Six ways to use the yearly pages in the Hobonichi Cousin

July 4, 2020

Those yearly overview pages in the Hobonichi have always proven tricky to use

For the past couple of years I’ve never really used them properly, in either the Weeks or the Cousin.

So, for the first six months of this year I decided to try out six different ways to use them, so I could decide once and for all how to use them.

As the quandary of how to use these pages seems to crop up a lot in Hobonichi groups, I figured this post might be helpful for some people.

Habit tracker

This is probably the most often used idea I’ve seen around. If you write your habits in the void at the top, you can fit ten different habits in there. It’s the perfect place if you track a lot of habits daily and saves you having to draw out a tracker each month.

As much as I’d like to be one of those people who can do regular habit tracking, it just isn’t for me. Seeing so many blank squares is a bit demoralising!

Exercise log

In February I got into weight lifting. I wanted somewhere to keep track of the exercises I was doing; the weight and the number of reps.

I prefer the yearly pages in the Cousin to the Weeks, as the Weeks ones are just too small to really use the space effectively.

Index/contents

This is the first way I used the yearly pages, when I bought my first Cousin. I rarely use the daily pages for planning, I use them more for notes or collections. Instead of filling up my Cousin with tabs, I can write the content of each daily page in my index pages instead.

Weight logging

I took the opportunity during lockdown to really start focusing on my health. First thing I wanted to do was lose a bit weight. Daily weight logging helped me to see where I was making progress (or not, as was the case in April).

Writing it down each day also kept me accountable and even though I don’t do it on the yearly pages anymore, I’ve continued daily logging my weight.

Skincare tracker

I use a few different treatments and strong products on my skin. Using the yearly pages to track what I was using each day helped ensure I wasn’t using too many strong products together and overloading my skin.

I especially liked the different coloured highlighters I used on this tracker. If I ever do a habit tracker again, I think I’ll do this instead of little crosses.

Health tracking

This was a bit of an experiment. I wanted to track my calorie intake and exercise all in one space. I did two habit tracking slots for walking and other exercise. The rest of the space I used to log my calorie intake.

Just like with the weight logging, this is something I’ve moved into tracking elsewhere.

I didn’t realise as I was going through the year, that the majority of the things I was using these pages for was health related.

I’ve since moved all my health and fitness tracking into my Hobonichi Weeks weeks pages.

After some thought, I realised there’s one way of using these pages that I’ve never tried before. So for the rest of the year I’m going to be using the yearly pages for actual forward planning. I’ve been experimenting with using the monthly pages for a daily gratitude or highlight, so I need to find somewhere new for plans and birthdays.