Goodbye 2019 Planners

As the year comes to a close and a new one starts. The last month in my planner I love to reflect on the year itself. What worked. What didn’t work. Im sure others think I’m crazy because its just a planner. But I realize my planner is my life. My outlet, plans for days, goals, ups, downs, mind mapping, strategies. You name it, it’s in the book.

This is my first full year using the Hobonichi brand. I literally tried each one as my EDC (Every Day Carry). Trying to find my groove.

So here I am ending 2019 having used the following planners:

First the Cousin Im no stranger to this planner. It was my first Hobonichi I started with it in 2018. I should have stuck by it but of course I I wanted to ed to try all the sizes.

The Cousin was going to be my EDC since I liked it the year before. It wasn’t that portable so I switched to the Mega Weeks for portability. I seen someone using it as a wallet and I thought I could too. It was too bulky for me. I already had a Weeks for my bible study and other bible related references so I was so sure it would be a sure fit.

Since I switched to the Mega Weeks my Cousin went from an EDC to a journal bible study, brain dump, tracking for my health and wellness (meal plan, exercise etc).

This idea lasted maybe a couple of months. Then I realized there isn’t enough space in the Weeks but it will work as a work planner. See this blog post for my work system. I had a lot that I like to brain dump in such a little space. I could use the notes pages but I don’t like flipping back and forth. So I quickly went to IG and Hobonichi fb groups I belong to for inspiration. I wanted to see what others used for their EDC.

The A6 seemed popular and it was the only size left to try. It was super cute. It’s a little bigger but still smaller than the Cousin. It had daily pages so more space for my brain dumps so I thought. I write big so I found an awesome pen to write smaller to make it all fit. It still didn’t seem to be enough space. It was a little bulky for my liking as an EDC. There was times I found myself still journaling in my cousin. But I had to stick to it. It’s mid year and I couldn’t bring myself switching back to the Cousin as my EDC. I don’t like being wasteful.

I decided to finish off with my A6 at my bed side for my daily reminders, to do’s for the day, budgeting, grocery shopping list and an occasional meal plan or two. I still didn’t have an EDC. In December I saw how cute the Happy Planner micro planner was on IG. I got one to keep simple stuff in my purse on the weekend because other than my work planner none of the other planners left the house. There weren’t the right size for my EDC.

Every weekend I would find myself planning and coordinate at least 2 or more of the planners. Syncing my phone calendar and reminders with the A6. Then from the A6 make some notes with the HP micro. But I couldn’t forget to check my Cousin because I did track on the monthly view some things and made notes for meal planning. I added those things into my HP micro since it became my EDC.

So here I am in December determined to figure out that perfect system for 2020. I know we have all been there. Maybe even more than we would like to count.

Now let’s talk about the decorating. I tried stickers but then quickly realized I like bulk but not too much bulk. This takes time that 95% of the time I don’t have. Now the 5% of time I will add a splash of stickers here and there.

Due to time and liking an organized clean look Midliners became my jam. I love the bright colors. Quick and easy to make a colorful but fast spread. Multi pens became my staple. It made it easy to carry more colors and less pens and always added greatness to the highlighters.

2019 made me realize I need simple, quick and easy in 2020.

You want to see my favorite layouts for 2019. Check out the photo gallery for A6, Cousin or Weeks.

Want to see what I have in store for 2020. Check out Hello 2020 Planner system.