Do you also “test out” planners for the upcoming year this season? Some years, I know exactly what I want to use when December turns to January… and some other years (like this year), I can’t quite figure out what will work for my near-future self. I’ve been going back and forth between the MD Thin Diary in A4 and the Hobonichi Cousin in A5, without any realistic way to figure out what will actually work better. So for a few short weeks, I decided to dust off some old Hobonichi Cousin samples, messily cross over the pre-written dates to align with the current year, and just try it out with light-hearted intentions. Because if I don’t try it out, how will I figure things out? Because I would really hate to end up with a bunch of unused notebooks in my possession in 2027…
I would have to say… I really do appreciate Hobonichi’s design and the Tomoe River Paper inside. The paper works well with gel pens, which I tend to use for my planner, as well as fountain pens. The writing quality is just nice, like being on a cloud and floating kind of nice. I’m mostly looking for monthly pages for a family master calendar and weekly pages for everything BK-related. I love that I can combine it with my A5-size Alchemist. The only thing I hesitate about the Cousin notebook is that I’m not sure how I'd use the daily pages since I have other notebooks I bind myself for open-ended journaling.
I do find myself getting pickier each year, hoping to find something that works for a very specific purpose and not wanting to make decisions carelessly. I’m so curious to see where this exploration might end up.