Weekly(-ish) Discussion Post

[annofowlshire]

Comment to tell us about what you've been up to with your journal, planner, or other stationery related items. Tell us about a new pen or a coveted notebook. Consult the hive mind with a problem you've been having. Post a picture! Whatever goes as long as it falls in the realm of journals and planners. Remember, you can always make your own top-level post, too!

Comments

[annofowlshire]

I daresay that the irregularity of my weekly discussions indicates that I'm pretty disorganized!

To be fair, I took a couple of months off DW (and all social media--DW is the one I decided I wanted to return to), and I've had some business trips (I did one the entirety of last year. I did two within 4 weeks in November/December this year... and rumors of a big one early next year!).

In any case, I'm pretty out of it. I think I'd like to get a habit tracking page going, and at least get some kind of to-do list each day...


I ordered my 2023 Writing Planner that I get every year. I hardly do more than the goal exercises and then track for a couple of months before trailing off... that's part of planner life for me. But doing the goals is always a help.

[vriddy]

Welcome back! :) Good luck with the habit tracking setup!

[lunabee34]

I think taking a periodic break is always such a good idea. Everytime I unplug, I'm glad for it.

[jellyfishlover]

I've been looking into starting one of those 5-year planners recently! I currently use a home-made junk journal to document my day, but it's not something I tend to do everyday since I like adding tape/stickers/pictures/etc. to it.
The one I've been thinking about getting is "one line a day" since that seems like it would be pretty low pressure to fill out everyday!

[treefrogie84]

i've been thinking about one of those too. since i very rarely use my planner for anything other than a glorified to do list.

[jellyfishlover]

Yeah, mixing anything else with planners is something I rarely do as well. If you do end up trying a long term planner/journal out, I hope you have a good time with it!

[lunabee34]

<3

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

I think those are very thoughtfully designed.

[jellyfishlover]

Yes!! While looking into long term planners/journals it seemed like a lot of them would be bigger commitments than what I was looking for, so I'm quite glad that something designed more compactly is out there!

[thistleingrey]

I've been trying to use my weekly planner paper more efficiently: not only brief mentions of events and appointments, but notes wedged in where they'll fit. Seems helpful to use only one pen color per event, for future legibility (even one week later). Ordinarily I'd just reach for whichever non-pencil is closest :) and before this small experiment, the notes went onto scrap paper and were eventually recycled. Though I don't need to keep most such notes, I find I like having them near the event mention, so I'll keep going for a little while.

[lunabee34]

That's very smart. *high five*

[thistleingrey]

Thanks--it feels like handwriting practice, in a good way. Not super tidy, but less of a scrawl. :)

[virgosplaining]

Excited for the end of the year so I can put my new Hobonochi Techo to use :) I can't wait to get properly back into my planner madness.

[stormehowl]

Oooh, enjoy! One day I'm going to give that one a go!

[lunabee34]

Which cover did you get?

[virgosplaining]

I got this one:

[lunabee34]

Oh how cool! I hadn't seen that one, but I love it.

[smallrobot]

Yay, Hobonichi! Love their paper, it's very special in every sense, but a lot of people end up loving it!

[virgosplaining]

Haha, I've used the notebook a little and really enjoyed it :D So I'm excited for the planner!

[stormehowl]

Here is a picture of my Stalogy B6 for 2022. I keep it in a Moterm cover. I get attached to my journals and though it's thrilling for it to get chunky and fat as I get close to the end - I also get sad to put it on the shelf! Starting a fresh new journal always makes me a wee bit anxious. I always feel like the first page of a new journal needs to make quite an entrance so that's a lot of pressure :)

Another member inspired me to finally order a Passion Planner for 2023 as a holiday present for myself and excited for it to come. I also went back and ordered an Undated Daily planner from them (overly ambitious I think). I'm really going to commit to the planners for the entire year - and refuse to let myself quit. I also ordered some more stickers and Washi tapes and the Neutral Vintage set by Zebra Mildliner use only with the planner to entice me. Such pretty colors!

[lunabee34]

*admires your outgoing journal*

What themes do your stickers and washi tapes have?

[stormehowl]

Thank you!

I'm going to go for black floral (line drawn style floral) and black and white stickers and some beige tinted washi this time! Usually, I have every color of the rainbow. But for this planner this year I want to go subdued. There is something relaxing about the look right now for me. For my next Stalogy writing journal I plan to keep with my "everything goes". I actually do a lot of cutting pictures I like out of magazine and pasting them in just as you see in the photo. There is something so very satisfying doing that!

[lunabee34]

I love that subdued color scheme. That will be very calming.

[smallrobot]

You've got a nice handwriting!

[stormehowl]

Thank you so much!

[finch]

I've got a two-planner plan (lol) for 2023 and the second part of that plan should be arriving today. (one planner for tracking and RECORDING magical stuff, hopefully, and a pocket one for all of the everything else.)

I too have a planner I order every year because I use the goal setting/planning stuff at the beginning of it and then I fall off a few months in, but the goal setting/planning stuff is useful regardless.

[lunabee34]

I like the two planner set up. That's how I roll myself. One notebook cannot contain us!!!

[octahedrite]

eagerly waiting for my 2023 planner to arrive

opened a new ballpoint pen this morning, for no reason. it was fun though

misplaced a notebook :/

[lunabee34]

I hope you find your notebook.

What ballpoint did you open?

[octahedrite]

It hasn't left the house, so it's gotta be here somewhere. xD

I actually don't know -- looked at it, can't find brand info. I got a bunch of free pens and notebooks from an event a while ago, that's where it's from. The pen has the name of the sponsor on it but not the manufacturer. But it's a nice pen, writes dark grey.

[lunabee34]

Some of those corporate gift pens are so nice; I've gotten a fair few at conferences that I really liked.

[smallrobot]

Those casual and unplanned first uses are the best. 💛 Sometimes one has to treat oneself for no reason.

[octahedrite]

For sure!

[egret]

I have a new Hobonichi Cousin for next year, the English edition. I'm using the Japanese edition now and it works well for me. I got a new pink fountain pen to use with it.

I prefer to keep everything in one book but I could not resist the Erin Condren Hello Kitty planner, so I got that and might use it for work, because it's cheering and I need to be cheered at work. I teach so I can use it for lesson plans and notes on students and not have all that nonsense cluttering up my Hobo.

I also bought a Hobonichi 5-year journal to start in January, which seems easy because the space for each day is so small.

I also bought one of those tiny printers that can make stickers out of your iPhone photos purely for the sake of sticking photos of my day in my planner.

That's a lot, maybe too much, so I'm not buying anything else.

[stormehowl]

I ordered a Canon Ivy mini-photo printer! I'm excited because I've seen people using those for a few years and really yearned for one of my own! This was the year to do it. I saw someone on YouTube who puts the mini-photos on each day on her "month in advance" calendar instead of using that to write in appointments (she uses the "days of the week" area to do that). I'm stealing her idea I think.

Erin Condren - I can see how you couldn't resist. I get the ads on Instagram and they are so tempting. I hope you enjoy.

[kalloway]

Waiting on next year's organizer to be delivered, but in the meantime I bought a clearance undated academic planner that I want to use for a fandom project next year.

I also bought stickers.

[lunabee34]

What theme are your stickers? :)

[kalloway]

A mix! I got them half to give away on holiday_wishes and half to brighten up whatever. They're unicorns and butterflies and cats, mostly~

[lunabee34]

An excellent melange of creatures! :)

[smallrobot]

I really enjoy glitter fountain pen inks around this time of the year, makes me feel extra festive. :) My favorite is Diamine Happy Holidays!

[lunabee34]

Glittery fountain pen inks are so much fun. I'm having fun watching everyone open the Diamine Inkvent Calender for this year. The glittery inks are so pretty.

[smallrobot]

Me too, I really enjoy the reviews and unboxing!! :) I wouldn't need a full-on calendar, but there are always a few pretty must-have inks in there. Diamine is always so creative with coming up with new inks for reasonable prices, and I love that they also listen to feedback from the /fountainpens reddit. :o

[lunabee34]

Yes! I just started reading reddit fountain pens, reddit pens, reddit journaling, and reddit notebooks. The fountain pens sub gets the most posts but the others are interesting.

[smallrobot]

I love the notebook reddit too! :D Both are great. I love it that one can ask very specific questions in the fountain pen reddit one wouldn't get answered elsewhere, lol. And the people are very chill and nice. :)

[lunabee34]

Yes! Lots of support and friendliness. Definitely not what reddit is most known for. LOL

[smallrobot]

Idk, I know that reddit is notorious for being toxic, but I find it easier to steer clear of negativity and aggression there than elsewhere. There are some topical reddits which have a zero politics policy, so if one sticks to those, one is almost guaranteed to be able to just talk about hobbies. (And "zero politics" doesn't mean "favouring conservatism".) I find that impossible on twitter or tumblr.
Just my two cents...

[lunabee34]

*nods nods*

I'm starting to see that.