I popped into Staples on Friday and picked up a cloth-covered Rollabind Notebook, the 6″ x 8.5″ size. It comes with 70 pages of fairly heavy-weight paper, 5.5″x8.25″, that takes the ink from my Pilot G2 very well. The paper is pre-printed, both sides, with College-ruled lines for notes and is very smooth, so pencil works well too.

Included accessories for the notebook vary in quality. The business card holder has 3 slots for cards and is very cheap and flimsy. The slash-pocket divider is also light-weight, I anticipate that it will tear quickly under use. The ruler place holder and single tabbed divider are of better quality - a heavier, thicker plastic sheet that should hold up to daily use.
Finally we come to the rings that are the heart of the system. Made of white plastic, painted silver, they have some mold flash on the outer edge that restricts the opening and closing of the notebook. Turning individual pages works fine, but when you flip multiple pages or open the notebook to the center they catch. This is a big weakness, I am going to have to file the flash off so the pages will turn more smoothly.

Rating: 3 (of 5)

What will I use it for?

This new notebook will serve as a capture device for the rough drafts of upcoming posts, @Project outlines, and perhaps the home for upcoming Review Checklists. The notebook fits into my “portable office” with no adjustments. To hack this notebook for best use, I have added 3 dividers made from 5″x8″ index cards with self-adhesive tabs. I may pick up a sturdier business-card holder designed for one of those name brand systems once the original one fails. It depends on how much I use it.

I will post updates on how daily use comes along.

Related post here.

Note: This notebook is not a Levenger Circa Notebook, which is a 5 star rated product of much higher quality.

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