Just after I wrote a story about the threshold moments and pressed “send,” it felt as if all the gears had clicked and I was fully in the groove of a new year.
We started working diligently to catch up with BK online orders whose shipments had been pending during our team members’ holiday break. (Thank you, everyone, who placed an order during the holiday season!!! I appreciate you so much). Kids have gone back to school along with their weekly activities. And I am back, sitting at my desk in the dawn to write stories.
I was really curious to see how I might transition into this year’s analogue system since I have switched things up quite a bit. My really big intention in choosing my analogue companions this year is to “tend my inner garden”. To paint the picture, I will start with a mini share of our current garden status at our house.
This past year, since we moved to our current location in Topanga, we began peeling back the landscape fabric that had covered the entire yard. Landscape fabric, though it prevents weeds from growing, is synthetic and prevents soil and tree roots from breathing freely. Healthy soil with diverse organic matter and living biomes can absorb and retain moisture, serving as a foundation for a healthy ecosystem. Once we had patches of breathing soil happily covered with shredded-leaf mulch (a layered blanket that actually enriches the soil rather than suffocating it), we added a variety of native plant seedlings, timed to our rainy season. I go out to the garden every day to greet those tiny beings, who are working hard to acclimate to a new place. I bend down and observe them closely to see if any new leaves have peeked out and if the soil is moist enough. Mostly, I share my acknowledgement and awe for them. We just experienced two weeks of treacherous rain in Southern California over the holiday. Now that we have sunnier, warmer days, I love watching all the trees and plants soak up the sunshine. That’s where we are with our land today, after spending time with it for almost a year.
How is working on a physical garden a metaphor for our inner world? I know I am constantly peeling back layers of conditioned superficiality so I can grow into a more authentic self every day. I observe and notice shifts in how I feel, sense, and receive from the world around me, just as I greet the tiny seedlings in the garden. Those shifts are often like whispers - quiet and ephemeral. It requires me to stay present to acknowledge those subtle changes. And my heart craves inspiration and sparks of joy, like how plants grow roots in search of moisture and nutrients in rich soil, and spread their leaves to soak up the sunshine. If you have a deep connection to your land, I am sure you will have many other examples, too. But even if you have never put your hands in the physical soil, I believe you can still deeply tend your inner garden just the same.
So how do those metaphors translate into the actual tools on my desk?
// MD Journal Frame (A5) for stream of conscious & subconscious
A LOT comes through my mind throughout the day. Some are observations of glimmers to soak up fully, and others are triggers to be mindful of. Sometimes sparks of ideas pop, and other times I need to gently acknowledge feelings that are hard to process. These subtle (and not-so-subtle) shifts can be easily missed when I am too busy in my head. Occasionally, the synthesis of multiple threads comes like a flood when my mind idles freely, and I let thoughts “be” rather than control the outcomes. From my experience, I've learned that these ideas and thoughts, like dreams, can easily slip from my conscious mind into the subconscious, even though they feel so vivid when they first appear. They also don’t often “make sense” initially - wanderings without a context. But I have also grown to trust that puzzle pieces like these will eventually find their home if I leave breadcrumbs in my notebooks. I liked the idea of using the MD Frame notebook because each page has a layout with a designated location for a title and date. My writing in this notebook is incredibly organic (aka messy scribbles everywhere without any order), so I thought maybe practicing writing a theme or big idea in the title part of each page, when it feels appropriate, would help the “future me” find the right breadcrumb at the right time. We will see.
// TN Accordion Refill for visual journaling inside of my TN Bro
I enjoyed using the MD Cotton Thick Notebook (A5) for visual journaling throughout 2025. When I traveled, instead of taking a full-size notebook (which can add weight and bulk to our luggage), I took a TN Accordion Refill. When I returned home, I glued the accordion notebook into my Cotton Thick Notebook so my visual journal would stay in chronological order. This year, I decided to experience it by dedicating one TN Accordion to each month (more or less), with a plan to bind them all together at the end of the year into a book. I have a clear image of taking a photo in December 2026, with many accordion refills open & unfolded, and a beautiful handmade cover wrapped around them. So far, I am enjoying the playfulness of doodling on an accordion refill. I can’t force-fit myself to stick to this refill system if it’s not meant to happen, but if I reach the end of the year to bind these refills, I will definitely share the photo with you:)
// JIYU Monthly as a master planner, also in my TN Brown
This has been a solid solution for me to keep track of the master schedule ever since we launched BK JIYU many years ago. Literally everything, including family, BK, and personal engagements, goes on this monthly calendar, and the notebook (usually inside of my TN Brown) goes with me everywhere. My philosophy is “why change something that is working?” So, unless my schedule gets so busy it doesn’t fit into JIYU Monthly's layout (which will probably never happen, since we are consciously trimming our schedule), I will probably keep going back to JIYU Monthly.
// Hobonichi Weeks for all things BK productivity
My analogue system for BK operation has been all over for the last few years. But I have come to prioritize a few elements of analogue needs so I can spend time with BK with ease in my heart, without the overwhelm that can creep in when navigating a complex business landscape. To experience clarity on my BK days, I need a weekly to-do list, a dated weekly overview to guide those days, and space for mid- and long-term tasks/visions. I decided to go compact and pack them all into Hobonichi Weeks. My writing tends to be large, so I intentionally chose a pen with the smallest line weight at BK: the Uni-Ball Signo 0.28mm in Brown. With this pen, I can jot down everything I need for the specific week without running out of space. Thankfully, the clear cover for the Hobonichi Weeks includes a pen loop, so the pen is always handy. Since the notebook is super portable, I can keep it on my desk when I am working from home or in my bag when I am out and about. Having a single designated place for the entire BK operation is already bringing me ease of mind and flow.
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The new system feels a little lighter. Maybe blank pages are gleaming openeess and hope. And now it’s time to move on from planning and actually spend time with it and in it, dedicating myself to opening a notebook instead of my phone, appreciating messiness and making mistakes, and honoring how each page might organically unfold, even though they might end up differing from what I expected when I planned for it.
This too… is just like being in the garden.
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