Regarding costs, it’s a little different over on this side of the pond. A decent Mead or PlanAhead 3-ring “classic” binder (5.5″x8.5″, similar in dimensions to A5) will start at about $15 USD. A really good Day Runner one (such as the one I own) starts at about $45 USD, and that includes inserts like calendars and contacts. It’s thus a lot cheaper for the basic binder.

I purchased an inexpensive adjustable 3-ring punch for about $5 USD, and a decent guillotine for $35. Paper runs about $5.00 for 500 24lb 94 bright white letter-size sheets, which is very, very high-quality paper perfect for forms. This can be professionally chopped for $5 extra (or free, if you cozy up to a copyhouse clerk).

So, by the math above, let’s see….

• $45 USD for good-quality leather binder

• $12 for year of paper (and pro-chopping)

• $15 for ink (depending on printer)

• $5 for punch (assuming 3-hole, though 6- or 7-hole is about $25-30 USD)

…Which makes for $77 USD, which is about 44 UK pounds, only about 150% of the cost of the Moleskines, and that gets you a nice leather tricked-out binder with accordian pocket, card slots, portfolio area, tabbed dividers, about a hundred pages of inserts, and so on. Subsequent years would be $27 USD each, or about 15 GBP, or about 30% the cost of the Moleskines. So there’s some more cost savings over here, but the comparisons are similar.

However, there’s one thing I’d like to add to your list above with regard to pros and cons. You alluded to it with regard to forms, but I’d venture to push it a step further: structure. Many of us are inherently disorganised, and having a free-for-all structure like a blank Moleskine or notebook tends to amplify productivity issues. With the structure and “prompting” of the forms, it’s a bit easier to know what to put down and where, and finding things can be just as effortless. Any sort of unstructured notebook is great as a creative dumping ground, but using it as a productivity aid requires a lot of vigilance, dedication and strict methodology. Although, using one in combination with a Hipster PDA, especially one decked out with some (ahem) D*I*Y Planner hPDA calendars, action lists, project cards, and so on, can help overcome some of the difficulties that are naturally addressed by using a Filofax/Day-Timer/Day Runner.

That all being said, this article is great food for thought, Michael. I’ve always pushed the ‘Planner as a way of saving money, but it was always in comparison with the $0.20/page commercial forms. In all this time, I’ve never really thought about comparing it with other productivity methods.

all my best, dj

– D*I*Y Planner : http://www.diyplanner.com a million monkeys typing : http://www.douglasjohnston.net

Fortunately, Staples over here sells blank A5 paper by the ream, so I think the A5 option is the best here. I hadn’t realised until reading it on DIY Planner after writing this that the classic size is half US letter. Over here, of course, all the standard paper sizes are half of something else – A5 is half of A4, which is half of A3, etc, and there’s A6 (half A5) and so on down in size too. That probably means that the classic size makes most sense over there.

Oh, and yes, the ink is something I conveniently ignored in my calculations, even though our printer is almost out of both of its black cartriges, and is going to cost us over £20 to fill up again.

Maybe PDAs should be in the comparison too? The initial cost is higher again, but the running costs are pretty low – it’s just the odd SD card and one or two Astraware games a month – ok, maybe not so low

Thanks for the info about the punch!

Sam Randall
Ain’t Life Grand?

But I wasn’t aware that filofax now did A5 folders. I gave up with my 80s filofax (real and knock-off) because I couldn’t get paper to fit. A5 was too big, A6 too small. Anything else took so much trouble to cut up. But if the a5 six-ring rings are the same dimensions as the personal organiser six-ring rings…

Also, the above punch is adjustable, so you can slide the two sets of three punches close together for mini-filofaxes.