2013 Moleskine Star Wars planners!!!

Here are the 2013 Star Wars planners by Moleskine!!  I have to say, these are excruciatingly cool!!!

I got the large Weekly Notebook (Yoda), the pocket Daily (Han Solo) and the large Daily (Darth Vader) (Click on any photos to enlarge):

The Darth Vader large daily has his quote embossed in shiny black:

Han's quote is embossed in white (with Solo looking very sexy on the label). Makes me feel like it's going to be a very fun year indeed!

I love Yoda's quote, what a great thing to have on a planner!!

The inside covers have cool shots of planets (or the Death Star in the Darth Vader one) and a postcard with the character's photo and quote:

Inside the back cover there's another cool image that continues onto the cover of the removable address booklet, and if you take the booklet out the image is printed on the back pocket too:

Inside the Moleskines are the usual formats, weekly notebook in the Yoda one and day per page in the Han and Darth ones:

On the front cover Star Wars is embossed on the bottom left:

These planners have made me fall in love with Moleskine all over again. They certainly have their finger on the pulse of what's cool.  I'm a huge Star Wars fan so I'm very excited about these planners!

I pre-ordered these planners on Amazon.com several months ago and they shipped when they came in stock. I have put links below and in the sidebar to the ordering sites for these planners for anyone who is interested.

Large hardcover Weekly Notebook (Yoda):




Large hardcover Daily planner (Darth Vader):




Pocket hardcover Daily planner (Han Solo):

Guest post from Mstraat: Graphic Image weekly notebook review

Many thanks to Mstraat for this excellent review of the Graphic Image weekly notebook!!  I'd never seen details of this planner before so I was very interested to read her review and see her excellent photos.

This is my 2012 Graphic Image Notebook in lime leather. The actual color is a nice, soft avocado and has worn well. I am not careful with my planner as it goes everywhere with me! The page edges are gilded, there is a cream ribbon marker, and the paper is a cream color. There is a note in the back page that the paper comes from “responsibly managed forests”, and “all materials in this book meet established criteria for their preservation for several hundred years” under normal use and storage. It is published and bound in the U.S. This planner measures 5 ¼” x 7 ¼” and is ¾” thick so it is portable. The photo shows a comparison with a Large Moleskine Daily.

The endpapers are yearly overviews, with 2011 on the front left, 2012 front right and back left, and 2013 back right. There are 248 pages and a table of contents at the front, as the pages (besides the diary and maps) are numbered. The first 13 pages include five-language common phrases (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) and U. S. and international holiday lists. 

The diary section begins with 2-page monthly grids for December 2011 through January 2013.  There is an overview of the previous month and next five months to the left. The grid “squares” measure 1 2/8” wide by 1 3/8” tall and are faintly lined, a very nice feature. Holidays for the U.S., Canada and the U.K. are printed at the bottom of the squares.

The monthly spreads are followed by a week + notes format for mid-December 2011 through mid-January 2013. 

The left-hand page has the month at the top and then horizontal spaces for the days, with the date and weekday name in each. There is a darker rule between days and faint-ruled lines in each day, with a break in the center of the lines so they may be used either as columns or written straight across. The lines are spaced at 6 mm, with four per weekday and three for the weekend. Saturday and Sunday share the space at the bottom, which was a disappointment to me. The photo on the website when I ordered showed Saturday at the bottom of this page, and Sunday at the bottom of the right-hand page. So the weekend days have very small spaces. The right-hand page has the month and day numbers at the top right with the week number underneath. There are then faint-ruled lines able to be used as columns, with 24 lines if you count the dark rule at the bottom. Under this line (which, alas, used to be Sunday. . .) there are monthly overviews for the previous, current and two following months.

The final diary section is an overview for 2013 with two months per page, one column for each.  There are 29 lines so if you wanted a day per line you would need to use the space below the last line.

Page 164 begins a “Travel Information” section, including air distances, weather, time zones and weights and measures. The “Contact Information” section begins page 172 with dialing codes. There are then 13 pages for your own contacts; I assumed this was intended for two letters per page and added the letters at the top corners.

Next is a page and a bit for birthdays and anniversaries, with printed charts of traditional gifts, birthstones and so on.

There follow four pages for recording hotel and restaurant details, which I am using for book lists. 

Pages 196 through 210 are lined pages for notes—this is an outstanding feature to me!—and then page 211 is for personal data, which seems an odd spot for this even if it were wise to fill out, which it isn’t. The final section is several pages of beautiful full-color world maps, with several major cities and even the London Underground and New York Subway included.

So how did this planner work for me? “Did” is the operative word. I preferred it to the weekly Moleskine, partly because the paper was heavier and partly because it is much more aesthetically pleasing. The monthly calendars and week + notes pages provide more writing room than the personal-sized Filofax though the book is smaller and easier to carry. I found work arounds for several annoyances:  There is no closure, but a stretchy headband works for that and also solved the problem of no pen holder as I tucked the pen under the headband. Since the book is bound I needed a spot for disposable shopping lists, so I stuck some 4” x 6” lined sticky notes inside the front cover. It surprised me to find I missed my Filofax ruler, not so much for measuring but for using as a straightedge to draw lines, so a few times I used the edge of an envelope or some such. I did miss having a Moleskine back pocket as I had nowhere to put the stickers I use to mark details on the monthly grids. I also found I missed having moon phases on the calendar, though the weekly pages have the equinoxes and solstices.

The paper is very nice for writing and a bit heavier than Moleskine but still not good for very liquid ink, which I like to use. See the photo for ink test results. The Uni Ball Vision Elite bled through. 

And I do confess to liking white paper best in planners, though this paper is a nice shade of cream. Honestly the printed information and maps are not at all useful to me as I don’t travel; more lined notes pages would have been my preference. But the deal-breaker for me was the size of the weekend days. They are just too small to work for me. I adapted by using the left column on the notes page for weekly to dos, the bottom right for info I might need to find later, and the right column for my weekend days. Which sort of defeats the purpose of the day spaces, in my mind; I want weekly things on the right page and daily things on the day spaces. I’ve moved on to another experiment as right now practicality trumps sheer beauty for my planning needs.

Guest post: Millie's Moleskine weekly notebook as journal!

Huge thanks to Millie (aka MsLogica) from Planet Millie (which you must go read and see her beautiful photographs) for this excellent guest post on how she uses her Moleskine weekly notebook as a journal!  What a brilliant idea!

I remember when I announced that I had bought a new planner on Twitter, and I got tweets to ask if that meant I was abandoning my Filofax. I use a Malden in the personal size for my everyday planning needs, and people thought I might be leaving the Filofax club. Certainly not! I bought a Moleskine planner to use as a daily journal, and Laurie has kindly let me come on Plannerisms to discuss this.

I bought the large weekly planner in red from Moleskine, which has a similar format to the week on one page with notes from Filofax.

My only gripe with this layout is that Saturday and Sunday have only got half the space of the other weekdays. I want equal rights for Saturdays and Sundays! I have just as much stuff to write in their sections. This is especially true given my reason for buying the Moleskine.

I keep a regular journal, which is a blank notebook where I can ramble on about whatever takes my fancy. However, I decided to supplement this with a daily journal that specifically recorded what I'd been up to, anything amusing I'd seen that week and other such things that make up daily life. I jot down a few sentences on my day, and occasionally write down quotes. The blank notes page is used for larger prose I want to write - for example at the end of the month I do a quick analysis with some facts and figures for the month. I go into this in more detail in my normal journal, but this planner gives a quick snapshot of my life.

I know that some of you keep your planners from previous years, and so you think you already have a snapshot of your life. However, I would argue with this - what you have (or, what I would have if I kept old Filofax pages) is a snapshot of work meetings, appointments, deadlines. It's not a snapshot of what I thought, saw, did, read, etc. I don't have room to record this in my Filofax, and I'm not sure I'd want to. These are personal details, after all, whereas my Filofax is literally what I use to organise my time. Would I want to be sat in a meeting with my Filofax open on the day, with a note that says “Very amused to see David Hasselhoff on TV. Remember Baywatch?”

I keep my planner next to my bed, in my bedside table. It has a pen attached so that there is no excuse for me not writing in it every evening. It usually takes less than 5 minutes to jot down a couple of sentences.

If you'd like to keep a journal, but struggle whenever you start, I'd recommend keeping a daily journal in a planner format instead. The layout forces you to write something for each day, and the extra space in the Moleskine weekly planner means you can write more if you get the urge to do so. It's an easy way to get into a journalling habit, and it will give you something to look back on in the future.

Moleskine 18 month planners begin today!

Today is the first day in the 2011-2012 Moleskine 18 month planners! These planners come in the super-popular Weekly Notebook format, or the Horizontal Weekly format. They come in a variety of sizes including pocket, large and extra-large.

The 18 month planners have monthly and weekly views.  They begin today, and go all the way through the end of December 2012.

If you are in need of a new planner for whatever reason, are on an academic year, are transitioning from academic to calendar year planner needs, or need to start a new planner any time between now and December, you'll want to check these planners out!


Click here to see my review of the 2011-2012 18 month Extra Large Moleskine weekly notebook.

Moleskine 18 month weekly notebook Extra Large:
















18 month weekly notebook Large:














18 month horizontal weekly Large:














18 month horizontal weekly Pocket:

It's already here! My 2011-2012 Extra Large 18 month Moleskine weekly notebook

Ever since I ordered this planner yesterday from The Paperie UK I've been thinking about it nearly incessantly a lot. I expected it would arrive early next week.  Imagine my delight when it arrived TODAY!  I just ordered it yesterday!  And the shipping was free!!!

Please excuse my less-than-perfect photos taken hastily in my windowsill in my excitement about posting this as soon as possible. You can click on the photos for a larger view.

Look!  It really is the 2011-2012 planner! You guys, I have a planner that goes ALL the way through the end of next year! And it's only just March! (Yes I realize my level of excitement about this is sick.)

Once I got done hyperventilating, I ripped off the wrapper to inspect the monthly calendar situation.  You see, in my excitement last night I was surfing Moleskine websites and looked at MolekineUS to see if their 2011-2012 18 month planners are in yet.  They weren't, but they are listed as "coming soon."  (***Update: the 18 month planners are now available for purchase on MoleskineUS, click here for the product page.)   But I noticed, with alarm, they have noted: "Also included is a monthly view for the year, in column format on a 6 page spread."  Noooooo! I tried not to panic thinking my beloved months with days as squares were gone after only one publication year.

But I am extremely happy and relieved to report that the monthly calendars with days as squares are there!  Whew!

**Edited to add: I especially like the spaces at the top and bottom of the monthly calendars. In the top space I write things that are due that month, like if someone is due for a vaccine booster or if my insurance is due for renewal.  In the bottom "Notes" space I write goals or projects for the month, progress toward them, and anything else specific to that month.  Click on the photo below for a larger view.

In the Extra Large page size, the monthly calendars are especially wonderful.  You can see in the photo below that each daily square is more than an inch wide, which gives lots of space to write in each day:

(Yes my ruler is purple. What other color would it be? :) )

In the past I've abandoned the Large size weekly notebook because the day spaces are too small for my needs. I really don't think this will be a problem in this Extra Large size planner!  The day spaces are about 7 1/2 inches wide, and nearly 1 1/2 inch tall:

And I love that entire right page for lists, notes, reminders, quotes, party guest lists, whatever!

The Moleskine 18 month weekly notebook has all the international info pages that come standard in Moleskine planners including dialing codes etc.:

Something that the 18 month planners have that the 12 month planners don't are Timetable pages, of which there are two 2-page spreads like this:

This timetable is extremely handy even for those of us who are not in school ourselves. I will use it to keep track of the busy schedules of each of my family members. There's a 2-page spread each for the fall and spring semesters, so I can stay on top of who needs to be where for after-school activities.

The Extra-Large weekly notebook only comes in the soft cover, which is too bad because I prefer the hard cover. Oh well. There is a back pocket, but it doesn't have an address or reference booklet. It does contain 3 pages of handy color-coded stickers:

My biggest complaint about Moleskine planners is that I don't like black covers. I find them boring, and a little depressing.  Of course I would prefer purple.  Then I had a sudden realization: my faux leather Dodo Pad diary cover in iridescent lilac is the same size as the Extra Large Moleskine!!!!!!

But then I discovered to my extreme frustration that the Moleskine was just a tiiiiny bit too tall to fit into the cover.  So I had to butcher the cover just a little bit by ripping out the top seams of the inside flaps:

The result is that the Extra Large Moleskine fits in beautifully!  I even have easy access to the Mole's back pocket:

And I get to look at the beautiful lilac color around the edges of my weekly pages every day!  Not to mention I get to handle the softness of the cover all the time. 

Enormous planner + cover combo Win!!!

So now I have a Moleskine planner that will carry me through all of next year, in a gorgeous and soft purple cover.  You guys!!  I may have reached Planner Nirvana with this!!!

2011-2012 Moleskine 18 month planners available now (already!)!

Yesterday when I received the tweet from The Paperie UK (@thepaperie) that they have the 2011-2012 Moleskine 18 month planners (click through here to see their page) already, I could hardly believe it!  Is it that time of the year already?

Yes. Yes it is.  (It's never too early for New! Planners!)

First of all, I want to pat The Paperie on the back for offering us the chance to buy planners for next year in February. Wow!!

Second, I have to force myself not to panic-buy these planners in every size, because they do sell out very quickly.  If you wait until July when they start, they may very well be gone by then.  One year my sister decided she wanted one in August and had to search far and wide, and then was very lucky to find one at all.

I love these planners for their excellent layout (which I reviewed the 2009 version of here and the 2010 with monthly calendars here).  The week + notes format works very well for lots of people in various circumstances: students, parents, business people, anyone really.

I love that they start the week of end June/ beginning July and go all the way through the end of the following year.  That way you have a 6 month window in which to begin your planner. There's lots of reasons why this is useful.

Those of us jonesing for a new planner mid-year can start it right on the first day.

For students, teachers and parents in the US and Scotland who start school in August, you can start it then and use it for the entire school year.  Here in the UK I've discovered that many of the academic year planners begin in September, when England starts school.  That's too late for those of us who start in August.  The 18 month planners give everyone starting school in autumn the opportunity to start the planner at the beginning of the school year, no matter which month you start school.

Something else I could do with this planner is something I've thought of for awhile: begin a new planner on my birthday (in October) and use it for my entire age year.  I could label the spine with my age and "2011-2012."  I don't know many other planners that could go October to October. I don't think I'll actually do this though because it doesn't follow the academic or calendar year, so it would break up the year in an odd and not-useful way.  I have a friend whose birthday is December 31st, she could do this!  Anyway, I digress...

I hope Moleskine has kept the monthly calendars with the days as blocks to write in, instead of reverting back to the months as columns which were in the previous-years' Moleskine planners. I know there were a lot of people who cried out for the return of the monthly columns, so much so that Moleskine made them available as printouts on Moleskine.com (although I can't find that template now).  But the monthly block-calendars are so much more useful for those of us who need to visualize each month.

I love the idea of buying a planner now that will go all the way through 2012.  I have a freakish desire to plan ahead as much as possible.

I'm trying to resist buying one right now for a couple of reasons. I am really loving my Quo Vadis Minister weekly planner, and I don't have any desire to change from it.  I don't really need the Mole.  It has failed me in the past. And, I don't know what my planner needs will be in Indonesia.  My Minister might continue to work great for me all year. Or I may find new and glorious planner possibilities there.

But can I resist buying the Mole?  It appeals to me even if only for the comfort factor.

Will I?  Won't I? ...  ;)

Moleskines, Start Your Engines!

Today is the first day in the 2010/2011 Moleskine 18 month planners! For those of you using one of these planners this year, it's time to bust it out and rev it up.

Happy planning!

Moleskine 2011 18 Month Weekly Notebook: Black Hard Cover Large (Moleskine Legendary Notebooks (Calendars))

Moleskine 2011 18 Month Weekly Planner Horizontal: Red Hard Cover Large (Moleskine Srl)

Moleskine 18 month weekly notebook 2010-2011

There are some major changes in the 2010-2011 Moleskine 18 month weekly notebook from last year's version (which you can read my review of here).

The biggest change is that there are no more monthly planners with the months as columns. (But be aware, the description on the Moleskine US website still describes the "monthly view for the year, in column format on a 6 page spread." This no longer exists.)

In its place is the VASTLY preferable format many of us have been begging for for years: the months with the days as squares large enough to write in:
These monthly calendars go from July 2010 all the way through December 2011.


While I was at the London Book Fair talking to Silvia Salvadori at the Moleskine display, she confirmed that all 2011 Moleskine planners now have this monthly format instead of the monthly columns. She asked if that is a good thing, and I said absolutely yes. I much prefer this monthly format.

Buuuuuutttt... (and there's always a but, right?) something had to be sacrificed. In this case, the sacrifice was the future year's planning pages. In my review of the 2009-2010 Moleskine 18 month weekly notebook, I noted, "Also there are calendars with the months as columns with a line to write each day, 2 months per page, for July-December 2009, all of 2010, AND ALL of 2011. I do a lot of long-range planning so I REALLY appreciated this. Bravo Mole!!"

Well, now that extra future year is gone. The monthly calendars cover July-December of 2010, and January-December 2011, but there is no planner for 2012. In my opinion, it's a small price to pay for the improved functionality of the new monthly calendars.

There are planning calendars with the days just as numbers for July-December 2010 as well as all of 2011 and all of 2012, so you can see those dates. Thank you, Moleskine.

There's also new packaging for the 2011 Moleskine planners, to make them easier to distinguish between formats.

On the back of the label, there is additional information about the planner features:

The other usual Moleskine features are still there, including country holidays for July 2010-December 2011:
Also, the 18 month planners have time tables for class schedules:
This is a handy feature even if you yourself are not in any classes. This table could be used for recurring weekly events for yourself and/or your family. I use these tables for other things (one for financial records and the other to record my weight).

Other features are still there too like the time zones map, trips planning, and several pages for notes in the back of the book (which is wonderful).

The Moleskine 18 month weekly notebooks are now available on Amazon (where I pre-ordered mine for a great price), Moleskine US, and The Daily Planner among others. (I am not affiliated with any of these websites.)

Don't cry, little Mole!

Just because I'm in love with my Quo Vadis Minister doesn't mean the Moleskine 18 month weekly notebook is a bad planner. Actually, it's an excellent planner.

Here is a photo of the inside (which you can click on to get a better view), just in case you haven't seen one of these yet. The Moleskine layout is very clean and simple, yet there are features that show the high attention to detail. For example, I'm not sure you can see this from my slightly washed-out photo (you can in the enlarged view when you click on it), but the lines that mark the borders of the daily spaces continue straight across the page and merge seamlessly with the lines on the opposite notes page. This not only makes the page spread look great, it's also very useful if you need to continue your schedule or tasks straight over onto the notes page. Lines out of alignment would have looked jarring. It's little things like this that make a Moleskine especially pleasant to use and look at.

The top of the weekly schedule page has a large space for writing whatever you want. Personally I resented this space because I would have rather had more space for the weekends (which have very tiny spaces for Saturday and Sunday), but I know people like this space for making notes or highlighting the week's priorities or goals.

The unobtrusive lines and minimalist typeface contribute to the streamlined appearance. Holidays are not written on the page, but initials of the country having a holiday are noted on the day's space, in the corner where it won't interfere with your writing.

The mostly-blank pages allow for customization and creativity. There is nothing constraining in any way, and even the lines can be written over easily. This is a great planner for people who need open space for their days without time constraints or lines. But people (such as myself) who crave more structure can do that too. As you can see I wrote in the beginning and end dates of the week next to the month, to make it easier to find the correct date while flipping through my book. Also you can see the Filofax stickers I used to indicate important dates. (More on these stickers in a later post!)

The layout of the week on the left page and a lined page on the right works well for a lot of people in various situations. I think this would have been great while I was in school, when I didn't have many scheduled events on any particular day but did have lots of to-dos and assignments to keep track of.

This planner worked fairly well for me when I didn't have too much that I needed to write in any particular day. But when my days were very busy, I found there was just not enough room to write (especially on those tiny weekend days!). I did enjoy having an entire blank page each week, and could use it differently every week if I wanted to. Some weeks the page was full of tasks. Sometimes I had phone numbers, notes, directions, party guest lists, websites and books to check out, or whatever other random thing I needed to write down. It was nice to have a place to capture all of those jottings that might otherwise get lost. I think this is the biggest appeal of the weekly notebook format.

The usual Moleskine features apply: nice paper, sturdy binding, hard cover, elastic strap, back pocket. The corners are rounded and the book is very pleasant to use and hold. The black hard cover planners come with a removable address book, which I find very useful. The front pages include tons of international information (which I appreciate and refer to often). There is a very lame map of international time zones that is not detailed enough to be very helpful. The 18 month planner also has pages to write your class schedules for each semester. I have transformed these into charts to track my financial totals since I don't have a set weekly schedule.

Besides the main weekly notebook there are other calendar formats too: monthly views of the second half of 2009, all of 2010 and 2011 with the days as numbers. Also there are calendars with the months as columns with a line to write each day, 2 months per page, for July-December 2009, all of 2010, AND ALL of 2011. I do a lot of long-range planning so I REALLY appreciated this. Bravo Mole!!

My Mole is the large size. In the past I have used the pocket size, and it is tiny. It really would fit into a pocket, and would be a good choice for a satellite book to a larger desk planner, or for someone who doesn't need much writing space. I chose the 18 month planner because I wanted the weekly notebook with a black hard cover. The 12 month weekly notebook only has a hard cover in red (which I loooooathe. I hate that screaming red! But I must be in the minority because I know it's very popular.), or soft cover in black. So to get the black hard cover I had to go for the 18 month book. Which, interestingly, costs just about the same as the red hard cover 12 month book.

The 18 month book is great obviously for those on an academic schedule, or anybody who needs to start their planner anytime between the beginning of July and end of December.

I had this custom leather cover made for my Mole by Renaissance Art, and they did a great job. They tweaked it for the thickness of the 18 month book, and did the customization exactly how I wanted. The 18 month weekly is the same thickness as the Moleskine sketch book, so I will continue to use this cover on Mole sketchbooks, because the cover is too awesome not to use!

So there you have it, just in case you thought I was dissing the Mole. There's a lot to love about the Moleskine weekly notebook. If you want a planner without constraints and need the flexibility of a notes page every week, then this one is definitely worth checking out!