Mid-Year Analogue System Review
How is 2021 passing by so quickly? I feel like I blinked and now the month of June is already upon us, with July not too far away. I thought this halfway point in the year was a great opportunity to revisit my current analogue system and how the different notebooks have been working for me so far.
What’s Working Well?
The Jibun Techo Biz (pictured above on the left) is still working really well. I’ve been using the Jibun Techo Biz as a work planner since 2020, so that’s not the biggest surprise. I have a specific way of color coding and tracking to-do items, so even though I don’t track my time in the vertical hourly pages like I’m meant to, it’s still very useful.
The BK Jiyu (pictured above on the right) has been a joy to use. I haven’t missed a single week’s memory-keeping spread so far, and I think a big reason is that I love the flexibility of the layout. I love that the Saturdays and Sundays are split off to the right and given equal room as the weekdays. At the same time, there’s a large enough space on the right side that I can include ephemera and layer other paper bits there.
What’s Not Working Well?
The Nanami cafe note (pictured on the left inside a Sojourner cover) has been my written diary since early 2020. I love the Tomoe River paper in a subtle grid layout in this B6 slim size, but I haven’t been reaching for it too often. It has become a safe place for me to vent and write whatever I want - at the same time, I want to fill it with more positive thoughts. I’m considering implementing a more regular morning pages practice, but we’ll see how it goes.
The olive TN on the right currently houses a media/junk journal - it’s a plain Traveler’s Company insert that used to be a gaming notebook for Animal Crossing: New Horizons before I stopped chronicling the details of my little island. Since then, it has become this weird hybrid of journaling about other video games and journaling with packaging from happy mail. I like that I gave the notebook a broader purpose (some context: I usually designate notebooks for an extremely specific purpose, and then have trouble filling it up because it feels too fixed), but I haven’t used it in a while. Whenever I feel like writing something, I end up journaling in the other TN with the BK Jiyu notebook it in instead. Maybe I’ll warm up to this setup a little more over time.
What’s New?
Since I purchased the olive A5 writer’s organizer from Nomado Store, I “revived” an old MD A5 notebook to use for art and other special occasions. Pictured here is a spread from my most recent meetup (the first since the pandemic began - thank you vaccines!), where everyone signed the notebook. I also decorated it with ephemera from that day, and added on more stamps and stickers later on to round out the spread.
I had previously used this notebook to journal about my trips to Europe and New York in 2018. Bringing it back to life as things slowly start returning to “normal” seems fitting, and I’m looking forward to filling more of its pages.
I haven’t switched out of any notebooks I planned to use for 2021, but there are definitely a few that I’m reevaluating as we head into the second half of the year. I think the key for next year will be to consolidate as much as possible so that I don’t feel like I have too many unused notebooks. How has your analogue system been working for you so far? Are there any changes you’re looking to make for this year or the next? Feel free to let me know in the comments below. Until next time!