The Well-Appointed Desk

Happy New Year! I hope 2024 is starting well for you (or at least appears to be on the upward trajectory). Mercury went direct today which will hopefully help us feel like everything isn’t a long, slow ride on the struggle bus this month. Last month though?… let’s just leave the past in the past.

If you’re like me, you look forward to the start of the New Year so that you can officially start your new planner or journal.

I have hacked/mastered/settled-on a format for planning and journaling that works for me so I was delighted to start setting up my new planner last night (because homebodies are gonna homebody!)

I started by using my existing leather cover from Bassy & Co in the B6 size (starting at $95) then I added a new Stalogy B6 Editor’s Series 365Days notebook ($21.60-$24) inside the now gold foil decorated cover.

Inside, I added a page for my goals for the year. These are not resolutions rather things I want to accomplish this year.

I’d like to improve my physical activity after being sick this year. I need to get my stamina and endurance back up since convalescing for over a month. Other goals include organizing a yard sale this spring to clear out even more stuff from the basement and a few things I am not ready to share publicly yet. For me, writing these goals down give me a chance to protect these goals and make time to accomplish them.

No matter how silly or mundane you think your goals might be, write them down. You are the only one who will see them and regardless, the first step to making anything real is writing it down or saying it out loud. So if you want to change jobs, go back to school or just clean out the gutters, write it down. Remember that it was important to you when the day-to-day tries to encroach on your dreams. Clean gutters are a total valid dream!

I use a page-a-day system similar to what is established in the standard A6 Hobonichi planner. I add my own month-on-2-pages at the beginning of each month and add personal holidays and important dates to the monthly calendar. In the past, I’ve used the single page Midori dated and undated sticky calendars but this year I disassembled another undated planner and saved the monthly calendar pages which I tip-in or paste in to the Stalogy.

I also added a ribbon book mark that is exactly the same shade of citrus green as my Sailor/Nagasawa Pro Gear Slim. I glued it to the outside of the cover and covered the somewhat wonky attachment method with a bit of book binder’s tape (see the cover photo to see the printed book binder’s tape at the top edge).

After a year of using this process for logging/journaling, I have set up a bit of a system for maintaining my stride and not overwhelm myself. I start each month by I choosing a few seasonally appropriate colored markers for writing my headers and if I add any bullet journal-style list pages like “Books to Read” or “Podcasts to Check Out”, a few rolls of washi tape in coordinating colors/themese, some stickers and pair of scissors and glue stick.  I paste in my monthly view calendar at the beginning of the month and add a tab with the month written on it. I have a Kitta Washi Tape Folio and a massive collection of Kitta Tapes which I am hoping to start using up this year. They are small pre-cut strips of washi come in little matchbook-style covers which are great for on-the-go planner jazzing. I slide one into the pocket in my leather planner cover. The strips can be used to cover up an oopsie, FYI.

Everyday, I just write the day on the top of the page. Some days require multiple pages. Some days get skipped completely. Some days get missed and I go back and then retrospectively filled in.  But by making writing the date each day, I give myself permission to make it a big day or no day at all. It’s a lot less pressure than those endless blank pages that I ended up with in the Hobonichi when I tried it. Now if I fall of the journal bandwagon for a week, I don’t have seven blank pages staring back at me. I have NO blank pages.

Overall, my journal/planner is not as pretty or fancy as many YouTubers but I like how it looks. I am using up the massive amount of washi tape and stickers I’ve accumulated over the years which makes me happy.

I use Austin Kleon’s logging method which is more bullet list of activities than a long form written journal or diary. I log the podcasts I listened to,  the people I saw or places I went. I will sometimes note “still reading ____” if I’m in the middle of a book or the season of a series we are watching on television. If the weather is particularly notable, I might add a note about that. I also started pasting in the occasional receipt so that some day I can look back and marvel at either what I purchased or how much it cost.

I will sometimes insert a photo printed from my phone using a mini printer (mine has been discontinued but there are lots of others still available that will print your photos on stickers or as mini polaroids). I prefer to use a mini printer that prints photos about the size of a playing card and does not require ink cartridges. While the paper is a bit more expensive, I don’t have to purchase or worry about ink cartridge availability.

I plan to add a “word of the year” or other bits of inspiration. I’ve found that the advantage of using an undated planner/journal is that I can use more than one page when necessary or cram two or three days on the same page when not much occurred. Then insert a list or idea page randomly and just put a tab marker or book dart to mark a page as being special. Maybe this year, I’ll add an index and number my pages to make it easier to locate the chaos.

Really, the bottom line is that my journal/planner has become an “everything book”. It’s a commonplace book, it’s a journal, it’s a diary, it’s a brain dump.

I have been tickled to hear that last year’s planner has inspired others (including my husband!!!) to try their hand at keeping a planner or journal for this year. I will try to continue to share my progress both good and bad to hopefully continue to encourage others to keep on trying!

What’s your method of remembering, archiving or planning?

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. . Other items were purchased with funds provided by the gracious support of our amazing Patrons. You can help support this blog by joining our Patreon. Please see the About page for more details