The Showdown: Day Per Page Diary Vs. Undated Notebook

This is a story of trials, tribulations and happily ever after. Or is it? Let's begin.

If you've been reading my What I'm Currently Using page you'll know I've gone back and forth a lot this year, not with my weekly planner (which has consistently been my Plannerisms planner) but with the accompanying day per page diary that I use for daily records and notes.

For most of this year I used (and LOVED) the Time Traveler A5 day per page diary, which I reviewed with lots of photos here.

I absolutely love this diary: the soft cover, the white paper, the full-color maps and loads of excellent features.

For a long time one of my Planner Fantasies was to use a day per page diary to record my whole life for the entire year, so I was determined to follow through with it.

But all year I’ve had some problems with it. In this post I listed the Pros and Cons of using a dated day per page diary to plan and record each day. The bottom line was, it was too heavy in my bag.

Actually, that was only part of the problem. I eventually got used to the weight in my bag, it was fine. But it WAS too much to carry the day per page book AND my weekly Plannerisms planner. 

The two of them together were too much to lug around.

So the result was, I left the Plannerisms planner at home. I carried my daily book around with me everywhere, to capture information and notes throughout the day. The Time Traveler day per page diary does have monthly calendars, so I used those for planning on the go.

My Plannerisms planner became my home planner and goals book. But I still needed the weekly view for planning and it’s also where my weekly lists are. So I had to back-copy things from my daily diary into my weekly planner every time I got home. That was a recipe for disaster.

When the school year started and I was inundated with the school calendar, after-school activities and new schedules, I hit a crisis point. I was planning on-the-go in my daily diary, and back-copying at home to my weekly planner. I was writing everything in FIVE different places: the monthly and daily pages of my daily diary, the monthly and weekly pages of my Plannerisms planner, and the family wall calendar in the kitchen. I was totally overwhelmed and it was only a matter of time until something slipped through the cracks.

As if that weren’t bad enough, I didn’t have any place to put lists and other non-day-specific information. For example, I needed to plan my son’s birthday party, which would take a couple of pages. I didn’t have a place for that, and I didn’t want to start an additional separate notebook for it. Similarly, I went to a jobs fair a couple of weeks ago and needed a place to take notes about it. Job searching ideas. Home maintenance.  Blog posts. A list of who I’d promised guest posts to. Ongoing multi-step process things and tracking each sub-task. I didn’t have any place to write this stuff. I tried using a small booklet in the back of my daily diary but, annoyingly, the line spacing was too narrow and I couldn’t read my handwriting in it. And the pages were too small.

So I had my weekly planner that really I needed to carry everyplace with me but didn’t, and my day per page diary that I did carry everywhere but couldn’t handle my lists and non-day-specific information. I didn't want to add a third book to the mix. I needed to figure out a new solution.

Just a few days later my friend Rori sent me the link to the Bullet Journal, and it was just what I needed at the time.  After some experimentation figuring out what worked best for me, I settled on using my Plannerisms planner for all planning and goals, and an A5 notebook for recording days, lists, and notes.

The notebook I chose to use is the Daycraft Signature Inspiro notebook I reviewed here recently. I love the smooth paper and soft cover, and the front has advice that is very pertinent to me right now.

The book is almost exactly the same size as my day per page diary, but much slimmer.

The pages are the same size.

Wait a second, you might say, didn’t you try an undated notebook earlier this year and it failed? Well yes, that is true. The reason it failed was the pages were too small.

I do a lot of back-filling of my daily pages, and usually I fill an A5 page each day. If I were to back-fill this pocket size book, I’d have to leave about 4 blank pages each day to give me enough just-in-case space.  

With the A5 book, if I don’t have time to write everything I want on that day’s page, it doesn’t cause a backlog. I just start a new page the next day and fill previous days’ pages later, just like I did in the A5 day per page book.

My Plannerisms planner and my A5 notebook together are about the same thickness and weight of just my A5 day per page diary. So I don’t mind carrying both the Plannerisms planner and notebook with me everywhere.  

Now I have everything I need with me all the time. Planning and recording, lists and notes, and the ability to schedule and look up information wherever I am.

This is similar to how Christine uses her Uncalendar planner and separate notebook, which she guest posted about here.

After some experimentation with my notebook I settled on this system:

I left 3 empty pages in the back of the book, where I put my Index. I numbered all the pages. My daily pages start from the front of the book, and my lists and non-day-specific information starts from the back. I note things in my Index as they happen. So for example in my index I noted that on page 67, Tues Aug 27 I ordered my business cards, and there I can find the phone number and email address of the company I ordered from.

There are so many great things about this system. The best part is, I don’t think about how to use it. I just use it. The Plannerisms planner is the best planning system for me. And the notebook as I’ve set it up is the ideal capture device. I don’t get a backlog, I just start a new page each day. I never have to make decisions about what is worthy of being written on the day’s page for fear of filling it up. I can write as much as I want each day. Some days I write two full pages. Most days it’s one full page. Some days it’s less. Over the weekend I didn’t feel like writing, and that’s okay. With this system I can pick it back up again whenever I want.

I do miss my Time Traveler diary, and if I could function using just a day per page diary that would be the one. But I have to admit I'm enjoying the freedom of not being restricted to a dated page for each day.

Do you use a planner and a notebook together? How does that work for you?