(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
With the 2025 planner season coming up, I thought it would be cool to walk through the planner that Yoseka released last year. The YOSEKALAB Two-Month Weekly Planner was designed by two of Yoseka’s employees, Amy Hong and Bethany Wu, who wanted to make something to help folks figure out what planner works best for them. The result is a single planner that has a variety of formats commonly found in other planners so that users could try out different formats before committing to a yearlong planner.
Green stamp not included, but I couldn’t resist stamping mine with the Yoseka partner shop stamp from Traveler’s Company when I was at the store.
The YOSEKALAB Two-Month Weekly Planner is a B6-sized soft cover planner that is made with 68gsm Tomoe River paper, and contains 32 pages of 10 different monthly and weekly spreads as well as some grid memo sheets in the front and back. Also included is an insert with a listing of the different layouts as well as a VERY handy chart of which products use which format(s). I particularly like that there are two 2-page spreads for most of the layouts, so that you can try it more than once to see if it works for you, or for you to use each spread in different ways.
B6 isn’t a super common size, but it is in between A5 and A6, so it will give you a good idea as to whether a format will work for you in a larger or smaller notebook. The handy chart also tells you what sizes different planners are offered in, which is extra helpful. Most of the time, planners will have pre-printed month/day/date but since the Yoseka Planner is meant for folks to try at any time in any year, there is space for users to write the month/day. Lastly, since I am a Bullet Journal follower (more or less), I don’t really use traditional planners, so the pictures don’t have any planning content because I plan on actually using this if my needs change.
Typical monthly layout that you’d see in many planners, though not all of them will have extra space.
Vertical Gantt layout where you can write on either/both sides of the Gantt-style calendar, which is handy for noting/tracking different projects.
Horizontal Gantt layout is an ideal layout for tracking or logging habits, projects, etc.
Vertical Schedule with dot markings in 3 hour increments, and space below for comments, to-do, etc. This format is great for folks who need to plan specific hours for their work, school, or anything else. I don’t plan my time from 12am to 6am (or really from 9pm onwards) but you could always use that space for decorations or other notes.
Horizontal Schedule with Memo on the right. This is the layout that I’m currently using in my Traveler’s Notebook for daily short form journaling on the left and “highlights” on the right.
Vertical Schedule with Memo. If I had found this format 7+ years ago, I might have never discovered Bullet Journaling and eventually Fountain Pens!! While I no longer need this format, I have several BuJo’s worth of self-made weekly spreads that look like this (though mine had a “taller” top section). I used the bottom for notes and tasks that didn’t have to be done on any specific day but had to be tackled that week.
Horizontal Quadrant. This is a fairly common weekly format, and was mostly what I found when looking for planners back in the day. It is divided horizontally into 8 sections, with the bottom right section empty for notes, to-do, etc.
Vertical Quadrant Divided. These Vertical Quadrant formats are similar in that they are divided vertically into 8 sections, with an extra section in the upper left for notes, etc.
Vertical Quadrant Memo. This format is great for folks who want to add a visual element for each day, whether it be a photograph or sketch.
Looking through all of these formats, if I needed a planner, I think I would pick either the Vertical Schedule or Vertical with Memo, but knowing that I could try out a bunch of formats before making a purchase will be super useful.
The YOSEKALAB Two-Month Weekly Planner is available online or in their Brooklyn, NY store for $9.50, which is a bargain, especially when the alternative is ending up with the wrong planner.
(Disclaimer: I purchased this notebook at regular price (and NY sales tax) from their store earlier this year.)
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