In my Great Big Guide to Planner Binding Options, I mentioned travelers notebooks.  These only got a small section at the very bottom of the post, because there was a fairly limited selection of options and none of them (that I was/am aware of) are really made for planners. But there’s a new kid on the block: Tula XII.

[Note: As of 20 Mar 2021, this post has been updated with images and my own impressions of the Tula XII planner I ordered.]

What is Tula XII?

Tula XII (pronounced Tula Twelve) is a new company making planners, specifically, in the style of travelers notebooks.  They take the same principle of booklets insertable in covers via elastic bands, and make an assortment of planning inserts and a variety of beautiful covers, for a lot of flexibility. There are two things that bum me out about this.

1. It’s a direct sales company.  I know some people really bug out over direct sales — and it’s harder for me to link to things without selling them myself when they’re done that way.
2. The sizes are limited, and the size I’d really like is exactly in between.  I’m a bit hopeful that this may be due to the newness of the company, and maybe they’ll expand later.  (The sizes currently are S, M, and XL, so it seems reasonable that they may eventually have a L.)

But those two things aside, there are a lot of really cool things about this. I really love the versatility.  I’m a big fan of anything that’s heavily interchangeable/customizable.  These have, in addition to the variety of booklets, a really cool feature to one of their cover styles.  The covers themselves are interchangeable.

Let me clarify.  Not only can you (obviously) move your inserts into a different cover; you can buy fronts that zip off so you can swap out the front of your cover.  Since all the “guts” of the planner attach to the back half of the cover, this means you can easily swap out the design of the front, without having to juggle your stuff around.  This would be especially suitable (in my opinion) with a single solid-colored back cover and a variety of design-based fronts.

I found the zipper pretty tough to get started.  That’s mildly annoying when you’re trying to put it together, but probably good in the long run because it means it isn’t likely to unzip too easily, either.

DIY Inserts

I’m probably not supposed to tell you this, but it’s also not that complicated to make custom inserts for yourself.  Tula XII has a lot of insert options (including prayer requests, Bible study/sermon notes, grade sheets, etc. in addition to more traditional options like calendars and menu planning), but if you have something special you want, it’s pretty simple to make booklets.

The Tula inserts come with a variety of cover design options (you can choose your booklet cover design, in addition to choosing which type of booklet you’re ordering).  The paper and printing are very nice.  But be aware the cover design is printed on the front only.

I have my own custom daily layouts I’m currently using, and I took about an hour the other night to rework the printable so it’s the proper size, and half an hour to print, trim, and stitch it together into a booklet.  It probably would have only taken about ten more minutes to make several more copies of the same book (but I was testing the process, so I didn’t want to overkill until I was sure I’d gotten it right!)

(I usually have my pages printed by a printer, on slightly heavier paper, so I don’t have that shadowing, but I was working with what I already had at home here.)

My monthly pages presented a bit of a challenge.  I already had them done up for the year, and a straight-up booklet style won’t work for my setup.  (I might be able to adjust it eventually, but not overnight.)  They were a little too big to trim down to quite 5×7.  I was able to cut them down to 5×7-1/2, though — and I needed to comb-bind them.  But by making sure the binding comb is under 7 inches (so it fits in the elastic band), I was still able to make it work; the tops of the pages just stick out a little bit.  (Next year I can just design them a bit smaller, but I didn’t want to throw these out and start over.)

Extras

Tula XII also has some add-on accessories, like charms (see the plum leaf charm I chose?), clear pockets & envelopes, etc.

I had a couple extra jump bands, and I wrapped them around my cash & coupon wallet for safekeeping (because that one snaps, so they can’t slip off).

For “throwaway notes,” I also found these cheap notebooks from Amazon that are the right size.  (They aren’t nearly as nice as the Tula inserts, but depending on what you need them for, you might want cheap in both price and quality.)

Not Just for Day Planners

There are other organizational options, too.  Tula XII has things like desk planners and doodads for organization within your purse, etc.  But it goes beyond that.

For instance, a small trifolio cover, with the cash & coupon pocket, credit card pockets if you want that, and one of the coupon shopping insert options (there are two — one by store and one just “general”) would be a perfect setup for shopping.

Or if you already have a planner setup that’s working for you, but you really love one of the prints, you might grab an elastic pen holder to add a pop of print to your journal or something.  (I’m a sucker for that purple snakeskin. 🙂 )

I’m not selling this, but I am having a party at the moment, so if you decide to check it out, and you want to help out my friend and/or me, I’d love it if you used my link.