Habit trackers track, even when I’m not tracking
Habit trackers are my go-to strategy for recording consistency and inconsistency. The annual Gantt charts in my Hobonichi planner track activities that the logical side of my brain knows are important. Filling in those boxes (ahem: tiny swatches of ink) is just plain fun. I want to take up my tracked hobbies because I enjoy filling in each day’s grid.
Tracking is useful for me even when I am unable to maintain them. Any practice that works even when I don’t actively use it is worth its weight in ink.
Such a pretty gridscape
Reviewing patterns helps me to better predict what kinds of mental supports I need to plan ahead for. And, more superficially, thinking through those patterns is a great journaling practice. Feeding two birds with one scone.
Just as important, though, is the negative space. Valleys of empty habit boxes. Spans of entire days where I ignore the spread.
Such vacuous negative space
Negative space in a habit tracker is evidence that I’m overwhelmed and need low-entry self-care. Or to ask for help with the projects living on my desk. A record of my mental taxation — not so much a true accounting of the tasks I took on each day. Different paths to the same outcome.
White flags to signal help is on the way
This week’s Inked Tines update includes last week’s currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. No single pairing stood above the pack last week.
Pilot Custom Heritage 92 (EF) — 1/5. Pristine EF lines. Clog free writing. Moon Beam is a middling grey awash in shimmer. A fun, useful pairing. Both my daily driver and pocket carry last week. Task management, pocket notes, reading notes, and meeting notes.
Pilot Custom 74 (B) — 1/3. Untouched all week. A shame as the nib-ink pairing performs well.
Platinum 3776 (M) — 4/5. The quality of Platinum’s M nib was a pleasant surprise. I reached for this pairing while working out lesson plans, while reflecting on how lessons went, and for a brief bout of reading notes. Quality.
Esterbrook Estie Raven (B) — 4/5. The B is moderately wet, which offers a reliable wide line that is dry enough to dry legibly on absorbent work paper. One lesson plan.
Loft Highworth (M Long Blade) — 3/4. The long, curvy section is comfortable during both short writing sessions and long hauls. The Long Blade kept the Blizzard snowing shimmer. Journaling, lesson plans, and reading notes. Boss.
Visconti Homo Sapiens (EF) — ?? A second untouched pairing last week. What was I doing?
Krusac L-15 (EF SIG) — 4/5. Deep, dark lines with fun green-silver shimmer. Lines dark enough to serve in task management and meeting notes. And phone meetings, where the stellar wood grain won’t derail conversation.
Notebooks. Work bujo. Kokuyo Century (A5). My week started on page 209 and landed on 217. An adapted two-page weekly, three single-page lesson plan outlines, and four pages of meeting notes. It felt great to write and think again.
Howdy there
A three-day teaching week presents a challenge to my typical two-page weekly planner spread. The spread separates the page into six lists: one per weekday and a sixth titled “Later” for tasks that accrue without pressing need to address this week. This week stuck to three daily lists, a later list and a double-sized list for a large administrative project. Great timing.
I used my two darkest colors for the task management layout’s structure. The Krusac and its black-brown Astral formed headings and border lines. The Pilot’s hairline EF ensured I could cram detailed list items into my daily task lists. Simple colors, shimmer partying aside.
I tagged in the Raven, 3776, and Highworth for lesson plan outlines last week. All three are reliable performers with moderate line widths. Excellent for legible, detailed notes that are visible from afar.
Journal. Kobeha Graphilo (A5). I enter the new calendar year riding high on the enjoyment of Kobeha’s Graphilo notebooks. The binding lays flat. The colors are subdued, which allows my inks to live center stage. And liquid inks show crisp edges with generous shading and sheen. Boom …
… shakalaka
I made use of last week’s reflection to post up in the study on Thursday and Friday evenings. My desk offers me ready access to solid speakers, functional lighting, and all of my stationery easily to-hand.
My Loft Highworth took a two-page reflective journey with me on Thursday evening. The long gently curved section keeps the pen comfortably in hand throughout the 30 minute writing session. Comfortable.
The winter sweater of colorways
The M Long Blade throws off Blizzard’s sheen at the outset of each round of scribbling. The combination of line variation and shading kept me on the hunt for objects to think through.
Written dry. Seven near-full pens. Choice and bounty. All seven pairings ended ready to write on.
Newly inked. Nuh-uh.
The collection
Incoming / new orders. Two gifts rolled in as family visited us around New Years. One pen and two inks. I’m digging all three.
Platinum’s line of Mt. Fuji inspired pens and inks rolled on last year. I was gifted the Uroko-gumo edition after the Christmas holiday. The muted blue-teal cap and faceted body live squarely within my aesthetic homestay. The nib offers my first Platinum M.
The Uroko-gumo arrived packaged with a converter and Platinum’s own take on capturing the colors within a Hokusai painting. History and stationery are my jam.
I also welcomed a bottle of grass-green Sailor Waka-uguisu into my closet.
The holiday season has been kind.
Outgoing / trades or sales. Empty slots in my pen case leave me with a sense of outward movement done well last quarter.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. I have both an audiobook and an ebook currently underway. A rarity for me as I find tracking two stories simultaneously challenging.
RC Bray’s performance as reader of the Expeditionary Force series is magnetic. I am on my second listen-through of the series. Currently 76% into Valkyrie, the ninth book in the series.
I’ve taken to listening while handling chores, while getting ready each morning, and during afternoon commutes home.
I’m also 319 pages into Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time. I primarily read as a way to slow my mind down at the end of each day. About an hour reading on my phone, sans internet connectivity.
Nonfiction. My nonfiction attentions orbited teaching needs. I am still learning my new school’s curriculum. That process translates into hours trawling excerpts from history textbooks and primary sources — many of which are new to me.
I exchanged my trusty Mitsubishi 9850 pencil for the beautiful TWA edition Blackwing by Friday. The Mitsubishi had worn down to the pencil’s foiled branding.
Just a nubbin’
The Blackwing’s softer core leaves dark, easily read lines but requires sharpening every other page. I will change back to a new Mitsubishi next week. Lighter letters is a price worth paying for expediting my reading time — opting for more infrequent sharpening sessions.
Music. I opted for a lively playlist of guitar-driven songs. The tracks in Spotify’s Shimmer playlist are largely instrumental. They span genres from neo-orchestral to jazz, to hip-hop, to rock. Variety that kept me awake, focused, and plugged into my grading.
