Tag: Traveler’s Notebook

Hello. Meant to post this back in March as a general update to what planners I had decided on using for 2025 but then whoops, per usual kind of forgot that this blog exists and continued on with life.

This year I went back to the Traveler’s Notebook passport-sized planner; Specifically the weekly planner only. I had used both the weekly and monthly inserts previously, but never really got much use out of the monthly insert. I also use the weekly insert as a daily logging journal of sorts: Any future planning is written in pencil (so that I can easily erase and changes) and every day I will use the daily boxes to write a mini, couple of sentences at most journal entry. Basically just a brief of what I did, if we ate out, how far I ran, stuff like that.

I have two other blank inserts in the passport TN: One is for random doodling/common place notebook (almost full). The other is used for solo RPGing, world building, and various other creating writing projects. It’s easier to shove the passport sized TN in my purse. I’m actually using a fairly new TN, I picked this one up from the Starbucks Reserve Roastery when we had visited Japan last fall. We like wandering around the river area in Nakameguro and had never bothered visiting the Roastery during previous trips since it was stupid crowded and required a reservation. If you like coffee at all, I recommend visiting. It’s really neat inside and a great place to get a cup of coffee and a treat.

I completely dropped the Hobonichi Weeks. I really really love the form factor, portability, and layout of this planner but never really ended up using it as much as I thought I would. The idea was to use it for a combination of both work and personal planning since it’s thin and easy to shove in my work bag or bring to a meeting/conference. The problem is that work wise, it makes more sense for everything to be 100% digital as everything either lives in Outlook, OneNote, or at the very least, an iPad scribble that I can convert to text and send over.

My full sized Traveler’s Notebook continues to exist in it’s same form: I’ll swap notebook inserts out for general journaling, art things, Solo RPG projects, the sticker insert, travel journal, etc. It is, low key, also a great place just to store random ephemera that I want to glue into a journal entry as well as business trip receipts.

I guess some folks find it odd for someone so digitally oriented as myself to use an analog planner system instead of well, my phone. I have used both methods for general planning as well as note taking, and physically writing stuff down just works the best for me and well, ❤️ analogue/journaling things.

I have three notebook inserts, two folders, and the plastic sleeve insert in my TN. These are the three notebooks that I use: the Weekly Diary, Blank Notebook, and the Monthly Diary. I find that having three inserts is the most that I can include in my current setup without making the notebook too chunky. 

The plastic sleeve has a clear zipper pouch in the front and card slots in the back. I keep memory cards, checks to deposit, and stuff like that in the zipper pouch (as well as a whisker from each cat). The card slots in the back have cards that I don’t need to carry around in my wallet (club cards, stamp cards)

I have two folders: The first folder is the TN Kraft folder, which is inserted around the monthly planner notebook. I just keep blotter paper, post-it notes, shitajiki (writing bird), and stuff like that. The second notebook is a thin leather folder that I purchased at the Tokyo Station Travelers Factory store when we we visiting Japan. This folder is loosely inserted in the back.