Techo Kaigi 2025 - Planners and Journals for a New Year

Here we go again!

If you are a stationery addict, you might notice planner season starts as early as August. In Japan, most brands release information or pre-order notices for retailers or fans to prepare their wallets around this time of the year. As for us users, it’s time we re-evaluate the systems we’ve used throughout the year and decide if we want to try new journals or notebooks for the next year. It’s Techo Kaigi time, a meeting with yourself about your journals and notebooks for 2025. 

Disclaimer: Each Techo Kaigi should be unique and catered to your own needs. There are no right answers to how many systems one needs in one's life—it all depends on one's lifestyle. This post is purely designed around my life, and it’s not intended to answer questions such as “Do I really NEED this many systems” or “Why isn’t one system enough?” 

I last wrote about Techo Kaigi at the beginning of the year, starting with 7 notebook systems to organize my life and enjoy my creative hobby. To summarize, this year, my life consisted of a weekly work-from-home routine, outings on weekends, and travels domestically and abroad every other month. Add on obligations to my pet dog and gym visits to take care of my health, it’s been a busy year, to say the least. 

Reflecting on my existing system

Throughout the year, my hectic lifestyle also made it easy to see which notebooks I consistently journaled in, and which system I’ve abandoned. Of the 7 notebooks I started with at the beginning of the year, I seemed to have narrowed my system down to just 4:

1. Hobonichi (Cousin Avec) as a daily memory-keeping and creative journal

2. TRAVELER’S notebook (Regular Size) as a travel and adventure log

3. PLOTTER (Bible Size) as a personal planner

4. PLOTTER (A5 Size) as a work planner

I had intended to keep a detailed account of my pet dog’s health and growth in a Hobonichi Weeks, but I found myself integrating his routine and schedule into my personal planner and daily journal. The Taiwan-made Thinking of You Planner is a beautiful dated journal that I wanted to use as a health planner but ended up being neglected as I don’t utilize most of the space. Finally, I aspired to make sense of my spending habits using a PLOTTER in Narrow Size, but I stopped keeping track after April (my birthday month messed things up big time, understandably). 

Looking forward to the new year

I was pretty pleased with myself for keeping up with my daily journal and making good use of my planners throughout 2024. Although some systems failed for me, it doesn’t mean I want to give up on them completely. I’ve decided to re-evaluate how I want to record things I care about, and maybe integrate them into existing notebooks to make my process more efficient. For example, my dog Cookie’s lifelog is an inseparable part of my own, so his health records can be integrated into my daily journal. I also don’t want to give up on tracking my spending, so perhaps I’ll try again next year and figure out solutions to resolve hurdles that kept me from journaling about it this year. 

The grass is greener on the other side. Looking at other people having fun documenting their lives in 5-year journals makes me want to do it too next year. I just so happen to have some multi-year journals sitting on my shelf, enticing me to start one, too. 

With all those thoughts in mind, I’ve completed my notebook meeting and compiled a new list of systems that will serve me in 2025:

1. Take a Note Planner (A5 Size) as a lifelog for journaling and records of my health and family (including my dog’s health)

2. TRAVELER’S notebook (Regular Size) as travel and adventure journal

3. PLOTTER (Bible Size) as a personal planner

4. PLOTTER (A5 Size) as a work planner

5. PLOTTER (Narrow Size) as a finance tracker

6. MIDORI 3-year Diary as a multi-year diary

Take a Note Planner (A5 Size) - A lifelog of records and creative journaling

In 2025, I bid adieu to Hobonichi, a system that served me well for 10 years since 2014. It had been a beautiful journal, and I thoroughly enjoyed the system helping me build a habit of daily creative journaling. It was a system that grew alongside myself, changing style and evolving year by year. Originally, I was confident that I could continue using a Hobonichi Cousin Avec next year, but a few snafus the brand ran into around August during the release season slowly turned me off. There was the chaos of release day. Then there’s the betrayal I felt as a Taiwanese person from the brand bending to political pressure from Chinese users. As if that isn’t already the last nail in the coffin, the inconsistent paper performance issue that arose in its 2025 batch of Sanzen Tomoe River Paper made it easy for me to let go of this system. 

Once I removed the brand from the pedestal on which I placed its significance, I reviewed this system objectively and realized that my lifestyle may have reached a new season that this notebook no longer serves. I still enjoy filling up a full A5 Size empty page for daily journaling, but my busy lifestyle means that I can no longer keep up with it as diligently as I could in previous years. The bulkiness of the notebook made it hard for me to bring it with me on trips that lasted several days to a week. I’ve had more empty pages this year compared to previous seasons. It’s time to downsize. 

I still enjoy the A5 size because I like its space, without my palm feeling the threat of falling off a “cliff” when the notebook gets bulky. I want a system with good paper and well-designed dated structures to help me keep up with daily journaling. Fountain-pen and watercolor-friendly is a plus! 

I didn’t have to look too far to re-visit Take a Note Planner, a system I’m familiar with and experimented with in previous years. This Taiwanese planner brand takes inspiration from Hobonichi and designed a 2-day-per-page layout instead of a 1-day-1-page. This immediately resolves my concern about having too much space to fill. The planner also uses Sanzen Tomoe River Paper but has a paper weight of 68gsm instead of Hobonichi’s flimsy 47gsm since 2024. I did a simple pen and ink test and the paper meets my needs. The grid size is slightly smaller than Hobonichi’s, but I typically use the grid as a guide, not as restraining boxes anyway. 

Last year, I mentioned that I never really knew what to do with the Monthly calendar in the Hobonichi. However, next year, I am determined to fully utilize Take a Note Planner’s Monthly calendar for things I want to integrate next year: (1) A “good job” stamp for each time I visit the gym; (2) Cookie’s health concerns and vet remarks; (3) my health concerns and doctor’s notes…all things that are useful to reference and look back even in the future. 

For daily entries, I’ll continue to do what I love: doodles of food and encounters, fun adventures, achievements, stories, and little snippets that are insignificant to others, but mean something to me. I’ll paint the skies, colors of foilage, tip in postcards, and play with washi tape and stickers on all the spaces available. This system will continue to be a treasure chest that is a projection of my personal life story.

For the remainder of this year, I’ll continue to journal in my Hobonichi and finish strong. However, I’m very optimistic about using the Take a Note Planner in its stead. 

TRAVELER’S notebook (Regular Size) - Capturing all my travels and short trips

Just like this year, I’ll continue to use my TRAVELER’S notebook as a journal to document daily experiences, whether it is a short adventure in my neighborhood or longer trips abroad. Each event or trip becomes little chronicles, documented in volumes of refills that go in and out of this system. It holds the “over-flows” from my daily journals, as some special experiences like pen shows take more than a single page to record. 

The freedom of the interchangeable refills means that I can ramble about an adventure over 10 plus pages, or utilize a full spread to draw out the full 5-course meal from a date with my husband on a weekday evening. This system allows me to enjoy my love for TRAVELER’S COMPANY and its fun refill designs that are released throughout the year. The brand’s original MD Paper is receptive to watercolor, markers, inks, and all kinds of art mediums, which gives me the freedom to express my creativity in many ways. 

Alongside my daily journal (Take a Note Planner), this system allows me to enjoy my pens and my stationery hobby.

PLOTTER (Bible Size) - A personal planner to organize my life

My PLOTTER in Bible Size is a ring system that allows me to keep track of schedules, to-dos, and things in my life that I reference on a daily or weekly basis. I think of it as a general folder (like on a computer) that keeps different parts of my life organized: doctor’s appointments, meetup dates, travel itineraries, and project deadlines. This elegant solution is in a personal size, slim, and easy to carry around, with accessory refills that have pockets, dividers, pen holders, and more. 

For 2025, I’ll continue to fill my PLOTTER with dated Monthly calendar pages, Weekly schedule pages, and random empty pages to capture everything else. 

What I love about PLOTTER is its capacity to hold “just enough” for what I need. I don’t have to worry about the system getting bulkier over the year because I can always remove old pages and add new fresh ones to jot down ideas and thoughts that pop up. Since this is just a personal planner, I don’t feel obligated to make it pretty or neat like I do with my other journals. It embraces my erratic thoughts, frantic notes, and chicken scratch memos when I make plans on the go. Whenever I travel this year, I always carry my PLOTTER with me and find comfort in being able to whip it out at an airport to write things down while waiting. I can take my PLOTTER (Bible Size) to doctor’s visits, Cookie’s grooming appointments, and friend’s gatherings -- and it’ll always be a convenient system to take notes in. 

It’s also a great notebook to keep lists: (1) K-dramas I want to binge (2) Songs and their music videos I want to watch (3) restaurants that were recommended to me…all kinds of fun lists! These are pages that I can reference throughout the year, without fearing them getting lost like a page in a bound notebook. I’m excited to keep using a PLOTTER in Bible size as a personal planner for 2025.

PLOTTER (A5 Size) - A reliable workhorse for everyday work

I find the PLOTTER in A5 Size to be the perfect planner for me to use at work, 4th year in a row. I can’t deny that most of my work is done digitally or in the cloud, but I still prefer a tangible notebook to reference important things. I also prefer taking notes by hand when I’m in a meeting or a discussion. 

Other than the dated Monthly Schedule refills, I use the rest of the system freely like an infinitely refillable notebook. I start each week with an overview page that includes to-dos and tasks distributed throughout the week. I spend every Monday morning mapping out my plans on how I want to approach the work week. I utilize the accompanying Refill Memo Pad to take free notes, then add them into my PLOTTER as I see fit (sometimes they go straight to recycle once the page is spent). When I have a lot of notes already compiled in Notion, I also find it fun to print them out on PLOTTER’s refill papers using a regular printer and add them to my leather binder. 

I’ve been attempting different ways I want to track tasks: sometimes bullet journaling works, and other times I prefer drawing out chores in boxes and crossing them out. The variety of refills helps me refreshingly approach each week. To an outsider who looks into my work planner, it may also seem quite chaotic and overwhelming. However, I still prefer this all-in-one solution that I can carry with me on the go during pen shows or work trips!

PLOTTER (Narrow Size) - Make spending intentional again

The third time’s the charm, hopefully (my fingers are crossed). Last year, I attempted to use the PLOTTER Narrow to keep track of my spending across my expenses and hobbies. However, things fall off when life gets busy. This year, I’m again examining what didn’t work for me and how I can make this habit more bite-sized and fun. 

For the past year, I’ve held a “keep to a budget” mindset, which does not incentivize me to keep track of spending when I splurge occasionally out of guilt. I decided that for 2025, I will change my perspective from “recording” to “celebrating”. When I track my spending, instead of just noting down the monetary amount on the bottom line, I can also note down in detail itemized things that were part of the purchase. Not only will this help me recall which stationery items were bought at the time, but it’ll also incentivize me to jot down the expense because I can use my pens and bask in the “shopping” experience. By making each transaction more “experiential”, I’m hoping it will make each spending feel more intentional. I know it might not make much sense, but I’m willing to give it a try.

MIDORI 3-year Diary - Multi-year diary to document the world

We sure live in turbulent times. The last time I made use of my Hobonichi 5-year journal, we were living through the coronavirus pandemic. For many people living in the United States, we are about to enter yet another wild ride starting in 2025. Perhaps it’s time to start another multi-year journal to document the saga that is our modern world. I pulled the MIDORI 3-Year Diary from my chest of unused notebooks, excited to finally use it. 

I jokingly called this diary “the book of horrors”, as I will use it to document the good and the bad that’s going on in the news, locally and globally. My journals will continue to document things that are fun and interesting to me, while this diary will serve as an objective view of the world that we live in. It’ll be interesting to flip back and see how my mood ebb and flow throughout the year in reaction to world news. 

That’s a wrap!

I’ll repeat what I shared last year in my Techo Kaigi:

I found that each year, my Techo Kaigi gives me more clarity on what I value in life, what I prioritize, and what makes each day meaningful.

I also love that my line-up gets more and more compact each year, allowing me to truly focus on things I want to spend my time on. I hope you also enjoy reading about this lineup and putting together your planner meeting, your Techo Kaigi!