Hello, this is Asato and I recently call myself “a life coach with a journal”. Thank you very much for visiting my website “minimalish life”. I write about anything related to planning, journaling and stationery.
Since this is my first blog post in 2025, I want to share what planner/notebooks I am using this year. As much as I admire those people who use the same one again and again every year, I always find new items, get excited and want to give it a go.
It’s ok to have multiple notebook!
First of all, I advocate using multiple items. Because there are so many options out there and they are all interesting. Also, depending on how you want to use them or where you want to use them, sometimes it is easier to have multiple items than trying to combine into one big book.
For example, I separate my planner and journal.
- Planner: This is for planning for the future. This has my monthly calendar and weekly calendar. Together with my daily page where I jot down all the To Do for the day.
- Journal: This is for writing about what happened, the result of the day. What I did and where I went, and a little bit of reflection on how I felt and what I’ve learnt.
Basically, for me, planner is for writing about the future. On the other hand, journals are for the past. There is a significant difference between the two, that I prefer to have them separately.
For example, where I use it is different.
- Planner: I need to carry my planner everywhere I go. So my little book is always inside my bag, or somewhere visible during the weekend. This means I prefer to have a smaller booklet that fits in my bag.
- Journal: I normally write in the evening so I mainly stay at home. Somehow I feel insecure to take the book which contains a lot of personal thoughts to the office. Since I don’t carry it around, I prefer to choose a slightly bigger sized notebook for ample space to write in.
My Planner Line-up for 2025!
So here is what I’ve chosen as my companion of the year. I have done a lot of experiments and trials in 2024, I am quite confident with my choice for this year.
>> If you feel it’s overwhelming to read the whole article, there is a video version on my YouTube channel. Click here to jump to the video.
Filofax Original Pocket size
My small blue book is my every-day-carry planner. This is my 2nd year with a rings-planner. I found this whole new world last year and I really enjoyed the flexibility of setting up my own planner.
Last year, I used “personal size” but I wanted to try a smaller size so I purchased a “pocket size” planner. Yes, it is quite tiny but I love how it fits nicely in my hand. Basically the paper size is just about my phone, so it is a handy size planner.
Main components of this planner is as below;
- Monthly calendar: Any appointments goes straight into monthly calendar
- Weekly page: By checking the monthly calendar, I always set up a weekly spread on Sunday. Checking what’s ahead and listing up what I need or want to do in the coming week.
- Daily page: Every morning, I open a new page and list up the task for the day. Without this Todo list, I get lost with what to do. Having a fresh new page every day is a big reason why I decided to continue using rings-planner.
- Habit tracker: As I carry this planner on a daily basis, I have a few habit trackers to see the progress. Currently I am tracking my daily movement and my content creation (like this blog post!).
Hobonichi Cousin A5 size
A big black book is for my daily journaling. I have used the same planner in 2024, one page a day style was very nice to write about the day. It gave me more motivation to have a small pocket of time at the end of the day, to reflect on what I did and how I felt. This year, I have upgraded to A5 size which is bigger than the previous year.
Main components of this planner is as below;
- Monthly calendar: As I don’t use this monthly as my planning section, I’m writing down the title of blog posts, substack posts and Youtube videos. Just a fun place to capture my creative outlet.
- Vertical weekly spread: The main reason I wanted to upgrade to A5 size planner is that it contains a vertical weekly format.I’m using this section for jotting down what I did throughout the day. I really like seeing what I did in vertical format, which visually shows how I am spending my time.
- Daily pages: I try to journal, even just a few sentences, every day. Of course, it is not perfect, but having dated pages helps me to keep up. I also try to stick some bits and pieces from the day, as a fun memory keeping space, such as wrapping paper pieces from gifts or stickers from some packaging.
Hobonichi weeks MEGA
Slim weekly planner is called my Archive. This is a new concept for me, but I think it is going to work! Basically this is the book I want to review in the future when I’m looking for some information.
As I cannot find a good way to store the used pages in Filofax rings-planner, the daily notes and Todo list gets discarded by the end of the year. But there is some information that I want to keep for future references, such as appointments or daily notes. Those information are expected to be transferred into this slim size planner.
I also like printing pictures and sticking them with daily notes, as a fun memory keeping spread.
Main components are;
- Monthly calendar: At the end of the month, I transfer my calendar info from Filofax as a result of the month
- Weekly spread: I capture my daily 3good things and what I learnt from listing to podcast or watching Youtube videos
- Note pages: Hobonichi weeks MEGA has 200+ memo pages. This will capture my daily notes together with pictures. Also, I’ve created “Exercise tracker”, “Cycle tracker”, “Book journal” and some other spreads to keep my activity log.
I am excited to start the new year with 3 fresh new items! I have shared in my previous post that planning and journaling is my main hobby.
>> If you want to check out what I learnt from this hobby in 2024, please check this article!
When I am scribbling my thoughts, I get more clarity and I feel more peace. This is why I prepared 3 books to play with. I like them all and they all have different purposes. So I am quite confident that I won’t drop it along the way. Let’s see how it goes!
