I think I have Reached My ‘Planner Peace’ | Blog Post by Connie

Hello! It’s been a while since my last blog post. I hope everyone has had a good start to the new year. After battling with numerous planning and journaling systems in the past 2 years, I think I have finally got it right this year! Yes, that’s right! I think I have reached my planner/journal peace. So, I am going to share with you my 2022 planner and journal line-up today and how I have been using them so far.

First off, let’s talk planners. I have decided to scrap the Hobonichi Weeks and Jibun Techo this year, as I wanted planners that would help me to stay more focused on tasks and improve my productivity. So, I am using 2 planners this year- Plotter (beige in bible size) and Nolty PDCA in A5 size.

Plotter

At the end of last year, I realised I wasted a lot of the weekly pages in my Hobonichi Weeks but I used the monthly a lot for shop planning. So, I decided to set up my Plotter to suit my needs since it is a ring binder.  My set up includes a monthly insert, a to-do list and some note paper. It’s a very simple set up but it works amazingly. I used the monthly insert to plan for my shop and document personal things. I have several ongoing to-do lists on different projects as well which helped me to stay on top of everything. And the note paper allowed me to brain dump any time. So far, I found this set up very helpful in moving tasks along!  I just love using it because it’s so flexible and I feel free!

Nolty PDCA

Last year I used Kokuyo Jibun Techo for work. It has some nice features, but I never really warmed up to its size. I am an A5 girl when it comes to work planners. So, after several weeks of research, I set my heart on the Nolty PDCA planner with vertical weekly layout. As I work as a teacher, lesson planning and curriculum planning is crucial part of my role. The PDCA has a very clean layout, with a weekly timeline for me to plan my lessons so I can view my week at a glance. I used a marker and the Kokuyo mini ruler to divide my days for lesson planning. There is also a priority to-do list at the bottom which is helpful for categorising the tasks in terms of urgency. There is also plenty of room for taking notes and reflections. Since we have to do lots of online planning these days, I really don’t need anything too complicated. This simple yet highly effective planner has been an easy companion for me so far!

As many of you know, journaling is a big part of my life. I have tried quite a few different journals in the past, but I always head back to the love of my life- Hobonichi ☺

Hobonichi Techo Avec

Last year I moved back to using Hobonichi Techo Avec after a year of using Hobonichi Cousin. It was the best decision I have ever made, so I am sticking with it this year. I found the A6 size is very easy to fill daily and the Avec (half year) allowed me to add more to my page without exploding my journal to an unusable state. I have chosen quite a few A6 covers this year as I like to ‘dress up’ my journal from time to time to refresh its looks! Currently I am using the Loft limited edition caterpillar cover. I also attached the good luck charm from TSS to wish for a good year! In terms of my daily journal, I am still aiming to paint and illustrate my day whenever I can as well as embellishing pages with cute stickers and stamps! But I am going to dedicate some days to using my vast stationery collection like memos and cut outs on pages which is super fun but also gives me some journaling down time ☺

Hobonichi 5-year journal

I started on a 5-year journal last year and I have been quite vigilant in writing daily. My 5-year journal is A5 size so there is lots of room to write about my thoughts. I drew or painted on the right side daily last year as I thought it would be a nice way to snapshot important moments in my life. Obviously, that was too idealistic from me who was working from home at the time. I stopped doing that in June as I just couldn’t keep up. Now I am just happy to write - about my day, my happy/ angry thoughts, people and things I encountered, or just anything that crossed my mind when I wrote on the day. Being in the second year of using this journal, I am looking forward to reading my last year entries every day. It is fun revisiting my own memories, sometimes I am surprised by my own thoughts and I feel like I learned more about myself from these entries ☺ I highly recommend everyone to use a 5-year journal as I believe it will make you a better person.

So that’s it, these are my main planners and journals for 2022. Of course I still have several other ongoing watercolour journals and traveler’s notebooks for various things but I consider them as the supplementary journals that will never end☺  How are your planners and journals working for you so far? Do you think you have reached planner peace this year?  We would love to hear from you! Share with us by #thestationeryselection on IG or other social media platforms. Bye for now!

X Connie

You can find me on IG @pepperconarts or my shop www.pepperconarts.com