2024 Journal, Planner, and Notebook Setup

New year, new notebooks? Yes to the new year (hello 2024!) but new notebooks? It’s a continuation of the same for me, which is a good place to be, plus a reimagining of an old standby that has me ready to tackle all that lies ahead this year.

Two products worked perfectly for me in 2023, and therefore I am happy to keep them going. I was successful in filling out the first full year in my 2023-2027 Hobonichi 5 Year Journal, only skipping a handful of days throughout the year. It was a habit that formed quickly, as I looked forward to updating the previous day’s activities the following morning. And on the occasions that I was away from home for an extended period of time, it was easy to catch back up on the few days I missed.

One change I made early on with this journal is to not log the pen and ink I was using on the opposite page. That seemed like a good idea at first, but looking at how little I used the right side of the page, it seemed wasteful. A friend mentioned they plan on using the right-hand pages to add years to the journal - up to four more years in the case of this layout - and while I have many years before I get to that point, I will keep that option open.

My first full year in the PLOTTER Narrow was a rousing success as well. This planner was used far more than the Hobonichi Journal, which is by design. I used the Weekly layout for a broad overview of what my week looked like, the standard grid pages for notes and lists, and I added in a batch of my favorite Bank Paper to the rear section for random pen tests and handout pages.

The only section I rarely used in my PLOTTER were the Monthly pages, but I plan on giving them another go this year and seeing what I can do to make them useful for me.

Towards the end of the year, I added in a Field Notes for a more easily pocketable, and portable, notebook for random thoughts, ideas, and scratch paper. The PLOTTER could be used for this (it does travel with me,) but I found the simplicity of a pocket notebook to be unsurpassed, once again.

The one frustration point in my current setup is with my Life Noble A5 Hardbound Notebook. It is an almost perfect notebook for me as far as style, layout, and performance goes, but I found myself rarely using it. My frustrations with it come from not knowing why I’m frustrated with it. I couldn’t design a better notebook for my own use, but I rarely choose to use it.

That brings me to my one new addition for the start of 2024: my William Hannah is back in the game! In its former life, it filled the role that my PLOTTER currently does. I like the PLOTTER format and size better for my planning needs, so I turned my William Hannah into my paper sampling notebook. Using a different hole punch than for my PLOTTER, I added in as many different paper types as I could to it. This made them easily accessible at my desk for testing, and portable to pen shows for others to try.

While I will miss this setup, I had an epiphany last week: this would make for a perfect project notebook. I removed all of the testing pages, and clamped them with this Medium Penco Clampy Clip, and added in the basic dot grid pages from William Hannah that I had ordered previously.

What this will allow is the proper organization for project plans and ideas. I can’t believe I am saying this, but I think this was my primary hangup with the bound A5 notebook. I want to project plan in it, but how do I allocate space for that? Is this a two-page project, or ten? When does one project start, and the next one end? I’m frozen by the inefficiency that this would introduce to the A5 notebook, and therefore it sat, mostly unused.

With the William Hannah, the pages are portable. Add a page here, remove a page there. The section dividers are movable, too, or I could simply mark the edges with washi tape or flags if I so desired. Flexibility, in this case, is peace of mind.

Will it work for me? Ask me in a year, but I’m anxious to get it going. If nothing else, thinking about overarching concepts such as allowing myself to set aside a product that doesn’t work, or repurposing something I already own into something new, has been a fun experiment. Let’s see how it plays out.

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Ink + Volt 2020-2021 Academic Planner: A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

I left my office for Spring Break on March 6th and didn't return until last week because: COVID. I didn't realize that I wouldn't return after Spring Break, and I left my Hobonichi planner on my desk. Honestly, I left all plans behind in March. Those 2020 goals I set in January? Poof. Gone. Like many of you, I've spent my summer in a haze of uncertainty, not knowing how to set any goals much less have any.

But the fall is around the corner, and I needed a hard reset in order to start working on my courses. After Brad reviewed his Ink + Volt Executive Notebook, I headed to the Ink+Volt website and discovered their 2020-2021 academic planners. "Perfect!" I said. "This may be the thing that will help me reset my life." Plus, it's my last year as a professor, and an academic planner seemed like a little going away (cough . . . you've been fired . . . cough) present to myself.

The Ink+Volt Academic Planner is a hardcover, lay-flat notebook with 280 pages of 70 pound paper. It measures 6 x 8 1/2 inches and is a little over 1 inch thick. The corners are rounded and the cover material is textured but soft. The only branding is on the back cover, and it is subtle.

Two thick ribbons allow you to mark your place (I use them to mark the current month and week), and a back corner pocket can hold any extras.

There's a cover page where you can write your name (and add kitty stickers).

The next two pages provide complete 2020 and 2021 monthly calendars, which is helpful for reference.

Planning for the Year

One of the reasons I wanted to try the Ink+Volt Academic Planner is because of the guided planning it provides. As I said earlier, I needed a reset for 2020, and the first few pages of the planner offered that. Before I started filling them in, I printed the free Mid-Year Review provided in the "Guides" section on the Ink+Volt website. This review helped me to assess where I was as of July 2020.

Then I filled out the pages in the Academic Planner, starting with "Bringing Your Year Into Focus."

The next page asked me to declare a theme for the year that would both inspire and empower me. I chose a line from Maya Angelou's famous poem, "Still I Rise" as my theme: "But still, like dust, I'll rise." As part of my reflection, I had to come up with a Five-Year Vision and key actions and milestones to help me achieve that vision.

A two-page spread offers space for a timeline with goals for the first and second halves of the year. My goals are pretty much the same for both halves, though in the spring one unhappy goal is moving out of my office where I've spent the past 28 years.

Planner Features

The planner is divided into months and weeks. There are no daily pages. Each month appears as a two-page spread with plenty of space for writing down events. The right margin provides a focus box and space for notes.

Next is a page for the month's goals with checkboxes and space below for notes or additional goals.

Each month you choose a 31- (or 30-) day challenge. This offers you an opportunity to create a new habit or try something fresh for the month. In addition to stating what the challenge is, you explain why you want to do this particular challenge and offer a precise plan of action to make it happen. There's a place to sign your commitment (which felt a little silly to me, but okay) and a "Challenge Tracker" to circle or highlight all the days when you completed the challenge.

Prior to each week, you are given a unique question to consider. For this week, the question was, "What are you most looking forward to in the months ahead?" Questions from other weeks include "Are you holding on to things that no longer serve you? . . . What can you let go of this week?" "Hard work and focus can sometimes feel lonely. Is there time for human connection in your life?" "The smartest people are always learning. What is a lesson you can take away from a recent experience?"

I love these weekly questions. They offer an opportunity to consider things beyond goal planning. Contemplating a question you might not think of yourself prior to beginning each week is inspiring.

The next page asks you to write at least three goals for the week and the tasks you'll need to do in order to complete those goals. There's a box where you can reflect and celebrate what you accomplished the previous week. A checklist at the bottom of the page reminds you to do a weekly review of your goals.

Another two page spread provides plenty of space to plan your week. Each weekday is divided into three boxes: Morning, Noon, and Night. If you want to subdivide the boxes into hours you can, or you can simply write goals or tasks for each time period. I thought I would miss not having a "Daily" page, but the weekly spread provides enough room for me to write the things I would ordinarily put on a daily page. The greatest benefit to this approach is I can see the entire week at a glance. This is so helpful for my ADHD brain that forgets anything out of sight.

There's a section at the end of the planner for documenting your achievements for the year and reflecting on the events.

The 70 pound paper in the Ink+Volt Academic Planner is smooth and thick with dot-grid format for notes. From the feel of the paper between my fingers, I expected it to perform well with fountain pens and ink. It does and it doesn't. In my fountain pen test, the paper handled finer nibs and drier inks without much difficulty and with little show or bleed-through. However, wider nibs and wetter inks created some bleed-through.

I also tested various pens (gel, rollerball, felt tip). The paper handled these easily, but both the Sharpie pens bled through.

I decided to do a swab test even though this planner wasn't designed for wet swabs of ink. I know some folks like to use monthly spreads to do ink challenges. The swabs look great on this paper with rich color, sheen, and shading, but there's significant bleed-through.

One of the most disappointing aspects of the paper is that many of the fountain pen inks feathered, even with fine and extra fine nibs. The feathering isn't all that noticeable to the naked eye, but I'm surprised the paper isn't as fountain-pen friendly as I expected it to be.

I'm looking forward to using the Ink+Volt Academic Planner for my last year as a professor. I've already benefitted from doing the Mid-Year Review and yearly planning. The weekly reflection questions will give me something different to consider as I prepare for each week. I think the Weekly Outlook format be excellent for planning. Having the entire week before my eyes will help me keep on top of things.

In addition to the planner, the Ink+Volt website offers numerous free resources, including printable worksheets and blog posts covering all sorts of helpful topics. I've read several of the posts and plan to use the printables.

If you need a reset as August arrives, I highly recommend the Ink+Volt Academic Planner with the caveat that the paper isn't completely fountain-pen friendly. You can purchase one from Ink+Volt for $42.75, but they are running low on stock and color choice is limited. Act quickly if you want one. If an academic calendar format isn't for you, Ink+Volt has their 2021 planners ready to go. Prices vary depending on the series you choose. You don't have to purchase a planner to start using the Ink+Volt website with all the wonderful resources provided. It's a great way to sample the Ink+Volt methodology before you commit to a planner.

(Ink+Volt provided this Academic Planner free of charge to Pen Addict for review.)

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Apica CD Notebook Wear Cover with Monthly Schedule Book Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter. And check out her first novel, The Bone Weaver’s Orchard, now available where books are sold!)

It's time to plan your plans! Planning your planning! It's planner season!

Confession: It stresses me out. Because I know what I want. And I know what works for me. And they are not the same thing! I usually cave and buy a complex, ambitious planner system at the beginning of the year, stick with it through April, and then things gradually deteriorate until about... oh, now... and then I spend the rest of the year with just a monthly spread and a lot of lists.

I started this year with a Hobonichi Cousin, last year with a Weeks, and the years before that with complicated and over-decorated bullet journals. Starting last month, I switched to a plain, slim grid notebook that I drew my own monthly spreads in and I've been keeping notes and lists in the back half of the notebook. Not long after I set that up, this Apica Monthly Schedule book arrived, which is the exact same layout as what I had designed for myself. I know that this layout is all I really need to know where I need to be and when. Yes, the squares are small. But days are short! So, if I run out of room in the square, I've also run out of room in my day. You might be surprised how much I can fit in a square, though. I can still thoroughly overbook myself in this small space.

This faux leather cover has an interior fold that the schedule book slides into. It can hold two slim A5 notebooks, or one notebook and a memo pad, or one thicker A5 notebook. It has an interior card pocket, two ribbon bookmarks, an extra back pocket, and a pen loop. The stitching is neat and sturdy, so it should stand up to the wear and tear of holding a planner, though I do find that the faux leather can warp over time with use. The pocket slits tend to stretch and lose a bit of integrity after a while, so I'm not certain if it can manage a year of daily use.

The cover doesn't need to be for the schedule or planner. It can hold any of the Apica A5 notebooks. Or nearly any A5 notebook, for that matter, as long as it isn't too thick. It's a decent cover, but it didn't blow me away, especially for the $25 price tag. There are a lot of better covers out there for less cost, in my opinion. When this arrived, it was the bonus schedule book that really got my attention.

The schedule book itself is a thread-bound soft cardstock cover book in A5 size. It begins with a yearly overview page. I've never really figured out what those are for, so I typically leave those blank. Then, there are sixteen monthly spreads, all unlabeled, so you can start and end on any month. The monthly pages have a lined list along the left edge of the page for tracking tasks. After the monthly spreads, there are 15 pages of 5mm grid paper for notes and lists. The paper is fantastic. It's smooth, acid-free, and takes even the most broad and inky fountain pens without so much as a feather. The only pen that bled was a Sharpie fineliner.

It's certainly not a life-organizer. It won't have all the details of my comings and goings, or the minute breakdowns of my goals and plans. But it's the perfect place to keep the crucial info handy, and it's all I need to carry with me to make sure I don't double-book anything as I go about the day. I know it's all I need, because it's all I use for a good quarter of the year. The cover and schedule set is $25 on JetPens, and the schedule itself is only $3.80 for the A5 size. Yes, I can have all the planner I need, with some of the best paper out there, for under $4. I don't need a $50 planner.

Of course, I'll end up getting the big fancy planner, anyway. I always do. It never fails. And even if it doesn't help me organize my life better, at least it helps me get excited about the start of a new year. And when it all gets to be too much, I have this simple but effective tool to keep me going through what promises to be another busy year.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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