Moving Into Next Year's Notebooks

There are only two more weeks left in this year, which means I’ve started preparing my 2021 analogue system. As much as it feels amazing to open brand new notebooks with crisp pages, I usually feel uncertain about what to write down first. Is it going to be my name on the front page of the planner? Should I decorate the covers? Which dates should I mark down?

This time was no exception - I kept my 2021 notebooks out on my desk for the last few weeks, thinking I would start setting them up when I had spare time. But no matter how much free time I had in the evenings, I kept procrastinating, not quite knowing where to start. This past weekend, I finally picked up my pen and began writing, to start the planner moving process.

In order to make this process easier and a little more welcoming to my mind, I kept a spread at the back of my 2020 Jibun Techo Biz with important information that I should bring over to next year’s planner. This included loved ones’ birthdays, travel dates, payment due dates, and the like. I covered the dates below for privacy reasons, but all I did was make a bulleted list for each section.

As you can see in the second picture above, I began transferring some of that information to the same back pages in the 2021 Jibun Techo Biz. As for birthdays, I wrote them down in both monthly and weekly spreads. Doing so helped me remember every important birthday this year, so I decided to replicate the method for 2021.

Everything that I mentioned here is fixed information, meaning they won’t change over time, so it helped me feel more secure when setting up my planner. I couldn’t “mess up”, per say, so it was a good way to put pen to paper for the first time in a brand new notebook. I’ll officially move into the 2021 Jibun Techo Biz during the week of December 28 and will be filling more pages at the front with 2021 goals!

Another notebook I started setting up is my creative log. I kept a Field Notes (Coastal edition) going to outline blog posts and brainstorm ideas throughout the year. I didn’t put any structure to this notebook at all, just kept writing in it whenever I felt like it. I didn’t utilize them as much as I wanted to this year, so I decided to carry them over into a new notebook.

As you can see in the above photos, I used a gel pen to mark which pages I want to copy by drawing small red circles on the bottom corners. Once I’m done transferring the contents, I plan to put a checkmark there to keep track.

The new notebook I decided to use for 2021, as discussed in my previous post, is the BK Grid notebook created in collaboration with Traveler’s Company. There’s much more room in this standard traveler’s size to jot down ideas and experiment with visual brainstorming.

I have to admit that I wrote a lot of things down in the Field Notes, but lacked the creative energy and courage to bring them to life. I hope to take another step forward next year and bring you more stories from my analogue journey.

And that about covers it. As you can see, I don’t have designated spreads or design elements that I bring over from past planners. Regardless, I have a lot of appreciation for this yearly ritual of moving out of previous year’s notebooks into the new ones. It’s a bittersweet feeling, but I’m mostly looking forward to a better and brighter year!

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