While on my recent trip to Europe, I kept seeing Moleskine planners everywhere which was awesome as they’re hard to find here in Australia! In the Moleskine shop in Rome airport I could resist no more and purchased the weekly notebook planner.

I purchased the larger size then later saw the smaller size on clearance so purchased that too!

Moleskine Planners

• Size: various sizes available
• Week on 2 pages, week starts Monday (days of the week on the left and lined page on the right)
• Variety of cover colors to choose from
• Hardcover or softcover
• Rounded corners to prevent wear and tear
• Elastic closure
• 70 GSM paper weight
• Ivory-colored paper
• Annual dates at a glance page
• Pocket folder at the back
• 3 mini sheets of icon stickers
• Extras pages
  • Time zones
  • International measurements
  • dialing codes
  • Flight duration

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The Cover

There are soft and hardcover versions. I opted for the softcover for the large and hardcover for the small – the hardcover is definitely better.

The softcover reminds me of the Passion Planner in terms of quality.

Both have equally boring plain covers – they’d look nicer if the year was printed in gold foil on the cover and spine, a subtle pattern or something to make them less boring and plain.

First impression is not a good one.. some serious ink ghosting on the very first page

Dates at a Glance

Week starts Monday which is consistent with the monthly calendar and weekly spreads.

Weekly Planner

Moleskine notebooks come in a few different weekly planning layouts as well as grid, lined and blank pages for bullet journalling. I’ve come to the conclusion that 2 page weekly spreads with days of the week on the left and list / note space on the right page is the ideal planner layout for me, so opted for this layout:

The space at the start of the page for general brain dumping, bills due etc. is a good idea but it comes at the expense of a full width of the page planning space for Saturday and Sunday. I really like the lined right side of the page though – perfect for list making!

The weekly spread starts on Monday.

Monthly Calendar

Aside from the paper quality (more on that later), this is the biggest con of the planner (and any planner that has this, in my opinion) – 1 page monthly calendars. The boxes are too small to write anything in and not only that, the numbers are in the centre of the box wasting space.. just no.

Extra Pages

Time Zones

metric conversions and international sizes

Dialling codes (not sure how much use that page would get) and travel planning

International holidays chart.

I haven’t seen a planner lay out the page like this – it’s different, but a bit ‘busy’ to look at

Lots of lined notes pages at the back

Folder

The folder is quite roomy and comes with icon stickers!

The A5 size is exactly the same layout as the larger size

The boxes are so small if you want to use the calendar I recommend tiny icon stickers. You’ll only be able to fit a few words combined with the book-binding of the planner and small page size that won’t stay open = annoying to write in.

Pen Testing

The paper of the Moleskine planners is very thin – you can see the printing on the back side of the pages so I knew pens would show through.

… Which they do. Big time. Even ballpoint pens that don’t normally show through on planners. Highlighters had really bad bleed through and the MAMBI stamps bled through the page (as always).

Pros of Moleskine Weekly Planners

• Thin
• Lightweight
• Multiple sizes to choose from
• Week numbers printed on the weekly spread
• Gender neutral
• Minimalist so you can use as many colored pens, highlighters and washi as you like without worrying about the colors clashing with the planner
• Choose between softcover or hardcover
• Useful add on pages most planners don’t include such as timezone difference, metric conversions and international holidays
• Monthly calendar and weekly planner both start on a Monday
• Functional stickers
• Elastic band to keep everything enclosed

Cons of Moleskine Weekly Planners

• Saturday and Sunday share the same amount of space as 1 weekday
• Very thin paper that shadows the printing on the back
• Most pens had severe ghosting or bleed through
• Boring covers – they don’t even print the year on the cover or the spine
• 1 page monthly calendar – the boxes are too small to write in
• Book-bound style – the binding doesn’t want to lay flat unless you hold it open with one hand and write with the other

Would I use this planner?

Yes! I really love weekly planners with this layout so am keen to try it out in 2018. As for whether I could use it long term? I definitely couldn’t use the smaller size as the pages kept wanting to close on their own and the writing space was a bit too small for me.

Udpate! See how I tried the larger size version here.

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While planner shopping in Europe I found this digital + paper version of Moleskine. So if you’re someone that can’t quite commit to a paper planner but can’t commit to going full digital either, this could be a good in between.

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