Dodo Acad-Pad academic-year planners

For those of you looking for a fun academic year planner that's different from all the rest, this is the one for you. The Dodo Acad-Pad!

The Acad-Pad diary range is a spinoff of the incredibly popular Dodo Pad diary, Britain's best-loved family diary, now in its 45th year of production. The Acad-Pad was started a few years ago to give students their very own version of the Dodo Pad, in an academic year format.

While I was in London last month, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet Rebecca, Managing Director of Dodo Pad. She very generously gave me samples of each format of the Acad-Pads to review.

Here is a great video on You Tube of Rebecca, talking about the Acad-Pad diaries (as well as other Dodo Pad products). She talks about why the Acad-Pad was created, and different ways to use it. It's a great insight into the products.

You can visit this website to look inside the Dodo Pad and Acad-Pad diaries to see examples of the weekly pages. Every week is different with dates of interest, art, riddles and jokes, and other things to keep you mentally engaged. It's fun, and it encourages me to actually use my planner! I want to see what's going on in my book.

The Acad-Pads now come in four different sizes and formats: the original Desk diary (which measures 9.5 by 7.5 inches (24 x 19 cm), the Wall calendar (which has the same dimensions as the desk diary but hangs vertically), the Mini size (4.25 x 5.25 inches/ 11 x 13.5 cm) for portability, and new this year, the diary insert to fit the Personal size Filofax.

Below you can see the Desk, Wall and Mini diaries open next to each other, to get an idea of scale (click on the photos for a larger view):
And here you can see the Filofax insert next to the Desk diary:
Students can use the weekly grid to designate morning/ afternoon/ evening, deadlines and to-dos. Or, if you're like me, you can write across the boxes and in the margins. The page opposite the weekly grid has lots of open space for lists, notes, doodles, a place to jot that assignment or phone number, or whatever you like.

So for students, or anyone on an academic year schedule, who wants a fun, interesting, colorful planner that will keep you entertained and engaged (and therefore encourage you to actually use your planner) I highly recommend the Acad-Pad, in whichever format works best for you.

The Desk size has lots of space to write, but the book is very slim so it fits easily in a book bag. The Wall calendar is perfect to hang next to your desk to remind you of all your deadlines. The Mini is small enough to fit into any bag and go anywhere with you. And of course those of us who love our Filofax will enjoy the personal-size diary insert.

Don't forget, the Acad-Pads sell out every year, so order yours soon so you don't miss out!