Undated Nolty Daily Book

I love it when my wishes come true! I was thrilled when the Nolty Daily Book was announced for 2020 to celebrate their 70th anniversary but then crushed when they decided not to add it to their regular line-up. But thanks to Instagram, I recently spotted a sneaky late addition to their new products: an undated Nolty Daily book! This is a great compromise for people who wanted a daily page layout, and I think some users will even prefer it to the original dated model (see my review of the original one here).

The new Daily Book aka Dailybook comes in two colors: black with black edges, and a sort of greige/taupe, with maroon edges. The taupe color didn’t look quite as nice in person as I’d hoped, but the edges are fun. I might swap a black cover onto the red-edged notebook to see how it looks! The exterior cover is plastic and removable, just like the previous daily book, though the fit seems somewhat looser. If this becomes a successful product, I can envision a secondary market of custom covers made of leather or other materials, for those who want something a little more exciting. I’m definitely tempted to see what else I could use for that purpose– I have a gutted Moleskine City Notebook that is a very close fit but not quite big enough, as I left its original endsheets and back pocket attached. Without those it would probably work.

new undated nolty daily book vs. 2020 version
nolty daily book thickness
2020 Dailybook is in the middle

Inside, you get one page of a planner list format, but other than that, it’s all the page-per-day layout of the original daily book, with a blank space to write the date. Day of the week abbreviations at the top of each page can be circled or checked. The original Dailybook had a yearly spread and a section of monthly spreads at the beginning, and at the back there were a a couple notes pages and assorted other info and subway maps, similar to what is in the Nolty Efficiency Notebook. All that has now been eliminated, so the notebook is about 13mm thick instead of 14mm. Some people might miss those extra pages, but to me, it’s fine. I didn’t use them when I had the original Daily Book anyway. And the undated Nolty Daily Book has 414 total pages, so there is some leeway if you need to jot some extra notes outside of keeping to a strict page per day.

nolty undated daily book interior

When I bought the 2020 Nolty Daily Book, it was announced rather late, and then I dithered about how/where to order it and didn’t end up getting it until early February, so I wasn’t able to use the entire notebook. The undated notebook was also announced late in relation to the rest of Nolty’s 2022 line-up, but since it can be started on any day and doesn’t have to be used for every consecutive day, it doesn’t even matter! I still felt a little anxious to get one before the beginning of the year and was happy when mine shipped fairly quickly from Japan. I originally emailed JMAM an inquiry in mid-December. They responded quickly, I dithered for a few days after hearing how much shipping would cost, and then from the time I confirmed my payment on December 22, it seemed like an amazingly quick turnaround to having the notebooks in my hand on December 31.

The other advantage to the undated format is that you can buy several at once, which is exactly what I did to save on shipping. “Save” is relative here, as the minimum shipping cost from JMAM is about $45 USD! It used to be half that, but the global supply chain issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic have made international shipping much more expensive. I bought 4 daily books, (1980 yen each, which is just over $17 USD) plus one other new Nolty product that I was curious about, and the total came to about $123 USD including shipping. But it is still a lot cheaper than the Hobonichi Techo, which is usually close to $40 not counting shipping. There is a lot to love about the Hobonichi Techo, but I prefer the size of the Nolty Dailybook.

There are a couple of downsides when you compare the undated Nolty Daily Book to the original. I kind of miss the big red color pops on Sundays and extra blocks of green with the month numbers, just as design elements. The “S” for Sundays in the header is still red but it’s so small you almost don’t notice. I also miss the slight extra thickness of the 2020 model, but maybe I just need to tuck or paste some tidbits into the notebook to bulk it up. And the cover does bother me a bit– there’s nothing on it to identify the year, obviously, and my usual method of writing dates on the page edges when I archived finished notebooks gets tricky because of the black color. I miss the embossed year on the spine of Nolty’s dated diaries. I’d really like to cover the undated Dailybook with something else and will continue to play around with other options.

So I had my Nolty Daily Book all ready to use starting January 1, 2022, but did I? Actually, no! I stared at it for a couple of days because I hadn’t yet decided how I want to use it, but on the 3rd, I decided to dive in. In 2020, I felt like I had too many notebooks going at once and couldn’t come up with a good way to separate what I was writing in each one. I love the idea of keeping a daily log, but I already use my Efficiency Notebook for a lot of that. Then I’m usually using a Moleskine or Bindewerk notebook for journaling. I need to think more about what I want to keep some of this separate in the Daily Book, or whether I’d want to try using the undated Nolty Daily Book as a journal– that would mean I’d often use more than one page per day, but that would be fine too. For now, I’m using it as a daily log and allowing myself to doodle it in with my fountain pens. We’ll see if that pattern changes, but I know I will use the 4 I bought in one way or another!

For those who want to order, at the moment it seems this item is available only directly via JMAM, not via Kinokuniya, which is where I have been ordering my other Nolty diaries. Hopefully that will change but in the meantime, here’s how to order, at least for US residents. (In the past, I believe they have not shipped to Europe but I don’t know the current details on where they do and don’t deliver.)

Gather the item numbers for products you want from the JMAM website (for the black Dailybook, it is NTBND1230. For the beige Dailybook is is NTBND1231.) then send an email to e-shop@jmam.co.jp with this information:

  • (Customer Information)
  • Name :
  • Zip code :
  • Address :
  • E-Mail :
  • Phone :
  • (Order Items)
  • Item No. :
  • Item Name :
  • Quantity :

They will respond to you with a link where you can securely enter your credit card for payment. The shipping cost is 5250 yen for up to 2kg “within 60 cm.” I’m not sure exactly how they calculate the 60cm but presume it is a combination of the package length, width and height. The package is shipped by Yamato Transport. My delivery was then made by UPS.

4 thoughts on “Undated Nolty Daily Book”

  1. I’m always interested in how you use your various diaries. I just started a new sketch/writing journal, but I’m questioning why I am keeping something separate from my ongoing log book, which is also a mix of sketches and writing. Too many? I probably need to drop one. Anyway, please keep talking about how your use of various books evolves.

  2. I just got mine today. I got the 1230 and the 1234 (grey cover).

    I have a quick question for you – does the paper hold up well using fountain pens? I usually use an EF or F. For years I used the U365’s – until they sadly discounted them (the page a day version). I don’t think I ever used a fountain pen with those because there was way too much bleed through. I’m hoping the paper with the 1230 will be fine using a fountain pen.

    I’m like you – I have several books on the go – and this year I really want to use no more than 2 – and the 1230 fits well for what I want – a page a day – or I can go to two pages when needed. I also have the Midori Hibini this year – the paper is not fountain pen friendly – but I plan on using pencil only in that for the year…

  3. Hi Bob, I’m not sure if Nolty uses the same paper across all their notebooks, but I’ve always found that my fountain pens work great in my Nolty diaries! I tend to use EF or F nibs, but even with some wider ones, I’ve had no problems.

  4. I tried out the 1234 (Gray) this morning with a Platinum EF – works like a charm! Now – I need to come up with a routine for using these beauties! Thanks so much…

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