Posts filed under Planning

2024 New Year, New Bujo, Who dis?

(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)

I did a review of the Rhodia GoalBook a while back because it was what I use for my loose interpretation of the Bullet Journal (BuJo or bujo) method for planning. My first bujo in 2017 was a Leuchtturm, which had 70gsm paper. It was fine and had somewhat/mostly fountain pen-friendly, but I switched to GoalBook because of the index and calendars (though I stopped using those after time) and hadn’t looked back. Flash forward to now and I just finished GoalBook #8 last week, but there won’t be a GoalBook #9. Why? After trying out the Leuchtturm 120 gsm notebook oh-so-briefly at the Shoppe Object show back in August, and seeing that it looked to be FP-friendly, I knew I had to do it for science!

*I picked the Leuchtturm 120gsm in Nordic Blue and had it embossed during the Leuchtturm event at Flax Pen to Paper.*

*Normally I wouldn’t bother to take a picture of this but the 120gsm “branding” was a lot bigger than I think it needed to be.*

I wrote my name and info with a Pilot Custom 823 with the FA nib, inked up with Diamine Amazing Amethyst (apologies for the lighting). No feathering on this page but this isn’t the main paper either.

There is a pocket on the inside of the back cover. Also included are labels for the spine (which I have used for all my Rhodia GoalBook spines too) and other labels, possibly for covering up that 120 gsm branding, lol.

*Since this isn’t the Bullet Journal™ notebook, there are only 2 pages for the index, which is fine by me since I use specific washi tape, clips and bookmarks for important sections.*

The regular LT notebook has 251 pages while the LT120 has 202 numbered pages, not including the 2 index pages; both have 2 ribbon bookmarks as well as the pocket and labels mentioned above. The GoalBook has 222 pages, not including their multiple index and calendar pages in the front.

*I wrote out the pens that were inked at the start of 2024 (I track their actual inking dates in FPC.)*

For the most part, there weren’t any major issues with a variety of fountain pen inks and nibs. There is some shading visible with some of the inks, but not much by way of chromashading or sheen. Shimmer wasn’t an issue.

Papier Plume’s Bad Bad Leroy Brown is a moderately wet ink in a moderately wet Pelikan M800 and other than it looking like a brown sharpie (which it kind of is), the paper held up alright. You can see the shimmer from the Robert Oster x Vanness Pens Venom ink too.

*Minimal ghosting except with wet/broad nibs/inks, like the Waldmann Xetra Vienna with a broad steel nib inked with Diamine Blue Velvet. Even then it didn’t really bleed through.*

I looked through all the currently inked entries and picked out the ones that looked potentially problematic either due to nib size/grind or ink wetness and rewrote those entries on the back pages of both the GoalBook and the LT 120.

*Rhodia GoalBook with white pages (left) and the LT 120 (right). You can see that the LT’s pages are definitely more cream than white.*

*In almost all cases, the LT (right) absorbed a bit more ink than the Rhodia (left). This resulted in slightly broader lines from the LT as well as less shading.*

In addition to the slightly broader lines, the writing experience on the LT 120 is a little “squishier” than other paper/notebooks, probably due to the additional weight. I hesitate to say that it has a bit more feedback than the GoalBook because it is still quite smooth. It is difficult to describe but it just feels like there is a bit more resistance, which I am attributing to the heavier weight. It isn’t unpleasant, just different.

And here are some “rare” additional pictures of spreads that I have in my bujo; “rare” because my bujo isn’t really for pretty social media posts. Mine has always been a functional bujo. I will add some more washi tape to color it up a bit but that’s about as much decorating as I do.

*I haven’t ordered anything all year! But I am waiting on a preorder from 2023, so that has been moved to this year’s bujo.*

I track when penpal letters are received, as well as when they were dated (since letters can take a while to write, esp if you’re long-winded like me, or if they have to travel internationally), when I start/finish and mail my reply. I will be adding postal-themed washi to the edges so I can easily find this spread without using an index.

I made a simple grid spreadsheet for habit tracking and at the start of the month, I jot down the date/day and what habits I’m tracking. My aim isn’t necessarily to have everything checked every day (though some are daily habits), but more so I can see when I’ve done something and if it’s been a while, to make sure I get back to it. I print several copies so I have them in the back cover whenever a new month comes up.

*I’m too lazy for fancy habit trackers :-)*

*Actual todo list from January 1. I am continuing with my Italian learning, so I always write the month and day in Italian.*

It’s still a bit too early to tell if the Leuchtturm 120 will permanently replace the GoalBook for me, but for now, it’s alright. I don’t really notice that the paper is cream unless there’s white paper nearby.

A well-used, soft-cover Rhodia GoalBook (left) with washi tape borders next to a brand new Leuchtturm 120 gsm hard bound notebook. It will be interesting to see how thick it gets as it gets more use.

The Leuchtturm 120gsm A5 notebook sells for $27.50 USD and is available from Flax Pen to Paper in Sage, Black, Port Red, as well as the Nordic Blue. It is available with dot grid, lines or blank ruling.

(Disclaimer: I purchased the notebook with free engraving from Flax Pen to Paper. The Rhodia GoalBook was also purchased by me.)

Posted on January 5, 2024 by Kimberly Lau and filed under Bullet Journal, Journal, Planning.

2024 Journal, Planner, and Notebook Setup

New year, new notebooks? Yes to the new year (hello 2024!) but new notebooks? It’s a continuation of the same for me, which is a good place to be, plus a reimagining of an old standby that has me ready to tackle all that lies ahead this year.

Two products worked perfectly for me in 2023, and therefore I am happy to keep them going. I was successful in filling out the first full year in my 2023-2027 Hobonichi 5 Year Journal, only skipping a handful of days throughout the year. It was a habit that formed quickly, as I looked forward to updating the previous day’s activities the following morning. And on the occasions that I was away from home for an extended period of time, it was easy to catch back up on the few days I missed.

One change I made early on with this journal is to not log the pen and ink I was using on the opposite page. That seemed like a good idea at first, but looking at how little I used the right side of the page, it seemed wasteful. A friend mentioned they plan on using the right-hand pages to add years to the journal - up to four more years in the case of this layout - and while I have many years before I get to that point, I will keep that option open.

My first full year in the PLOTTER Narrow was a rousing success as well. This planner was used far more than the Hobonichi Journal, which is by design. I used the Weekly layout for a broad overview of what my week looked like, the standard grid pages for notes and lists, and I added in a batch of my favorite Bank Paper to the rear section for random pen tests and handout pages.

The only section I rarely used in my PLOTTER were the Monthly pages, but I plan on giving them another go this year and seeing what I can do to make them useful for me.

Towards the end of the year, I added in a Field Notes for a more easily pocketable, and portable, notebook for random thoughts, ideas, and scratch paper. The PLOTTER could be used for this (it does travel with me,) but I found the simplicity of a pocket notebook to be unsurpassed, once again.

The one frustration point in my current setup is with my Life Noble A5 Hardbound Notebook. It is an almost perfect notebook for me as far as style, layout, and performance goes, but I found myself rarely using it. My frustrations with it come from not knowing why I’m frustrated with it. I couldn’t design a better notebook for my own use, but I rarely choose to use it.

That brings me to my one new addition for the start of 2024: my William Hannah is back in the game! In its former life, it filled the role that my PLOTTER currently does. I like the PLOTTER format and size better for my planning needs, so I turned my William Hannah into my paper sampling notebook. Using a different hole punch than for my PLOTTER, I added in as many different paper types as I could to it. This made them easily accessible at my desk for testing, and portable to pen shows for others to try.

While I will miss this setup, I had an epiphany last week: this would make for a perfect project notebook. I removed all of the testing pages, and clamped them with this Medium Penco Clampy Clip, and added in the basic dot grid pages from William Hannah that I had ordered previously.

What this will allow is the proper organization for project plans and ideas. I can’t believe I am saying this, but I think this was my primary hangup with the bound A5 notebook. I want to project plan in it, but how do I allocate space for that? Is this a two-page project, or ten? When does one project start, and the next one end? I’m frozen by the inefficiency that this would introduce to the A5 notebook, and therefore it sat, mostly unused.

With the William Hannah, the pages are portable. Add a page here, remove a page there. The section dividers are movable, too, or I could simply mark the edges with washi tape or flags if I so desired. Flexibility, in this case, is peace of mind.

Will it work for me? Ask me in a year, but I’m anxious to get it going. If nothing else, thinking about overarching concepts such as allowing myself to set aside a product that doesn’t work, or repurposing something I already own into something new, has been a fun experiment. Let’s see how it plays out.

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Posted on January 1, 2024 by Brad Dowdy and filed under Journal, Notebook, Planning.

It’s a Conference not a Show - 2023 Chicago Planner Conference

When I decided to make the trip out to Chicago for Fountain Pen Day, I had no idea that, at the same time, the Chicago Planner Conference was also taking place. I knew about the conference, but since it was long sold out (I think it was sold out in a day!), I hadn’t really given it much thought. At the FPD event at Atlas Stationers, I ran into Francisco Lopez from Hinze Pens who asked if I would be interested in helping him teach a Fountain Pens 101 or 201 class at the Chicago Planner Conference (CPC), and of course, I jumped at the opportunity!

Hello, Chicago Planner Conference!

The lobby was a popular gathering spot.

Unlike a pen show, planner conferences (or “plannercons”) are less about selling products (though there was a marketplace for shopping too) and more about the planning community coming together to meet each other, listen to speakers, attend workshops and even exercise their creative muscles at “Make & Take” events. All of those events and workshops are included in the $375 CPC ticket price, which is quite a bit more than for a pen show, where an average weekend pass runs $40-$60. I had a bit of sticker shock initially, but once I saw the list of classes that were available, it totally made sense. Pen show classes typically cost around $75 per class and if you were to fill your weekend with multiple classes, it could definitely approach or surpass that number. Some of the conference’s topics included “Inbox/Outbox: Organizational Planning”, “Rock your digital planner”, Surviving the Hustle: Entrepreneurial Panel” and of course, “Fountain Pens 101”, and this is where I come in 🙂

Francisco and I spent an hour talking about fountain pens with a group of 50 attendees. Most of them weren’t fountain pen users; in fact, some had never touched one before, while others may have used one when they were kids, or were told that they couldn’t use them either because they were lefties or had a weird grip - that made me sad and angry because that can’t be further from the truth!

Francisco kicking off the class with a brief history of fountain pens.

Without boring everyone with too many details, we covered why fountain pens are great (no need to dip, writes without added pressure, ink options galore), parts of the FP/nib/feed, what is a converter and how to use it, how to write with a FP (which side is up, both tines should touch the paper, etc.) and then we inked up the fountain pens provided by Retro 51 and put pen to paper! It was great to have Francisco there because we could both walk around the room to answer questions and demonstrate things at the tables.

Francisco walked around and did demos for half the class, while I taught and demo’d for the other half.

Someone asked “So what do you do if you want to have more than one color to write with?” and this was my response: “ink up more than one pen!” 😃 60 minutes flew by and I wish we had at least another 30 minutes because we barely had time to answer questions. Everyone seemed to be excited to have learned and tried something new and had a new writing tool to play with.

All smiles with their new Retro 51 fountain pens!

After the class, one of the attendees gave me this awesome cookie!

Unlike pen shows which are open during show hours, CPC closes down the marketplace during the various sessions/workshops. Vendors get to take a break as well as attending or leading sessions too. I had maybe 10 minutes in the marketplace before the class,, but I made sure to take some pictures!

Jenny Galfi (IG:extrafinepennerd) watched the Hinze Pens table while Francisco Lopez was teaching the classes. Their table was in the hallway right outside the ballroom.

There were a few other vendors in the hallways. There were also some cute picture booth setups with props too. None of my hallway pictures turned out well, oops.

This is the entry to the ballroom.

View of the right side.

View of the rest of the ballroom.

As you can see from the pictures above, it is not a particularly large ballroom and there are wide aisles and lots of space. I would guess that there were roughly 30 vendors. I was in the marketplace very briefly before the class and I think that many of the attendees had already made their way to the second floor to head to their classes, which was why the aisles weren’t jam packed.

Cheryl Ball was representing Rickshaw Bagworks at CPC. They made special pouches and pen sleeves for the event. (PC:Marty Henderson.)

Marty and Kimberly Henderson (and their 3 daughters) were showcasing Retro 51 pens. It was great to see some familiar faces!

Coralie (right) with one of her helpers at the CoraCreaCrafts table.

OMG, look at all these awesome cat stickers from An Actor Plans. They are based on Mabel, the cat!

The actor behind “An Actor Plans” is Melissa M. Crabtree (not pictured, but her helper is!) makes Broadway-themed stickers, washi and other goodies.

JoJo of JoJo’s Pretty Paper Shop sells stickers, cards and notebooks - all made from her own original art.

Raspberyl Designs had all sorts of fun sticker sheets for decorating your Hobonichis, journals and planners.

I want to thank Francisco Lopez for giving me the opportunity to share my love of fountain pens with 50 enthusiastic planner folks. I had an absolute blast and wished I could have spent more time talking with folks, getting to know how they use their planners and answering any FP questions they may have. And of course, to do some shopping too, lol.