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I almost exclusively (On the rare occasion I use paper, mostly as a prop to look professional or not mess up a low tech ambiance, or some other specific use case) use an A5 6 ring binder.

I especially like how you can print 2 pages on a US Letter, cut it in half, punch it(If you don't have a 6 hole punch, use an existing 6 hole sheet as a stencil and punch the marks), and it's close enough to A5 to work.

It's great for working events to have all my setup info in a binder that isn't a 3 ring full size, which I find unpleasantly bulky,just a bit too big for backpacks, and way excessive for the small amounts of paper notes I usually use.

I also like how they have A5 Ziploc sleeve things I can use for index cards and stuff.

It's such a great format I almost wish I enjoyed handwriting enough to do bullet journaling for all my notes, but I prefer Google Keep for most things, extended notes get tiring trying to write something before I forget it, while being distracted by trying to be legible, it's almost like some kind of rhythm game multitasking challenge!

I'd consider A6 instead but real A6 is hard to find, most of them are actually filofax personal in a weird aspect ratio I'm not sure I'd like.




I think your comment would be easier to understand if you stated your geographical location.

In Europe, I would expect A6 paper to be decently easy to find (although I don't think I've ever bought any, so salt away if you feel like it). A few seconds on the local Amazon surfaced [1], which is 2,000 sheets for SEK 218 (€19 or US $20) which I would not call hard to find nor expensive ...

Edit: forgot the link! :)

[1]: https://www.amazon.se/Copier-Paper-2000BL-A6-vit/dp/B004G6Q3...


A6 paper is easy to find even here(I'm in the US), the problem is finding an true A6 binder for less than $30.

Filofax personal and A5 are in the $10 to $15 range, which is about right for something that's only getting used a few times a month.

Plus I like how A5 is big enough for RPG character sheets, scripts, and the like, so I can kind of standardize and use A5 for almost everything


> I almost exclusively (On the rare occasion I use paper, mostly as a prop to look professional ...

Yellow legal writing pads were good for that, back in the day.


Those are pretty great for that, but small planners have less visibility to other people and they can't see how bad your handwriting is or how long it takes you to write 2 words....


Why not print on A4?


In the US A4 is hard to find. Not impossible, but it is special order while letter is available anywhere. A4 and US letter are very close to the same size, if you don't have a ruler you can't tell by looking.


Do you not notice the ratio is off?

I spot US letter-sized paper because it looks fatter/shorter than I'm used to.

Possibly it's easier to spot this outside North America, since the 1:√2 ratio is so widespread.


The ratio is definitely off, but it's within 10% so it's just a minor annoyance, and there's not much of an alternative. Next time I buy paper I'll probably order real A4 but that might be in like, 10 years before I go through a ream.




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