Moleskine Dashboard and Action planners compared

Gail requested some photos of the Moleskine Dashboard planner, and a comparison of it with the Moleskine Action planner. Here you go Gail!

Both of these planners are in Moleskine's line of Professional planners. I've never done a review of the Dashboard planner before, but have done the Action planner (which you can see here).

The Dashboard planner is approximately 5 by 8 inches (Moleskine's Large size). It has a vertical weekly layout with space under the days for to-do lists (which looks a lot like the way I modified their classic vertical weekly planner several years ago, don't you think?).

In addition to weekly pages, the Dashboard has tear-out lists in the back, which I don't think add any value to the planner (just my personal opinion).

There are also Expenses pages.

I'll let you read my Action Planner review for all its features, but here is the weekly layout so you can see how it compares to the Dashboard.

The Action planner is approximately 7 1/2 by 10 inches (Moleskine's Extra Large size). You can see the size differences here.

Something to note: this is a 2015 Dashboard planner. I don't have a 2016 Dashboard, but I do have several other 2016 Moleskine planners, all of which now have monthly grid calendars instead of the vertical monthly columns they had before. Below you can see the month columns at the left (2015) and month grid at the right (2016).

Both of these planners come with a removable address booklet in the back pocket.

If you have any questions about either of these planners let me know!

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Moleskine in any way. These are my own photos of planners that I bought for myself.

Moleskine Action Planner

I've been wanting to check out this planner for awhile, and found it recently at 50% off so I grabbed it!

The Action Planner is part of Moleskine's Professional Planners series. The book certainly does look professional. The Action Planner is Extra Large (7 1/2 by 10 inches), has a hard cover and is very slim.

It has all the usual Moleskine amenities: In Case Of Loss page, rounded corners, elastic strap, placemarker.

There are overview calendars for the current year (left page) and next year (right page).

There are also month column calendars for all of the current year and next year.

International holidays.

Conversions, dialing codes, etc. Also this one has airports of the world (very handy for a business traveler) and a flight times chart.

Here is the weekly spread. It was hard to get a good photo where the lines showed up well. Each weekday is a full column, Saturday and Sunday share a column, and at the right is a lined space for lists. I don't like that the name of the month is at the bottom of the page, it makes it hard for me to find the month and week I'm looking for. I wrote it in the top right corner, I like that better.

Left page, Monday through Thursday. Countries with holidays are indicated on the day, but holidays themselves are not printed.

Right page Friday- Sunday plus the lists space. I love space for lists on the weekly spread! It's the main reason why I've been wanting to check out this planner.

I was surprised, and I have to admit disappointed, to discover the ruling is wider in this planner than in Moleskine notebooks. I measure usual Moleskine ruling at 6 mm, and the ruling in the Action Planner weekly pages is 7 mm.

Moleskine notebook left 6 mm, Action Planner right 7mm

This might seem like a very small difference, but I noticed it right away. Personally I prefer 6 mm ruling in all cases, because it fits my handwriting best. Wider ruling means I can fit less writing on a page. Just my personal preference, but I wanted to let you know about the difference in ruling.

The Moleskine paper itself is what it is. I go back and forth in my opinion about it. It's not as smooth or nice as Quo Vadis/ Clairefontaine paper, but nothing is in my opinion. Moleskine paper is certainly not the worst paper out there, and in fact feels downright luxurious compared to some brands. In the end it's down to personal preference.

In the back of the book there are a few blank pages for notes, and a removable address book (which I like).

There is a full size pocket that the address book slots into.

It's an excellent planner, and would be appropriate in any workplace. Even though the page size is big, the book itself is very slim so it's not heavy in your bag.

Have you used a Moleskine Action planner? What did you think about it?