Hobonichi Weeks vs. Cousin - Why I'm Switching Again

So first you should probably check out my 2020 planner post. And my 2019 planner post. And my peek into the 2021 Hobonichi here and HERE

So… 2023 was the year that I tried the Hobonichi Weeks!
I ordered my Cousin in late 2022, per usual, but got an itch to switch in the spring.

I had originally switched from my Medium ring planner to the Hobonichi Cousin years ago because I was in a very busy phase of life. The kids were in a million activities, and with all the practices, orthodontist appointments, etc., I needed SPACE to write.

This Spring, I realized that I was going down a kid and that maybe, just maybe I could go into a smaller planner. One that could fit in a purse! Oh, the luxury.

So for my birthday, I bought myself an April start Hobonichi Weeks, a preloved Louis Vuitton cover and monthly tabs. I moved into it nearly right away and it took some time to figure out how to plan.

You see, the Hobonichi Cousin has a horizontal weekly layout and the Weeks is a vertical weekly layout. This takes some adjusting for someone like me.

But it still had my beloved Hobonichi paper, the graph design, the Japanese words. All in all, it was a good experiment.

Yeah.

You caught that, right? My time with the Weeks was fun, but I’m headed back to the Cousin for 2024.

Why?

See the easily wrinkled pages - from being thrown in a bag. I’m a mess.

I’ll get into some of my pros and cons but I won’t do a full review of what’s in the Weeks or Cousin. There are plenty of YouTube videos about the Weeks and I’ve reviewed the Cousin extensively at the links above.

FOR ME…

I just never fully settled into the Weeks. The note pages in the back were somewhat helpful in meetings and for phone calls and such, but I still found myself using my 2023 Cousin for morning pages/ journaling because the Weeks pages were too narrow for me to journal in.

Yes, I could throw it in most of my handbags, but that would result in some wrinkled pages, no matter how I secured the cover. I didn’t want to invest in another cover for the Weeks, especially when I have a medium ring planner that I could use if I needed a secured cover.

And I guess in the end, I just prefer the room in the Cousin. Even if I have fewer soccer practices and orthodontist appointments to keep track of, I feel more comfortable with a little more room to play in.

So I’m going back - full time - to the Hobonichi Cousin in 2024. It’s not you, Hobonichi. It’s me.

Stay tuned for my posts on how I’m going to use my planners in 2024 by subscribing to my Women With Books Substack.

For ALLLLLLL my planner related blog posts, click HERE

And check out my books - made possible by Hobonichi-assisted planning - HERE.

Introducing... my 2021 Hobonichi

Planner people are really the ultimate optimists, right?

Look at us all, buying planners after 2020 showed us that we can’t always plan what life is going to look like.

But there’s something that I’m always going to enjoy about it. There’s a ritual to selecting a new planner. To setting it up and carefully inscribing birthdays and holidays. There’s a beautiful faith that life goes on, that we’re going to be here to enjoy it, that we want to honor these days with purpose and distinction.

Or maybe we just like stickers and washi.

Or both. Definitely both.

I still used my Hobonichi Cousin almost daily in 2020, even when I had no outings or appointments or anything to look forward to. This is because I use the daily pages as my journal so that meant this sturdy, beautifully designed book was in my hands a lot.

I did an unboxing video for those who are curious as to what a 2021 Hobonichi looks like: (Don’t judge. I am not a videographer, obviously.)

I’ll do another post in January with how I’ve decided to personalize this but ICYMI, here are some past blog posts about this year’s set up and previous years’ as well.

My 2020 Planner Line-Up

My 2019 Planners

And… that’s all for now. If you want my blog posts sent straight to your inbox, subscribe to my Inner Circle Newsletter here. Or follow me on Instagram to see my occasional weekly spreads.