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Good morning/evening!
I found myself in the mood to update my Hobonichi (my planner-slash-journal that’s more like 10% planner, 90% journal). I filled in the calendar page to reflect our recent California adventures, then, out of curiosity, picked up my 2024 Hobonichi to see what my November looked like last year. Some significant events were:
nag-last day ako sa work
pinanganak si baby Max (pamangkin ko sa pinsan)
took French classes
early Christmas party with Winnipeg friends (kasi malapit na kaming mag-move to Calgary)
watched Wicked with Trix
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It’s Thursday Letter on a Saturday! Also, you have full access to this post because you’re a paid subscriber. Thank you! 🤍
Love my new office space 😍
In the journaling and planner community, September is known as ‘planner season’. It’s when notebook brands start rolling out their new lineups for the coming year. Two of the popular ones I always look forward to are Hobonichi and Traveler’s Company (both Japanese companies).
It’s kind of like when Apple announces the new iPhone each year. I know I’m not going to buy every release, but I’m invested in seeing what’s new. It’s the same with these two big brands. It’s just so fun to browse the new cover designs and themes for 2026, and also temptingly look at all their planner offerings in different layouts and sizes. But in my heart, I already know the single thing I’m going to get. I know that I’ll be sticking with the same planner I’ve been using these last two years: the simple and uncomplicated Hobonichi Day-Free in A6 size.
But alas, I was wrong.
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We’re two months into the year, and I think I’ve found a planner system that works for my personality. It’s not overwhelming, it’s simple, but not boring (well, at least for me). Also, I say planner, but it’s really an all-in-one notebook. There’s the planning side of things in there, but it’s also my journal, my commonplace book, and more. Again, I’m using the Hobonichi Day-Free in A6 size, housed in a cover that’s also from Hobonichi. On their website, they described this cover design as cats of different breeds and sizes chatting happily with each other and saying, “Listen, listen!”
My planner’s home on its second yearThe very first page
With the yearly view, it pretty much remained the same as last year. I have my color key and my Zebra Mildliners to mark the dates.
Also marked last year’s travels on the right page
I used to make and sell my own stickers. I no longer operate that small sticker shop, that’s why I have plenty of inventory left—some of them I use so they won’t go to waste. One design is this sticker sheet with pastel-colored mini round stickers that are transparent. Those are what I used here to mark the beginning of each new month:
These stickers have barely visible defects, glad I didn’t throw them out.I don‘t know what the gray for is yet. Last year, I think I used them to mark my sick days.
The next page is my ‘call log’ spread. Speaking of making my own stickers, maybe 2 years ago, I had this idea of creating stickers of my family members for this spread. Thankfully, I printed plenty of extras so I can still use them for this year. But now that we no longer have a printer and I gave away my Cricut machine, I have no idea what to do when I ran out of these. The idea of buying a Cricut machine and a printer just for this seems illogical. But I really like looking at their faces whenever I flip to this spread! 😍
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I’m currently enjoying Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Hindi ko na ita-try i-explain kung tungkol san yung book at kung bakit sya maganda, kasi hindi ako magaling mag-pitch ng libro. Pero ang gusto kong topic ay kung pano ko sya ina-annotate.
Naaalala ko yung mga times na bawal na bawal sakin magkaron ng crease yung spine ng libro. Hindi rin sya pwedeng masulatan. Pag aksidenteng natupi yung cover o isa sa mga pages, parang katapusan na ng mundo. I’m sure sobrang daming nakaka-relate sa inyo. The book had to remain pristine and unchanged. The only change was one that remains invisible: that it’s been read.
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2023, 2024, 2025
I started using Hobonichi as my planner in 2023. There are different Hobonichi planner variations, but I like the flexibility of the ‘day-free’ because 90% are just blank pages. I have the freedom to do whatever layout I want and skip some weeks, but it’s not too unstructured given that it still has the calendar and yearly pages. It worked well enough for me last year, which is why I’m using it again this year.
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The commonplace section of my notebook is my favorite. I call it my ‘life notes’—a collection of quotes, insights, book excerpts, fun facts, new words I’ve learned—gathered for future reference. I have a digital version of this in my Notion where I can easily search for keywords, but I eventually stopped updating it. There’s just something extra satisfying when I see it on paper. Also, I can circle and underline words, I can add stickers, put my little comments on the side, and I just feel like I retain more from what I write rather than from what I type.
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I was excited to go stationery store hopping in New York—especially whenever I see Raquel’s NYC posts and videos. Well, I was excited in general because it was our first time visiting the States. Being first-timers, there were a lot of things in our itinerary, but I’m glad I was able to squeeze in some time to go to stationery stores.
I managed to check out four shops, and I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular—I just went with whatever caught my interest. It might be dangerous to wander into these stores without some kind of a list, but my journaling friends tell me that I have the most restraint when it comes to stationery shopping, so I trusted myself that I won’t go overboard 😁
Gleniz da Menace 