I've talked about the Hipster PDA a few times. I finally stabilized on a system that works for me. I've been using it steadily for months with no major changes now, so I thought I'd share with you.
My brief foray into the hipmod was fun, but too restrictive and small in the end. I understand others enjoy it though, so I'm glad I did it.
I find the classic hipster with a few modifications works best. My biggest beef with the original hipster is that it falls apart and it's not very user-friendly. That binder clip had to go. So I got some binding rings (½" I think, but the exact size isn't critical) and use a standard 3-hole punch to punch 2 holes in the index cards, and bind it with 2 rings. This makes a more book-like planner, which nicely folds over on itself.
Now, those rings can be pesky to open and close so I decided not to. I snip a little cut from the edge of the cards I want to be removeable to the holes. They stay in but will come right out and go right in without struggle.
I also like to print some forms (as you've seen). These I just print on regular paper and trim to size with a guillotine then hole punch (no snips, that works best on cardstock).
I made front and back covers out of a cereal box and duct tape, and even a pen holder out of duct tape. I'll post a picture soon so you can see.
My planner consists of a few reference pages I printed out (including a circle of fifths, a few airport kneeboards, performance data for my favorite planes, and morse code… anything you can find a PDF for.), my weekly calendar/todo list pages, and a bunch of index cards that I use for notes, moments of inspiration, or whatever else they come in handy for. Oh, and a paperclip to mark the current week. I only have to reprint/refill the weekly pages about once every 3 months or so.
For printing things, I wrote a script that automates some of what I mentioned in previous posts.
