2027 Planner Picks and Talk
It's almost next year! Time for planners! I don't think I've ever made a post specifically about them, though, so here's some of my background before my picks. Warning: I'm not really a planner person, so this will be probably be underwhelming for people who are.
Past Planners
- Kokuyo Jibun Techo (standard): My first "real" planner! I got it partway into the year on clearance from Jetpens. I loved it. It's so precise. I love the hourly blocks. So much space to write everything you could ever imagine. Too much space to do so, in fact. But I did like it enough to buy it again the next year too!
- Hobonichi Techo Cousin: The big fat block everybody loves, with the page-per-day. In another world, this is perfect for me. Because the Cousin has a vertical weekly spread inside of it, including with hourly notches. The year I bought it, I really tried to convince myself that I would keep my normal diary, write something meaningful in the daily pages every day, and use the weekly and monthly spreads daily as needed. Yeah no. What stops this from working for me is that I simply yap too much in my normal diary for this book to replace it. Also, it is pretty fat for how I tend to use planners (kept open permanently on my desk to see the week at a glance). Maybe I'll try it again some point in the future, but I doubt it. Completely by chance, the one I used was right before the paper change disaster. It feels like I walked out of a building right before some final destination shit happened ğŸ˜. (I don't use fountain/bleedy pens, nor do I decorate planners, so I probably wouldn't have cared much regardless)
- Hobonichi Weekly Accessory: NOT the Hobonichi Weeks, which is a horizontal spread planner. The weekly accessory is basically an adorable itty bitty vertical planner meant to go along with the Hobonichi Techo original, because it doesn't have the built-in one like the cousin. It was so ALMOST PERFECT (and cheap ğŸ˜) for me it makes me kind of sad, but it's just a touch too tiny.
- Traveler's Notebook free weekly planner refill: People who love the hobonichi weeks LOVE it, so I decided to use this to test the general format. I'm so glad I did that, I do not like the horizontal layout. I've gotten used to being able to visualize "when" something is, instead of a bullet point to-do list. I remember being annoyed that the graph wasn't on both sides of the spread.
- Laconic Style Weekly: Pretty close to my ideal, but I had too many minor gripes. I don't like that the days end at 5AM, as opposed to midnight. I didn't like that all the free space was blank instead of ruled. This and the Traveler's notebook taught me that when I'm not in the mood to fill in blank dates, I REALLY don't want to do it LMAO. Also, for my purposes it was fine, but you may find it too floppy (paper cover, staple bound.)
- This random blank planner: I'm using it right now. It stays binder-clipped open. I do like the space for habit tracking in theory; but I actually used to just make a tiny one of the whole month out of graph paper in years past, and I've learned I greatly prefer that. Seeing one week at a time doesn't do much for me. I don't like that Saturday and Sunday are half sized. I don't like how once you start writing in it, the actual days just kind of visually blend together. So as well as writing all the dates in advance I used mildliners to highlight/outline each individual day. But, at least I know now for certain I don't like this type of layout. It's adequate, better than nothing I'll say.
What I like in a Planner
One; it physically works. I don't want to fight it, it stays open on its own or gets clipped open. I crack that spine. I'm done filling in blank dates (I get why it works for others, but it's not for me.) Give me grids and lines, blank space is empty and useless. I'm not a hard paper snob but I've been spoiled at this point.
Two; practicality. Like a 90/10 Practical/Pretty split. If I wanna be aesthetic or creative I have infinite other outlets. I have no interest in stuff like daily affirmations clogging up valuable space. (Hobonichi gets a pass because it has boxes AND it's shtick is whimsy anyway.) If I want a cute lil kitty running across my page, I'll put it there myself after verifying she's not in the way.
Three; vertical weekly spreads. These are just my favorite. I think it's because when it's filled out, it's a very effective visual representation of the time spent doing things. Thursday @ 4 is just words on a bullet point list in other layouts. With vertical weekly, I see that block in that very specific spot and I know inside and out it's Thursday @ 4. If I haven't spent time with my friends in a while, I can flip through the last few weeks and go oh damn I really haven't spent any time with anybody. I don't like this one, but also I can see at a glance how my sleep has been 💀. (I think this is also why I liked my self-made monthly habit trackers instead of the built-in weekly one on my current planner. It's one thing to see you did not shower yesterday. It's another thing to see too many X's throughout the whole month 💀💀💀.)
What I got for 2027
I got a Kokuyo Jubun Techo lite! This exact one!
I had debated this style in the past but didn't get it until now. There's two big things I like more about the Lite V.S. Standard:
- The Lite is way less colorful, which is actually huge because I color-code things myself so it would just look like a big mess in the Standard. Extremely specific nitpick that only I care about: I really like that the Lite (and Biz) box in the days of the week instead of the color just extending to the top of the page. I think I just don't like the look of page edges being "messy" like that? I dunno. It didn't bother me with the Hobonichi, because it was just little tabs for the months. But it did for the standard Kokuyo for some reason. What a surprise, I like boxes.
- The Lite is missing all the extra fluff at the beginning and end. There's some blank lists for your choosing at the front and that's it. The Gannt chart and monthly spread are pushed together. But it's still a Kokuyo weekly spread, so there's a tiny graph with plenty of space to write extra stuff every individual day!
I called the color of the cover sad khaki when describing it to my friend, but I like it much more in person. It's a bit more grey and has a flattering sheen. Also it's the book's job to lay open 24/7, so I'm not too concerned about it anyway. On top of that, the ribbon bookmarks that come installed on the Lite are a cute pale blue and brown! (as opposed to the Standard's surprisingly harsh bold red and navy.)
I also got a purple Pentel RSVP to go with it. My beloved workhorse ballpoint <3. I used a pink one in the past (in one of the Kokuyos and the Hobonichi IIRC) and it was great, minus being a little light. I'm kind of kicking myself for not picking up another pink one, I loved that pen so much LOL.
Not a new purchase, but I use highlighters for certain categories in my planner. Green is chores, blue is notable personal care stuff or hobbies, pink is appointments/important, orange is social stuff. I have a 36 pack of Zebra Mildliners (+ one new one in Mild Honey Orange, because the non-fluorescent orange that came with that pack arrived dried out years ago 😢). I've never used up a highlighter in my life, but maybe in about 1 year the blue will be close! I'm kind of almost excited to see!
This is not for the planner, but I bought them and think they're darling. Look at these stickers! I'm not a huge sticker fiend anymore, but these are cute and can go anywhere in any orientation.
I'm so excited and impatient to get back to the Jibun Techo that I'm going to start it in December (the first full month) instead of January next year. I don't know if I'll share any pictures. On one hand it is interesting, admittedly, to see how people use their planners. But also, I dunno, it feels a bit weird and personal, especially because I don't decorate mine so the information is ALL there is to it.
Tell me about your planner! Tell me about vertical weekly spread planners I don't know about!