It’s that time of year where planner nerds around the world are evaluating the past year and making adjustments for the coming year. Here’s mine!
Looking back on 2024
In 2024 I preserved some things that worked in 2023, tried some new things, and overall it was a “down” year for me because I sort of failed at one of my personal goals for the year: to work less and focus more on myself. That had a domino effect on my plans to invest in my non work life, and to document it. But I also really found joy in some of the things I did, planner and journal-wise.
The first layer of my mind map—the things just one level out from the center—are my planner needs (ignore the mistakenly circled “health journal”). Those are the things I decided I wanted space for in some way in my planner system. One layer out from that are the books I used for them. Solid rectangles denote planner or journal concepts I carried over from the previous year, ovals are new concepts introduced, and dotted rectangles are carryovers with adjustments.
Topical journals
Starting from the right: In 2023 I kept an “anti social social journal” and LOVED it as a weekly trainer for focusing on relationships that matter to me, like spending more time with friends and family, while I journaled about various anxieties and blockers in the back. I really liked having a go to place to not only document and write about one area of my life, but also liked having the ability to flip back through the book and follow my journey through the gear. This would not have been possible if I crammed everything into one book, which I’ve done before.
So I designated a book in 2024 to continue this practice I’d grown to love, and expanded the concept out into other things I wanted to work on, like self care and health, and designated a book for each of those as well.
These Hobonichi Weeks (all three) were the main things that really didn’t pan out for me. In retrospect I think I did a lot of work on myself and how I think about my relationships with people in 2023 and didn’t need a second consecutive year of it.
The other two were derailed along with my life—in January I had an unexpected leak in my home that ruined my kitchen and then I wasn’t able to repair it. Having a messed up home situation was a significant blocker for me, psychologically, emotionally, and logistically. Combined with failed plans to curb my workaholism, I quickly lost energy and momentum to focus on self care and health.
Work planners
Work got so utterly crazy this past year in terms of traveling (I was rarely at home for two consecutive weeks) that my work planner dedicated to team management got left to the wayside because I was physically never within reach. The book wasn’t huge—it was a Take a Note B6–but it was large enough that I didn’t want to carry it back and forth with me to the office and pack it in my carryon. I DID however love the format and concept.
I eventually switched to a Plotter to travel with and take notes in. This worked out pretty well, and I do love the Plotter leathers and paper. The only issue I have with the system is that I personally prefer the permanence of bound books more than the ephemeral feeling of loose pages. I don’t think my beloved Plotters have NO place in my system but I think I’ll just use them for traveling and having a pocket notebook in a pinch.
Memory keeping
I’ve been using the Hobonichi 5 year A6 for three years now. But in 2024 I wrote more detail in my topical journals, my trusty traveler’s notebook for travel journaling, and also in the bottom third of my A5 HON daily pages. Speaking of the A5 HON…
My Life Book
The anchor of my lineup continues to be my Hobonichi A5 (the Cousin in the past, this year the HON). I detailed how I was using it in this post and continued to use it this way all year, though I didn’t finish all the undated pages and plan to continue using them for commonplace book stuff while I also start a new one for 2025.
Personal planner
This past year I tried using the Hobonichi A6 Techo in a new way for daily planning and I loved it! This change was among my biggest triumphs of the year in planning because the only thing that worked in the past for me were vertical weeklies, but my life got a little crazier in recent years so the weekly layouts weren’t working as well.
I do task management in the form of mind maps every day, and with the dated pages am able to add reminders to myself to check back in or follow up on something. It’s also great to remind myself to plan ahead for something more long term. For example: if I’m going on a backpacking trip three months now and need to monitor the weather on the mountain starting a week before I leave, I add that reminder into the daily pages and forget about it. Then when the day comes I open to that page and have it in my task map for the day already. This relieves a lot of anxiety.
Couple of key elements to this use case: my daily planner is the one book I do not bother writing nicely in. It’s purely functional and not meant to be a keepsake. I grab it to scribble in, I cross stuff out, etc., and don’t care. I also go nuts decorating the months with themed stickers for fun. It’s been a joy to carry around.
2025 Lineup
In 2025 my planner needs are similar to 2024, but I’m consolidating topical journals so I can focus better. As a matter of fact, FOCUS is my word for next year—I’m finding that in my year end reflections that that is what I’m in need of most.
Adjusted: Topical journals
My most focused topical journal, utilizing the Hobonichi Weeks format again, will be an outdoors journal. While I had to do deep work on myself for my social life in 2023, in 2025 I’m taking on the personal challenge of getting into more ambitious backpacking trips including at some national parks and in Iceland. These endeavors take significant training, practice, and getting into shape, so I’m using the weekly cadence for that preparation work.
I consolidated all my other priorities, including social stuff, into one self care book. Whereas I need to hyper focus on my outdoors life in 2025, I do still need to generally always be working on myself, my home environment, etc. but I won’t be as diligent week to week on which of those areas I work on.
Changed: work planners
I still want paper planners for work, to complement my digital scheduling and project planning, but I had to solve for the portability issue so I will actually take the book(s) on the road with me. So I’m going with a Hobonichi Weeks Mega for team management; I’ll use the weekly spreads to track our team priorities and what each person on my team is working on week to week.
For project notes that don’t fall under team management, I’m actually going big, as in B5 big. I got a B5 half year from Sterling Ink and while I don’t plan on carrying this one around it’s so large that it kind of slips into a computer bag pretty nicely. I like having the large space to take messy notes and draw diagrams, make tables, and to take notes in columns. The blank numbered pages in the back are perfect to have as a desk notebook that I’ll just use when I need. I’m not yet sure what I’ll use the weekly spreads for but I think I’ll just do project plan drafts in it when I get screen fatigue.
Staying the same: everything else
My Hobonichi A5 and A6 worked wonderfully in 2024 so I’m continuing the same uses in 2025. I’ll also continue with the A6 five year, and use my travelers notebook for traveling.
What adjustments have you made to your lineup? Would love to hear from you! Message me at @ gemcha0s on Instagram. Happy new year!
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