Welcome to the Planner Pals Podcast, a podcast hosted by two
true planner pals. I'm Jess or Jessie Curran.
And my name is Mark, and I go by Mark your pages and welcome back
to another fantastic episode of the Planner Pals podcast.
Today, we're already starting to talk about next year.
It's crazy that we're going to be talking about this topic
today. But Jess and I, we're not
choosing just yet because I don't think either of us are
mentally prepared to try to make any of those decisions.
But I thought today would be a really great time for us to
start to think about it and getting you think thinking about
it, Planner pals as well as we get into it.
And So what we're going to do today, I think we did this last
year too. I should have looked back before
the episode, but just has this really great acronym, which is
called want, which stands for wins, aversions, needs and
things to try. And we're going to be covering
that today as we go through. And just looking back on what
has happened this year as well as what we're looking forward to
for 2026. Holy crap.
I know right? It feels like unnaturally early
to be thinking about this. But then I have to remember
like, like the Hobonichi peeps already have their orders on the
way. I'm pretty sure planners have
been released. It's just that those of us who
are using a blank notebook or a dock red one or whatnot, we have
a little bit more time, a little bit more laid up before we have
to make some kind of like very hard formal decisions about
things. But given that we are getting
into new setup season, this is usually the time that I start
thinking about those kind of things, which it still feels a
little too early because so much can change in the next 2 1/2
months. Like at the time we're filming
this 2 1/2 months, but in terms of want, it is something that I
like to use before pretty much anything that I do journal
related. So if it's a weekly set up, a
monthly set up, a new plan, a line up like we're going to talk
about today, as Mark told you, it is wins, aversions, needs and
things to try. So if we're thinking about the
wins, this is very much what's working, what are we loving,
what's going really well, Things that you find are very easy to
keep up with. They're fulfilling the purpose
that you gave for them in your journal or notebook or lineup or
whatnot. When it comes to aversions, this
is the opposite. The stuff that kind of sucks.
It just isn't really doing what you need it to.
Maybe you had really good intentions putting that into
your journal, into your lineup, and it's just not really
fulfilling the purpose you gave for it.
Or it could be something that, you know, you were kind of
tended to about to start with and now it's like 100% confirmed
that you do not like it, you do not use it, and you do not want
it anymore. By thinking about those kind of
things, we can make more intentional choices moving
forward. The next section though, needs,
this is very much about kind of like future casting.
Do we kind of predict or like looking into the future?
What is the future you're going to need from your lineup?
Is it a new kind of life area that might pop up?
Is it something that you need in terms of the materials or the
supplies? It could be adding an additional
planner to your lineup if you wanted to.
And that can also kind of come into the Tri section.
This is where we get to, at least for me, get quite
enthusiastic about the idea of newness because I love new shiny
things, whether that be a new style of planning you're trying,
a new type of journal you're trying.
Maybe you want to go to a pre printed kind of structure when
you've been doing bullet journaling or something like
that. Maybe you've been in a
preprinted structure and you want to have some more
flexibility and you want to go with a bullet journal.
So anything that you've seen online or been using with that
you might want to lean into a little more next time.
So we're going to go through each of these sections.
We're going to start at the start, a very good place to
start. So Mark, from your current
system, what are your wins from this year?
Absolutely. So I've been thinking about this
for the past few days as we go and think through like what's
been good? And I actually went ahead and
just flipped through my journal and I was like, OK, what is is
working? What is not working this year?
And I think what's really working well for me right now is
that I feel really good about the general structure of my
pages. My weekly spreads are doing
exactly what they need to do. I have a section that has the
overview for the entire week. That way I'm popping in any type
of like high level meetings, appointments, things like that,
that have to be done on certain days.
And then really leaving a lot of space for just notes and tasks
and things that are going on. This has been kind of my go to
spread for a long time. I think for a while I was trying
to move away from it because I wanted something different, but
then I would always just come right back to it because it's
what works for me. I've definitely love using, you
know, stationary inside of here. The stamps has been a really big
thing for me this year. I've been using a lot more of,
you know, trying to include like more color.
But honestly, why do I need to force that, right?
If it happens, it happens and that's about it.
But I just love that the structure gives me the space
that I need to do that and I can adjust it how I want, but it's
always an easy spread to go to something that I can set up
really, really quickly. Yeah, I think that, you know, we
talked a little bit ago about like plan a piece versus plan a
chaos. When you find a layout that does
work for you. But you're the type of a person
who just enjoys newness, enjoys novelty, trying new things and
such. But you still find yourself
coming back time and time again to this like kind of base
structure that just works. Like if you need something that
works, that's your go to. It is very nice to have found
that. I found something kind of
similar for my weekly structures and in the month ahead, I'm
thinking about how I can maybe do a couple of tests or trial
runs of something a little different before we get into the
new year. The last couple months of the
year always good for testing and trying things before you commit
long term. So if you can find somebody
who's got, you know, if you're amusing with a Hobonichi, I
don't know why we always go with Hobonichi with like throwing
them under the bus. I'm sorry, Hobonichi fandom,
please do not come for us. But if you're thinking like, oh,
maybe I want a Hobonichi for next year, I'm sure you could
probably find somebody who's selling like a 2025 Hobonichi
that you can use the last two months of just to test it out
before you go. And yeah, that's going to be my
new system. Let's be honest, there's
probably people that have more than 1/2 of a Hobonichi because
they really thought that they wanted to use it and got in.
A friend of mine I work with was like that this year.
She only made it like 2 months and she's like, I couldn't use
it anymore. Like it just wasn't for me.
But I feel like every planner person in the world is talking
about using these planners and I got it and I really don't like
it. So I agree with you.
It's a really smart thing just to be like, yeah, I don't know
if it's going to work or not. Can I get a used one, like a
pretty well used one because, well, yeah, not everyone is
using it all the way. And I mean, that's kind of the
thing I've been thinking about too.
I don't want to get too far ahead, but like the wins this
year for me too, along with finding spreads that I like too.
I was using AB five this year in and it's a win from a standpoint
that it works, but it's also something that where I'm like,
but is it too much space? I mean, it's the constant battle
that we go through right as we move up and down the size scale.
It's like a 5 is too small. I really love square notebooks.
I know that I really love square notebooks.
And sometimes I'm like, well, let's try to switch it up and go
B5. And I'm like, OK, this worked
really well for me this week. Or the hard thing I have is when
it goes to like 2 pages, like a, a full open spread where it's
like, I didn't need all of that second page, but I needed a
space for notes. And so it's like one side of my
page has like everything in it that I need all my notes.
And then I use like, maybe like, you know, a few inches of the
other side. I'm like, that's such a waste.
Like what else could I do with this?
And I'm like, would this have looked different inside of an A5
or even a square and maybe worked a bit better?
But like I said, I know that I like the bigger notebooks
because I do tend to write a lot.
So that is definitely a win from a standpoint of like having the
space. The problem is, is also now that
I'm looking at mine, like I know that I'll definitely get
through. I don't think I'll use all of
the notebook, but it's just one of those things.
Whereas like it had plenty of pages to last me the entire
year. And I think I'm OK with there
being a lot of pages leftover because I personally feel like
I'm ready for something different.
Yeah, I can kind of imagine you either just like trying to go
and find like AB 2.5, what 5.25 because Yep, B2 that would be
massive. No way that'd be tiny.
No way, it'd be huge. Really big.
Why do they do this? Why do they make it so?
Like anyhow B6 small B5 bigger, B2 massive right?
You need to B 5.25. Yeah, I think that would be like
the perfect, but it's a square essentially, right?
Like that's a square notebook at the end of the day.
It's like the height of an A5, the width of AB5.
I just need to stick with it. But I have far too many
notebooks to say like I'm only using square notebooks moving
forward. No, I completely understand that
because what I found has worked really well for me currently has
been a basic size. I love the compactness of it.
I think that it's just super, super cute.
And it also means that I can fit three months and they're really
comfortably because something I've found has worked really
well for me has been quarterly planning rather than doing like
a journal per half year or a journal for the full year is
just having a notebook for a three month period of time.
And that also leans in really nicely to other things that I'm
doing, like my goal planning system and making sure that
that's on a kind of three month or 90 day cycle.
So I've really enjoyed that. But I also understand that I am
the person who likes newness and I like to use a square or use an
A5 or whatnot. But are those notebooks going to
be too big to do quarterly planning in?
I'm not sure. Yeah, it's going to be hard to
see. Well, let's go ahead and move
into our next section, which is a version.
So like we said, the winds are all about what's working well,
versions are things that are not.
I know I touched on a little bit there just, but let's go ahead
and have you start this time, whatever versions do you have
that you're trying to stick away from as you think about next
year's planning? The versions were mainly
thinking about journals in my lineup that just aren't getting
enough use to warrant really being there anymore.
One of those, sadly, has been my yearly collections journal.
So essentially in my lineup for the start of this year and for
previous years, I've had my everyday journal, which is the
daily touch. That's where the daily tasks
happen or that kind of thing. We have the yearly collections
journal though, which is where I'd put those kind of year long
trackers or logs or stuff, things that I wanted to keep
track of over the entire of a year, but I didn't want to have
to migrate from one notebook to another come the midpoint of the
year or nowadays like you know, the end of 1/4.
I just haven't been getting in to use that.
And the only thing I have been using in that I don't think I
want to keep in a notebook anymore.
That's mainly my analytics tracking.
It's just way easier to do analytics tracking on a computer
because one, the analytics are on the computer, and two, the
computer can do all the math for you.
So rather than going and having to write out a bunch of
different numbers and go and do all like the adding and
subtracting and whatever else to find the differences, I'd much
rather just put that in a digital system and have that
spit the numbers out automatically rather than me
having to go and do it myself. I've also found that my long
term collections journal, which was one that kind of like the
yearly collections, it was for a longer period of time, but this
was like beyond the year. This was kind of like for
reference materials and stuff like that.
Despite moving into a new long term collections journal at the
very end of 2024, I barely touched it in 2025.
I've actually already like disassembled it, established it,
cut it up, like throwing pages away because I would rather just
keep that stuff digitally. I'd rather have it in my second
brain. So essentially it's like taking
my what was quite a large journal lineup and just slowly
pruning it down and whittling it down to something a little bit
more simplistic, hopefully. I love this year, your evolution
of even just this year, I feel like you have moved to a much
more like digitally sound safe kind of space.
It's like you have your analog planning and you love it for
what it is. But this year, I know we've
talked about it in previous episodes, you and I have talked
about it on the side too. It's like utilizing the right
tool for the thing you're trying to do.
And, and I'm very much with you where I have, you know, I'm
trying to do social media planning in my notebook and I, I
don't do anything crazy with a lot of the analytics.
It's mostly like wanting to see an upwards moving chart most of
the time for whatever that is for followers or subscribers and
whatnot. But I'm right there with you.
I feel like it's so much easier to be able to look back.
I can go into YouTube analytics and just look at a graph if I
really want to, right? And I can go right along that
line. It is nice to write it down, but
it's like, do I need to dedicate a page for that necessarily,
especially if I'm getting to now and I haven't really used it in
the past few months or kept up with it because I'm just going
on there to kind of look. But also, I know a lot of
planning you talked about this year you've been doing
especially for like videos and content and things like that.
I don't see it as a bad thing throwing that out there.
Like I just see it as like that maturity that that growth of as
an individual as you move into like different phases of your
life where you figure that you might need some different tools.
I think in my brain right now I'm kind of going the same way
and I'll talk about that in my tries because I do think I want
to try something different this year.
But just wanted to throw that out there that it's very
interesting for me to watch and like hear you kind of go through
this too, just because you have been that multi stack planner
for all of these years. It's kind of interesting and
cool to see like what that morphs into if you don't use it
next year. Like will you miss it, do you
think? Or do you feel like you'll have
it somewhere else where it's like, yeah, it just works better
there? I think that it's, it's tricky
because I do love the yearly collections journal for
essentially a snapshot of me throughout, throughout the
years. And kind of, you know, what was
important to you? You've got your 52 and 52 or
your 101 things list, you've got your, you know, 25 things to do
25 times in 2025. And I love those kind of
layouts. But I've just been finding that
this year in particular, I have not been compelled to check back
in with them. So in that case, what is the
kind of purpose of putting in the effort to set up the
layouts? Like are we just doing it for a
video? Are we performative journaling
type of thing? I don't ever want my system to
become performative. So I think it's been kind of
nice to take a step back and go through like, what is actually
working here? What are you using actively?
What are you finding is fulfilling in the ways that you
want it to be? And what can we let go of?
And it seems that at this stage, the yearly collections journal
is going to be 1 to let go of that.
It does not mean that I'm going to either, one, throw the
notebook away because I'm not like that, not built like that.
Or two, don't give myself full permission to come back to it if
I want to. I think it's really nice.
And if you've been journaling for a while or planning for a
while, even if it's not as extreme as like I scrapped my
entire line up and I'm going from like a 15 stack notebook to
like one, no, we're not doing that.
But just looking back through what was kind of working for you
when you first started versus in the middle versus where you're
at currently, even if your changes aren't quite as
dramatic, you can see them. And I think that's really cool
to be able to look back on and reflect about like, hey, at this
time in my life, this is what was working, this is what was
needed. So there was a time in my life
we're having 10 and also notebooks in my lineup was
necessary. Whereas now I'm probably leaning
more towards like, I mean it's still probably kind of a lot for
some people, but maybe like 6 notebooks I haven't counted.
Yes, I took a look back on mine. I really have been spending a
lot more time thinking about it because I think I am ready for a
change. So like the aversions and this
is probably one of the biggest things this year that's really
kind of been getting on my nerves and the Arch and all of
notebooks is that as I've been running with my fountain pens,
the paper it's is bleeding through now.
Like it's not just like ghosting, like the ink is really
bleeding through and I don't know what it is.
And I know we talked about I know Arch and Olive has like
denied that the paper has changed, but like for the past
several years that I've been using fountain pens and ink
inside of my notebooks, I've never ever had a problem.
But this notebook that I'm using this year, it's like almost
every single page and I'm kind of trying to ignore it.
You know, I'm just like, OK, Mark, well, you're using ink.
So like that's going to happen and I'm staying away from a lot
of like the more dangerous inks that I know that I have that do
that. Like I have some notorious inks
that just can't be used in notebooks.
I get that it's like you don't use a Sharpie marker inside of a
notebook. It's going to bleed no matter
what, but it's just I don't know, something about it right
now is just really irking me. I don't know if I just need to
like not write with as thick of pens like the mediums and the
stub nibs and just go with like fine and extra fine.
That's great and all, but like I want a little diversity in what
I'm running with. I don't want to have to worry
about it as much. So like the bleed through is
just something, and I've talked about that for years.
It's always been something that's bothered me.
And also I think just like finding the right spread.
I mean, I know I just talked about like finding that perfect
kind of layout. I know what I wanted to do and
it does it. It's not really a version from a
standpoint. It's like almost like I, I don't
feel that I have to experiment as much anymore, almost to the
point you just made where I feel like if I'm doing that, it's
almost more performative. I'm doing it because I want
something crazy or kooky to like post online and say that I did
that versus just finding a spread in something that just
works for me. And as I've kind of come into
liking the way that this looks and here I am now thinking about
going a completely different way, of course, because that's
what I like to do, poke my brain every now and I get into like,
Nope, don't get comfortable, my friend.
We're switching the sucka up. I just want to like find
something that works. But I really do think I'm kind
of getting to this point where like I used to always just look
at like how many notes and tasks it was writing in a day.
And I think I'm kind of moving in this way right now just in my
career where I have specific collection pages for those
things. Or honestly, this year a lot of
stuff has lived on Microsoft Loop or kind of like a Notion
type that we've moved to using those tools and technologies
more. And therefore, I'm not writing
as much of that in my notebook because it's all there and I
look at it every day. So I'm kind of in this mode
where like, do I just move into like an actual like rapid
logging, daily logging versus having each section as I've had
in the past, like this is Monday, here's the space for
Monday notes and tasks. Here's Tuesday and just leaving
it open and just running the dates and kind of going from
there. So that's kind of like my
versions of it gone through this year and look through it is
like, I just don't know that I love that because I do feel that
it's a bit wasteful, especially if I'm not using the pages.
Honestly, I have some spreads where like I wasn't using as
much of the pages I wanted to and I was just kind of thinking
like, am I overdoing it now? Like I'm kind of on the other
side of the hill where, you know, was it two or three years
ago? I think I went through maybe 3A5
notebooks in one year. Like that's how much I was
writing and going through. So I was like, OK, Mark, let's
go towards the square and the B fives because it gives you more
space. And now I feel like I'm on the
other side of that now where like at this moment in time, so
much of that writing is happening digitally.
I'm only really running down notes and tasks for myself now
to remind me what I need to do versus those lot of broader
notes that I used to do for my full team.
So that's kind of where I'm inversion wise is like finding
the right paper. Now that does work with the
fountain pens because doing I just got a whole other stack.
I don't know if you can see it over here, but I have two more
rows like they're not going anywhere.
I just want to write with them more.
So can I find something that's going to be able to handle that
better? Maybe it's an older notebook.
Maybe it is an older Archer and Olive this year, because I know
that paper has just been better. Like what's up with the new
stuff? So that's kind of where I am.
No, that's very fair. I think that you touched on a
lot of good areas for thinking about aversions as well.
Like we can think about it in terms of the structures, we can
think about it in terms of the layouts, we can think about it
in terms of the materials. Or like the kind of practice
around the use of your journal, for instance.
If you find that there's like a tracker that you love the
structure of, you love the look of it, you love the material you
used, but you're not getting in and actually filling it in, then
that's an aversion point. That's something that's not
working. How can it be adjusted so that
you do actually use it? I do feel like with the paper,
in particular with the Ultra Olive, I completely understand
where you're coming from there. I've been finding that since
like 2023. I want to say like the 2023 sub
box or something like that. Maybe it was 2024, Jennifer, but
there was a box and, and I do recall that my pen got a whole
lot slippier and the dry time certainly increased.
And I, I was thinking that that would be quite good for a
fountain pen because people seem to like that kind of slippy
paper for their fountain pens. But you're finding now that it's
bleeding. We don't want that.
Or at least, you know, some people do.
We are not those people not built like that.
It's just something that's just happening more and more and more
and I just, it's just really bothering me.
And it's just something because that was the whole reason I
moved away from like Lloyd Strom notebooks and other planners and
things like that. Because it's like, yes, I can
stamp on here. I can do whatever I want.
I can use the pens that I want and it's always going to be a
fresh, crisp new page on the next page.
But now it's like I'm flipping the page and I'm like, EW, like
I didn't realize that that ink was going through there.
I wasn't doing anything crazy. I wasn't painting on my page
with ink. I was just running with a
fountain pen. Like that's it, you know?
So those are kind of by kind of two areas.
No, that's very fair. I think that being able to try
and like trust your suppliers and use the ones that you
actually want, the ones that spark joy is definitely
something that we should lean into.
Of course, our next section is needs.
I feel like you already have a need lined up then.
So what are your needs for next year's planners?
Yeah. So I would say kind of my top
three are going to be room for notes like I just talked about.
I feel like the task in the notes are really important for
my layouts. I need to have that overview,
but I need to have the space for the notes and I just need to be
open. And I need something that makes
it feel flexible so that if I'm not using entire pages like I
was talking about before, like if I'm only writing a little bit
on AB5 page, it doesn't feel like a loss.
So it might be a size change just to see.
I'm not quite sure yet, but that's kind of important for me.
I definitely need paper that's going to let me write with
whatever the hell I want to write with.
I know that's probably a big ask.
I know that it is. I know that fountain pens are
not always everyone's favorites. I just can't move away from them
because I have have invested way too much money and time it to
them not to use them and they make me happy and that's all
that really matters, right? And I definitely think having
that kind of weekly overview, but like quick weekly overview
and then getting right into that week is important.
I do it in everything. I'm currently playing around
with one of the night owl planners right now and the pages
are interesting because there's like a weekly overview page,
which I really love, but then every page has a schedule on it
and then it feels like I'm duplicating.
I'm like, well, I don't know if I love that necessarily, right?
But like that, what's that big overview and then getting into
to each of the days, regardless of what I need to do, I can look
at that weekly, but then just write it down or just look at it
and not have to rewrite it down for the day like it's right
there. So I think trying to find a
planner or something, I don't know what it is just yet.
I have to start kind of experimenting to see what that
might be that's going to give me what I'm looking for just
because I think right now that's like what I'm ready for.
So I don't know what that looks like.
Like I said, I have a few ideas that I want to share in the Tri
section here, but for me that's kind of my need needs right now
are really going to be in those areas.
I think that my needs mainly come from like if we're thinking
about like productivity system in general, because there are
certain elements in my lineup that I'm kind of actively
looking to move to a digital space.
It's like, OK, well, what's left?
What is it in particular that you need to be able to organize
in your paper based system to make your plan a lineup?
For me, it is mainly like everyday organization.
So tasks notes if I have them, but it's mainly tasks and to dos
things like, you know, my meal plan, writing that down for
myself and those kind of bits. Also things like goal planning
and project planning. I just prefer to do that on
paper. Like I could set up a system.
In fact, I do technically have a system that is digital to be
able to tackle those, but that's not where my default is.
It's like, you know, if I'm thinking about the default place
to put information, my default for goals and projects is paper.
It's not digital. I just, I appreciate the kind of
freedom, I guess that comes with planning on paper for those kind
of things. So I'm going to be sticking
those in a paper based system. I'm going to have something in
my lineup dedicated to those and thinking about goals and
projects. Main ones are going to be around
health, mental health and physical health.
So the things that I can do to keep track of and work on those
and continue to improve them, I haven't fully fleshed out what
my goals are for quarter one for next year because we're barely
into quarter 4 of this year. So it's like, are we talking
about this too early? No, we have to start thinking
early because otherwise things will sell out and then we'll be
left high and dry with no planners, sad face, no Magusta.
But also needing to make sure that I have spaces to do memory
keeping as well. Because although I'm not like a
hardcore journaler in terms of memory keeping or a scrapbook or
anything like that, I do like to have mini snapshots of like
slice of life in my journals. And that was something I feel
like I started this year out doing it quite well.
It wasn't like anything major. It was literally just I'd take a
couple photos on my phone throughout the week or something
and print them off on sticker paper and slap them into my
journal. But now looking back through
those pages, it just makes me smile so much having them there.
Just little bits and pieces, like I took a picture of some
pickled onions I made because I hadn't made pickled onions
before and I was proud of myself for trying something new.
Like the actual picture itself is kind of unattractive, but the
memory tied to it, it just like sparks a little bit of joy.
So in thinking about planning out my lineup, I wanna make sure
that I also have room in there for those things.
But I also feel like I need simplicity.
And with my new desk set up in particular, I've really been
enjoying not having too much clutter on it.
If you could actually see my desk right now, you would
question that statement because girl needs to tidy up.
But I have really appreciated just having fewer notebooks on
my desk and knowing that they're all things that I actively need
to be within my grasp. So like pairing down, pairing
down, pairing down, listening the lineup, that is probably a
good idea. That's so interesting to think
about. I've been in a kind of a similar
mode right now. I was doing something the other
day on my desk and I like moved one thing and then a bunch of
stuff toppled over and then I moved something else and then
like something else did and I was like, Oh my gosh, Mark, like
you're, it's too much right now. Like you've got all this stuff
out here. You know, I have a whole section
over on like the left side of my desk with like these little I
always forget how to pronounce it, but like Kitsa stickers or
whatever they are, but they're like little tabs that kind of
exist in here. I have 10 inside of this little
container over here and I don't grab for them and I'm like,
well, then why are they here? Like it's in the same thing, but
it's mostly just have to do with the amount of stuff home buy
that's not necessarily planners. Like do I need a whole section
that's holding all of that stuff?
I don't think that I do. And yes, I know how to like
significantly downgrade my space and there's a lot less space now
than it used to be 1 before I moved to this office here.
But it is kind of in my mind too, where I'm like, do I need
as much of that out all at once? Or do I need to get better about
that simplicity of where it is? And especially too, if you're
limited in space. And this isn't necessarily for
us, but it just got me thinking about it is that there is
nothing worse. Oh, it irks me so much because I
do it sometimes. I'm doing it right now because I
have my bullet journal that I use all the time.
I'm testing out this other planner currently.
I have some other pens and, and the other notebook that I was
preparing to talk about that I'm thinking about doing for next
year. And I'm writing and my arms are
touching like all of them and they're piling on top of each
other. And I'm just like, I cannot
right now. I can't do this anymore.
And I just like put them in another ADHD pile to the side
before we started recording because it was just getting in
the way. And I was like, I can't live
like this. And it's like a big problem that
I have because I like to test and try other things.
And the only way for me to be able to really like try it is to
go all in. But when I have, you know, the
1st 10 months of the year inside of a bullet journal and I'm
like, now I'm going to try a different planner for this week.
Like I can't get rid of the other one with all my
information. I'm not going to transfer it all
here to try it. But also I don't need AB 5 out
and then this big thick like A51 over here and that other stuff.
It's just like kind of too much. So like, yeah, how do I how do I
slim it down? Why can't I be a minimalist?
I love the look of it but I can't do.
It No, I completely understand that.
Like in thinking about my disk setup because I just did my
little rearrange of my office as well.
One of the items that I used to have on my desk were these kind
of little plastic modular drawers or what are they all
kind of like stacked together and such so that you can, you
know, chop and change which ones you use to make your own set of
drawers that has all of the little bits and pieces.
And they used to stay on my desk because I wanted those things to
be easily within reach. I want to be able to grab my
pens and whatnot whenever I needed them.
But now I'm in a stage with my planning where I just don't need
to have them as accessible. They don't need to be like, you
know, half a foot away for me to be able to like quickly grab
those things. I'm like half a foot.
I don't work in feet. I'm like, that's like a six inch
right, A subway anyway, but because I don't need them in my
like, you know, Direct Line of sight or easily within grasp
anymore, I could take them off my desk and really free up my
desk space. And now, despite today's mess,
despite the fact that it looks slightly trash right now, I've
actually been a lot better at keeping my desk tidy because
there's less on it. So the clutter is a lot more
obvious. So that's been something very
nice. I think in particular as you
were going through, I was just being like, you know, you can
apply the want analysis to this. What are the winds?
What are the aversions? You're absolutely right.
That's why I love this so much is because it just is a really
great way to kind of just like use it for every part of your
life. Just to kind of think about it.
I mean, at the end of the year when I'm migrating notebooks, I
have something very similar that I use for that too, just to be
like, what are we taking? What are we not taking with us,
right? It is it's something that it's
just one of those things were like, I love to have my stuff
out to be able to see it, but I hate when it starts to pile up
and like I'm not putting stuff away and I know it's it's a mean
problem. Like I know I look at it and I
literally like, I should really put that away.
And I don't like I have stamps over here that have been over
here behind me for the past three weeks because I just don't
want to open the box to put them in there because I still have to
label them and like repackage them the right way.
And I just not interested in doing that right now.
So it's sits, you know, So it's like the same thing with my desk
sometimes where I'm like, oh, I need to do this ink Swatch or do
a thing or blah, blah, blah. You know, where I'm testing
something out. I'm like, now I have to keep
these mild liners on my desk and the pen that I'm using and it
needs its own spare. All right.
So clearly we have needs, you know, that we're trying to go
away. I feel like I like regress back
to adversions for a second as part of the needs, but like I
need to not have aversions to these things, right?
Like that's definitely a big part.
The last part we're talking about is the try and I'm
interested to hear from you on this one because we've kind of
made our way down here, right where we're like, OK, what are
we thinking? Anything different that might
happen? So just what are you thinking
about in the Tri section? Things you're just excited to
experiment with or see that might work out for you.
Yeah, I think that the biggest 1 is that idea of the pod down
lineup or whatnot. So going from the the small
flight of notebooks to a smaller fleet, is an Armada bigger than
a fleet? Maybe it used to be an Armada,
now it's a fleet. I don't know, not good with
history or the terminology of those kind of things.
But just being really intentional about it though, I
think because at the start of this year had my lineup, 10 or
so notebooks or whatnot. And I think that I wasn't
necessarily intentional about just eliminating them.
They just became obsolete or they just became, you know,
relics of a time past. I just wasn't using them, but it
wasn't an intentional active choice to stop using them.
It was more so just I slipped into a habit of not using them.
So I think it would be really nice to enter next year with a
lineup that is a little bit more solid, a little bit more set
pared down. And I've made that choice
actively rather than just letting things fall by the
wayside. So that one in particular is a
big one. I also want to continue my
experimentation with quarterly planning, I'm pretty sure.
So going from a system where I was doing, you know, a new
journal setup every six months, so we'd start for, you know,
January through to June and then the next notebook would be for
July through to December. I loved that system, used that
system for a really long time. But now I think it would just be
better and it would just kind of better align with how I'm
structuring the rest of my planning like with cyclic
planning and quarterly planning to go to a quarterly setup
system. I also have been enjoying
experimenting with bringing intentional collections into
there that are specifically targeted towards goals and
projects. Because while I do who have a
goal planner and I do intend on keeping that because it isn't
quite finished and there's enough pages in there to last at
least another two quarters. I'll probably keep using it.
But I would like to continue setting up those very
intentional spreads and layouts to help me work on my goals and
projects actively, rather than just being like, oh, maybe I'll
write something down on my task list for this day or this week
related to my goals. Because if I don't have
something in there that reminds me to do the thing, often the
things don't get done. I want the things to get done.
That's important. I'm also considering
experimenting with some new sizes for things.
So notably for quarterly planning, I've been using B
sixes because it's nice and compact and small and it fits
the three months really, really nicely.
But I also miss having room to play and having that kind of
expanded amount of space, whether that be a square or an
A5 or something. I'm just not too sure or how I
will go about doing quarterly planning in there because in a
three month system, you know, you don't need 192 pages.
So it's like, do I also jump back into the Archer and Olive
archive and go with 160 page notebook?
Because if I'm going to use a TFOC, there's go up to like 250
pages. That's like way too many.
So that doesn't seem suitable. But you know, in thinking about
using things from my actual stash, it's mainly TFOC and
Archer and Olive. So the options, they're like
possibly a little limited, but I think it would be interesting to
test out and try doing quarterly planning in something that is a
little larger. Yeah.
I like that. That's pretty interesting.
So my approach this year, I'm doing a few things.
Here's what I'm here's what I want to try.
I want to try to bring my entire life back into one space.
So, you know, way back when I used to put everything, work and
home in one notebook. And then I was getting to a
point where I felt like it needed to be in separate spaces.
So I moved to separate notebooks and then eventually was like,
well, I don't need a whole notebook for that.
So in my personal life, I moved to just using mostly like the
Ugg monk cards, the analog cards that we were talking about in
previous episodes. And that's worked well for me,
for my space. But the problem is, is that I'm
not always sitting in front of my computer here.
Now my work computer is all of 2 feet to the right of me, right?
Like it's not that far away, but as I've said over and over
again, like it has to be in front of my face for me to
remember to do it. Like, you know, I wrote down
yesterday for the previous episodes podcast, like upload
to, you know, Spotify. I wasn't at that part of the
desk, I was at my work desk. So it didn't get uploaded right
away. But if I would have just put
that in one spot, maybe I would have had a better chance of
getting that done. So that's something that I want
to try first, just putting everything into one space.
I'm very curious about this, like the one space to rule them
all kind of deal. Look at you nailing it down to 1
pen to rule it all. And now you're going to have one
notebook. I assume it might not even be a
notebook. Very intrigued.
But I do like that you're kind of powering down as well and
like, you know, in a slightly different way.
And I'm also doing that. I just haven't gotten to your
level of extreme yet. I would I'd be very curious to
experiment with a like one notebook system.
I don't know how I'd do it. I I feel like rebel brain would
kick him. Be like, you're not the manager,
you're not the boss of me. You can't tell me to do this.
I don't like it, but I am curious about it in terms of
like going from, you know, having your home stuff outside
of your planet into it. Do you have any kind of
considerations or concerns around that?
Because I know some people they have to like they feel compelled
to split it out because of like oi aing and stuff like that.
Do you have anything related to that or?
No, because I think most of this stuff that I'd be writing down
inside of the journal anyway is not anything crazy.
It's like call the dog groomer, you know, make a doctor's
appointment. Like why do I need to put that
in a different spot? Like I know that I need to do
it. So just like put it where I'm
looking all of the time. So there's not really anything
major. And then from like a homes
collection standpoint, like I thought that I was going to do
that, but I'm really not. So like the social media stuff
and everything that goes on with that, like most of that is in a
digital space now where I'm organizing it and kind of
putting it. I still write things down, don't
get me wrong. There's still be notes around
and whatever else looks like that, but it's just something
right now that like, I just don't feel that it's really
necessary. I'm not limited to space to
where I feel like I need to have it in two separate spots.
And honestly, I don't feel like it's really enough to really
quantify having it in two spaces.
That's kind of like where I am like mentally right now.
You know, I think that's very fair because in thinking about
like, you know, if I was to experiment with the same thing
and go to an all in One part of that is like my
reading journal or what's really a media journal or a space where
I can, you know, jot notes and thoughts and feelings about the
media I'm consuming and whatnot. I appreciate having that in its
own separate journal because then it feels like its own
little kind of creative aside. Whereas if I was to bring that
into my everyday journal, it would be kind of interesting to
see how I would go about structuring that because I'd
probably start getting just like a little bit persnickety about
having it be very sequential because my everyday journal is
so sequential. Like in doing daily logs, it's
like, here's the Monday, then it's the Tuesday, then it's, you
know, so on and so forth. Whereas with my reading journal,
I'm kind of just like, hey, here's a space where something
fits. Nothing's really chronologically
recorded, not to the extent where I'm recording notes for,
you know, Stranger Things season 4 before Stranger Things season
5. Other way around.
Season 4, Season 3. She can't math today either.
It's cool you guys get it, but I don't necessarily get quite as
anal about having things in the order that I consume them in
there. Whereas if I was putting that in
my everyday journal, I definitely would.
I don't think you're going to have that kind of problem, but
what are you thinking about using?
So this is what I've been thinking about Jess, because
I've never really done it done it before.
So Ugg monk has a disk bound notebook, right That is pretty
damn cool. I've had it for a while and I've
been kind of thinking about it. And this is the main reason I've
been thinking about it is that when I write on my analog cards
and now don't get me wrong. This card stock is much thicker
than the paper in the paper. And here is a 70 LB paper.
I forget what the cards are, but like I can write with my Felton
pen and not have any issues on these.
You know, even like today, like, well, it's it's different people
like my notes for today on the back of here, you don't see any
of the ink that's on the back of police see the other ink, but
like that's a very inky pen that I'm running with and it's been
doing just fine. And I was like, you know what,
I've never fully given disbount a full try because anytime that
I have done that before has been on a pre made planner.
So it's like I forget the one that like Office Depot OfficeMax
has. They have like a brand and some
other ones too. And there's always predated
pages and the pages, the paper and there was always atrocious.
It was never nice. And what I love about Ugg Monk
is that I feel like he is thinking about that because
here's kind of the deal. Jeff uses his products as he
should. He's doing a lot of sketching,
note taking, drawing. Things are happening and the
papers holding out just fine. Now I've done a full out test
with this paper just yet, like that's upcoming.
So if you follow my YouTube, that's on its way as I'm
thinking about what I'm going to do.
The other thing though, and the reason I usually stayed away
from them too is because I'm a lefty and like the discs were
never very kind to me. So I'm also thinking about just
turning my notebook just on its on its top and then just using
this because it's dot grade paper that's inside of here.
So like I could still do like a weekly here and then I could do
my notes on this side. And I think that it could work
out for me. It's an A5 size.
I feel like because it's disc bound also, it's easy to like
flip up and do or I can just pop the pages out right?
Like that's the great thing about the disc bound.
Use it if I want to. I don't.
Think that I'm going to need to do that, but if I want to I can.
I guess that's kind of my thing. I'm a little iffy on the size
because I do tend to like a larger notebook.
They do sell a larger one, but it's like goes from like A5 to
like letter size like a regular size, which is a giant jump that
I'm not quite mentally prepared for just yet.
The other cool thing too is that they do sell their cards that
have like the punches in the top that work with this dispount
system. So I was kind of thinking like
what if I like clip those into here as well for the test.
I don't know, I just think like I might just try Ugg monk as a
whole. It'll be a great experiment, but
it's a you know, it's papers in here, it's dispount.
I could take it in and out and we'll see what might happen
there. I'm I'm iffy about if I want to
also use the capture system or the analog system kind of with
all of this stuff just yet, But like, what if I go all in and it
works really well? I'm not saying I'm moving away
from bullet journaling, like I still want to be able to use the
main features of the bullet journal method here, but what if
it looks a little bit different? And that's kind of what I'm
thinking about trying. I feel like I have to give it
time and experiment with it first to see if I like it before
I go all in because I do have, you know, 100 notebooks over
here that are also, you know, needed me as well and I need
them. So I'm just thinking about maybe
going into this year. So that's kind of what I'm
thinking. Any thoughts on that, Jess, as a
person who's been doing for a long time, like, and you know me
very well too, like, do we think that I'm going to stick with
this? I'm certainly curious to see if
you do it. It sounds like a lot of change
at once, and I'm not saying that that's a bad thing because
sometimes that's honestly what we need.
But have you kind of like in thinking about the idea that the
last couple months of the year are a really good opportunity
for experimentation? I know you said you were
experimenting with our planner, our paper, our paper planner.
Yep, there you go. I know you said you were
experimenting with them. Was it just this week or like
for a couple weeks or? I my plan was just for this week
because I want to get a feel for the paper and kind of the
general layout because it's the, the pages are all exactly the
same. Like every week has the same
kind of layout to it. So I feel like if I give it a
week, I'll have a pretty good idea trying it from pens and
highlighters and writing it and seeing all of that.
So, and because it's undated but pre printed, it's exactly the
same every week. So I kind of know whereas yeah,
this is blank. This is really just like, could
this work? Like I could certainly see
before I make a full year's commitment to it.
Yeah, definitely. Because like if it is a blank
kind of system, you could do that kind of experimentation up
front to see if it's something that you, you know, aren't, you
know, vehemently against or something from the get go.
Because there's nothing worse than setting up a new planner or
layout or whatever mean like Yep, Yep, this is going to be
the one that changes everything for me.
This is going to work great. And then you get into like, you
know, two days into using it, you're like, oh, oh, I made a
huge mistake. This yeah.
So being able to do that kind of like what I like to call an OOCH
or like a test run for it is usually a good idea.
But I like the idea of going to a disk bound system that like,
you know, you're not necessarily using it the traditional
horizontal kind of way. You're doing that kind of
rotated version so that you can flip it up.
Especially as a lefty, even with things getting in the way,
because even as like a right-handed person as soon as I
try and use the left hand page I'm just like cool you're in the
way, please leave. Being able to remove the pages
though definitely does help for that.
Yeah. And what's also cool about it is
that there's a part of their analog system, they actually
have the analog cards that are all.
You can also use the same disks, which are also very nice and
they're metal and they're not plastic and they look very nice,
but it uses like 3 of them. And So what I was thinking about
essentially is, you know, using those in here.
So I could have my tasks on the same page as I go through and
they just kind of fit right into the notebook too.
So I think that versatility is nice.
And if I want, again, totally up to me, I can take that out, have
it up in front of me as I know works well for me if I needed
to, to like remember the task and things that I have going on.
But then, you know, where my brain starts to go is then like,
does that bulk up part of that part, like the pages of your
notebook, you know, So like, is that a, the weekly thing that
I'm doing that I have to like an archive system.
It all works together. I have all the pieces to it to
like make it a full life, you know, but at the same time, I'm
like, but, but am I going to do that?
And the thing that's holding me back mostly is I was thinking
about how often do I really go back to look at previous week's
notes and tasks inside of my notebooks?
I don't because I migrate them forward and anything I need to
keep I keep in a collection page.
So even if I take that, you know, To Do List for the week
and archive it inside of my archive box, it doesn't matter
because I would have already migrated the tasks that were on
that previous to this current week.
So it's almost like using the ability to like pop it in here
for the week and then it goes inside of an archive box.
Like these are the kind of things I'm thinking through and
like it's it's very new, but I feel like I could make it work.
And like I said, I have all the things, it would just be me
saying do it and like make it happen.
I do also like the idea that, you know, you kind of mentioned
there that you don't go back and look at previous weeks or you
know, previous entries or whatnot.
And one of the things that has been like a difficulty with me
and disc bound systems is when it starts to get too full and
it's really hard to flip the pages.
Essentially, she does not have that much experience.
So like, you know, it might just be me as like a novice or
whatnot. But I think that being able to
take pages out and maybe like archive or store them somewhere
else so that they don't kind of bulk up your everyday carry is
also a possibility with that, which is kind of cool,
especially if you're going with paper that is a little thicker
and you know, that takes up a little bit more space.
I mean, like, you know, it's this big versus this big.
It does actually add up over time though.
So being able to, you know, get to the end of the month and be
like, cool, all of my January pages, I'm actually done with
them. I can like take them out of my
system, put them somewhere else so that then I'm not lugging
around a whole bunch of paper. I mean, I know that you don't
leave the house head often, but I'm thinking about people who
actually like take their journal places with them, you know,
lugging it around with you. You're making your system a
little bit lighter, streamlined, more easy to transport, which is
kind of nice as well. I'm very curious to see how you
go with it. Yeah, I, I think I can make it
work. I think that's like in my mind,
I know that I can do that. And I know that there's a lot of
like the extra accessories and fun stuff.
And I think that's also what gets me excited about it too, is
that like I can buy the whole punch that Ugg Monk has so that
it works with the rings and the note so that I could also add
other things in here. My brain starts to go down this
way of like, oh, well, then I have to have a different journal
for the archive stuff. But then I'm like, maybe not,
you know, like maybe I do keep it for the year.
But like I said, I I don't tend to go back to them.
But then again, same thing. I have every single journal
since the very first one that I started predated unplanned, if I
used it for any stretch of time, I have it.
So then I'm like, well, then what do I do with all of those
pages? Like I like to have the record
of them to look back on because I will look back on them from
like a nostalgic sake, not for any information because it moves
along. So that is something I have to
consider. I don't want to have to buy like
a whole other way to store and archive the notebook itself if I
don't need to. So I think that will be a really
big part of the experimentation to, to, to see like what that
looks like because it can only hold so many pages.
And part of me really likes that because like I said, I'd have to
be specific about making sure the notes made it to collection
pages and things like that. But at the same time, it
terrifies me because I'm so used to having, you know, 192 plus
pages to write stuff in and not ever having to worry about it.
So I feel like this is the direction that I'm going.
But how about yourself? Just like, do you have a good
inclination of like the direction you think you're
going? So I think the decisions that
I've probably like Soft made, I reserve the right to change my
mind because she definitely will.
But the lineup that I'm planning for the 2026 is going to be an
everyday journal, whether it's AB Six or something a little
bigger. I'm not too sure.
I need to do some kind of planning around that to see how
I could actually make it work. I might do bigger than AB6
though. We'll see.
I'm going to keep the goals planner slash goals journal
because that one has been working really well.
I think I'm going to keep it in the same notebook because there
is enough space in there that I could finish probably the
majority of next year. But I do kind of also want that
to be in a square. It's currently in an A5 because
of the structures I like to use in there.
I think a square would be really nice, so maybe we'll see.
It'll probably still stay the same though.
I'm going to keep the five year journal because I'll be into the
I'll be into my fourth year of the five year journal.
Wow, look at you keeping that up.
I know. I think that there was totally,
definitely some of the sunk cost fallacy that went into that.
It's like you spent such a long time setting this thing up, so
you Dang well better use it. So that one is going to stay as
part of the lineup. I think I'm retiring my R&D
journals though, or like I'm not going to get rid of them or
anything, but I just don't really consider them to be an
active part of my lineup anymore because I'm not actively using
them. What I am using instead is of
course, my scribble books. I love scribble books.
They're great. They're messy.
They are very disposable. I don't go back and look at a
lot of the notes that I take in those.
So probably keep up with those. But the R&D notebooks are
probably going to let go of and I'll probably for the sake of
memory keeping, have a reading journal.
It'll probably be DNA 5 because that's what I like, and it'll
probably be something very decorative and intricate on the
cover because I think that that's beautiful for a reading
journal. I don't want to say that that's
it. Is that is that the lineup
everyday goals Five year scribblebook barely counts
because it's like a mess. Reading Journal.
Just five. Yeah, that's great.
Look at you're, you're growing up like you're figuring stuff
out or like I said, like you are just like, but right now maybe
that's not what you need, you know, and that's what I think I
love about making these decisions and they can change
anywhere. No ones going to come.
The journal police are not going to come and arrest you if you
change your mind, because I'd be doing a life sentence if they
were coming after us for stuff like that, right.
But like if you get to a few months down the road and you're
like, you know what? I'm really missing this, you
just introduce it into your thing.
Like same thing. Like if I end up going this
route, right? And after a few months, like I'm
just not really loving it. I have a ton of notebooks I will
pick up and just start a new journal in, right?
Like I know how to do it. I've been doing it for over 8
years now. Like it takes me 5 minutes to
set up a journal, right? Like basics, right?
But like that's all I'll need to do.
And I think that I'm totally OK with that.
And it's just funny because I do.
I'm like looking back, thinking about like Mark a few years ago,
which was like, we were all sweating it right now.
We were already planning, we had the videos, we know what we're
doing. It's like a big moment for us
and for the planner community as a whole to see what other people
are doing too. And so I'm kind of just like,
yeah, if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.
Like it's cool. And I feel really good about
that. You know, like I don't feel
stressed out about not having what I exactly need for it or
anything else like that. And like I said, I think I'm
also just excited for the opportunity of like what more
could potentially be done with it?
I don't know, but we're, we're here to find out.
So 5 sounds like a really great number for you, Jess.
That's amazing. I'm proud of you.
Thank you. It's OK.
I definitely forgot some because we have the health journal and
the Swatch book as well. So let's make it 7.
See, I don't count, I don't count those ones as a part of
it. Like the Swatch journal is just
a Swatch journal. It is what it it's a resource
book more than like a daily kind of thing.
That's how I look at those. No, that's definitely why I
forgot to include it because I think that the health journal is
kind of going in a similar kind of direction because a lot of
the information in there was reference materials and that
stuff I now want to store in like my personal knowledge
management system or my second brain.
That one is probably going to get adjusted a little bit.
I probably won't need to. I mean, it's sitting on my desk
right now so that I remember to fill in my exercise tracker
because we're like 142 days strong or something like that at
this stage would woot. Yeah, tiny flag.
Thank you so much. But I do think that that one
possibly will retire at the end of the year because I will move
stuff either into the the second brain or into my everyday
journal and such as I try and like streamline the Swatch book.
Yeah, it's a Swatch book. I don't think it necessarily
counts as part of the lineup. So I think that calling it 5 it
feels like an accomplishment. That sounds good.
Well, I like where we're going with this.
It'll be interesting as we like finally talk about what we're
deciding on. We'll have to hit on this in a
future episode. I know we have one plan that I
actually talk about what we're doing for the new year.
But in the meantime, Planner pals, we're interested to hear
from you as well. What are you potentially
thinking about for your next journal?
If you want to use the want analysis to fill that out,
please leave a comment. Let us know what's working,
what's not working, and what you're interested in trying.
You can do this in a few different ways.
You can always leave a comment if you're watching on YouTube or
if you're watching on Spotify, leave a comment.
We love to see them there. You can also hit us up over on
Instagram at Planner Pals Podcast.
And we've got the e-mail open toowehavesomehardcoreemailloversandiloveyouforitplannerpalspodcast@gmail.com.
Oh my gosh, I am so excited to hear about what other people are
thinking, mainly because I like to Snoop through your comments
and change all of my decisions because I'm like, oh, that's a
great idea, I should do that. So very much looking forward to
reading what you guys have to say.
And as always, thanks for watching.