Review by Laura Cameron
I am the queen of making lists. It’s an excellent day when I can make a big list and start checking off the items as I go. So I was thrilled to get to test out Nock Co.’s Weekly Calendar Gigante Note Cards ($8.00 for a pack of 52) and the DotDash Gigante Note Cards ($8.00 for a pack of 25)
First let’s talk about the similarities between the cards. All cards are:
- 3.5″ (8.75 cm) x 5.5″ (13.75 cm) in size
- Printed on 80lb Bright White card stock
- Lined with Nock Co.’s DotDash grid
First let’s look at the Weekly Calendar cards. The front side of each Weekly Calendar card is divided into sections for each day of the week. The cards are undated, so you can date them yourselves, or just start a new card for each week. The back of the Weekly Calendar cards are printed in a light DotDash grid for overflow notes or to do lists.
I tested a variety of pens (gel ink, rollerball and fountain pen) on my test card and found them all to work well with the paper. I didn’t have any bleeding or feathering. I found the cards useful for memorializing appointments and a few key deadlines. Overall, I found the product itself to be high quality.
However, the issue I ran into use of the cards is that the space wasn’t big enough for my personal use. I write fairly large, and the 4 grid rows per day just weren’t enough for me to get everything I needed to do on paper. I could easily flip the card over and continue on the back, but the system wasn’t perfect for my use. If you write very small, or just have a few items to note for the day, then this system might work well for you.
The second product I tried were the DotDash note cards. These are actually double size note cards [7″ (17.5 cm) x 5.5″ (13.75 cm)], but folded in half for ease of use and storage. Although these cards had less pre-printed structure (they just bear Nock Co.’s signature DotDash grid), I found these worked so much better for my use. Here I had 4 surfaces to write on, which I could easily divide into sections as needed (home, The Desk, work, blog, etc.) and I could make my lists until I ran out of things to write down. The drawback to these cards is that they don’t provide the daily scheduling structure that the Weekly Calendar cards do, but then again you could divide these cards into 7 half-card increments (with one leftover!) and take it from there.
Both the Weekly Calendar and DotDash Cards were designed for pocket use. However, women’s clothing doesn’t often have shirt pockets (or pants pockets… don’t get me started) so I stuck mine in my personal size Chic Sparrow cover along with my other travel notebooks. This kept the cards safe from any wear around the edges, although I think the card stock would hold up pretty well over the course of any given week.
Overall, I have to say that I think the Nock Co. cards are a good tool if you like a highly portable, small-but-not-to-small, lightweight calendar or list. I think I’d tend towards the DotDash cards for my personal use, but I can see where the Weekly Calendar cards also have their uses!
Laura is a tech editor, podcaster, knitter, spinner and recent pen addict. You can learn more about her knitting and tea adventures on her website, The Corner of Knit & Tea and can find her on Instagram as Fluffykira.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Nock Co. for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
