Practical Paper Co Weekly Planner & Dot Grid Notebook Review
If you follow my blog you’re probably already familiar with my favorite weekly layout – days of the week on the left page and checklist on the right page.
Practical Paper Co have a number of weekly layouts and this is one of them! They have a few pages sizes to choose from so I opted for a medium coil bound and an A5 unpunched version (which I punched and added some ARC discs to).
I also did a review of my custom Practical Paper Co Dot Grid notebook here.
Practical Paper Co Weekly Planner
Quick facts
- Cover Size: 7.5″ wide x 9.5″ high
- Page size: 7″ wide x 9″ high
- Softcover
- Coil binding
- Cover personalisation
- 2 page Monthly calendar (starts on Sunday)
- 2 page weekly spread (starts on Monday)
- Neutral inside pages
- Optional add on pages including checklists
Let’s take a closer look!
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- Line spacing on medium page size (7″ wide x 9″ high) = 0.6cm
- Line spacing on A5 size = 0.4cm
I also did a review of my custom Practical Paper Co Dot Grid notebook here.
The Cover
Practical Paper Co offer a choice between laminated cardstock and cardstock with a frosted cover. I much prefer the cardstock with frosted cover that I chose for the weekly layout.
There’s many covers to choose from (and they’re different to what most planner companies offer). I nearly went for a glitter cover… but opted for the marble at the last minute!
There is no extra cost for cover personalisation 🙂
Approx 0.5″ thick
The cover extends beyond the pages so if you did add tabs or sticky notes, they’d be protected by the cover.
At the front of the planner is 1 lined notes / checklist page before the monthly calendars.
Monthly Calendar
Starts Sunday (not consistent with the weekly spread)
Unfortunately the monthly spread has split boxes.
It’s a USA company so has USA holidays pre-printed.
Weekly Planning
You can start the planner at any month of the year (although can only order a few months in advance – I ordered in June and started it in September).
This is my all time favorite weekly spread layout – the only problem with this one from Practical Paper is the wide margins at the top and the bottom – probably the perfect space for washi tape though.
Read more: Favorite washi tape for planning, planner decorating & color coding
Extras pages
You can choose from a few different add on pages – I opted for the things to do page (includes 10 double sided pages). For $3 USD for a simple layout it seems a bit steep, but since it’s coil bound it’s not ideal to add extra pages yourself.
Some of the other add on options are: bill trackers, cleaning checklist, contacts, fitness, notes, wedding and grocery lists.
I found it a bit odd that the line spacing in the planner is 0.5cm but then the add on page is nearly twice that at 0.8cm.
Pen Testing
I did a pen test in the custom bullet journal I also purchased from this company:
The paper is bright white and smooth to write on….
But very prone to ghosting…
Arcing the refills
If you want to discbind them and you purchase the refills – just note this literally means refills only – they won’t send a cover.
I opted for the ARC punch (it has a slider thing that you can move to perfectly punch different page sizes including A5 whereas the Happy Planner punch doesn’t have this).
Read more: Guide to Discbound Planners & Frequently Asked Questions and ARC by Staples versus MAMBI – Which discbound system is better?
I managed to just squeeze the pages onto the smallest size ARC rings (0.75″ diameter). It took about 10 minutes to punch all the pages (usually quicker but I was super careful not to get the pages muddled up).
I like both page sizes!
PROS OF THE Planner
- Cheap
- Doesn’t weigh much
- Plenty of cover options to choose from
- Plenty of weekly layouts to choose from
- Option to have the pages unpunched if you want to use them in a discbound planner or 3 ring binder
- Free cover personalisation
- Plenty of optional extra pages to choose from e.g. checklists
CONS OF THE Planner
- No monthly planning pages
- Paper is prone to ghosting
- No monthly tabs and no ribbon bookmarks
Would I use this planner?
Yes! The weekly layout is my all time favorite way to plan the week.
Update: The company has decided they are no longer shipping to Australia. Not sure why since they didn’t offer free shipping so the buyer paid for shipping anyway….
More planner reviews:
Planning Tips:
- Why horizontal is my favorite weekly planner layout
- 12 Solutions for when you run out of space in your planner
- DIY Planner Tutorial: How to make your own planner stickers without a Silhouette machine
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