A Planning Update

On July 10th, I started a single notebook planner set-up in the hopes of reinvigorating my pitifully neglected planning practice.

There is nothing wrong with this format for me. In fact, I have been loving it, when I bother to use it.

The point of this notebook was simply to create a monthly spread—which I did only for July. Then weekly spreads, one week at a time. I didn’t create daily spreads. I simply left room after the weekly spread set-up. This way I could use as many pages as I needed for each day.

Maybe on one day, I would write out a to-do list, various observations and thoughts about my day, plans for later on, and whatever else came up.

Some days I would use five pages per day. On other days, I would barely use half of a page. There were weeks when I didn’t write anything at all.

I’ve been in a physical and mental slump since the beginning of this year. Autumn is my time of year, so I am praying that my energy and desire to do anything and everything returns. I have a lot that has been on hold waiting for me to be able to get to things.

Now, as August drew to a close, a strange desire developed…I wanted to get back into a Bullet Journal, rather than back into my Hobonichi Cousin and/or my Hobonichi Weeks (I have two) planners.

Now, in the grand scheme of the way I want to get back into planning, I will need an actual bound planner, as well as my Bullet Journal, so that I can keep track of appointments and whatnot, as well as having space for trackers and room to write whatever comes up as well.

What ended up happening was that I went searching around through my notebook stash. I happened to have an A5 Stalogy 365 sitting in a pile of other notebooks that I had planned, last year? The year before? To have cut down to Hobonichi Weeks size. There’s a long story there about why that never happened, or rather, why that hasn’t happened yet, but now is not the time.

I created a September set-up in that Stalogy. I surprised myself. I am still sticking to my here’s the first week of the month (after the monthly spread and everything else I put in there) and then leaving the rest alone so that I can put in whatever I want and/or need to put in on a daily basis.

I will not be doing a YouTube video this month because I am sick. I have had this virus for weeks now. It is focusing mostly on my throat and ears, so I have no desire to croak my way through any video. I may end up putting up short, non-voiced videos on TikTok at some point, but do not quote me on that.

I am getting a bit tense about not ordering a Hobonichi Weeks for the coming year. I cannot fathom why, other than I am addicted and the need is the addiction begging for a fix. However, I never actually intended to buy a Hobonichi at all for 2024. I pre-ordered a Sterling Ink planner in the Weeks size and that was all I had originally planned to buy. However, I pre-ordered the one with the most blank pages in the back and I think I should have ordered the one with the least blank pages in the back. (Hopefully, I am making sense here.) I am going to wait and see how I feel once it arrives. If I do feel the need to order something different, I will still order from Sterling Ink.

Right now, I am very happy with my Stalogy. I am happy with the spreads I am using.

I am also putting Quarterly planning into this. It doesn’t mean a great deal at the moment as September is the last month of Quarter Three. However, in my notebook where I have been testing things out since July, I have a page listing the spreads I want to put into my Stalogy for Quarter Four and the information I want and need to track and have access to in my Stalogy. This way, by the end of September, I will not forget what I want to put in for Q4 and why I want it as well.

No, I did not name either of these notebooks. I am trying to just participate with the notebooks on a daily basis, just trying to get back into useful and functional planning again, plus, put in more notes and observations and daily thought and memory keeping.

No, I am not doing a lot of decorating. There is decoration though. I am currently subscribed to Hubman and Chubgirl…and they are one reason I wanted to get back into actual Bullet Journalling again. They have several different levels of subscription boxes, so if you want stickers for your journal, you can go that route. If you want planning stickers, there is a subscription for that. Or you can get the big subscription where you get both journal and planner stickers. This is the one I ordered.

I saw an unboxing video on YouTube (I apologize that I cannot tell you who I was watching when or why.) with this month’s big subscription box and I was over the moon with the cuteness. My only disappointment was that the journal that was in the video was not included in the subscription box, but I am not holding onto that. All the stickers and washi tape and all the other goodies in my box made me so happy. The box is worth it to me.

When I set this notebook up, I basically began on September 3 as I already had September 1-3 in my other notebook, with the rest of the week. I had no desire to set up a three-day weekly spread for three days that were nearly over, as I started the set-up on Saturday (the 2nd) and finished it, as much as I was going to, on Sunday (the 3rd).

My Stalogy cover is actually red. I bought the red one because it was the least expensive notebook when I bought it. I was uninterested in the cover color as I cover it up—be it with stickers, the actual planner cover I use, or scrapbooking paper, whatever. The first step to turning this notebook into my bujo was to grab some wrapping paper that was on my desk. My dad sent it a while back because he knows I like pretty papers and I don’t care where they come from. I glued paper to the front and the back outer covers. I did not glue anything over the spine of the notebook though. I want that space to be able to expand and bloom without restriction, and without ripping through the wrapping paper.

After that dried (as in, I left it overnight under some books and whatnot), I slipped it into a beautiful jelly cover. I received this cover in a mystery pack of planner covers that I bought ages ago from PaperBoundCreations on Etsy. It’s purple jelly with stars all over it and there is a pocket on the front as well.

I also have a leather folio-type cover that I have stuck the notebook in. I cannot tuck it into the back of this cover as long as I have the jelly cover on it. I don’t want to take the jelly cover off because 1 I really like this cover and 2 I do not want to leave the outside of the notebook vulnerable to wear and tear, cats, kid, and currently goofy fish that love splashing water out of their tank.

On the title page of my notebook, it simply says Planning and Reflection, with an adorable Hubman and Chubgirl mushroom sticker.

My intention here is to have some decoration but to keep it as useful and as minimal as I can. I did outline most of the pages I used for this set-up with a brown-colored Mild Liner. I also used dark grey and light grey as a compliment to that, as well as the stickers I used throughout.

The very first page, after the title page, is a Walking Into September journaling/reflection page. The page opposite is a Quarter Three goal check-in and reflection page. I have no idea where I am in my Quarter Three goals if I even achieved any of them, but once I get that filled in, I will know where I am going, or at least where I need to go.

Flipping to the next page, I have it divided into four quarters. One box is for Vision and Intention, then Reflection for the past month. The third is for Goals and Actions for the coming month. The last is for Intuition. For this one, I mostly see what comes up for that.

The page across from that is a Hubman and Chubgirl little insert, like a postcard. I thought it was too cute to leave out of the notebook, so I glued it to the page.

The next spread is for September. The left-side page is the actual calendar for the month. Underneath the calendar, I have the theme of this month, which is Release.

On the right side, the page is divided in half vertically. One side is for Goals and the other is for Events.

The next spread, which I still need to dig into, is for content planning. Other than outlining each page in brown Mild Liner, I have nothing else on these pages. I am still debating how I want to set things up, what I am tracking, what needs to be on this page, all of it.

The next two pages are one that is again divided into four quarters: Affirmation, Gratitude, Quote, and Inspiration. The other page could technically be considered a cover page. I used a September label sticker at the top of the page. Under that, I glued another postcard-like insert from Hubman and Chubgirl—again, too adorable not to include.

Flipping over, there is a blank-ish page. I outlined the edges in the brown Mild Liner. Thus far, I have no clue what I am going to use this page for. I have been contemplating putting in either a collage or maybe some of my own art. I am not entirely certain yet, but…it’s there.

The page next to it is for this week’s Anchor Card. I am currently obsessed and utterly dedicated to using my Santa Muerte Tarot Deck: The Book Of The Dead by Fabio Listrani. I love this deck. This is the deck I have spent decades searching and waiting for. I have been using the concept of a weekly Anchor Card for a long time, but, again, I am not consistent. I am working to fix that here.

The next page is my weekly spread. It’s a pretty typical horizontal set-up. Nothing fancy. The days of the week are along one side. There is plenty of room for notes and whatever else I need to put beside that.

The next page is set up basically for To-Do lists. I have yet to fill that in as yet.

I have done nothing past that. I figure I will work through my daily pages in my Stalogy the same way I am working through my other notebook. I write the date and whatever comes through comes through. If it needs to take up one page or ten pages, fine. If it takes up half a page, I can start the following day on that same page right underneath that.

And that is my current Bullet Journal set-up.

Now, I recently pulled out my A5 rings binder and am in the process of turning it into — something. I am not entirely sure which way I am planning to jump with this. I watched a video (no, I watched a series of videos) by Kelly-Ann Maddox (LOVE LOVE LOVE her) where she discussed her ring-bound Filofax, what she keeps in it, and what she does with it. It started my wheels turning.

I have a stack of various notebooks where I scribble notes. I have one I keep in my purse so I can write things down when I am out. I have the B5 notebook that I used as a Bullet Journal for a few months ages ago that I turned into a brain dump and scribble-up notebook. I have my actual journal/diary. I also have what I am calling my tracker/tracking notebook—where I track things like my Pumpkin Challenge that I am doing this month.

I also have my Maker Project Notebook where I take notes and keep track of all the projects that I make—except for hats apparently. The hats I have made in the past couple of months are only on Ravelry and I am not certain why I did that, other than after the first couple, I found out how much I love making them (they are crocheted) and how much I love wearing them that I decided I would be making a lot of them (and that has turned out to be true) and I didn’t want to bother writing down all the funky details each and every time.

Other than the Maker Project Notebook, I would like to take the rest and dump all the information they contain, and any other random bits that I have strewn all over my desk and wherever else, into my Rings. I want to be able to organize notes and have a place for prompts—the ones I create as well as the ones I get from other people. I could also keep all the notes for my writing projects and writing ideas in one place here and that would help me enormously.

I am keeping my journal/diary separate. It works better for me if I do it this way.

I have been missing my art journals lately. The idea in my head requires I finally dig out a set of twelve book covers (I recycled the pages of said covers years ago) and bind my own art journal. Right now, I am trying to decide if I make actual art journals, with watercolor paper. Or do I make junk journals with lots of different substrates as pages? Or I could do simple cardstock pages that would work either way, for artwork and/or for writing. What has started to come up is doing different signatures of each paper type in every book so that there is a variety. And yes, one book for each month, that was the original plan with these. I have already added these to my Q4 to-do list.

Thanks for staying with me this long through this post. This is my planner set-up for the month. Fingers crossed I stick with this one.

How is your planning system looking? What are you doing? What are you using? Have you made any changes lately?

Do you know what planning system you are using in 2024? Are you buying a bound planner? Or any specific planner? Are you hopping on the Hobonichi train?

Let me know in the comments below.