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All About Planners

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June 5, 2019

Inkwell Press Planner Review – 360 Discbound (Pros, Cons and Pen Test)

The Inkwell Press Planner has been on my planner wish list for a long time, especially since they bought out discbound. However, the planner is pricey and international shipping is super expensive so I could never justify the cost. My sister has been stalking destash planner Facebook Groups for ages and finally came across one!

Quick facts

  • Size: 7 x 9″
  • Leather Cover
  • Aluminium disc binding
  • Dates at a glance page
  • 2 page Monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
  • 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
  • Tabs
  • Notes pages
  • Subtle colorful inside pages
  • Thick, smooth high quality paper (pen test at the end of this post)
  • Ships from the USA

Let’s take a closer look!

To enlarge the screen of the video, click the square icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video (it will say ‘full screen’ when you hover your mouse over the icon).

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The Cover

There are a few cover options to choose from so wouldn’t have chosen the brown vegan leather if I’d purchased direct from Inkwell Press.

inkwell press 360 discbound planner review pros and cons vegan leather cover flex weekly layout horizontal

The cover is really sturdy and a similar quality to the ARC from Staples.

Note that the person I bought it from had used some of the months however they added the dot grid refill at the back so I suspect a full brand new planner would be about the same as this (approx 0.75″ thick)

inkwell press 360 discbound planner review pros and cons vegan leather cover flex weekly layout horizontal weight

Monthly Planning

I like the hexagon theme for the habit trackers. While it’s something different for the mission board, there’s not a lot of space to write in the hexagon’s – it’s not very functional.

inkwell press planner review monthly planning page colorful yellow green pink blue inkwell flex layout insserts refill in 360 discbound minimalist

The monthly planning pages colors match the monthly calendar + weekly spreads.

inkwell press planner review monthly planning page colorful yellow green pink blue inkwell flex layout insserts refill in 360 discbound

inkwell press monthly planning page habit tracker notes productivity goals pen test paper quality review

inkwell press 360 discbound planner review pros and cons vegan leather cover flex weekly layout horizontal monthly planning page color scheme

Monthly Calendar

Starts Sunday (not consistent with the weekly spread)

inkwell press 360 discbound monthly calendar sunday week start

Nice subtle colors throughout the planner

inkwell press 360 discbound monthly calendar sunday week start colors

inkwell press 360 discbound monthly calendar top 5 goals sunday week start

 

inkwell press planner review pros and cons monthly layout simple minimalist

Unfortunately they do the annoying split boxes rather than just restarting the numbering on the top row.

inkwell press monthly calendar review

Monthly Notes

At the end of the weekly spreads are 2 notes pages before the monthly planning & monthly calendar appears again.

inkwell press planner review monthly notes paegs in discbound 360 with vegan leather cover

Weekly Planning

There are 4 color themes throughout: pink, green, blue and yellow.

inkwell press flex horizontal layout blue top 3 for each day or meal planning monday week start 360 discbound

I’m not normally a fan of yellow however the yellow with grey in this planner = <3

inkwell press flex horizontal weekly layout yellow monday week start 360 discbound

Love that the design maximises the page without wasting space

inkwell press flex horizontal weekly layout green monday week start 360 discbound

inkwell press 360 discbound flex horizontal weekly planner review pros and cons monday week start

The 3 boxes for each day could be used for anything – top 3 most important tasks, reminders, appointments, things due today, meal planning etc.

inkwell press flex horizontal layout pink top 3 for each day or meal planning monday week start 360 discbound

Saturday and Sunday have the same amount of space as a weekday.

inkwell press flex discbound 360 weekly planner review

Extras pages

The Inkwell Press Planners don’t come with extra pages by default although there are plenty of optional add ons e.g. meal planning, goals, dot grid, graph paper etc.

inkwell press 360 discbound planner review pros and cons note paper pen test paper quality alternative to traditional bullet journal dot grid notebook

inkwell press 360 discbound planner review pros and cons vegan leather cover flex weekly layout horizontal grid paper 5mm spacing

inkwell press 360 discbound planner review pros and cons vegan leather cover flex weekly layout horizontal grid paper 5mm spacing bullet journal notebook

inkwell press weekly planner review

Tabs

The destash / 2nd hand version I got didn’t have tabs however if you purchase direct from Inkwell Press they do include monthly tabs for free.

Pen Testing

I was super keen to do a pen test on the thick, smooth, bright white paper!

After pen testing more than 150 planners, Inkwell Press has the best paper I’ve ever come across in a planner! I can’t believe I’ve finally found a planner that has NO pen or highlighter ghosting OR bleed through.

inkwell press planner pen testing highlighters stamps frixion erasable pens gel fine tip needle tip ghosting bleed through thick paper best pen testing

The MAMBI stamps which always bleed through did have some bleed but much less than most planners.

inkwell press planner pen testing highlighters stamps frixion erasable pens gel fine tip needle tip ghosting bleed through thick paper best pen testing paper quality

Price

As this was a destash, it’s not a complete planner. If you were to purchase the same as the one I got brand new, it would cost (all prices in USD)

  • $19 for the gold aluminium discs
  • $19 for the vegan leather cover (although there are nicer cover options available that are $14 USD)
  • $29 12 months weekly flex layout (horizontal)
  • Free monthly tabs

Total = $67 USD + shipping

And add another $12USD (plus shipping) for the dot grid refill pages.

Prices current as of 2019.

Pros of the Inkwell Press Planner

  • Discbound!
  • Sturdy aluminium discs (in gold or silver)
  • Pick and choose inserts e.g. dot grid, dated inserts, meal planning
  • Quality cover
  • Multiple cover designs to choose from
  • Nice subtle colors without being over done or too bright and ‘in your face’
  • The normal planner comes with tabs (the destash one I got did not have them)
  • Discs and cover can be reused year after year
  • Best paper quality of more

Cons of the Inkwell Press Planner

  • Expensive planner
  • Expensive international shipping
  • No cover personalisation
  • They do not have a discbound punch (although I suspect they will bring one out in the future)

Would I Use this planner?

I definitely would as it’s discbound + I like the layout and the aesthetics. However… it’s very expensive. $67 USD for a planner excluding shipping and any accessories is steep. The cover is similar to the ARC though, in that you can keep using the same cover and discs year after year. If you kept reusing them, it would actually end up being a lot more affordable – annual dated refills are $29 USD plus shipping.

You could also use the Inkwell for bullet journaling with their dot grid refill paper.

The company also has vertical and daily planning layouts as well as notepads and sewn bound journals.

Is it compatible with other discbound planners?

I will be doing a separate blog post sometime in the future with a comparison of discs, ring spacing and page sizes for all of the discbound notebooks that I have (click here to subscribe to be notified when the post is published).

After comparing the Inkwell press with the ARC, TUL and MAMBI Happy Planner, the disc size, stem length and overall fit was closest to the ARC:

ARC paper in the inkwell press discbound 360 are they compatible page size disc size spacing

ARC paper in the inkwell press discbound 360 are they compatible page size disc size spacing a5 versus 7 x 9 inch

You won’t be able to use MAMBI classic with the Inkwell Press are MAMBI is an extra 0.25″ high.

More planner reviews:

  • Purple Trail Weekly Planner Review
  • Whistle and Birch Weekly Planner Review
  • My 3rd Plum Paper Haul!

Planning Tips:

  • Guide to Discbound Planners & Frequently Asked Questions
  • ARC by Staples versus MAMBI – Which discbound system is better?
  • How to organize recipes plus a free printable recipe binder

Browse all posts

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inkwell press 360 flex layout planner review horizontal monday start minimalist discbound colorful paper quality pen test ghosti

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Posted In: Discbound Planners, Planner Reviews · Tagged: inkwell press flex, inkwell press flex layout, inkwell press habit tracker, inkwell press highlighter ghosting test, inkwell press highlighter test, inkwell press paper quality, inkwell press pen ghosting test, inkwell press pen test, inkwell press pen testing, inkwell press planner, inkwell press planner pen test, inkwell press planner review, inkwell press pros and cons, inkwell press weekly planner, inkwell press weekly planner review

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