2016 planner status update
It’s already the end of February (how did that happen?), so today’s post is a check-in with my 2016 planner system.
Overall? I’m still very happy with this year’s configuration. I love the size. I’m using it throughout the entire week. It works how I want, however, I am starting to notice a few trends in how I use everything … or not.
First, I love the cover, the notebooks, and my (custom) pen pouch. The multiple books are working brilliantly, for the most part.
As I suspected I’m not entirely happy with the layout I designed of my week plan book or for my task and routines. But that’s ok. I have time to think about it, trial new designs, and continue using what I have as they still work much better than anything I’ve had before. It’s also why if you follow my planning photos on instagram, you’ve already seen two new notebooks pop up in the past week. One is my teacher’s lesson planbook that I’ve had for years, the other is far from my normal picks for notebooks, it’s an A6 notebook!
While I love time blocks, I discovered I really don’t need the granular detail I designed for the time slots; what I do need is more space for mapping tasks to days. The teacher’s lesson plan book will likely influence the revised design for my next plan book.
One of the changes in how I work relates to the recording of my day-to-day work, more is being input electronically, and that’s ok. I don’t like to duplicate information and if the electronic system is working for me, I’ll embrace it. I love my newest logbook volume, a delightful Tomoe River Paper A5 notebook, however I discovered even before I first opened it that I’m writing only a half page most days.
That led me to wonder if a smaller size would work.
On Sunday I stopped by Kinokuniya and picked up an A6 Kokuyo Campus notebook. To my complete surprise, I’m loving the size. I also like that I can easily fold it to my current systems and it doesn’t stick out or feel like it’s not part of the system. I love ISO paper sizes! While I only have four days of data, it appears that I can easily record all that I need to, even on full days. The size works with any pen I take to it — my handwriting is often incredibly varied depending on the pen, nib size, and ink colour.
What’s working the best is that it fits nicely on the tiny table by the couch, so I’m writing more notes at night while we watch TV & finish up loose ends to the day’s work. This is a time when I’ve been struggling to record items and would often try to remember them the next day.
Now that I’ve discovered this size, I am definitely looking into the possibility of adding a Hobonichi Techno to my arsenal.
How are your systems working? Is anything urging you to try making a small change?
