Last month I was so excited when the Dodo Pad company reached out and wanted to send me their inserts for review. I am always in the mood to test out inserts. I had heard of their inserts back in 2012 and was intrigued but for some reason I just never followed up. What peaked my interest initially is how long the company has been in business. In 1966 the company came about! I always find it impressive when a company remains so invested in their products. Here is an insert from the website that talks about why the Dodo bird was behind the name of the inserts.
And, why the Dodo?
Back in the deep recesses of the last century around 1966, the Dodo Pad diary (a week-to-view combined memo-doodle-engagement-planner-diary-organiser-message-ment book) was a new-fangled invention, instantly accepted by grateful users as utterly indodispensable. The ‘headline’ on the front of the Dodo Pad diary read (and still reads): ‘If you too are nearly extinct with the daily pressures of modern life, then try the Dodo Pad’ and on the back cover: ‘After using your Dodo Pad for a year you may find you’re not as extinct as all that!’ with an illustration of a mother and baby dodo. The pressures of modern life are still just as relevant today and we’re not extinct yet!
I thought this was a very clever and quirky way of explaining life and comparing it to the fact that if we aren’t extinct then we have daily challenges we need to accomplish and the dodo pad wants to help you navigate your life. There are plenty of sizes to choose from as well as some filler paper that is also offered on the site. The shop accepts paypal so it makes it quite easy to order. They are coming from across the pond but the good news is that they come very quickly and packaged well and protected. So lets take a look at the inserts themselves.
I have decided to go with the academic planner pad. My daughter is in preschool this year so for me my calendar is now more focused on the school year and I can easily follow and transfer things from the school calendar to my filofax. I am also in my A5 size malden, which I painted from purple to a beautiful aqua, here is a link to that video. 
The inserts are unique in that there are little doodles throughout as well as fun facts. There are many holidays that are subtly placed throughout which I love seeing. 
So for those of you who love to have space to doodle and really free form plan then these are ideal. On the right hand side you have boxes to work with. In these spaces I broke them
down to have a really great overview of my week, what my daughter has at school, my husbands work schedule and any notes or must dos. I love having this quick look at my week. On the left hand side I have plenty of space to stick post its, notes, video ideas, links to things I want to watch later etc. I love having this free form space and it really helps me to have a place to brain dump and get ideas out of my head. The doodles in place really help you to feel like you are not messing anything up because it’s not a blank white page.
Many people feel like they will mess it up or don’t feel comfortable but I think that with all the gorgeous little doodles it really helps to overcome that hump. If you like to pretty plan but don’t always have he time the doodles help to enhance the page and always bring a smile to my face. The only draw back I see for these inserts is that there is not a monthly view. Now to be fair there is a wonderful pull out calendar of the entire year that really helps you 
organize your life but for some reason I still really like to see my month at a glance. This isn’t the end of the world for me because I do have another set of inserts in my planner so I do have a month overview . In regards to paper quality I am really very impressed. I am someone who will be very turned off with inserts if the quality of the paper is not good. I like to use all kinds of different pens and I don’t want to be bothered with bleed through or heavy shadowing. When I did the pen test I was very happy that I only had an issue with the sharpie. It’s not surprising because the sharpie will bleed through most anything but my fountain pen the edison nouveau with a broad nib that has a pretty heavy ink flow did really well! I love that because jotting down notes quickly I try and reach for whatever is on my desk and that means I can grab a fountain pen and happily write away.
Overall if you are looking for some structure but still have the ability to have some free form planning then I HIGHLY recommend these inserts. I recommend them for the paper quality as well as the quirky little doodles and fun facts. There really isn’t anything else on the market like them. The entire academic year does not take up alot of space in my planner so if you like to add a lot of your own inserts you will not have an issue.
Do you have the Dodo Pad? Plan on purchasing? Please share what you think!
