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.

Most of the time these days I use a finer nibbed pen. But I also have some broader nibs inked up.

Most of the time I use the broader ones to draw divider lines between sections in my Hobonichi Techo Cousin A5 planner. But sometimes I take one up one (or one of the numerous broader nibs than I prefer gel ink pens I have laying around after testing things out or from my former life as a borader nibbed person) and start writing with it.

And it looks so strange to see these thick lines when you’are used to like a EF nib or a ~0.3mm gel ink pen.

I try to change the main fountain pen I write with every day. Typically it is more like every 1-2 days.

The one I like the most at the moment is a very good question. Based on what I write the most with it is probably either the Pilot Custom 823 or the Pro Gear.

Most likely the former. But it is a very tight one.

The way I use my A5 Hobonichi Cousin is that I split the day pages in three. Just to be able to fill more stuff into each page. Plus that my todo items are more 1-3 words than full sentences.

Until now I just freehanded it, and it looked like shit.

So I finally got around to buying a ruler. Of course I bought a nice brass one. I wanted one from Ystudio but it was out of stock, so I got one from Travelers Company instead.

I like it a lot. But it is a tiny but too short. But the good thing is that it fits in the case I carry my pens in.