Neil's 2019 Planner

Neil's 2019 Planner
Happy Labor Day Weekend everybody! Since Daisy recently shared the planners she’s been using this year, I thought maybe I could share my planner routine with everyone too. This year, I have been using the Hobonichi Cousin to organize my monthly goals and daily todos. Hobonichi is known for its one day a page format, featuring weekly, monthly, yearly overviews. It’s dated with a strict but well thought out format. I’m more of a to-do type of planner. The daily pages have been helpful for me to break things down and to identify what’s achievable in a day. I used to type up my todos on my phone and my computer, but the list would just keep growing and never get finished. One thing I do like about writing a few todos down is that it helps me think about whether or not I can finish the checklist within the day. If I don’t finish a todo, I move it to the next day and when I finish the same todo that I duplicate over three days, I cross all of them out at the same time, and it’s the best feeling! The daily page has limited space, so I learned not to write my todos past half the page. Any more todos are just going to be left undone.


I tend to write really fine, and I like to write within the grid (3.7mm). I like to switch between many pens, but I always come back to Hi-Tec-C 0.4mm, Juice-Up 0.4mm, Sailor 1911 in Fine and Custom 823 in Fine nib. I also write very light, so I prefer pens that are smooth and have a fine point.


Other than these pens, I have enjoyed using many different colors to make the todos a little more fun. Thanks to Yoseka, I get to use many different fountain pen inks and make my planner a little more colorful.

At the end of night, I use the daily timeline section to jot down things planned for next day and todos. I use the spaces at the bottom of the page to write down a few memorable highlights of the day.

Everyone has their system that works for them, and we’ve heard many different ways throughout the year. If you have a system that you’d like to share, we’d love to interview you how you use yours and what you like to use! -Neil

Leave a comment