I got my hands on the Hobonichi Techo planner in November last year. It was the English planner, and its December pages actually start from the 24th. Of course I couldn’t wait to start using it already, so I skipped ahead and actually started using the 2016 December pages! I figure that I would have gotten a new planner during planner season (September – November) later this year, and it will all cycle out eventually.

My hobonichi planner set-up includes a cover page that I put on the inside of the planner cover. This one is a collection of inspirational phrases that make up the Good Life Project Creed. For those who would like to know more, the author and host of this website Jonathan Fields hold talks and conversations with entrepreneurs and incredible people. I love watching his videos and listen to his podcasts. This creed really speaks to a lot of things in life that we face, and which inspires us to be amazing everyday. I would always flip to this cover page for daily inspiration.

It has been 2 years since I’m using a Hobonichi Techo again, you can tell from the aged cover with tea stain from 2010. To ease myself into this system again, I’m trying different type of writing in this journal, deciding what kind of things I want to record inside. Would it be an art journal? a Dear diary format? or a commonplace notebook with things I find interesting?

Starting with the 2016 pages really helps because even if I mess up the initial entries, it would always stay at the back of the booklet, which makes breaking in the journal very comfortable!

I just got back from a trip to Japan, and I got some amazing washi tape. So to start things off, I start sticking in washi samples, fresh from each roll. My initial pages are straight on travel journaling, just some rambles about my trip.

However, around mid-December I was really inspired by all the creative artworks on the Hobonichi Users Facebook page, where everyone is using more colourful medium on the tomoe river pages. I decided to get over my fear of colouring and start drawing some illustrations to accompany my daily journaling.

I would use waterproof pigment ink pens to draw the outlines of my doodles, then colour it using Winsor and Newton pocket palette water-colour. The tiny paintbrush is really convenient on painting on the small canvas that is A6.

Food is definitely my favourite doodling subject. I love how embracing colour allows me to enhance my memory on the delicious things I’ve eaten!

Gradually, my Hobonichi is becoming an art diary, where I illustrate and write down interesting things about my day.

Well, what do you think of my Hobonichi use? I’ll be sharing more pages soon, and you can always let me know in the comment what else you would like to see!