Personal versus A5

I was thinking in which order to post this, should I first show you my A5 or first tell you why I choose A5 over a personal sized? I figured to go with the last option and explain my motivations for having an A5 sized planner. I know theres alot of people ou there who face the same choice. And also quite a number who made the 'wrong' choice (found A5 too big/heavy or personal too small). By giving you my motivation perhaps you can use it to make your own choice :)

1. Size difference.

Before we go into this let's just look at some of the 'facts'.
An A5 planner uses paper that is about 148mm x 210mm. It might be slightly different for different planners but in the rule this is the paper size. For the personal planners the papers are 95mm x 171. Again here it might change slightly depending on the planner you have. I bought a very cheap and cute personal planner at 'Hema' which you can decorate yourself.


2. Where are you going to use it for?

This sounds very 'duh', but hear me out. Before you choose you need to have kind of an idea what the general idea is of planning. What kind of life do you have? Do you use it for work? Or only for personal planning? So basically 'What are you planning to plan?' (hehe...). To give you some idea on how I made my choice here is my experience with planners.


My experience:

As a student I used a small planner (compact), I only wrote my appointments and class schedules in there and I carried a large notebook with me to class. This combination I've used for the most time of my student time and I absolutely loved it. I would prob. still use it that way today If I were a student. A large planner is not going to meet the demand of ALL paper I used as a student (writing down notes in class but also summaries of books I had to study). So then carrying both is a good option. 

After completing my master of science degree I began a PhD in my field of research. In The Netherlands (and most of Europe) a PhD means no more classes! So no more endless amounts of class notes! However, it does still mean endless meetings, symposia and tutoring undergrads .. so the need for alot of paper is there. Also I have way more appointments now than I did as a student. So the space that is required to write down appointments needs to be bigger. I first used a paper agenda which was larger than a personal sized planner. this worked fine for my to do lists and my appointments. But, I still had to carry 3 different notebooks around. 1 for meetings with my supervisors, one for symposium talks or other talks and a third for meetings with my students. I did not want to mix these notebooks into 1 because I'd never be able to find my notes again!


I tried out a very cheap personal sized planner from Hema. But the moment I started using it at work I realized I made a mistake. I could not fit all my meetings and to do's on the paper.

This picture shows a comparison for the same week. Mind you this is a week in which I had very few appointments... it barely fits the personal and there's no room for fun stickers. Wy not use a day on 1 page then? Because I SERIOUSLY don't like that. I need to have the entire week always open infront of me because I need to perpare.

call me weird but that's just how I prefer it. I did try the day on a page once and it was a disaster. I'd forget half my meetings! Sometimes I plan something for friday but I'd need to run the analyses on wednesday if I don't Ill never be done on friday!

Other than that, I have alot of meetings where a lot of things are discussed that I need to write down. Using a notebook works but I didn't like to have seperate notebooks. I like having it all together and up for grabs if I need it. So in that way a planner with tabs won over 3 seperate notebooks. I'd have to carry the noteboks because writing 1 meeting with my supervisors in a personal sized planner would cost me about 6 pages ...

So we talked about function, how about look :)

A nice thing is that you can fit pictures or cards in your A5 it without having to clip the edges. So this is basically just a bonus to make it look nice :)

I also LOVE how my A5 can lie totally open on my desk. No risk at falling closed again or whatever. I need it like that so that during my work I can look at it quick and see what's left to do/meet on that day.







3. The choice.

What you're going to choose is for sure very personal. I believe most normal people with normal jobs can work with a personal very well. I also believe that A5 is not a size that works for everyone. It is big and yes it is heavy. But for my job I already have to carry a backpack with papers and books so .. it's not that big of a deal to carry the A5 for me. I don't carry it on personal outings. If I'm out for dinner with a friend and she wants to make an appointment with me I write it in my phone diary. I use that also because it's shared with my boyfriend and we're up to date on family-related appointments. At home I will write the appointment in my planner.

Why don't you carry both? Because I don't like not having all the info. My work often continues after 'working time', so some evenings are planned. If you have a very firm seperation of a 9 - 5 job and after that you have you free time this would be do-able. My job is blended into my life too much to have such a clear cut. Id need to know my work schedule of the week before I can plan dinner with a friend. That's why I don't only use the A5 at work but also for personal stuff.

So, I believe that the personal planner is a NICER planner. I love the way it looks and falls into my hand. You can slip it into your bag easily and carry it around. If I could I WOULD use the personal planner. However, for people like me with very irregular jobs (every day is a new set of tasks) the personal just isn't enough. Perhaps one day Ill have a more normal job with a repetitive pattern of tasks which makes it easier to write down in a personal planner. For now .. A5 is exactly what I need.

Perhaps this helped, perhaps not... let me know :)