As I’ve now finished the set up posts for each of my mine planners I figured a post of how I use them all together would be in order.

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This year I’m using seven planners in total. That might sound like a crazy number but I promise it’ll make sense!

Work Planner

I didn’t write a set up post for this planner. This is mainly because there wasn’t much set up required. In 2020, I’ll be bullet journaling for work in an A5 Nuuna notebook.

After moving jobs at the end of last year I quickly realised the Hobonichi Weeks would be too small. I prefer the flexibility of a blank page that I can fill with to do lists, notes and meeting notes.

I’m still working on using this for meeting notes all the time as carrying everything to meetings (often in different buildings) is a bit of a faff. However, what I have been doing is migrating any tasks noted in my meeting (using Microsoft One Note) into my bullet journal.

So far, this system has been working well and given the thickness of this notebook this will last me a really long time. That was actually the primary reason for choosing this particular notebook for work. I didn’t want to run the risk of spreading important information across many notebooks. I also knew I wouldn’t want to use this notebook for home as it doesn’t take fountain pens well.

I’ve had a lot of comments since using this for work, mainly about my handwriting! The dot grid is so tiny I end up writing pretty small and so everyone who sees it comments on my ‘small handwriting’.

So far I’ve been using my trusty Pentel Energel 0.7mm* for writing in this. However, it’s a bit thick for the small dot grid and I miss the colour coding I used to do in my Hobonichi Weeks so will likely switch to my Hobonichi pen* for use in this going forward.

Meal Planner

This is the second year in a row I’ve bought a second Weeks just because I couldn’t decide on my favourite design. This is also the second year in a row I’ve used this extra planner for meal planning.

You can see how I use this as a meal planner here but basically I used the left hand page to plan out each days meals and the right to create the shopping list.

The only difference this year is that I’ve not been using the yearly or monthly pages for anything. Last year I tried to use this as a health and fitness planner but didn’t like getting out another planner just to log my exercise and weight. This year I’m just tracking my weight digitally and my exercise in my other Hobonichi Weeks (although I’m still working on the best way to track it).

It’s a bit excessive to spend so much money on something that’s really only used once a week for a meal plan so next year I’m planning to save my money and recreate the same format in one of my other planners.

Everyday Carry

This is another lesser-used planner but still very important. I used a Weeks as an EDC last year but quickly realised I didn’t need to. I don’t need to see my week on the go, just my month. So this year I have an A6 Avec. The Avec is a lot less bulky than the Weeks and has everything I need to ensure my work and home life don’t have clashing plans. The daily pages are more than I need but I like having something to make notes in if I need to. It’s also very handy for shopping lists!

While I love the Hobonichi I’m not tied to this so if I find a similar kind of set up but cheaper I’ll probably move to that for 2021.

Main Planners – Weeks

I have two main planners – a Hobonichi Weeks* and a Cousin*. After some trial and error last year I’ve realised that I can’t work with just one planner.

The Weeks I use a bit like a bullet journal. It’s basically the framework for my week. Some weeks I’ll only plan my week in this, others I then use the weekly pages in my Cousin to plan everything out in more detail. I usually do this if I’ve got a lot of shop and blog work I want to get done. Or, if I feel like decorating using stickers. If I don’t use my Cousin weekly pages then the Weeks lives open on my desk for the week. Otherwise, it’s the Cousin.

In January, I trialled planning out my month in the monthly pages and using the yearly pages for exercise tracking. I really don’t need to plan my month in my Weeks as I already have it in my Cousin and A6. Therefore, from February, the monthly pages will be used to log exercise, much like they were in my health and fitness planner in 2019.

The notes pages are all about budget planning, spending and orders. My budget planning hasn’t changed in a couple of years now. It works really well for me and I’ve seen a good boost to my savings because of it. The order tracker is something new I’ve started adding to the Weeks. I use a fresh sheet each month and while it helps me keep an eye out for everything I’ve been expecting, it also helps keep my spending in check. Have I filled that page one week after pay day? I should probably stop buying things!

Main planners – Cousin

As mentioned above, the Cousin is sometimes used for weekly planning. This is also where I plan out my month in detail, along with logging my blog posts and social media. I then use the daily pages as a mixture of notes and journaling. Some days I have lots to write about. Other days I use the page as a notes page.

I’ve also been utilising the weekly pages for things other than planning. This is something I’ve working on and refining for a future post so keep an eye out for that if you’re struggling to find uses for those weekly pages!

I knew I wasn’t going to use the daily pages consistently and that’s fine. However, had I have known that the Day Free would have been sold through Amazon UK I would have purchased that instead of a Cousin. I didn’t want to order from Hobonichi direct due to the postage, custom fees and handling chargers to get the day free. Instead, I bought the Cousin from Amazon JP. It worked out far cheaper. Next year however I’ll probably wait for the Day Free to hit Amazon UK and pick up one of those.

Bullet Journal

This is another planner that didn’t need its own set up post. It’s also not really a planner, it’s a notebook. I call it a bullet journal as it’s basically filled with collections.

I use my Leuchtturm 1917 mainly for blog and social media planning. All my blog and social ideas go in here. I then mark off which I have posted/written. I also use this as more of a general notebook. My goal planning notes go in here, along with anything else really that I may want to keep and refer back to any point.

In 2019, I primarily used my Cousin for this. However, when it came to planning out my blog posts and social media on the monthly or weekly spreads, I hated having to flick back and forth between the pages. If I use my LT it means I can have that laid out, while I plan out the content in the Cousin.

Filofax

This was my final planner to set up. I’ve had this beautiful Filofax for a few years now and missed it when I wasn’t using it. This is for all the information that either doesn’t change from year to year, or gets built upon. It has information such as birthdays, bills, addresses and important blog and shop stuff.

I get too annoyed with the rings to plan in this regularly. However, for information I need to refer to every so often, a Filofax is perfect.

Hopefully my seven planners make a bit more sense now?

I certainly don’t use all of these daily. I’ve tried having multiple planners on the go in the past and I just can’t do it. While I do have a lot of planners, I keep the duplication to a minimum. The way these are set up has been working really well. They work together really nicely. When planning out my week I don’t need to flick between pages in that planner. Instead, I have my other planners set out to refer to really easily.

In all my years of planning, this is the most organised I’ve felt. I spent a long time trying to find the planner for me. In the past year though I realised that one size doesn’t fit all. Hence, why I now use a range of different styles together. They all have different strengths and work better than others for my different needs.

How many planners are you using for 2020?

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