Tim Grinsdale is the founder of TOAD Diaries, a company that creates personalised diaries, notebooks and organisers for their clients. TOAD also offers refills of loose leaf paper for personal organisers. A diary is perfect for keeping yourself organised, and being able to personalise it means you are more likely to actually use it.

Tim, what made you decide to open TOAD Diaries?

I thrive off being well organised. A major part of that, for me at least, is using the good old-fashioned pen and paper.  In particular a physical paper diary has always helped. However, I’ve always found the level of choice limiting.  As consumers we’ve been mostly constrained to the traditional 12-month January diary. I wanted to develop a company that could solve this problem head-on. Essentially, I wanted to give people the choice to ‘design their own’ with a few clicks of a mouse. This idea led to TOAD Diaries being born.

Which kind of diaries do you sell?

We sell a huge range of different diary products. These include spiral bound, hardback and lay flat diaries. All of which can be purchased in the traditional week-to-view & day-per-page formats, or in a wide range of specialist formats too.

What makes your diaries stand out?

The level of choice. TOAD is the only manufacturer that allows the customer to choose almost everything about their product; be that size, cover-design, start/end dates and format.  On our designer page you can choose from A5, Quarto or A4, the type of binding you require, and from over a hundred different formats.

Are customers able to add additional components and order custom diaries?

Personalisation is available on all our products. With our Essentials range you can personalise the front and back of the cover with 2 lines on each. With our ‘Touch’ range, a soft feel faux leather product, it is currently 3 initials. This will be increased to 16 characters come August.

We also have a trade department that deals with multiple orders. This is a fully bespoke service which means the product can be completely customised inside & out.

Could you share some examples of some unusual diaries that you have ever sold?

We’ve had some very unusual personalisation on our diaries over the years. One Huddersfield football fan personalised his diary with ‘Sam can pay the bills… Chris can go watch Huddersfield Town!’ which did make us laugh in the office. On a more serious note, I loved seeing one of my favourite quotes on a product of ours last year. It’s the George Eliot quote… ‘It’s never too late to be what you might have been’.

The most unusual project we have been involved in was on the Human Genome book. It’s a 30 volume A3 series of books which covers all the information in the human genome. It’s not a diary, but it’s by far the most unusual job we’ve worked on.

What would you say is the most important thing to consider when choosing diaries?

Everyone has different needs when it come to their diary. For those with businesses an appointment diary can be a useful friend. However, if you need to see your week at a glance then a week-to-view option can work well. There are so many options. I would say give some thought to your organisational needs first, do a little research, and then see which is the best fit for you.

Thank you for speaking to us Tim! If you want to check out the personalised diary options from TOAD, they can be found at www.toaddiaries.co.uk. Personalised physical diaries make it a lot easier to keep track of your schedule and stay organised in both your personal and work life. Designing your own notebook is a fast, easy process – and it also makes a great gift for someone else!