Review on A5 Dotted Notebook 3-Pack - 5.5X8.25 Dot Grid Paper Bullet Notes Journaling, 120 Sheets/240 Pages - Black/White/Kraft Brown Covers by Benjamin Glasper

Nice journals. Basically they a smidgeon smaller than a regular (US) paper folded in half. It’s a nice size (later I’ll explain why I like this size). I have the September Leather Traveler’s journal and wondered about these notebooks. As with the Traveler's Journal I'm very pleased with them. They come in a 3 pack with 3 different colored covers (black, kraft and white). These are stitched rather than stapled. Pages are secure so they don’t rip out, unless I want them out. (I’d probably cut them out if I ever wanted to do that). No spiral wire to snag on my clothes or other things. The corners are rounded which keeps them from breaking down as I take this in and out of my purse. The inside pages are cream with faint dots on the pages which is probably why there is a reference to being perfect for bullet journaling. I don’t do that but I like the dots to help keep my writing straight and they don’t get in the way if I want to draw something.The pages are heavier than my ‘normal” paper weight which I appreciate as I carry these around with me. I don’t like flimsy paper and it can’t be too heavy/stiff either. This really is a nice weight. The cream is soothing to the eye, easy to read yet not harsh in contrast. I use various color inks in this and have no issue reading. The dots are 5 to an inch (at least in the white, I assume all are the same and the others are in my calendar sitting on my desk at work).The dimensions are a bit larger than I've used in the past but it's thinner because of the way it's made. I hesitated but now that I have it in my hands I really think this is going to be a good size. I like the way it's assembled. I didn't want a spiral for snagging nor did I want staples to come loose and/ or snag things. The glued back little journals I've used in the past don't lie flat and are thicker. I didn't like that part of those glued journals. This does lie flat because of the sewn binding. The thinner book has plenty of pages and will fit into my purse better. It slides in next to the side of my purse and not shift or get lost among the other things in there. It is fast to find it. If I wanted smaller I could have bought passport size journal refills.Why do I find this type of journal helpful? (the following isn't exactly a product review but how I use it and why that's important to me. I'd use such information as I shop but you might not desire it, feel free to stop reading)I don’t bullet journal. I in the past couple of years I’ve found that electronic calendar/notes/etc. didn’t do everything I wanted. I added (not replaced) a hard copy planner which has some notes pages. I’ve always carried something to write notes on in my purse. My purse is large so the A5 size fits in my purse but it’s not too thick and doesn’t have a spiral like many other smaller notebooks would have and I don’t want in my purse. I can find it quickly because it doesn’t slide down to the bottom of my purse, the white is in my purse to be able to see it. I just jot notes, names, addresses, book references, directions, whatever I (or any of my family members) need to remember. There is no attempt to organize the information, I just thumb through and find it. This is something I’ve done for many years and I like this as my newest book.The other two are in my planner. I use a good size planner (whole month at one time pages) that is spiral bound and it has some blank pages in it. I use those pages to take notes, jot reminders, to do's for me, etc. as I’m in meetings. I then will (when I need to) transfer the information to whatever is appropriate usually by using this to jog my memory and creating the documents/emails I need when I'm back at my computer. I found using an IPad while in meetings was distracting, I wasn’t getting everything that I can when I hand write notes. I wasn't as mentally present in the meetings as the technology actually took more attention than pencil/paper does. Sometimes meetings are impromptu as I run into folks but I need to have notes from that. I also found that the dates, times and participants in the conversations which I add as I jot notes to be helpful. (Kind of hard for someone to say that I have the date wrong on something when the notes were dated and in between notes about something else completely. Yes, that’s saved me and someone else on a rather important issue as the date mattered.) There aren’t many pages in that planner so I now it's only June and I needed to add more but how with that spiral back? The traveler’s notebook is what triggered my thoughts to how I might do that. You may be aware but if not, traveler’s notebooks secure to the covers with elastic band system. I’m doing that with the other 2 journals. I had "belly bands", AKA elastic bands for that planner. I’ve banded the notebooks together and used a 2nd band to put them in my planner. Using that 2nd band I’ve banded them to the laminated back cover page so the spiral isn’t an issue. They are a bit smaller than the laminated cover so I think this is going to work well. Everything is shutting nicely, pages in the planner are turning, pages in the journals are also turning but I might stop at the fabric/craft store buy a length of thinner elastic as the "band" to replace the wider belly band I have now. We'll see as I work with it.If you are wondering about the traveler’s journal and the notebook in my purse, the traveler’s journal is for that—travel that I’m doing/planning—and nothing else is going in that. I'm going to a multiday conference and I want the traveler's journal to be exclusively for that experience. That has travel plans and dates. It has conference sessions info in it. It will have notes from the conference and the trip. This notebook is used differently, it’s more of a head dump of things I need to know, need to remember. It will stay with me until it is full which will take a long time the way I use it. Once I write them down I don’t worry about forgetting, it’s in the book. I’ve dumped them out of my head. It’s mentally freeing.