this:
in the first notebook all the monthly overviews (Jan-Dec)
after the monthly overviews the pages for the daily journals, I just want to write something day after day, I will track the weather (see here for my weather stickers) and I would like to write down the important things of each day. Maybe there are just one or two lines per day needed, maybe more. It does not matter as I just fill up the pages. Here is an example of my old bullet journal:
when the first notebook is used up, I will add the second and third one. I will then have a few months always with me and can flip back to any day
The fourth notebook I would like to use for any lists. I would like to track my blog, my sales in my shops, or what needs to be done on my webpage or a list of books I would like to read or whatever might come up. This fourth notebook will have index pages in the beginning.
The organizer has three page markers, so I can easily flip to the month, the day and the next free page of my fourth notebook
And here is the very best of these notebooks: the pages are microperforated! So in the end of the year, or maybe already earlier whenever the fourth notebook is full, I can tear out the pages and archive them! I can then rearrange them, put together any pages which belong to the same list or throw away the not needed ones. And the same in the end of the year with my monthly views and my daily notes. I can reorder them so that the months are right before the daily notes! This is one feature I really look forward to. I can keep all my notes in an orderly manner :-)
For archiving I punch the pages with my Arc punch from Staples and use the very big black discs of either Staples or Levenger, so I have the ability to keep a few years of notes in one place.
I think this is finally a set up for a planner which I will use for a while.
With other planners I have the problem that most of the really nice ones (which are from the US, like Inkwellpress of Erin Condren) start with Sunday in the monthly overviews. Being from Europe, where the week starts with a Monday, I always had the problem that I have inserted an appointment into the wrong box, thinking that the first one is Monday, but instead the first one on the left side is Sunday! And I can`t seem to get used to that special layout!
And I have given up on Filofax, the organizers are just too bulky and the rings are always in the way when I want to write something on the left page. And always taking out the page, writing, putting it back, this was not my way to think of an "easy way" to use my planner. And most of the pre-printed planners have a layout where one thing or the other is either not needed or has too little space.
So easy solution: bullet journal with a really nice notebook!
Thank you for reading and (planner) peace for everyone!
Andrea
StickersSwissMade
P.S. I`m in no way affiliated with the above mentioned companies, when you click on any links you will be redirected to their external pages, I do not hold responsibility for these pages or page content.