If you don’t want to use a traditional weekly planner, or you want to try bullet journaling but don’t want to buy an expensive dot grid notebook (for how basic dot grid notebooks are, they can be weirdly expensive), then cheaper alternatives are the Mi Goals notebooks.

Mini Dot Grid Notebook

• Size: 5.75″ wide x 8.25″ high (about A5 page size)
• Cardstock cover
• Sewn binding
• Index page
• Symbol key page
• 5mm dot grid spacing
• 58 Numbered pages
• Pocket folder

Price: $9.95 AUD

Let’s take a closer look!

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More Mi Goals Reviews:

• Mi Goals ‘Goal Digger’ Weekly Planner 2018
• Mi Goals Planners Haul & Review (Planners made in Australia) 
• Mi Goals Progress Planner
• Mi Goals Weekly Planner Review 

A very basic, simple and lightweight cardstock cover. The dots are indented into the cover which is something different.. but the color options aren’t that great (black, a yukky olive green, brown, grey, yellow and pastel pink).

The stitched binding makes it very compact and weighs barely anything! The notebook is only 5mm thick.

At the front is the symbol key page, but apart from that and an index page at the back, there are no pre-printed pages – the rest of the notebook is dot grid.

5mm dot grid spacing. There are 27 dots across and 40 dots down.

One con is that the page numbers replace the corner dot (like the Rhodia Goal Book) instead of printing the page numbers below the dot grid.

1 index page at the very back of the notebook so you can find things easily.

There’s a small pocket folder at the back

Get Shit Done Notebook

In addition to the dot grid notebooks, I also like Mi Goals’ Get Shit Done mini checklist books. For something that I consider such a staple when it comes to stationery, most companies only produce dot grid notepads. While the layout may be the same, the ability to tear off pages means you probably will, then there’ll be loose lists everywhere, or the pages will tear off before you want them to. I much prefer a booklet style format – plus it means you can have 2 side by side pages.

This notebook comes in 2 sizes:

• 5.75″ wide x 8.25″ high (about A5 page size) – same size as the dot grid notebook you saw earlier in this post – $9.95 AUD
• 4″ wide x 5.75″ high (about A6 page size) – $6.95 AUD

If you want a list book to use in addition to a planner I’d go with the smallest size as it’ll easy fit into the pocket folder of a planner or your bullet journal notebook. The larger size is more of a standalone notebook I’d use if you’re not interested in a traditional weekly planner (e.g. if you use a whiteboard, or a digital app).

The layout is the same for the 2 notebooks – lined notes on the left and top 3 + checklist on the right.

The line spacing in the large notebook is 7mm. In the small notebook it’s 6mm.

There’s a small pocket folder at the back of the large page size but not the small version.

Pen Testing

For such a cheap notebook, how does the paper stack up?

There was some ghosting for all pens, highlighters and stamps but there was only bleed through for the marker Uni Pi’s pens.

Pros of the Mi Goals Notebooks

• Lightweight
• Affordable
• Small pocket folder

Cons of the Mi Goals Notebooks

• Thin paper
• Thin cardstock cover
• Boring cover colors
• The page numbers in the dot grid notebooks are embedded into the dot grid, rather than below
• No tabs or ribbon bookmarks

Would I use this notebook?

I tried out the Erin Condren dot journal which has a similar style (sewn bound booklet rather than an actual notebook) and liked it. I think these types of notebooks are good for brain dumping lists and for ‘messy’ planning where you’re not worrying about doing fancy spreads or decorating, so don’t care if there’s a bit of pen ghosting on the thin paper.

See the rest of my Mi Goals Haul here.

More dot grid notebooks

• Erin Condren Softbound Dot Grid Notebook
• Vivid Scribbles Dot Grid Notebook (bleedproof 140GSM paper!)
• Archer and Olive Dot Grid Notebook (Is the 160 GSM Paper Worth the Hype?)

Planning tips

• 20 Bullet Journal Weekly Spread Ideas (One Page Layouts)
• Travel planning in a bullet journal
• Quick, simple and functional bullet journal decorating tips

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