NOLTY planners produces planners since 1949, and is a well known brand in Japan.

Introduction: What is NOLTY, and what does it offer?

‘NOLTY’ is closely followed by the phrase ‘能率手帳’ (Noritsu Techo), which approximately translates to “Efficiency Notebooks.”

They just celebrated their 70th anniversary in 2019, and over that period, they have released more than hundreds of different planner styles and sizes for clients to pick from. The letters NOLTY stand for “New style,” “Original,” “Life Time,” and “Your will.” They offer a cute little timeline showing this brand’s development if you’re curious in its history.

Types of planners:

Nolty planners are differentiated according to size and layout differences and targeting vast needs of users.

Nolty Efficiency Techo Gold NOLTY 能率手帳ゴールド

The priciest planner in the group should come first. Nolty planners has its flagship planner known widely as ‘the NOLTY Efficiency Techo GOLD’. It has a sizeable audience. This sophisticated pocket planner covers are constructed from black sheepskin leather which softens with usage. Thus it is compact enought to tuck into shirt pocket of any businessman.

This little planner is available in two tiny pocket sizes. The year is prominently marked on the cover and is plated in gold on each page. The paper is easy on the eyes because it is cream in tone. As the Nolty Efficiency Techo Gold box is stored in a fancy box, unboxing the Nolty Efficiency Techo Gold box is a fabulous experience.

NOLTY Planners

NOLTY Planners

NOLTY Planners 2022

NOLTY Planners 2022

NOLTY 2022 Planners

NOLTY 2022 Planners

The NOLTY brand only utilizes exclusive paper. The NOLTY Efficiency Techos Gold paper is extremely thin, yet it’s also quite simple to write on and works great with fountain pens. The design is a straightforward horizontal weekly that spans two pages and gives you a quick look at the week. The monthly view is shown as a gantt chart at the start of the planner to organize and plan project progress. The NOLTY brand is unique in that the day is timestamped horizontally across the page, allowing you to timeblock appointments with brackets or lines.

Nolty gold layout

Nolty Gold layout

NOLTY Efficiency Techo NOLTY 能率手帳

Nolty has an inexpensive version of Nolty Efficiency Techo Gold, which is of the same size(as the flagship planner) and ‘Efficiency’ but without the leather cover. This series also offers color variations while maintaing the flagship size of 14495 mm. Additionally, the pages’ edges have been appropriately gilt, which is really cool. Unlike the new series 3 which features the monthly calendar in box form, series 1 and 2 contain the old gantt chart monthly view.

Nolty efficiency techo

Nolty Efficiency Techo

NOLTY Efficiency Techo 1

This Nolty Efficiency Techo 1 comprises of monthly calendar as a Gantt chart, and its dimensions are 144×95 mm.

NOLTY Efficiency Techo 2 Small edition

Available only in black color, this planner size is 130×85 mm, and the monthly calendar is a Gannt chart similar to Nolty Efficiency Techo 1.

NOLTY Efficiency Techo 3

This Nolty planner has the monthly calendar in the box form. With the planner dimensions 144×95 mm, it is only available in the black color.

NOLTY Efficiency Techo 5

Nolty Efficiency Techo 5 is designed for people who are looking for something bigger than the small edition planners. This planner is obtainable in A5 size, although lacks the sumptuous 2 digit year print on top left but it has the same green ink and cream paper.

NOLTY Access A5 Gantt Chart NOLTY アクセスA5 ガントチャート

The NOLTY Access series is intended to go further into task management in addition to schedule management. When lying flat, many individuals do prefer the larger format of A5. I also like this larger size for business and event planning. To make it simple to navigate between the months, this style incorporates index tabs on the side of the pages. Access A5 Gantt Chart and Access A5-5 are the two distinct types of the Access series.

Notly access gantt

Notly Access Gantt

Nolty Listy NOLTY リスティ

The NOLTY Listy series is intended to be an A5 Slim (219 mm x 123 mm, similar to an A4 trifold) size. It may be divided into Listy 1 (Vertical Weekly) and Listy 2 layouts (Horizontal Weekly). The design is quite simple (compared to the popular Jibun Techo). The right page of a 2-page spread will have plenty of room for notes and drawings if you choose the Horizontal Weekly (on the left side).

Conclusion

The best strategy for finding the planner you want is to make a note of its series number because NOLTY has a penchant for confusingly numbering its many planners. To quickly distinguish between them, I believe it’s also a good idea to become familiar with the overall name of their series.