Midori MD Diary A5, 2020 Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her latest book, Out of Water, now available where books are sold!)

I've raved about the Midori MD line several times. Really, anytime anyone brings up paper. ("Can I have a tissue?" "Tissues have their purpose, but have you tried Midori MD paper???") I've tried just about every variety they offer, but I hadn't yet tried their planners and diaries. Now I have, and here I go raving again.

The A5 planner comes wrapped in a waxed paper cover, with a set of stickers that you can use to label your planner with the dates and contents. I usually discard the wax paper, but if you want to use a spine sticker, you should hold onto it for storage purposes, at least. The stickers won't stick to the texture of the spine beneath the cover. The book itself has a cream-colored, soft, cardstock cover, its spine reinforced with a fabric tape that holds the ribbon bookmark to the spine.

Inside, the book greets you with "The story of 2020" which I thought was delightful. After that is a monthly date spread for the year, for reference. Past that, the monthly planner pages. The squares for each day are very small, and then there are wide margins around the grid for making notes. I think I'd prefer larger squares and smaller margins, myself, but I tend to use the monthly spread more than other pages in a planner, and I don't think that's typical.

After the monthly pages, there are undated weekly spreads. There are eight sections per spread, so one can be used for notes/lists, etc. After the weekly spreads, there is a generous chunk of totally blank pages, ready for all sorts of shenanigans. Sketches, scrapbooking, notes ... I love that this planner has so much room for creative play.

At the end, the book closes with, "To be continued, 2021" which delighted me even more than the first page. I appreciate your optimism, planner.

So, all the necessities are there, without too many extras and no clutter. The build is great. And of course, best of all is the Midori MD paper.

As in past experiences, its performance is superb. The only thing it doesn't like is alcohol-based markers like Sharpies. Everything else did well, even big, juicy fountain pens. There is show-through, but no trace of bleeding or feathering. All told, there are 175 pages of awesomeness, here. 113 lined, 32 blank, plus the calendars.

I could easily see myself using the monthly pages as my planner, then the lined pages as more of a diary or journal. I hadn't yet selected a planner for 2020--I was still spinning my head at all the fancy options. What I like best about this planner/diary is that it isn't too fancy, but I still feel spoiled with the great construction and snazzy paper. Best of all, I can stop thinking about 2020 planners, now!

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Quo Vadis Life Journal Infinite Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her first novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, now available where books are sold!)

Is there some secret system of planner that unlocks your productivity? I've heard enough people say 'yes' that I continue to have hope for myself. Certainly no one system works for everyone, so it stands to reason that we should probably try them all, just to be sure.

I used to obsessively bullet journal. Not just the basic system, but the whole kit--stencils, stickers, color-coded weather and habit trackers, counters... Basically, I had more planner than plans. I enjoyed it! It was a hobby. A very, very time-consuming hobby. As life has gotten busier, my system has devolved into a chaotic flurry of scratch paper and post-its that I'll scrape out of the bottom of my backpack, hopefully in time to do the thing written on said scrap. From one extreme to the other! And neither has really worked well.

I know I need structure, to keep the chaos at bay. But I know I need some freedom, because my life is far from routine. And, like anyone cracking open a brand new planner, I'm hoping this one will be the one.

The Quo Vadis Life Journal Infinite is a well-structured but undated journal-style planner. It borrows some of the Bullet Journal philosophy, with a dedicated index, numbered pages, an abundance of note-taking pages, and predetermined list space. It's just enough structure to serve as a guide and reminder about what's important to track, but all of the labels and headers are blank, so you can customize it in a way that works for you. The blank dates let you start any day of the year--perfect for those of us abandoning other planners in search of new solutions.

There are pages for a yearly overview, then a month spread, then each week is spread across two pages. The monthly pages have a grid for tracking and the weekly pages have a place for to-do lists or reminders. Each month also has note pages in a handy dot-grid.

I was intimidated at first. I don't like opening a planner and seeing instructions. But the instruction pages here are truly unnecessary (and I wish they had been on a removable insert instead of being bound into the book). It's not a complicated book. And the lack of labels helps open up some possibilities, too. Don't need a yearly spread? You could write goals on those, instead.

Regardless of whether or not the system works, the book is well made. It has Clairefontaine French-milled paper that can handle anything except alcohol markers. Even my gushiest fountain pen barely shows through at all. All of the interior design is done in a lovely, calming, unobtrusive grey. It has 224 pages, which is a lot for a weekly planner. Nearly half this book is open for note taking. I think that would make it a great candidate for a work planner, where meeting notes can be kept handy nearby the to-do lists such meetings tend to generate.

The cover is black faux leather. There's an elastic closure band, an expanding pocket in the back, and a ribbon bookmark. A planner like this really should have at least two ribbons, in my opinion, but that's why the stationery gods created a plethora of cute page markers. I don't usually like hardcover planners--I want something lightweight, if I'm going to carry it around everywhere. And the cover branding on this one isn't as subtle as I'd like. But all these are small trade-offs if the system itself works.

It is June, now, if you hadn't noticed. Almost the solstice. Which means almost July. It's possible you have already abandoned the idealist planner you optimistically selected last winter. If so, the chaos has probably already set in. But it's not too late to wrangle back some control over the latter half of the year. If this looks like it might help, you can get one for around $25, which is a very decent price for such a sturdy compilation of abundant great paper.

(Exaclair provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!

Netto de Techo Kobo (Online Planner Bindery): A Customized Bound Planner Just for You

(Original Mai-Bun article published on 10/02/2017. Written by Makiko Fukushima. Translated by Bruce Eimon)

This is the time of the year when people start thinking about which datebook/planner to buy for the coming year. Despite all the different products out there, it is frustrating when you can’t quite find that perfect one for you. (There are literally hundreds of different kinds of planners sold in Japan. There is even an event called the 100 Planner General Election, where you get to try 100 different planners and vote for your favorite one!) If you are one of those picky planner users, why not make your very own for next year?

Making my own datebook? That’s gotta be hard, no? No worries, this September, a new service was launched: Netto de Techo Kobo (Online Datebook Bindery).

This is an online service that lets you design a 200 page perfect-bound planner and have it delivered right to your doorsteps. Most custom book binding services like this require a minimum order of 100 copies. What is revolutionary about this service is that it is specifically designed for producing single copies. Each order will put you back 5400 yen (approx. $45 USD).

Oh and by the way, this isn’t a service run by a bunch of twenty-somethings working out of their garage. This is a service offered by Canon IT Solutions, a subsidiary of the company known for producing high quality cameras and printers. It was the winning project of an internal innovation contest, entered by their very own stationery fanatic, Mr. Tadashi Ono.

All you have to do is create an account and follow the instructions. The sign-up and design steps can all be done for free. You can even print out watermarked sample pages at home. Once you confirm your order and enter your payment information, your planner will be delivered to you in 3 to 4 weeks.

The following is my experience of trying this service:

Adding my touch #1: I don’t use the monthly calendar pages.

I usually use a weekly left format (horizontal date pages on the left, note pages on the right), and hardly ever use the monthly calendar pages. Most planners have monthly calendar pages taking up two pages per month. I opted to condense these to a single page per month, covering two months per spread. The system offers a template for this, so the only thing I had to change was the font and the line color to suit my taste.

Adding my touch #2: I don’t want to miss any birthdays, including those of my pets.

The service supports the uploading of CSV files with personal birthdays and anniversaries, so you can easily have these very special dates show up in your monthly or weekly pages. This is super useful! I set it up so that they will show up in both. Not only did I upload the birthdays of my friends and family, but I also uploaded work related anniversaries and the birthdays of my two cats.

Adding my touch #3: I like a simple and clean aesthetic.

I’m a fan of the weekly horizontal format. In order to keep the design simple, I started with the weekly horizontal template and tweaked the fonts and the line colors. I chose gray lines, removed references to auspicious days (Rokuyou), and included only the date numbers. For the right pages, I kept them blank.

Adding my touch #4: I don’t want to wait until January 1.

One nice thing about this service is that you can have your planner start whenever you want it to. So rather than ordering it and having it collect dust for 3 months, I had it start from the projected delivery date in October! You don’t even have to have it span a whole year - you can design a 6 month planner, or even one that starts on your birthday!

Adding my touch #5: Making room for my Washi-tape collection.

Since I like to collect washi-tape, I designed a section to catalog my new acquisitions. I designed a format where I can paste both the tape and the labels. I specifically made sure there would be enough space for both the front and back labels. This is an example where I didn’t use one of the provided formats, but designed my very own format and uploaded it as a PDF file.

Adding my touch #6: For my list pages, I used pink lines.

I like the grid format in general, but I usually don’t like the color of the lines used in most notebooks. Since I get to use whatever color I want, I chose a faint pink line. I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out! It is awesome that I get to choose the colors of the font, the lines, and even the background for every single page.

Adding my touch #7: I made special pages for my two cats.

I uploaded pictures of my two beloved cats, Cookie and Anko, so that I could have pages specifically devoted to write down my favorite memories of them. The colors turned out really nice. I know there are a lot of people who like to paste pictures of their pets in their planners , but this way I don’t have to worry about the bulk from the pasted photographs. It is also a nice way to carry with you the pictures of your loved ones wherever you go.

This is a planner that gives you complete freedom with the format and the content. What I showed you was very specific to my likes and needs, and what you end up designing is going to be completely different from mine. How fun is that!?

Until now, a planner was something we had to choose from what was available at the stores. Yes, there are filofax-type planners where you can pick and choose your refills, but it was impossible to customize a perfect-bound planner to your liking. Of course, you would always have to write in all of your birthdays and anniversaries, and you were bound by the lines and space provided by the publishers.

Netto de Techo Kobo flipped all of these “norms” on its head. Why not make your one-and-only planner that fits you like a glove?

Recommended for:

• People who aren’t quite happy with the planners available in stores.
• People who have a meticulous attention to detail and know exactly what they want.
• People who don’t want to be bothered by having to enter their birthdays and anniversaries into their planners every year. Information Netto de Techo Kobo | Canon IT Solutions