A reader who bought the Complete Set asked whether the Personal size was included. They had the files downloaded already and could not tell. Personal size paper measures 95 by 171 millimeters, and hardly anyone carrying a Personal binder knows that number. Personal is in the set, and so is every other ring size, but the question underneath that one is the better question.
There are different brands that use different naming conventions for a lot of these products. Some of them call Personal "Bible." Plotter uses its own set of names. New sizes keep arriving in A5 and A6 variants, so the list is still growing. What matters is knowing the dimensions and the standard ring spacing.
For a beginner who has not really tried any size: grab a piece of paper and trim it to a specific size. See what the size feels like, how much it can fit on a page, and then you are able to see what size you like. If you have various notebooks with you, hold those instead. Loose sheets come in all of these sizes too and are worth trying, and trying costs nothing.
I gravitate towards the personal size. I tend to write a little smaller, which is a personal thing, and that is the size I started with. The MeePlus SlimPad in the personal size is a great planner that allows me to continue to organize my documents better, moving things around. It is perfect for the size of planner and the kind of notebooks I enjoy using. A5 is a little too big for me for just day-to-day use. A pocket notebook is the sweet spot for me, but for planners I did want it to have a little larger page, and that is how I ended up with the personal size. It is a great balance of not as big as an A5, but not as small as a pocket notebook.
Where the binder lives during the week does a lot of the deciding. Mine stays on my desk. Anything I need to know, I open the weekly insert first and then see what has happened during the day or what needs to happen during the day, and any notes I may have made. Then I open the project section I am working on, that specific block. A planner that never leaves a desk can afford to be bigger than one that rides in a bag.
I really do steer people away from the very small ring sizes. Those are great if you have little handwriting and you know a small size works for you. A page that small is not enough space for me once the rings sit inside the writing area. It is going to be hard, because your hand is going to overlap the page and the rings may get in the way. I know they sell smaller ones you could put in your pocket, and I have seen people do it, but the rings get in the way pretty easily. Think about that when you are choosing your notebook.
MeePlus sent me the SlimPad earlier this year, and I started with the inserts that they sent, just some plain paper. Then I got myself an A4 sheet of Tomoe River paper, where I started experimenting with different options and different sizes. Since I had already decided on the size, it was easy to just cut the pages to size. But then I started experimenting with foldouts and triple folds, so I can have a full week, lots of space, meal planning at the bottom, tracking at the bottom. I can also buy bulk Tomoe River paper for a lot cheaper and then just cut it to size and hole punch it. One of the reasons the rings have worked well is that I am able to create my own inserts.
Figuring out the right size does take some time. But a lot of people selling inserts for all these sizes will have cut guides and will show where the cut guides are. One of the main things when you are printing your own, whether you buy from my shop or other shops online, is making sure you have the instructions and you read them. A lot of times, if you want to print double sided, the way the file is set up, it may be the short edge or the long edge. Understand what the print setup is intended to be, and make sure you are printing on the right size paper. My PDFs are the actual size of the page, so you can bring one into Canva, put it on an A4 or letter size page, and print from there. The shop also offers the letter size and A4 combination, which is the one I prefer and use the most.
The dimensions for all six sizes sit on one page on the site, and the print setup has its own. Run the free filler pack through your printer before you buy anything. It proves your printer and your rings agree.
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— Luis
Every field note starts with a good cup.
Colombian coffee from my family's farms in Caldas, roasted fresh and shipped within a week.
