I first discovered the Atoma discbound notebook years ago but the cost of the notebook + shipping to Australia was ridiculous. And then while I was in Belgium (where they’re made) … I found it! Well multiple actually. They come in tons of different colors and sizes with planner inserts, lined paper, graph, dot grid etc.

This planner is from my 2nd Europe stationery haul – see what else I found here. 

Heading to Belgium soon? See my favorite Belgium stationery shops here. I found these notebooks in Brussels at Papeterie Nias and Gece Papeterie.

Quick facts

• Size: varies
• Poly cover
• Disc binding
• 16mm discs (but you can purchase larger replacement discs)
• Different disc colors – can also get aluminium discs
• 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
• No tabs
• Neutral inside pages

Let’s take a closer look!

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Looking for more discbound notebooks & planners? 10 Discbound notebooks for planning or bullet journaling

The Cover

The cover is that typical poly cover that most discbound notebooks & planners have (with the exception of Happy Planner). I’ve used my ARC discbound which has this same poly cover for years and it’s held up well – don’t be deceived by the bendy material it’s actually quite sturdy.

There are many different page sizes to choose from! I went with a medium size – I purchased these from 2 different shops and thought they were the same size, but one is actually slightly bigger than the other.

The purple planner is actually slightly bigger than the blue one.

• Purple = Slightly less than 6.75″ wide x slightly less than 8.75″ high
• Blue = 6.5″ wide x 8.25″ high

The weekly planner doesn’t have any extra pages other than a few notes pages (and no monthly calendars) so is thinner than the dot grid notebook.

• Blue = 0.9cm thick
• Purple = 0.7cm thick (the planner is quite thin as it doesn’t include monthly calendars)

The discs are about 16mm wide (you can purchase bigger discs separately).

Atoma Weekly Planner

At the front of the planner is a removable bookmark / ruler to keep your place (since there are no tabs)

The holidays cover major countries but not all countries. Australia doesn’t make an appearance but the USA does. Otherwise it’s all European countries.

There’s a birthday’s tracker at the bottom of the page but you could also use for anniversaries, your own projects / goals etc.

The line spacing is quite close – only 5mm.

This planner has a reminder / tracker for how many days into the year and how many days are left of the year e.g. 15 : 351 = 15th day of the year and 351 days remaining.

There are no tabs but there are these perforated corners you tear off as you go. The number 2 refers to the week number in the year.

The daily schedule runs from 8am to 10pm with no schedule on weekends – just lined writing space.

At the back are some address pages… not sure why planners still include this since most people just keep this on their phone. You could re-purpose these pages for a password log or lists.

The planning pages for next year are in the same format as the current year (at the front of the planner) .

Not sure why but European planners tend to include a world map/timezones map in all their planners.

There are 10 lined notes pages (that’s counting both sides) at the back.

Atoma Dot Grid Notebook

There’s no index or pre-printed future logs etc. the entire inside of this notebook is just dot grid pages.

You can add, remove and rearrange the pages as often as you like! You can also get refills however I could only find graph / square grid and lined refills (not dot grid).

The dots are 5mm spacing (which seems to be the standard dot grid spacing in most notebooks).

Atoma Dot Grid Notebook

Pen Testing

The paper is very thin so I was expecting a lot of ghosting which ended up being true 🙁 The ballpoint pens even had heavy ghosting.

Pros of the Planner

• Portable size
• Lightweight
• Many cover colors to choose from
• Multiple page sizes to choose from
• Top binding (instead of side bound) version available
• No tabs on the weekly planner but there are perforated corners you can tear off as you go
• You can get them online (there’s an Australian Atoma website) but it’s terrible to navigate and looks like it from the 90’s
• Lined and graph refill paper available

Cons of the Planner

• Thin paper that’s prone to ghosting
• Paper has a yellow tinge
• No page numbers on the dot grid pages
• No monthly calendars in the weekly planner
• Dot grid refills are hard to find
• Not many weekly refill types to choose from
• Plain – the layouts lack color
• Small discs, you’ll probably want to upgrade to the bigger size
• There is a compatible punch if you want to use these notebooks with printables…. but the punch is $185 AUD (plus shipping) and weighs 2kg – that’s not practical for home / hobby use

Would I use this planner?

Maybe. I love discbound planners but there’s so many to choose from these days – and plenty that have nicer inserts and white, thicker paper.

I’d use the dot grid notebook but probably not the weekly planner (as I don’t use vertical scheduling layouts). The biggest con of this brand is the yellow paper prone to ghosting. If they improved that they’d be a much more attractive (and cheaper!) alternative to the ARC, TUL & Levenger discbound systems.

Is it compatible with other discbound planners?

• I checked the discbound size and spacing – it’s compatible with the A5 ARC. Note that A5 page size is not as wide as the notebook in this review (there are thinner Atoma notebooks though, I just didn’t purchase one to be able to show you a size comparison).
• The stems where the disc binding holes are, are longer on the Happy Planner (not compatible).
• You can use it with the Levenger but it;’s US page size so those inserts are a bit longer.

So to sum it up, I’d really only use the Atoma inserts with the Atoma discs and notebooks.

More discbound planner reviews:

• Levenger Circa Discbound Planner
• TUL Student Planner Discbound Notebook
• Inkwell Press Planner Review – 360 Discbound
• Dokibook Discagenda Planner Review – A5 Diva

Discbound Planning:

• MAMBI Happy Planner Discbound Punch versus the ARC (are they compatible?)
• Guide to Discbound Planners & Frequently Asked Questions
• ARC by Staples versus MAMBI – Which discbound system is better?

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