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.

A Peek at my 2020 Planner Line Up!

My 2020 Planner Line Up

To review, see my 2019 planners here.

Yes, I planned out my planners. I’m that kind of person.

So this is the most unexciting planner tour ever. Why? Because I’m not changing *that* much from 2019.

For me, this is a good thing. Because that means I’ve found what (mostly) works for me and I don’t need to change too much.

But it probably makes for a boring blog. Sorry?

My main planner for 2020 will still – again be a 2020 Hobonichi Cousin Techo, housed in a Louis Vuitton Couv Carnet GM.  The Hobonichi Cousin still wins my heart for its size, the flexibility, the paper, the combination of monthly, weekly and daily pages (which I use for my morning pages). I love the Japanese writing, the way it sort of decorates my planner in a way that doesn’t take any mental or emotional energy from me (since I don’t read Japanese).  I love the soft grids which gives me an orderly skeleton to drape the often chaotic fabric of my life.

I’ve selected some stickers to decorate the cover…. But I haven’t quite decided which ones to use. I’ll probably update y’all on Instagram in January with that oh-so-fun announcement.

Last year I used the extra December calendar for a reading log. (More below on that) This year I’ve decided to use this page in the back to log the books I’ll be reading.

This is pretty basic, I know. I might add some washi or something to jazz this up.

In the second half of 2019, I got into the habit of using these as habit trackers and I hope to continue that for 2020.  My plan is to use the boxes at the bottom to keep track of quarterly tasks/ goals.

My 2019 habit tracker. This actually turned out to be a very useful practice for keeping me on course-ish.

2020 Habit Tracker and I’ve already screwed it up. My ruler didn’t keep the Mildliner contained. We’ll pretend that I’m just artsy, okay?

I also have decided to track my television/ movie watching in 2020. I’ve noticed in the past 12-18 months that shows and movies are one of my main sources of #input and creative inspiration so I’m interested to see what trends and insights this might reveal.

Again, I might add something cute. Or not. I do like a nice minimalist planner.

I don’t (usually) do a lot of stickers and washi tape. If they’re in my planner, it’s to block off large chunks of time or something particularly celebratory - release dates, birthdays, anniversaries. But this next layout is the exception, as it was in 2020.

Hobonichi Cousins include extra months at the end of the calendar year (usually until March) and the month before (December, obviously.) Now I really like to move into a new planner on January first, but I still use those next-year months because, well, in December, I am usually making appointments, etc. for the next year. But I NEVER have a practical use for the extra December because… I’m still using 2019 right now. Get it?

So last year, I turned the extra December into my reading log, which you can see in this blog post (here.) This year, I’m trying something different. Voila. The Hobonichi Kanban board.

I think I’ve talked about how I’ve done the HB90 system since RWA 17 in Denver. If not, here’s an explanation on You Tube.

But I noticed the last few months of this year that my big bulky Kanban board had been replaced by some other processes and so I decided to start 2020 without it. Where I still enjoyed the Kanban though, was for some repetitive tasks that I do every month. Hence, my Hobonichi kanban set up. The plan is, to label some sturdy reusable stickies and move them through the board each month. I’ll update you later in 2020 with how that’s going!

And like last year (again, sorry! I’m not more exciting…) I’ll be doing some social media/ blog/ newsletter planning in my MM (medium) ring planner.  But! This year I did order new inserts from Sessavee that I’m reallllyyyy excited about. I got the monthly inserts with all these darling goals and task lists and then I couldn’t resist biannual/ quarterly spreads. I’ll be using these to keep track of social media, blogs and newsletters.

No, I’m not sure what I’ll do with all these yet. But I can see them coming in handy, can’t you?

It’s a little smaller than I’d like. One of these days I’ll have to move to Discs or a GM…. one of these days…

Planning blogs and newsletters for Q1 2020 already!!

And then finally, this isn’t a planner per se but, I have to have a notebook.  This is both a remnant of my legal training/ career and the natural inclination of a writer. I love this grid notebook and use it to take notes on calls with agents/ editors, workshops, classes, and whatever brain dump I need to expel.

And that’s all there is to see… right now! I regularly post my #amplanning photos on Instagram so follow me there for more updates throughout 2020. And I hope you do because I’d love to see your planning supplies and techniques too! If you’re interested in more of my Plan - Write - Publish blog posts, click here to see them all!

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