After an extended holiday break, I’m back with the first post of 2022. A couple of months ago I reviewed five notebooks that seemed to be great contenders for a planning notebook. I’ve been using notebooks for several years.

Paperblanks

The notebook company Paperblanks sent me an email recently about their notebook line of planners – just in time for 2022. Even though I had already started preparing a notebook for use, I was intrigued by the available options and bought one. I already use Paperblanks journals for sketchnoting, so I was familiar with the quality of the brand.

Decorative Covers

Paperblanks notebooks feature decorative cover designs based on illuminated manuscripts and classic book covers from previous centuries and notable figures. The cover of the notebook I purchased is pictured below.

Other Features

The other features of this notebook that resulted in a high score are 120 gsm paper, page numbers, slim size, and the dot grid. This Paperblanks notebook also has 192 pages, so in a sense this is the Goldilocks notebook – not too many pages and not too few, not too thin pages and note too thick.

Using the same scoring matrix as the initial comparison of notebooks, below is my evaluation of this notebook. Factors bolded red are those that met my desired criteria.

Interestingly, after holding several notebooks, the A5 size with 165gsm pages is a bit thicker than my preference. In the end, I selected the Paperblanks notebook because of the attractive design, slim size, and slightly thinner – but acceptable – pages.