I use a Nock.co Tallulah as my pen carry case these days. In some periods like now, I like to carry a minimal amount of tools, and it is perfect for that.

I have a brass ruler from Travelers Company, a gel ink pen and one fountain pen in it.

The gel ink pen changes based on whatever I use at the moment. Preferably a Signo DX or Hi Tec-C. But sometimes something else I had laying around that I wanted to use up.

And the fountain pen changes every night / morning after I have filled out my Theme System Journal.

The brass ruler is something I use to divide pages of my A5 Hobonichi Cousin into three to make it fit more tasks.

The gel ink pen usually go in and out all the time. I use the same pen as my pocket pen when needed. And the fountain pen is usually what I use most of them time when I’m at a desk.

The ones I use are the model called the A5 Cousin. The big difference between it and the more popular A6 version is that it also has a weekly double page layout in addition to the daily pages.

Here is how I use mine.

Yearly goals

There are a bunch of empty grid pages at the end of the planner, I use these to track my larger yearly goals. They are usually very high level and sometimes change. I just write them as lists and change as needed.

Monthly goals

There are some double spread monthly pages in the start of the planner. Most of the page is just a grid of boxes for each of the days in a month, plus a small section on the left without any purpose. I cross out the boxes as days end, plus if there is one important thing on a day I write that in there. Plus that I use the section on the left to track monthly goals.

Weekly goals & planning

The weekly view I use to have a very high level overview of the week. I write down each thing that I’m going to do each day that either involve other people or going somewhere. Plus that in the same way I use the monthly pages to track monthly goals on the section to the left, I use the similar section on the weekly page to track weekly goals.

Daily pages

What I do with these is that I take a ruler and divide it into three sections. And then I write down all the most important things I want to get done today. Not any details but just the most important stuff. I consider what’s in there to have a due date and that I should really do my best to always get it done.

This planner works really well for my to kind of have a high level overview of things both at a yearly, monthly, weekly and daily level. And makes it really easy to plan. It isn’t really what I look at while I work most of the time. But it is what I look at when I refill my list of stuff I’m working at right now to make sure I focus on the most important things.

I have a cover for my Hobonichi Techo Cousin A5. The one I got is called “Dreamy Soda”. They call it a light blue, I call it turquoise on the outside and pink on the inside.

It features two page markers, two pen holders and a bunch of pockets both on the back outside and on the inside. I usually don’t use any of that except the page markers.

I think it is a good idea to put any notebook you expect to use for an entire year that isn’t hardcover in a cover, especially if you are going to have it in a bag or close to coffee or other drinks.

This cover is really good, and I will most likely order another soon in not too long to use with my Theme Journal.

However, there are a few times I’d love to change about this cover:

• I’d like to just remove the pen loops and all the pockets
• Have some kind of mechanism to keep it closed
• More page markers.

One of the things I really like about the Hobonichi brand is that they like Travelers Company they’re fully in on also providing less than 12 month dated planners.

The products are not always 100% identical to their 12-month versions, but all the essential features are the same. They also sell sets of two 6-month planners if you prefer it to the 12-month one. Either of weight or size reasons.

I started to use paper week on a double page planners to kind of plan my week at a very high level early last year. I usually only include things that involve other people or going places. And then I also used a daily one page per day planner for more like the most important tasks for the day.

In the start I used undated inserts for my regular sized Travelers Notebook, then I moved to dated ones and finally I ordered a six month Hobonichi last summer. The reason I changed it was because I liked its layout better plus I also liked the idea of it being one things instead of two separate refills.

And it was really great that I could get a dated planner where I only had to cross out like a couple of weeks worth of daily pages before I could start using it when I decided to do this in the middle of the year. I wish this was more of an option from more planners and products like them. Because not all workflow changes like this align with the big planner order season of October-November. Plus that shorter period planners (3 or 6 months) are really awesome for when you just want to see if something will work out for you.

All the pens I have in regular rotation I like, but there are some I like less than others, some I like for some tasks, but what are the ones I like to use the most for regular writing:

• Pilot Custom 823
• Sailor Pro Gear Slim
• Ystudio Portable with the FC EF steel nib

This is a short and sweet review of the year I had the Blacking Volumes Subscription.

It was easy to sign up, not as easy to cancel it. I just had to send an e-mail. But still, not as easy as signing up.

I liked it, but when I started to get close to the renewal date I decided I had to cancel it because I don’t use enough pencils to justify it. I’d just end up with a ridiculous amounts of pencils by the end of year 2.

Recently on The Pen Addict Podcast, they talked about a poll Brad had done on Mastodon about the number of notebooks people use every day versus use often but not every day I just started to 😬

I have 5 notebooks I use every single day and another 3 I use less often, but still more than not days. It is ridiculous, I know. The fucked up thing is that I’ll very soon add another to the daily mix.

Daily

• Hobonichi Cousin A5 as my planner
• LT A5 Dotgrid Notebook for managing tasks for things I’m currently working on
• Soon: Hobonichi A5 notebook for long term goal tracking
  
• Rhodia DotPads for HitList / temporary notes
• Theme Journal

Regular use

• Lined Rhodia Pad for longform writing
• Regular size Travelers Notebook with lined refill for my common place notebook
• Passport size Travelers Notebook for my pocket notebook.

I have a bunch of them from the year I subscribed. And I have no idea what to do with them.

I hate the idea of collections in general, so keeping them as is isn’t really an option. Then it leaves me at taking them out and using them or throwing the whole crap out.

I’ll probably go with just using them, but I like the idea of just throwing the shit in the bin.

I have not used a lot of pocket notebooks after covid, but I have gotten back into it recently. Especially when I have my daughter.

Since Field Notes still haven’t gotten their act together and made a dot grid option generally available, I did the switch to Travelers Notebook a while back. And their passport size is awesome for pocket notebooks.

Most of the time I use it with gel pens, most of the time a Signo or Hi Tec C. But it also handles fountain pens really well.

In general this setup is really great. The covers are awesome, it handles all my pens way better than Field Notes and I can get all the formats I want. Plus using pocket notebooks again have been good for my ADHD.