The perfect A5 filofax notepad

I use my A5 ochre Malden and my A5 imperial purple Domino as my university filofaxes, for planning my dissertation and my essays. I have tried many different types of A5 paper in these filos, and finally I have found the perfect type!

I refuse to pay ridiculous money for Filofax-brand  paper; I use the lined paper that has already come with my filos, but I don't want to have to buy any more when I use all this up. So I have tried to find cheaper alternatives. I made my own paper using generic A4 paper cut in half, or my favourite, quadrille A4 paper cut in half- but I find that the paper quality of normal printer paper isn't very good, and my plastic Filofax hole punch tears the paper because of this.

Then I tried to use notepads or notebooks that were already in A5 size, where I could just tear the perforated paper off and punch it. The trouble is, when notebooks and notepads say the paper is A5 size, it often actually means the total size of the notebook is A5, but when you tear it away from the bound part of the notebook/pad, the individual sheet is actually smaller than A5, which means it sits badly in your filo. I tried this with the top-bound Rhodia No. 16 (unfortunately I couldn't get my hands on a No. 17 pad- maybe this would be a better size?) and the side-bound Pukka Pad A5 spiral notepad- so the height of the top-bound Rhodia is too short, and the width of the side-bound Pukka Pad is too narrow :( Although they both have lovely quality paper!! And I liked the Rhodia because it could fit into the notepad slot in the back of my filofax!

Then I found the Staples A5 Eco-Friendly pads. These are made of recycled paper, but are of surprisingly good quality! Previous recycled paper I have used has been of bad quality, where wet ink runs straight through the paper! But this paper holds my fountain pen ink excellently, no bleed-through, no show-through!!

 It's cheap- 2 pads for £1.69!! The pads themselves fit perfectly into the Filofax notepad slot, and best of all, the individual sheets of paper, when torn off from the pad, are exactly A5 size! 

I have just bought 2 more 2-pad sets, but I love this paper so much I think I will run through them quite quickly, but I don't mind because they are so cheap, I can easily buy some more!

Is there anything worse?

Is there anything worse than a blank piece of paper?

It just sits there staring at you, so empty and waiting for you to write something intelligent on it... 

Empty notebooks are like this too. I would love to invest in a load of Moleskines from Amazon as they are so cheap; I love those pictures of piles of brand new Moleskines on flikr. But if I bought some, they would sit there in a pile on my desk, looking at me. If I have trouble putting something intelligent on a single piece of cheap paper, I find it really hard to start writing in an expensive notebook!! I have loads of empty notebooks in my room that need a purpose. Not just me scribbling in them, but a proper purpose. I have started things in notebooks before- novels etc, but never finished them, so I have to chop those pages out in order to be able to reuse the notebook and it looks very ugly. So, I resist temptation to buy a load of pretty notebooks without having a designated purpose for them already.

OK, so maybe I am blowing it out of proportion. But it has kind of turned into a little phobia for me. The piece of paper itself isn't a problem- if I do something wrong on that I can screw it up and start again! -------------------------------->
It's the fact that I've GOT to write something intelligent!! And the blank paper symbolises this!!
Most importantly, essays. I sit down at my desk, put some paper in front on me, pick up a pen, and then... The damned paper just stares at me. It sends me a silent message in a mocking voice, saying "You have to write an excellent essay on me!!" and this haunts me! My super-ego suddenly says "Ooh, it would be great to watch TV right now!" And my ego usually agrees. Bad ego! Half an hour later, that piece of paper is still blank!

So how can I fix this? I found out something while I was sitting in an exam at the end of May... just write SOMETHING, even if it's not the thing you are supposed to write! Your name, the date, the title. Suddenly, Mr Paper isn't so blank any more!! You have achieved the momentous act of writing something!! Even though it's not that fateful essay you are supposed to be writing, you have done something, you are 0.01% finished!! I don't know if it is the act of putting pen to paper, or writing out the title etc of the work you are supposed to be doing, or the fact that you have turned your brain on, but it works! Suddenly, my writer's block in my exam stopped and I was able to start writing!!
If writing the title doesn't work, write down some keywords, bullet points or a spider diagram! Don't think about it like work... just sit back and start writing! Don't try to force things out of your brain, just let the words flow from your head down your arm and through the pen onto the paper! All of a sudden you have done some great work and you will feel a sense of accomplishment, and the paper will be your b*tch, not you its!