Back again today to talk Nolty planners!

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If you haven’t already seen, I’ve shared my first impressions of these Nolty planners recently. There’s also a video up on my channel, comparing these planners to Hobonichi planners.

Today, I’m doing a full review of the A5 Nolty I picked up, the 6322.

This A5 comes in a black cover, with card pockets and a pen loop, making this an idea work planner.

I don’t need a lot of things with me (back when I used to actually work in the office) so somewhere to carry my pen and business cards is all I need.

This is a replacement for my work bullet journal

The set up is very similar to that, just with a little more structure to the pages. That’s precisely why I wanted this planner. I wanted something pre-printed with the days of the week, but with a flexible enough layout that I could also bullet journal, too.

This planner gives me exactly that, in a high quality but low-cost way. I purchased this from Amazon Japan, and it only came to around £25 or so, with shipping and taxes included.

I don’t use the early pages that much

The yearly overview is purely for tracking bank holidays and my own holidays from work.

The monthly view is seldom used. Partly because I hate the fact that it’s a plain/lined combo, when the rest of the planner has grid paper. But also because I have an Outlook calendar for my appointments and meetings. I tend to just pop deadlines in here for big projects or meetings that I need to prepare for.

The main value of this planner, is in the weekly pages

They strike a perfect balance between structure and flexibility.

This layout allows me to put anything date specific in the top, whilst keeping the bottom completely free for my bullet journal style layout.

Using a Fineliner, or even just my Hobonichi pen, I divide out the week into six sections.

Section 1 is for my date specific items. The top half will generally be for tasks, and the bottom half will be notes or things I need to remember for meetings on that date.

Section 2 is for things I need to ask or discuss with people. I’ll write the name of someone and then the things I need to talk to them about. I’ll then leave a gap before writing the next person, so I have room to add to it. This is such a useful part of my planning as there’s so many things that pop into my head to discuss with people and if I don’t write it down, I will forget by the time I talk to them. I use this section for people in my immediate team generally. If there are things I need to ask suppliers, that goes in the suppliers page (kept in the notes pages) or if it’s just a one off thing I need to contact someone about, that goes into my task list.

Section 3 is my task list and pretty self-explanatory. It’s a very simple list with . signifiers.

Section 4 is for notes. Things that have come up in conversation, or things I’ll need to remember or refer back to. This doesn’t include meeting notes with my main suppliers.

Section 5 is another really important part of my planning. This is where I list everything I’m waiting for, with a O signifier.

It’s so easy to ask for something from someone, and then completely forget about it. Unfortunately I have to do a lot of chasing up of things, so I really need this list. I also transfer any meeting actions to this list, so I can keep an eye on them and not wait for the next meeting to chase. One thing that I’m still working on is how to tie this list to my task list. As often, I’m awaiting on information before I can action a certain task.

My final section is for next week/future items.

I write anything that will need to be done at a later date in here, and then at the end of the week when it comes to migrating tasks, I’ll migrate those as the same time.

On a Friday afternoon I then go through and create the spread for next week

I migrate everything over, including everything I’m waiting on. Using the > signifier, I know if I look back on the pages, I’ve moved it.

I always use a trusty Avery tab* to mark the current week. My current tab actually moved over from my last bullet journal, the stickiness lasts so long.

Finally, I use my note pages for all meeting notes

But there’s no particular ‘set up’ to these pages really.

I use a Muji sticky tab to mark each page (I still need to go through and use my label maker to create names for them). I use one page per supplier and just keep adding to the page until it’s full. You don’t get a huge amount of notes pages (about 80 I think) but this should be more than enough for a year of meetings.

The layout is pretty simple.

I usually have the date of the next meeting written in advance, so that if I think of anything I need to discuss in the meeting, I can write it ahead of time.

Once in the meeting I write notes in the usual way, with a – signifier. I then use a . for any tasks. After the meeting I then move these tasks into my weekly spread, either in the list of tasks that I need to do, or in the ‘waiting on’ section, if it’s a task they need to complete.

Then, before the next meeting I review these notes and update any completed tasks (and notes that relate to them) so I know what is still outstanding.

I’m really enjoying this planner

The size and layout (except the monthly) is perfect for work. The pages, while not Tomow River paper, are high quality and take all pens really well.

I’ve opted to use the Hobonichi pen in here as I have so many and really like using these pens for work. The three colours are perfect for how I colour code (which I haven’t really discussed in this post but should be fairly self-explanatory from the pictures). It’s also a really nice pen to write with, and I never have to worry about the ink smearing.

This is a really nice planner, and I’m glad I purchased it.

I only have two issues with it. Firstly, that it doesn’t like perfectly flat and takes a bit of work. Coming from Hobonichi planners that always lay flat, it’s been a bit of a learning curve with these. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it is an annoyance.

Second, while I like the practicality of the cover, it’s not really my usual style. I’d purchase another cover for it, but it feels like a waste of this plastic cover. The fact that you can’t purchase these without the cover also doesn’t sit right with me, from an environmental point of view.

I’ll definitely be picking up another size of Nolty planner to try soon

Have you tried this brand before? Let me know in the comments!