Why I LOVE Using Printable Planners & Notebooks

A great comparison between notebooks, journals and printable planner pages for goal setting, keeping a calendar and managing your to do list! Includes reviews of travelers notebooks, 3 ring binders and ARC style disc bound planners. 

I have been using notebooks all my life. There was never any better season than when it was back to school time and I could head to the office supplies store to get a whole batch of new notebooks.

There is just something so wonderful about a bright shiney new notebook, full of promise and ready to write in.

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Styles Of Notebooks

As far as I can remember I started with plain old composition notebooks and progressed onward through secretary's notebooks and then onto full blown notebooks in 5 star binders.

As an adult I used all different kinds of notebooks:

Travelers Notebooks

My new favorite in the world is using a Travelers Notebook for my planning!

What I love. 

• You can swap new inserts in and out
• There are a lot of Travelers Notebook accessories to max out your planning
• They are a good size to carry in a purse or backpack
• You can take the inserts out and lay them flat on a table for writing

What I don't love. 

• If I “mess up” a page I sometimes feel like taking out the whole insert
• There are some printed pages available, but it is more for freestyle planning
• Keeping track of my pens is hard, I have them in a pouch on the back

Journal Notebooks

I LOVE the ones that I get in Barnes and Noble which are more book-like and generally stunning! These are called journal notebooks.

What I love.

• They are self contained and easy to carry in a purse
• Because they are bound, you never have to worry about pages getting lost or falling out
• They are beautiful
• Super affordable, they are about $12

What I don't love.

• They are bound so they don't open fully (you can't flip the covers back on each other)
• It is hard to “organize”, I found that I would try to use a sticky note and color kind of system
• I can't rip out pages I “mess up” or don't like
• When I get about half way though the pages I start to be sad and want a new notebook

Moleskines

Ohhh moleskines! They are thin and nimble…I LOVE THEM, but…

What I love.

• I love that I can easily find these everywhere
• There are lots of different page layouts including lines, grids and plain pages
• They will fit in my half sized personal planner relatively easily

What I don't love.

• Again, I tend to use them halfway and fall out of love
• I wind up having A LOT of them lying around and have to try to figure out which one has what thing in it
• Because they are so affordable, I don't respect them and tend to run through them fast

Printed Coil Bound Journals and Notebooks

The next step on my journey (yeah, I really do know I have issues) was to design my own coil bound notebooks that I got printed at Office Depot.

I created a single form that I used to record my to dos and goals and double sided printed that with a blank page on the other side.

What I love.

• I loved that I could open it fully (flip the back around under the front)
• I loved that all my “stuff” was together and I could reference notes from past times

What I didn't love.

• My notes were all a jumble. There was a whole mish mash of things in all different places
• My client notes were with my business notes were with my todo lists
• Many days I just had notes or just work and then things got really mixed up as I used pages out of order
• You couldn't add anything without taping or stapling it in (I tried to figure out how to coil a folder in but it was just to weird)

I actually thought about getting a ring binding machine so that I could make my own notebooks, but thank goodness I didn't get that nutty.

3 Ring Binders

I love the concept of three ring binders. You should be able to customize them in any way you want, there are a myriad of accessories and add ons, and they are relatively cheap.

That said there is one big thing that keeps me from being able to fall in love with them (although I have have had a succession over the years)…

They have to lie flat on your desk taking up an area roughly the size of China. Yes, you could take the pages out and then just add them back in later but I would never do that. The fact that they take up SO MUCH ROOM actually makes me sad, so I stopped trying to use those.

ARC Ring Binders

Then came the glorious day I found out about ARC ring binders from Staples (Levenger makes these too!)

What I love.

• There are actually A LOT of accessories available for these notebooks (like I took the cool discs from Happy Planners and used them on some custom notebooks I made for friends and clients)
• I can open it flat on my desk
• I can add as many pages and sections that I can think up (more about organizing your disc binder system later)
• Because I printing my own pages and cutting them, I can just take out ones I mess up and write a new one
• It was not “clacky” like I worried about
• I have custom forms that help me do my work!

Overall there is really nothing that I don't like! That said, I do have some observations…

I thought I would be putting extra things into it more than I do, generally I have found that I just need to record an idea, not include the whole paper in my notebook.

I have changed my sections a couple of times since starting and am super excite about how easy it is to organize with this notebook.

I LOVE that I can have everything in my printable planner notebook for all the aspects of my business!

When I am mindful of doing the system that I am working, it works great. If I miss a day or two it does take a little bit to jump back on the wagon, but the workflow is so easy that I don't feel like I am starting from scratch every time!

Printable Planner Notebook Wrapup

Overall I could not be more thrilled with my printable planner notebook. I have found that using it makes my life simpler (everything in one place), less hectic (I am not chasing my tail around constantly) and that I am able keep all my thoughts and ideas in order without sticky notes and a gagillion different notebooks!

If you would like to find out more about getting a custom notebook designed for yourself or to see my printable planner planner pages, check out my Etsy Store, Paperly People.