#2024journals | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

inherhouseshewaitsdreaming · 10 months

Text

Techo Kaigi 2023

2023 is drawing to a close and the new planners are sitting in my drawer, calling to me in all their pristine loveliness. But before I talk about 2024, how did 2023 go?

Pretty well, actually.

I started 2023 with the following planners:

Daily personal journal: Hobonichi Cousin

Daily carry: Hobonichi Weeks Mega

Commonplace book: Hobonichi A5 notebook

Writing journal: Hobonichi A5 notebook

Health journal: Hobonichi Weeks

Work journal: Hobonichi A6 Techo

Overflow/bullet journal: Midori Codex A5

By the end of 2023 (actually, by about mid-2023) only two of those got switched out for something else and one got added. Which is pretty good. There are, however, a few other changes I am making next year. I’m going to go through each in detail.

Were these the right journals for me?

Actually, yes. Although there is some reconfiguring, the basic principles of the journals above is going to remain consistent. I need a place to write personal journal entries that stays at home and a place to track things and make notes on the go. I enjoy both writing and commonplacing. If I want to focus on my health, having a dedicated journal helps. And I keep a separate journal for work because it may contain information that shouldn’t really go outside of work. And then sometimes I overflow into another space because I want to deep dive on something that doesn’t really fit in the others. None of this is changing.

Daily Personal Journal

The 2023 Hobonichi Cousin is going to move into … the 2024 Hobonichi Cousin. This book works really well for me. The finder details of how I use it did evolve a bit over the year, but I think I’m happy with where I ended up. I did consider moving into the Avec as my Cousin is fairly chonky at this point, but I prefer to have the book in English. I will use this in mostly the same way as last year as well:

3 months to a page view: I have no idea what I will do with this next year, but I had no idea last year either.

Monthly pages: I write a daily highlight on each day.

Weekly pages: I currently use these for planning, but this will move to the daily carry. So I am expecting this to become a space for gratitude/manifestation.

Daily pages: personal daily journal entries.

Daily Carry + Bullet Journal

Although the Weeks was nice, I found I ended up feeling things got a bit lost in the weekly view. I pretty much only used it for key dates. I had a Midori Codex as a bullet journal (briefly) but it never worked well for me as I really don’t like Midori paper (a discovery from this year) and it wasn’t something I could carry around. So I tried a Traveller’s Notebook, and again, the paper (which is the same, so I should have realised this would happen) was not to my taste. I solved both by getting a 240 page Sterling Ink TN notebook. This has worked well.

For next year, I wanted to consolidate these into one book. Although the weeks and the TN are smaller dimensionally, carrying both is quite bulky! I decided to get a Sterling Ink Common Planner (2 part book) in A5. I expect it to be used as follows:

3 months to a page view: seriously, I never know what to do with these pages.

Monthly pages: key dates and events

Weekly pages: time based daily planning - what do I do when. This will double as time tracking.

Blank pages: bullet journal which for me acts as a place to work when I’m out and about, as well as an overflow journal. I expect to also use it to write consolidated to do lists.

Creativity + Commonplace Journal

Last year was the first time I kept a commonplace book and this really suits my way of working. I have just about filled it. I did add a separate journal for writing learning, a Weeks Sterling Ink, but this is too small really.

I need somewhere to plan my creative activities, and also to plan this website! Especially as I have a lot of pre-planned content for next year that will need some serious planning to fully prep. So this will be moving into a Sterling Ink Common Planner (2 part book) along with my commonplace book. I originally brought this journal for work, but that ended up being the wrong choice. However, it ends up working out just fine as a combined creativity planner and commonplace book.

3 months to a page view: index.

Monthly pages: website and social media posting schedule. I want to be able to look back and see what got planned and what got posted.

Weekly pages: day to day creative planning - writing, the website, reading, etc.

Blank pages: commonplace book and creative ideas.

Bonus journal: A5 Sterling Ink 520 page learning journal

I will keep the learning separate. It makes it easier for me to re-read it and finding all my notes is going to be increasingly important next year for the content I have planned here.

Writing Journal

The Hobonichi notebook worked well last year as the smoothness of the tomoe river paper makes it a joy to write in. I really need the low feedback paper to write without my hands hurting. But, this year I want to focus on a daily writing habit, so I wanted a daily journal. And I wanted to use the new A5 Hobonichi Hon, but was a bit worried about how it would bulk up as my daily journal. So my new writing journal is the Hobonichi Hon A5.

3 months to a page view: actual daily ‘wordcount’. I want to be able to see the patterns of writing I manage to complete.

Monthly pages: I wanted a place to do mini doodle/zentangle art every day. As I don’t really need the monthlies for anything writing wise, I am going to use this space for that.

Weekly pages: responses to prompts, ideas - anything I feel the need to capture. This won’t really be ‘weekly’.

Daily pages: writing

Bonus journal: A5 Sterling Ink 520 page worldbuilding project journal

As my days vary quite a lot, I know I might not actually write every day. But I can write the equivalent of every day. The idea is to try and keep up with the days and that is why I am also recording the actual daily pages written. I also have a worldbuilding project planned and this will be kept in its own journal. Its an alternative history world so I will need to do a lot of research and then ‘adjust’ reality.

Health Journal

The Hobonichi Weeks was perfect for this. I recorded calories and activity against each day and then used the back pages for planning food shops. I am going to switch to the Sterling Ink Common Planner Weeks Compact for 2024 only because I think the vertical weeklies will be better than the horizontal ones (if I’m wrong, I can always get a Hobonichi Weeks).

Work Journal

It turns out I hate A6. I also think having a weekly overview is better. As is being able to keep my notes in the same book. I changed to a an Undated Sterling Ink Common Planner and I plan to stick with that. I got the ‘half year’ size so I can carry it around more easily.

Is everything Sterling Ink or Hobonichi?

Pretty much. There are two reasons for this that I can now articulate pretty clearly:

Tomoe River paper. I love this paper. Fountain pen inks never feather, even the wetter ones. Its incredibly smooth, and reduces feedback, which in turn reduces pain in my hands.

The grid size. This is perfect for me.

There are other companies out there who can meet this need. I did consider the Wonderland planner for a work planner. I also looked at Aura Estelle and I may get an Undated from here when my current work journal runs out (it depends how many of the note pages I end up using).

That is a lot of journals!

Its only 8. Well, 9 because I expect to use another journal as a record of a big trip I am taking next year. I know it seems a lot, but with the exception of the Worldbuilding Project journal, all of these were things I used last year. And most were filled (or will be full either by the end of the month, or when they come to their natural end). That being said, no one should feel like they have to have this many journals. I started with one - a single bullet journal. I ended up filling it very quickly, which is when I started to have more than one. You have too many journals if:

They are the ‘right’ journal, but you can’t fill them/keep up with them.

Keeping up with them is causing you stress.

Other than this, the correct number of journals is the number that help you function day to day, in all areas of your life. That bring you joy when you use them. I would find trying to cram everything into one book and running out of space stressful. This is what works for me, and in 2024, I will be sticking with it.

#techokaigi #journaling #2023journals #2024journals

4 notes · View notes