Starting in December, I am going to start using a B5 Ottergami dot-grid notebook for quarterly planning.
This notebook will be for quarterly planning and nothing else.
This way I can decide on a project, break it down, and track it all in one place, without having to dig through one notebook or planner or another to figure out what I should be doing, why I originally wanted to do it, and what I am planning to do once those initial tasks are completed.
Most tasks in this house are circular. In order to do X, first I have to do A. Once I complete A, B needs to be done. With B done, I can now do C, which means that I can start D once C is complete…and once I have ABC, DEF, and however many other tasks, I can finally get around to doing X…and when I complete doing X, I can move on to Y…and after that, there is Z, of course.
It’s a circle here. You start. You move around the circle. Once you reach this goal, there is the next one waiting for you.
All I can say is, Welcome to the real world, Neo.
Now, I had some plans for this B5 notebook before I sat down with it for the first time.
When I ordered it, the listing claimed the paper is 180 gsm no bleed premium drawing journal.
To be fair, I have and had no plans to use this notebook as an art journal. I was thinking I might throw some watercolor washes at it. Perhaps I might do some drawings with a black or a brown water-soluble Stabilo pencils and water over it to blend it a bit here and there. Maybe I might use colored pens and/or pencils. I am definitely planning to use collage materials and various washi tapes.
There is no way this paper is 180 gsm.
For reference, for art journalers, Canson XL mixed media paper is listed as 160 gsm.
For other notebook users/Bullet Journalers, an Archer and Olive dot grid notebook is listed as 160 gsm as well.
Both the paper in the Canson and the Archer and Olive books FEEL heavy, thick, sturdy.
The paper in this Ottergami notebook, to me personally, feels more like a 100 or 120 (maybe, if I am being generous) weight paper. It bleeds. It ripples with water. I didn’t expect the paper to hold up like watercolor paper or anything, but I did expect better.
One thing I do love about this notebook is the fact that it comes with two bookmarks. I always find myself needing more than a single bookmark, so the more, the better for me.
I also love that there is a pen loop. Not all notebooks or planners come with a pen loop.
Yes, there is also a nice pocket on the inside of the back cover. I rarely use them, but it is there if you want to know.
So, if the gsm/paper is a deal breaker for you, now you know how I feel about the paper in this notebook.
Am I still going to use this notebook?
Yes. I paid for it. I’m going to use it.
This is also why this particular notebook became a quarterly planner only.
I might now treat the pages to more collage before I add markers or wet pens or inks, but overall, I can still use this notebook.
It’s not going to be a single-quarter notebook, as I had thought I might get perhaps two quarters in this notebook before I needed to buy another one for the next two quarters.
I might actually end up using this notebook for a few years.
It depends on if I feel the quarterly planning is working out the way I want it to. The paper at this point is superfluous. I have ways to work around thin paper that do not offend my ideas about how I want to write things up and create space for various projects.
Now, I am starting this planner in December. I have already begun to set up various pages.
I am trying to set it up the way I want to set up Quarter One’s pages once I get there. This is, after all, more of a test of how I want to do things than it is the end-all-be-all of my quarterly planning.
First, I cut down the long sides of three (or six, if you are counting front and backs) pages so that on that untrimmed page under them you can read whatever I write down the side. In this case, I wrote December 2023 down that open edge.
The first open spread has one full page (on the left) and a cut down page (on the right). I used this as my Quarter Four cover spread. It’s not much. I randomly collage some book pages and various ephemera down before writing out Quarter Four. Under that, in smaller letters, I wrote the final month.
Moving forward, I will create a Quarter One plan/pages. Then month by month, I will work through the quarter, with each month having its own planning pages.
Now, the pages I have set up for December may or may not be what I use moving forward, since this is the last month of the last quarter of 2023. On top of that, I didn’t do all that much consistent and/or clear planning of anything during the past year.
What I currently have set up are basically headers only on five pages, and washi tape along the edges of the pages, leading up to the cover page that has December 2023 written down the far right edge.
Page one is: Quarter Four, Final Month, Goals. Goals is highlighted.
Page two is: Quarter Four, Final Month, Tasks. Tasks is highlighted.
Page three is: Quarter four, Review. Review is highlighted.
Page four is: Thoughts, Ideas, And Meanderings. The entire header has been highlighted. This is one page and header I plan to use every quarter and every month. It is essentially a brain dump page.
Page five, which is part of the December 2023 two-page spread, is: December tasks. All of December Tasks is highlighted.
Then the next page is the uncut page. This will be the December cover page.
There is a two-page spread after this where I am thinking of putting weekly trackers, erm, rather monthly trackers. So I can track various tasks and activities across the month. I don’t have anything on these two pages, other than washi tape along the top of the spread (both pages) and a sticky note telling me what I am thinking of using the pages/spread for.
Flip that over, page seven now is: the December review page. No highlighting here.
The page on the right of this two-page spread is the first page cut down for the next section. Page eight is: Thoughts, Ideas, and Meanderings. Nothing highlighted there either, at least not yet. It is another brain dump page.
I have some washi put down on other pages after that, but that is about all, other than the sticky notes telling me what I am thinking of using each page for.
That’s all there is to it as yet. I will keep you updated as I move along with it.
Tabitha Low 