New Plan(ners) for 2016

It took me a good chunk of time, but I finally decided on which planners and journals to use for 2016. My journaling setup is similar to the last year’s but I’m adding a few “upgrades” and slight adjustments to how I use each notebook (I'm calling them notebooks collectively, for lack of a better word). Here I’ll go over the different components of my setup, how I’ll be using them, and why I chose them. Previously, I wrote about my journaling here and here.

This is a long one, folks.

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Components

This is what I decided for the new year:

1. Field Notes: daily log, notes
2. Hobonichi Techo in A6 (English version): writing/doodling
3. Muji Monthly/Weekly Planner in A5: planning
4. Notebook A5: Three Staples notes
5. Midori Pouch Diary in A5: case for carrying all of the above
    

1. Field Notes

As before, I’ll be using Field Notes as my daily journal or log. Each day gets a date stamp at the top, and I jot down my activities throughout the day, including what I ate that day, weather information, and random notes. Some days require more writing but I’ve been trying to keep it as concise as possible. I also tape things like various ticket stubs and cool restaurant business cards inside Field Notes, if I feel they are too thick for Hobonichi Techo (discussed next). I use about two Field Notes per month, so obviously this portion of my setup will be replaced with different FN editions throughout the year.

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2. Hobonichi Techo 2016 in A6 (English version)

Ah, Hobonichi Techo. I used one last year as a journal (not a planner), and while I like it a lot, my relationship with its Tomoe River paper is a bit complicated (this will be a separate discussion for another day). And for awhile, I seriously considered the Midori MD Notebook Diary 1Page Per Day as a Hobonichi replacement. It has “regular” paper with warmer tone! In the end, I voted against it because I felt its design wasn’t quite what I wanted (too much blank space in the monthly views and cover not removable). The “Eureka!” moment that convinced me to stick with Hobonichi was when I took the decorative Cover on Cover and the black polyester cover off of it. I always liked the textured black exterior of the Hobonichi planner, but it was as if I’d rediscovered how wonderful it felt in my hands. I felt more connected to it, quite literally. That’s how I decided to give it another year. Plus two Techos on a shelf together would look really nice in the future, I thought.

Hobonichi Techo is where I try to reflect on the past few days and try to put into words things I learned or highlight things that I want to remember later. I used to do more drawing in it but over the last 4 months, I’ve been writing more. I still occasionally doodle and decorate with washi tapes (note to self: start a separate sketchbook) but I keep it to a minimum. More writing in Hobonichi has allowed me to be a more concise with my Field Notes, too, so that’s slightly different from before. The point is for me to not repeat myself across two different notebooks. I shouldn’t try to “transfer” everything I write in Field Notes to the corresponding day in Hobonichi, and not always assign topics only to the days when they happened. Also, I don’t write in Hobonichi every day. Maybe 3–4 times a week.

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Muji Monthly/Weekly Planner in A5 and its label. I took the black PVC cover off.

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Weekly view inside the Muji planner, with graph grid on the right side. The design is very simple and straight-forward.

3. Muji Monthly/Weekly Planner in A5

This Muji planner is probably the biggest “upgrade” I added to my setup because it has weekly pages, in addition to monthly views. The A5 planner from Orange Airlines I used last year was thinner, with only monthly views. (The Muji planner seems sold out online; you might have a better luck at their physical stores, most likely at reduced prices by now).

I know I haven’t talked much about using a planner before. That’s because I honestly didn’t know how I well I would use it last year. It was in my stash (bought solely for its removable, illustrated cover), and it had a free notes section in the back, so I decided to use it. (You can spot it in this post; it’s the dark blue green one with a pen illustration. Cute, right?). I ended up using it to mark birthdays and appointments, to schedule Three Staples posts, list monthly goals, and to write random thoughts and projects in the back. The planner was never intended to be an integral part of my routine, but at the end 2015, I decided I liked it enough to try another one this year. I like that I can review a month at a glance (bigger than what my Hobonichi Techo offers) and that it forces me to plan ahead. I used to do some planning in my daily Field Notes, but it was inconvenient for projects lasting longer than a day. I’m hoping that’s where the weekly pages in the new planner will come in. No more copying to-dos from one page to another. And it has more space for writing and possibly doodling.

I'm still figuring out the best way to use this new Muji planner, but I am looking forward to it being an improvement over many different weekly planners I attempted to use in the past. For one, this planner is bigger, with the the days of the week (in equal size) on the left and a spacious graph-grid note page on the right. I feel more committed to the planning habit this year, too. And the paper in this Muji planner is fantastic, even for fountain pens, and feels very smooth. I almost went with a different, smaller planner sold overseas (it had a cute illustrated cover) but after checking the Muji's paper quality and design in person, and finding the Midori Pouch Diary in the same size (discussed below), I had to go with it. And its price of $12.50 USD was quite reasonable for an import. By the way, from the beginning I considered this planner to be an insert and made sure its PVC cover was easily removable.

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Orange Airlines Notebooks in A5 size, ruled. I'm currently using the red one. If I were taking a math class though.. :)

4. Notebook for Three Staples

Another component that will be replaced as the year goes by. This isn’t a daily journal or planner, but it is a significant part of my writing routine and thus a part of my “kit”. Things like Three Staples post ideas, drafts, random Field Notes observations, and time tracking go in here. Before, I used B6 notebooks for this purpose, like this Muji notebook or Delfonics Rollbahn spiral notebook. But I accumulated so many A5 notebooks (bought because they were cute.. see a pattern?) that I decided to finally use one at the beginning of the new year, just to see how it’d feel. I chose a ruled notebook from Orange Airlines with a red cover, bound by two staples. There’s nothing wrong with its quality, now that I’ve been using it I realize I need something that lays flatter. I already miss using my older options and will be switching back once this notebook is done. Its A5 size is perfect for the carry case I got though! Which brings me to...

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Midori Pouch Diary in dark denim (A5) and its label. It also comes in smaller, narrower format. The light button tab is leather, and the interior fabric is polyester.

5. Midori Pouch Diary in A5

Another significant change to my journaling setup is this denim pouch for all the components I mentioned above. While browsing ideas, I came across so many Midori Traveler’s Notebooks in leather covers with various inserts that it made me want a similar setup of my own. Essentially a place where I can carry all daily notebooks in. (Why not use MTN? Its narrow format just isn’t for me). I’d already decided my Hobonichi will be naked, but I thought it’d be nice to have a place it could be stowed while I’m on the go. And then I spotted this denim Midori Pouch at my local Maido in the common A5 size, and I fell in love with its minimal look and zipper pouch. It also gave me the additional push to get the aforementioned Muji planner because I wasn't going to use its cover either!

This Midori pouch came with its own inserts: a monthly planner and a ruled notebook with a generous amount of pages. And it was priced accordingly. But I took them out to make room for the Muji monthly/weekly planner. I felt guilty but it was still cheaper than leather options, and I really wanted to work with what I could find in person. So far, I really like it! Even with the Muji planner in the main sleeve, there’s still plenty of room for the Three Staples notebook in the back and another notebook if I want. A little more flexible in capacity and customizable than the Hobonichi cover. The zipper section is where I store my current Field Notes, and sometimes I put Hobonichi Techo in the front pocket (although it’s taken out in the picture below). Sometimes I put my iPad mini in it. There are business card-sized interior pockets, and I use them to store miscellaneous notes. Just like I wanted, this pouch is a cover for my monthly/weekly planner, as much as it is a place where other components of my setup can be stored and taken out easily.

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I’m happy with all the new things so far but choosing them was not a simple task. “You’ll be stuck with them for a year!” a voice in my head kept saying. And it wasn’t like one decision led to the next linearly. Analysis paralysis, perhaps. Imagine shopping for new planners and journals every year in Japan. How do you narrow down?!? First-world problems, really.

Hopefully I’m not juggling too many notebooks at once. Only time will tell how well I'll stick to this system. But to deter myself from trying to do everything in every notebook, this is how I will organize it in my head:

• Hobonichi Techo: for writing about the PAST
• Field Notes: NOW
• Monthly/weekly planner: FUTURE

I also hope you don’t think I’m super-organized. I’m not, and that’s why I need a setup like this. I’m a stationery addict, a tad obsessed about trying to do things better, and possibly looking for more excuses to use paper. :) 

Do you use multiple notebooks for journaling and planning? Are you doing anything differently this year with your setup?

PS: I got Hobonichi Techo from JetPens which offers it at a very good price, and the Midori Pouch Diary is from Maido but last I checked in person, it was sold out. The cute Orange Airlines notebooks are available at both Maidos in San Francisco, in many different designs. The light blue Field Notes in this post is the “Flagged by Ellen” edition that was available through JCPenney many years ago.

Travel Journaling

Recently, M and I went on a short trip to Seattle, and, as we’ve done on previous trips, we brought a Field Notes memo book to use as our travel journal. It’s become a tradition for us to keep a shared diary during our trips, and I think the journal “kit” we took to Seattle worked well for us. So in this post, I’ll share the contents of the kit, and how we used these tools for travel journaling.

Set-Up

We like to keep a travel journal simply because it helps us remember what we did during the trip. There are digital tools for that, but we are fans of analog tools in general, and minimizing our time in front of screens is what we strive for while vacationing anyway. At the end of the trip, we end up with a nice, tangible reminder of our time together that we can look back on.

Over the years we’ve filled up several Field Notes as travel journals, and each time our set-up has been slightly different. I think this trip was the first time I prepared ahead of time and put together all the tools in one place for journaling, which really helped. Here’s what I packed in our kit:  

1. Field Notes Brand Cherry Graph
2. Pilot Juice 0.38mm in Coffee Brown
3. Decorative washi masking tapes, in sheets
4. Pentel EnerGel Euro Needle 0.35mm in Black, Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica 0.4 mm in kurikawa brown, Uni Style Fit Multi-Pen, and Midori Brass Pencil (hidden)
5. Midori To Do List
6. Mini pair of scissors
7. Muji oil-based marker with dual tips
8. Roll of plain washi tape

1. Field Notes Cherry Graph

The star of our kit! Out of all the Field Notes at my disposal, I chose this one for its wooden finish and the graph grid. It’s basic but still special enough. I like to title the cover at the end of the trip, and I learned that rubber stamping on the wood cover yields a nice, warm, weathered look. I might keep using Cherry Graph for future trips.

Since this was a relatively short trip (4 days), we didn’t do any special preparation on the Field Notes, like pre-dating the pages, or dividing the pages into different sections, as we’ve done for much longer trips in the past. We just kept in mind that we had about 12 pages per day (standard Field Notes have 48 pages total), and that turned out to be just right. We both like to write on only one side of each spread, but we have very small handwriting. The left side, we save for scrapbooking travel memorabilia, like ticket stubs, restaurant business cards, etc. I brought mt washi tapes to do just that, which I’ll discuss below in the post. Here are some of the things we write in the journal itself:

• Date, day of the week, and weather/temperature next to them. This is the extent of our formatting the journal entry for each day. Keeping it simple!
• What we did each day, in chronological order as best we can remember, with special attention to what we ate/drank and what public transportation routes we took. Also various impressions of people and places on our walks.
• Goals of our trip, preferably in a list format on page 1. Goals like “relax, eat good food, buy stationery,” etc. This helps us review our trip when we return. We forgot to do that in the beginning this time, so we stuck a sticky note (see #5 below) to the journal.
• Notes for next time/what we learned, in a list format, on any blank pages left at the end. If no space left, we add a sticky note on the back inside cover. Again, that’s what we did for this Seattle trip because we used up all the pages. These notes will help us prepare for any future trips to the same place.

2. Pilot Juice 0.38mm in Coffee Brown

A notebook is nothing without a writing instrument! I like retractable pens on the go. No caps to lose! But really, I chose this pen for its brown ink because it goes well with Cherry Graph. Like I mentioned, our handwritings are pretty small, so the 0.38mm tip filled on every line of graph grid worked out well for us.

3. Sheets of washi tapes

I like to scrap memorabilia in our travel journals, and washi tapes are an easy and decorative way to do that. I didn’t want to bring more than I needed, so I pre-cut some tapes and stuck them on a few glossy sheets to add to our kit. For versatility, I tried to keep them in a limited color palette, of black, white and gold. In previous trips, I rarely had the time to get crafty and taped things after the trip, but this time, I was more prepared and managed to do it during the trip. M was more than happy to delegate that task to me, by the way. :)

4. Extra Pens (and a pencil)

Pentel EnerGel Euro Needle 0.35mm in black:
This is my favorite gel pen in black, so it goes with me everywhere.

Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica 0.4 mm with kurikawa brown refill from a regular Hi-Tec-C:
This was to test the Hi-Tec-C on a trip, and I really like the kurikawa brown color. But halfway through the trip, we both agreed that the skipping tendency of the Hi-Tec-C ink/tip was annoying, and we switched to the Pilot Juice (see #2 above).

Uni Style Fit Multi-Pen with 4 x 0.38mm gel color refills and one ballpoint refill:
‘Cause you never know when you’ll need to mark things with color. This multi-pen has come in very handy on our Tokyo trips, when we actually carried printed maps and were revising our itineraries on the go. During this recent trip, we saw no need for it but I plan on taking the same multi-pen on future trips.

Midori Brass Pencil:
Gotta take at least one pencil! This is a stylish and convenient choice, plus it has a generous eraser. We actually used this for playing crossword puzzles, which we got into doing recently.

5. Midori To Do List (sticky notes)

As mentioned above, we used sticky notes for adding extra notes to the journal, and this Midori pad has been a fun choice with its airplane theme. We also used it to outline each day's itinerary and for small to-dos, e.g. reservations to make, what to buy at a nearby drugstore, etc. On our last day, we used one to remind ourselves to take the chocolate truffles we’d purchased out of the refrigerator, before we checked out of our hotel room.

6. A mini pair of scissors

This was in the kit mostly for the washi tapes but I’ve used it in the past for unplanned situations, e.g. cutting tags off clothes I bought on the trip that I wanted to wear right away. Very useful to have around, just in case.

7. Muji oil-based marker with double tips

and

8. Mini roll of washi tape

This set, in a clear, resealable bag, is something I carry in my purse, traveling or not. It’s somewhat journal-related and proven to be handy, just like the mini scissors, so I consider it part of the kit. The oil-based marker (like Sharpies) is good for writing on unexpected surfaces, like various forms and luggage tags, and for writing on washi tapes. A roll of plain washi tape is good for anything that needs quick fixing or securing (and scrapbooking). On this trip, we bought a couple ceramic bowls, and while the store bagged them with some bubble wrap for us, they weren’t secured properly, so I used this roll of tape for extra reinforcement.

All the tools (except the clear pouch with the marker and the mini tape roll) were housed in a black zipper pouch that opens up like a wallet with several pockets and slots sized for business cards and credit cards. The inner pockets happen to be big enough for Field Notes and postcards; one of them is even zippered, so that’s where I kept the extra pens/pencil. I didn’t buy this pouch specifically for traveling, so it’s a happy accident that it became useful to us over the years. It came as a free gift with a Japanese fashion magazine years ago.

We have a lot of fun with travel journaling, that it becomes something to look forward to in addition to the vacation itself. I’m happy how this set of tools worked out for our latest trip. We kept it simple, but brought enough goodies like washi tapes to keep things interesting.

Do you journal while on vacation? How does it affect your memory of the trip? And what tools do you take with you?

As for me and M, we tend to visit same cities several times, so journaling helps us remember what we liked about each city, and what we should or shouldn’t do the next time go there again. Writing also helps us record moments that can’t necessarily be captured with cameras: how we felt, what we thought about the city, etc. It gives us reasons to slow down, by taking breaks at cafés to review and write our journal. That isn’t possible on every day of the trip but that’s the general idea, and it helps that it’s a joint project. M can pick up where I left off, and I can always add my two cents later where I need to, and vice versa. It’s also fun to read what each other wrote; sometimes his impressions can be quite different than mine!

Now if I can figure out the best way to organize travel photos and incorporate them into these journals... ;)