How’s that fancy planner going?

“So,” my friend asked, a smirk growing on his face, “how’s that fancy planner going?” Friendly snark aside, it’s a fair question. Me and my hoity-toity planner had a plan last fall. Here’s how it’s going halfway into 2022.

Working within any planning system is challenging. Partly because my needs change based on my mentality and the kinds of work I’m digging into. Partly, also, because I need to translate preprinted planner spreads into trackers that make sense in my world. The same goes for digital apps and their functions.

And I’ll share the tale in order: most to least successful.

Reading log. Hobonichi describes this section as a space to record 40 of your favorite “things.” Books, music, movies, etc.

Reflecting on movement — my forward progress — rather than recording preferences for posterity makes sense to me. My planner is a transient book. Posterity is better housed elsewhere.

Instead: these four pages are my reading tracker. They provide just enough room to record the author, title, publication year of each book I read this year. There’s even room for the date I finish each book. And a pre-printed star rating system. Meant to be.

12 books so far. Brings a happy tear to the eye.

Monthly task management. Tiny 6x7 cells. One per day. Teeny spaces for recording tasks or events. And an outer shell of space for floating tasks and notes.

I’ve learned that I only get to a maximum of two personal, non-teaching tasks a day. Even on Saturdays and Sundays. Time and energy are finite.

The tiny day cells are fantastic for limiting my ambitions to only those tasks that I can physically write into each day’s box. I’m officially a convert to monthly spreads — for my home life.

Habit tracking. Hobonichi placed sixteen vertical monthly indexes in the front of their Day-Free. These are intended to serve as trackers for long-term commitments and projects.

I converted these indexes into habit trackers on the advice of thoughtful readers. Excellent advice. Each month tracks eleven habits that bring me joy.

Viewing my habit trackers as a four-month spread illustrates the ink colors I gravitate towards throughout the year. And how these palettes shift with the changing seasons. And how they stay the same. Accidental a-ha.

Empty pages. Such freedom. Such flexibility. A notebook within the planner notebook. And with numbered pages. 171 numbered pages.

These rear pages house my currently inked collections. But 52 weeks of currently inked palettes would leave well over 100 unused pages. No good.

I’ve taken to using these empty grid pages during pen meetups. Scribbles and jottings and experimentations with new-to-me pen-and-ink combinations. Fun times deserve to happen in my planner.

So. In the words of diversity and equity folk: it’s not your intention, it’s your impact. Six months in and I’m digging the impact of this Hobo.

This week’s Inked Tines update includes last week’s currently inked writing tools.

Toolset

Pens. The Fates did not call out a standout combo this week.

Visconti Homo Sapiens (EF) — ?? Multiple personalities. Dry at times. Moderately wet at others. Azure Noir has tantrums in this nib. However, the magnetic closer and comfortably large Visconti make for quick and easy task management and scratch notes. Also: lesson plans and meeting notes.
Visconti Homo Sapiens (F CI) — ?? Lovely soft nib lends whimsy to long writing sessions. Tactile feel of the lava-resin and hook-lock cap make this pen a lovely — and silent — fidget gadget during long meetings. Manuscript drafting, letter, meeting notes, reading notes and journaling.
Montblanc 146 (EF) — 1/3. My accent pairing. Noting action items in meeting notes. Marking manuscripts and student papers. Tidy EF line is excellent for detailed reading notes, too.
Narwhal Schuylkill (EF) — 1/3. A fun pocket carry, if too long to comfortably sit inside a pant pocket. The generous EF nib ensures Brane shades noticeably. Discussion notes, meeting notes, journaling, reading notes and some scratch notes. All the writing types.
Pelikan m805 (F CSI) — 2/5. I enjoy this combo during reading notes and journaling. The F italic nib keeps an orderly, disciplined line — so my writing stays clear. The Montblanc ink stands out easily against Azure Noir for efficient skimming. Not my favorite color, but certainly useful.
Franklin-Christoph 45 (F) — 3/4. A comfortably compact pen with a forgiving and wet F nib. The F line is just wet enough to encourage Extra Dimension’s sheen. combined, this was my go-to journaling and poetry-writing pen. Journaling, some scratch notes, reading notes, and teaching notes.

Notebooks. Work bujo. Rhodia Goalbook (A5). I’ve settled on pen and ink combinations that work quite well in this notebook. EF nibs and moderately-wet inks. The result: Fourteen new pages of enjoyable work writing. The final week of classes is set to begin on page 60.

A two-page weekly spread is followed by five pages of notes from my students’ review discussions of the primary sources we studied from the late 19th century push for independence from Sweden. I enjoy hearing students share their thinking with one another. And I even get paid to listen and take note. Fantastic.

I alternate between two pen-and-ink combinations for such roundtable notes. Doing so keeps each student question — and their classmates’ responses to each question — visually distinct from one another. A candy cane of notetaking.

Another two pages are the lesson plan and discussion notes from a faculty workshop on diversity and equity that I ran for some colleagues. I swapped between three pens for this session.

The stormtrooper Visconti for attendance and structure on the page. The Franklin-Christoph’s blue Extra Dimension for changes I needed to make on the fly. And the Narwhal for recording major questions and points from their end-of-session debrief roundtable chat. Exciting, I know.

Journal. YT Bindery Yu-yo (A5). I returned to a routine week of evening journaling with three long-form reflections added to my journal. Nine new pages of writing in all.

Tuesday night was a one-pen show. The Franklin-Christoph 45 took me on a two-page, two paragraph ride. A targeted brainstorm on a new posting schedule for the mnmlscholar blog.

Thursday was a one-combo show, too. The Narwhal and it’s lovely nib and ink pairing added three more pages via three more paragraphs. This entry was an analytic reflection upon finishing Gore Vidal’s The Last Empire.

Friday was a livelier two-pen riot. A second three page analytic reflection, followed by lyrics from Tool’s Lateralus — my Friday commute soundtrack. The Silver Age Homo Sapiens carried the reflection itself. The Pelikan chipped in for Keenan’s poetry. Both italic grinds lent whimsy to my writing.

I have a longstanding tradition of logging the pen, nib, and ink combinations I use at the end of each entry. The ink name, in particular, inspires me on those occasions I return to an entry at a later date. And it is a sure quicker than searching back through my currently inked logs in a correspondingly aged planner.

In sum: logging pen and ink combinations at the ends of journal entries makes reviewing old journals fun, and is useful. A winning combination.

However, I’m growing bored of the same old system — of the hows and where’s to these short concluding notes. Instagram is an excellent source of inspiration for alternate ways of noting what each entry is written with. And very much a journey I’m still trekking.

Written dry. All six pens survived the week. Inky success as a result of rotating writing duties often throughout the week.

Newly inked. I behaved. Absolutely behaved. Stuck with my original sextet. Barely. Phew.

The collection

Incoming / new orders. The pre-DC Pen Show Embargo rolls on.

Outgoing / trades or sales. The gravity of my collection is holding firm. No outward movement of pens or inks last week.

Currently reading and listening

Fiction. I hath finished Mariel of Redwall. Friday’s half-day gave me a blissful two hours to read and unwind while the sun still shone. A lovely way to end a workweek. The four revenge storylines converged neatly, in class Jacques style, with a final battle.

The epilogue, though, was the novel’s shining star. It’s an excerpt from the next Abbott’s diary, from weeks after the novel’s final events. The entry catches you up on what became of each major character from the ensemble cast. Touching stuff.

Nonfiction. A banner week. I also finished Gore Vidal’s collection of late essays, The Last Empire.

I skipped around, especially passed the book reviews. The life and political commentary essays were interesting — especially given Vidal’s gifted prose. The book reviews didn’t land with me.

I noted a handful of phrases with quick vertical lines in the margins. My well-loved Blackwing Natural — with a hard core — as my primary reading companion.

Music. My listening leaned old school last week. CALLmeKAT’s 2008 record, Fall Down, played on and off all week. In the car. While reading. While writing. While washing dishes. While walking my editor.

Delicate vocal arrangements rest atop a hybrid blend of electronic and analog instruments. And a silly rendition of Toxic. Just enough personality to keep me awake while reading.

Sadly, the album is hard to find in the US. Regardless, Fall Down is a welcome change of tone from a talented Dane.

Other songs worth exploring are Do Your Trick and My Sea.

A word of caution. The link to Do Your Trick is clearly some sort of bootleg — but is the only version of the song my online searching discovered in a shareable format. The struggles of an aging former college DJ.

How’s that fancy planner going?

Toolset

The collection

Currently reading and listening

A mnml Digest: Records we make

A piston-heavy penscape