June is one of the slowest months of the year for my shop so I’m using this time to get ahead on the summer season and write up some plannersphere newsletter posts! In this one, I’m formally announcing my 2023 planner lineup!
Is it weird that I waited until June to post this? 🤨
Not if you know my planner style! I’m one of those who changes my lineup every year, sometimes mid-year, and on a whim. I love trying new styles, sizes, notebooks, papers, and tools. I’ll keep something around for an entire year if it works, but that doesn’t mean I’ll keep it around for the following year. 😂
This year my announcement is a bit late simply because one of my planners is a spring (April) start and I wanted to try it out for a couple of months before committing to it. So I have TWO planners in my lineup this year! And I couldn’t be more pleased!
Here they are: my EDC (“every day carry”) bullet journal (“bujo”) planner is an a6 Leuchtturm 1917 hardcover dotted notebook (I will probably go through 3 of them this year) and my other planner is a Hobonichi Cousin, Japanese, spring start (for 2023 this only comes in the Japanese version).
Here are some notes about my personal planner approach:
My planning, tracking, and mental health needs change every year. That primarily explains why my planner lineup changes yearly. 🙂
I like to give a new planner a thorough tryout before I decide to keep or discard it. These trials usually last 1-2 months.
I don’t like pre-made planners. This is why the a6 bujo is my EDC. I don’t like being forced into a particular layout but I also don’t want to spend hours creating my own custom layouts. So a smaller, EDC bujo was what I ended up with. I started this planner last year and I’m so in love with it, it’s possible it will hang around next year! I have a whole bunch of handmade stickers I created for this layout that I use every week.
I also don’t like having a ton of notebooks for my planner lineup. I usually aim for 1 total, but I needed some extra help this year so I have 2 (more on that in a bit).
I *love* supporting other sticker shops. You’ll see stickers in my notebooks from The Coffee Monsterz Co, RabbitHoleHandCraft (love, love, love her stuff!), and legacy stickers from Pumpkin Paper Co (who, unfortunately, closed her shop before quarantine). I also have a large accumulation of washi tape rolls from, well, who knows where at this point - I’ve been collecting them for 10 years now. Most are from The Coffee Monsterz Co, but I also have some from Simply Gilded, MilkTeaDani, The Washi Tape Shop, and other random online shops. I’ll talk more about the storage of my stickers and washi tape in another post because that’s a whole other topic… 😁
My EDC a6 Bujo
My prior EDC was a Standard size Traveler’s Notebook. I have a bazillion covers from The Traveler’s Company that are sitting in storage right now. They will get resurrected next year when I replace my Hobonichi Cousin with the Standard size in the 2024 lineup.
My journey to finding planner peace for my EDC was a long one. I kept forcing myself to use larger sizes, and they just weren’t working for me. I’m somewhat of a minimalist so I don’t like to carry a lot on my person when I’m out and about. I’ve found over time the smaller the better. Also, I have some planner details in duplicate (in digital format on my smartphone and in analog format), so I realized I didn’t need to store everything twice. Everything is starting to have its own place.
Moving down to a portable purse-sized planner has been an absolute joy. I have not stopped loving this planner format since I first designed it last fall. I have a feeling it will stick with me for years to come. ❤️
My EDC inside cover:
And below is my weekly layout. This EDC is formatted with a vertical weekly layout. However, I just started adding a summary, monthly page this month.
I love the flexibility of a bujo, hence, why I use it. Note that most of the planner layout stickers you see below have been handcrafted by me, and customized for my planner style.
Continuation of my weekly format:
I use the last handful of pages in this notebook for longer-term trackers, like the books I’m reading, ink tests, health stuff, and more:
My Spring start Hobonichi Cousin
The Hobonichi Cousin was a surprise for me. I’ve never used one but have been admiring them from afar for years now. I decided to spring for one this year and tested it for 2 months before deciding to keep it for 2023. I have some specific needs right now that required a larger, additional planner. This planner stays on my desk and doesn’t leave the house. My a6 EDC travels with me on trips.
Although the Cousin experiment has been fun and I’m so in love with the Hobonichi Tomoe River paper, the truth is that I already know I won’t be keeping this planner in my 2024 lineup. The pre-made format drives me bonkers. There’s also too much waste for me - there are sections in this that I don’t foresee using long-term. As you’ll see in the next few pictures, I’ve figured out a way to make it work for me this year.
I chose the polar bear cover because I have an older polar bear cover on an a6 Hobonichi Techo cover from years ago that I adore. I’m continuing the theme!
Here is how I use the daily tracker pages. I’m tracking mostly physical and mental health items here. There’s a little overlap with my a6 but I’m ok with it.
I use the vertical weekly pages a bit differently. I recently purchased the HB90 Method planner system from Sarra Cannon and am tracking my time to figure out how to be more efficient. If you are someone who seems to bleed time, I highly recommend her productivity system. She offers both digital and physical planner templates for her system as well as a 1-week class if you want a more thorough deep dive. It’s geared towards writers but you can hijack this flexible system to meet your specific career goals, like I did.
My vertical weekly pages track how I spend my time in 30-minute increments. I do use the Pomodoro technique for some of my businesses, so 30-minute increments work out perfectly. Since I have multiple businesses, I also track how many hours per week I spend on each.
My monthly calendar pages are used for memory keeping, but only through photos. I use a Canon Ivy printer to print out stickers of random photos on my camera. I also use this printer’s 2x3” photo stickers in a Standard traveler’s notebook to chart my travel journeys.
The monthly “at a glance” pages are not useful to me. I do attempt to plot out my goals for that month, but since I’m already doing this in my EDC and I look at that more often, this is really an in-the-moment brain dump for me. I hate wasting pages. 😩
And finally, the daily pages are used for journaling. This is where a Standard TN will take over next year. I don’t need quite this much space for journaling, although nothing is as awesome as the Hobonichi Tomoe River paper. I’ll just have to use Tomoe River paper inserts in my TN next year to replicate the experience. I also don’t feel like I need to write every single day, so a blank notebook next year will help relieve some of that pressure.
And that’s my lineup for 2023!
What planners and notebooks are you using? ❤️