Best Ring Planner Inserts: The Ones I Print for MeePlus

The MeePlus SlimPad in the personal size has quickly become a critical piece of my planning. But today I want to give this planner some time and walk through some of the great things it has and how I'm using it since I got it about a couple of months ago.

I'm sure you're familiar with both MeePlus and Plotter and some other brands as well that have a kind of ring system where you're able to literally just move things around. I finished this week. I can get out of there, close it, maybe archive it here. And if I want to see it later, or I just want to reference this for next week, and then I can get a new sheet and put it at the front.

The benefit is you can buy pretty much any type of paper and refill it as needed. And actually lately, I've been creating my own inserts and exploring with some of that. I'll be putting some of them up on my shop soon.

MeePlus did send a lot of this stuff to me for review and actually engraved the channel name on it. So very grateful to them for sending this. They did not pay for this article. This article also includes affiliate links, including a MeePlus referral link, so I may earn a commission if you buy through them.

Watch the full video if you want the desk tour.

Print-your-own is the insert I keep

I don't think there was anything like this, and I really enjoy the fact that I can use a vertical weekly in my MeePlus. I've seen the horizontals.

So I created this vertical weekly that folds out and has a lot more space. And I'm able to have at least two weeks in one of these sheets. That's great.

It has your typical hourly planning across the top. Then I added some meal planning at the bottom. Habit tracking at the bottom. Tons of information on one sheet, which is great for such a small size. And I am very happy with how this turned out.

I also created kind of a cool project dashboard that also folds. I've been experimenting with this folding format that just allows me to have a lot more information in one sheet.

Each of them gets its own dashboard. Each of them gets a few pages where I write notes. I write anything relevant to that project. And I don't have to worry about making sure everything's organized at the beginning because I can move sheets around.

I'm going to have all different sorts of sizes from A5, A6, and a bunch of ring sizes as well. Just let me know and I'll prioritize that. The Complete Planner Set is those sizes in one place.

So make sure you grab the free insert for you to print out and check it out for now. That one is up on this site for you to see how it works and maybe even test out a few prints and cuts before you commit to paid ones.

How I turn paper into a ring insert

So I had a few of these grid sheets lying around that are actually surprisingly fountain pen friendly. So I print a few of those and put them in the binder to sketch or do anything.

I'm gonna use a hole puncher to get the holes in there. And I've been using this Bira Craft 6-hole punch. Works great.

Once you get used to, again, printing your own paper or just buying your own paper and printing your layout, it is pretty easy. I just cut the edges with scissors to trim them. I can also buy bulk Tomoe River paper for a lot cheaper and then just cut it to size and hole punch it.

How to print planner inserts is the print walkthrough. Planner insert sizes is the size chart.

I also had some Rhodia paper lying around. I also had leftover weeks that didn't have all the pages used, so I hole punched a few of those. Again, really high-quality paper.

They do have tons of different options, both from MeePlus and third-party sellers. You got your kind of lined, weekly, even this kind of horizontal lined, blank, square, or grid. There are all sorts of different inserts that you can put. And again, the nice thing is you don't have to be stuck with one. You can have a few sheets for a grid if you need to do sketches, a few sheets for line if you want to do some journaling, everything can live in one notebook.

What I used before the rings

I've been using Traveler's Company planners for a while, and I have both the dated and the undated.

That's one of the things with these bound planners, you kind of set to a format and then you need to stick to it.

This is the one I started with this year, a Sterling Ink vertical weekly, really nice paper, Tomoe River. I'm actually almost done with this one for the first half of the year. And I filled it up very well.

The only downside is there are a few weeks where I was busy and didn't have time. So you do have the blank page there, which obviously won't happen with the ring planner.

When I was using my regular kind of bound planner, I was stuck to this order. And one of the biggest challenges was how many pages do I leave for a big to-do list or a project or a collection? Those things really bother me quite a bit. And I wanted a solution where I can move things around.

I'm totally happy to use a bound planner and this is my journal for stuff that is chronological. Any journaling can go in the bound planner because I'm writing on a daily basis and a weekly basis. But for projects, for lists, for things that move around, I don't know how much space I'm going to need. This has been perfect for that.

The binder these inserts are built for

So they did send the Pueblo leather in the olive colorway. I requested a large pen loop to be able to fit the Vanishing Point. There's no problem. That's exactly how I carry it.

What inspired me to start creating my own inserts was actually this monthly insert from MeePlus. This is the calendar. It is the whole calendar in one piece of paper.

I'm able to open it up the whole way and I can see almost a year at a glance with a lot of space to write. So that fold-out mechanism is what inspired me to create this weekly vertical that folds out and I've been enjoying it a lot.

I should mention I got the 11-millimeter rings. They do have a 16-millimeter size too. So I kind of went for the slimmer option. And I think that's a sweet spot.

I don't think I have it completely filled with paper, but it's pretty comfortable to, again, move pages around and go around the notebook without having to worry about them breaking.

The leather is aging beautifully, and I love that it matches my wallet with that same green Pueblo leather.

Do these inserts fit a Lochby or a Traveler's notebook?

Not the one I use. Traveler's Company notebooks are elastic-band covers built for booklets, not six-ring pages. Lochby's Field Journal is the same elastic-band setup. Mine still isn't set up for either. The inserts I print are cut for the MeePlus SlimPad's ring spacing, so they are not a guaranteed fit for any other six-ring binder without checking the ring size and page dimensions first.

I wouldn't recommend this for like a pocket journal. I know they sell smaller ones that you could put in your pocket. And I've seen people do it, but the rings I think will get in the way pretty easily.

The inserts I print are for a six-ring planner. Mine is the MeePlus SlimPad in personal size. If you want the pocket notebook comparison, that is Best Pocket Notebook for Everyday Carry.

What still bothers me about rings

Let's talk about one of the downsides of this ring planner. These are again great for the flexibility. I don't have that much paper in mine. The spine itself has to be thicker to house the rings in general. So that's one of the downsides.

These ones actually do a great job at keeping it pretty slim, hence the SlimPad naming.

The other downside of these journals is they're typically just a little more on the expensive side. Your smaller notebook or even this cover comes around $50 to $60. The MeePlus is 100 plus dollars depending on the size you get, but you are getting a really high-quality piece of leather, a really nice spine that looks very durable and the ring system.

One of my pet peeves with some of the Traveler's Company notebook inserts on these booklets is that the pages don't lie completely flat. You don't have this issue here. Every page lies completely flat.

The comparison I would actually make

I don't think there was anything like this. I'll be putting some of these up on my shop soon. The planner inserts I make are that shop.

Related reading

• How to Set Up a Ring Planner Without Overbuying

Frequently Asked Questions

Do ring planner inserts fit a Lochby or Traveler's Company notebook?

Traveler's Company notebooks are elastic-band covers built for booklets, not six-ring pages. Lochby's Field Journal is the same elastic-band setup. I wouldn't recommend any of these for like a pocket journal either. The rings I think will get in the way pretty easily.

What punch do you use?

I've been using this Bira Craft 6-hole punch. Works great. I just cut the edges with scissors and hole punch them.

Where do I start if I have not bought a binder yet?

Make sure you grab the free insert for you to print out and check it out for now. Then try the Complete Planner Set if the punch and the size are right.

Did MeePlus pay for this?

MeePlus did send a lot of this stuff to me for review and actually engraved the channel name on it. They did not pay for this article. This article does include affiliate links, including a MeePlus referral link, so I may earn a commission if you buy through them.