To avoid breaking the binding on a brand new book, you can "open" a book by going through page by page slowly and sliding a finger down the middle of the binding or flat fingers over the middle. We used to do it at the library I worked at for new books so the binding didn't break easily. There is likely a video if you can't visualize what I am saying, it easy but takes some time so people don't do it. It will save the binding of hard covers and paperbacks.
Yes!!! This works amazingly. I'm a medstudent and my books can get *thick.* Every time I get new books, I spent a couple minutes "breaking the spine." It really helps maintain the quality of the book for long term.
I have ADHD, and found this so relatable. I appreciate how in tune you are with your productivity, and how the layouts made you feel and influenced your productivity.
I have ADHD too and I am still looking for a planner that I would stick to… I have tried about 10 (including BuJo) and I am still figuring out what could work for me.
Thanks for showing all the different iterations, even the things that you tried and didn't keep! It's really encouraging to see the process :) I'm still struggling to find the balance between work and personal, and keeping track of priorities and todos... but your videos remind me that it's worth it to keep trying. Also (idk how to phrase this properly) I find it very comforting to watch planning-related videos from people like you who have a "normal" (I hate that word) job, I find it easier to relate. Or maybe youtube has only been showing me full-time youtubers and I've been missing out, idk. Point is, thank you for doing what you do!!
It’s amazing the tricks we left-handed fountain pen users have to implement. I find blotter paper under part of my left hand when writing does the job.
I hold my pencil the same way you do! It’s called a lateral quadrupod grip I’m glad that you’re liking the Hobonichi so much. I like your channel’s vibe 😊
So interesting! I had to look up the terminology, and now know that my grip is the dynamic quadrupod. What I already knew was I had a lucky escape from being forced to change in primary school. There was another American immigrant student in my class who happened to hold his pen the same way. The teacher imagined we had learned it in American schools and left us alone. Pure luck 😅
@@oonarhu4681 I'm American and we were taught to hold our pencil in the dynamic tripod grip. But since it hurt my fingers I got good at switching back and forth so I would only hold it the painful way while the teacher was walking by
One thing that I find helpful with the yearly tracker is to still use the tracker in the weekly section or to write the habits as to-dos at the top of my dailies and then update them every couple days to the big list. The big one is helpful for seeing patterns that I don't notice with the normal weekly trackers.
I'm left-handed, and I love fountain pens, inks, and Tomoe River Paper so much, that I re-trained myself to write with my hand under the line so I wouldn't smudge. I used to write like you, or with an even more extreme over-hand. It took me about a year to re-train, I used the Spencerian method of handwriting. When I write in print, or use pencil or ball-point pen, I revert to my old over-handed style.
I just recently bought the Sarasa vintage pens and was mourning the sepia black one because I dropped it and it stopped working. I also love the Muji pens and how thin they are, but they're really not comfortable to hold. When I tell you I JUMPED to switch the ink... You made my whole week with that fact alone, thank you!!
I use the blank page at the beginning of each month to brainstorm all the things I want and need to cover in the month. Then based off that page I migrate to do's into the daily pages. I don't tend to go back to it during the month. If I've got a "loose" but priority important item on there that I've not assigned to a day, I'll stick a post it index tab on the top edge (where it's annoying enough that I'll get the item sorted so I can take the tab off....). Otherwise I just check back to the page when I'm brainstorming the following month. Ie it's kind of a WIP to do list page
As a fellow leftie I hold my pen that way too!!! I have never seen anyone else hold it that way either… nice knowing I am not the only one😊 for my monthly to does I set a date I want to have them done by so I don’t forget about them. Great video!
Love to see how you're adjusting to the Cousin! I had the "ridge" issue with pages being pushed away from the spine as well, but I was quite rough with it too 😅 I vote yes for a planner podcast!
@@keiralee No for me it was when the planner was new, but I was trying to put it in a cover that was a tiiiiiny bit too small which resulted in the spine bending too much and the pages being pushed out permanently. Totally my fault though
New to the channel so I’m not sure if you tried it or not but in the blank page at the beginning of the month, what about ways to achieve your monthly focus - sort of like a brainstorming of how to make it happen. Then the highlights could become something like achievements. Steps you took to accomplish that focus/goal.
Groente soep! I knew you were Dutch 😆 That being said, I noticed the Action has washi tape and planner sticker books that are really cheap, so might be worth checking out
As someone below suggested blotting paper has been essential to my Hobonichi cousin use. I only use fountain pens and although I am not left handed I am not patient at waiting for ink to dry. With my blotting paper I don’t have to and it lasts forever. I have been using the same piece all 2023 in my cousin and the paper still looks brand new.
OMG I'm left handed too and I also hold my pen like you!!!!! I've never met another person in my entire life who holds their own like us. You've made me so happy - I've finally met my pen holding twin 😂 Re TRP and fountain pens, I have the same problem. My solution is that for my work planner I use a pencil because I need to be able to write without worrying about the ink, but for my journal and fun planners I hold a sheet of blotting paper over the part of the page that I've already written on so I can continue writing without smudging. Thanks so much for sharing your leftie pen struggles! ❤
Despite the fact that I live in Japan and have seen hobonichi planners many times I’ve never considered using one before. But I’ve been checking out your videos and really want to try it out. I started grad school this month and I think having a dedicated school planner that I can kind of journal in about school things I did that day sounds great. Now I have to try to find a 2023 one because I can’t wait till 2024!
Fun video - such a thorough walkthrough & it’s nice how much you’re enjoying it! ❤ I hold my pen the way you do. In my Hobonichi Weeks, I use a Hi Tec Coleto C multi pen (2 ink colors + pencil & eraser units) and UniBall Signo gel pens. I like .38 gel pens bc I write small & they dry pretty quickly.
Thank you so much for this video! I currently just use a random notebook I bought at a Bruna one day as self made planner/journal. The thought of having empty pages in a planner like this always put my off from using them. But this video plus your video about planner tips for bad mental health days really made me interested in using the cousin! Looking forward to watching the rest of your videos! (also you really have a pleasant accent!)
I bought a cousin for next year after using a jibun techo this year, but I had a similar realization that flipping back and forth to switch between weekly and daily isn’t really for me lol. I love using a todo list and time blocking for work, so the jibun techo works well for that. The cousin will end up being a daily journal, but I’m still debating what to do with the weekly pages 😅
I hold my pen very similarly to you, and I also love the Zebra pen grips! I am right handed but I've also found a good combination to write on the tomoe river paper with a Pentel Energel ink cartridge inside one of the Zebra sarasa clip pens. Happy journaling!
i sort of hold my pen the same way, my thumb doesn't always cross over (it depends on the angle of the pen). i'm an underwriter, though, when i use fountain pens (still the same grip, more relaxed) and i have not had an awful time with TR. i use a scrap piece of paper to cover wet writing, but honestly, i only put it on when i'm not working on that section it just gets in the way. good luck, the struggle is real!
For the weekly to dos - have you tried rolling weeklys? In my personal planner I don't use them heavily, but they are SO central to my work planner. I love the way it lends itself to soft planning completion dates in a simple visual way
Thank you for the review. This was nice to see, esp. as a lefty also. I love my G2 pens and knowing ink doesn’t dry fast is important to me. I also hold my pen the same way & never thought anything of it 😅 But, I do write completely perpendicular to my paper to keep me from smearing haha
I write the same as you with my fingers the same weird! And i am a lefty too!! I write with a card under my hand so i don't smear as much, but i don't use fountainpens.
I don't hold my pens like you, but I hate Muji pens for that barrel and I forgot you can just take the ink out and put it in something else! I switch all my uni-ball refills without issue but I had a weird block for the muji pen, not sure why, haha. Thank you!
I'm right handed but hold my pen the same too 😊 The barrel of the pen makes a huge difference to my experience with a pen too, and I have that permanent bump on my third finger (iykyk).
You're the first person I've ever seen who holds their pencil the same as me!! I was listening to your video in the background while doing other things and came back when you said that to watch that part because I was sure you wouldn't have held it the same as me.. and my jaw dropped.. JUST like how I hold it
Me too! I’m a lefty with the same grip. My ex calls it “the claw” 😆 I’ve got a nice little callous on the knuckle of my ring finger and I am forever sweeping ink across the page. In high school I used to fold up a piece of notebook paper and put it under my hand as I wrote. PaperMate pens were the worst - they turned the side of my hand blue. Now I love the Staples brand OptiFlow rollerball pens. Nice and smooth ink flow but dries super fast on most papers. It’s fair on Tomoe. I keep a stash of them because people keep stealing them and I’m always afraid they’re being discontinued. Usually I end up going with Uni Jetstream rollerball, I get great control on all types of paper and it never smudges. I also have trouble with my fountain pens on Tomoe. It’s disappointing.
Thank you for this video❤ I see that sometimes you take up several daily pages for one block of writing. What do you do on the days for which pages end up covered by the previous day's writing? Do you skip writing for that day, write somewhere else, or do you ignore the printed dates altogether and just keep writing on the next page?
I am right handed but I hold my pen the same way with two fingers instead of just the index finger!!! I've never seen anyone else hold it that way either!!
Adding a second comment because I forgot to include that in the 1st.... Would you consider adding subtitles to your videos? I think it would benefit a lot of people and might help you reach a wider audience. (For me personally, it would help me focus/retain information from your videos more easily as someone with ADHD. It would also help as a non-native English speaker) Auto-generated subs just aren't as good and can be hard to follow, especially when they inevitable mis-transcribe words and sentences. I understand if it's a lot to put in place, but it would mean a lot if you would just consider it :)
Hi, super fair question to ask! As this channel grows and I can hopefully afford it, my intention is to pay someone to subtitle the videos properly. Until then, I have been going back into the videos after they're uploaded and have been changing the biggest mistakes in the auto-generated subs manually as doing subs completely from scratch is just too much of a time commitment for me if I want to get a video out each week. However, (in my opinion) a flaw in TH-cam's system is that it takes a few (sometimes more than a few) hours to generate the subs, so I had no chance to do it yesterday before I went to sleep. Subs are a super important accessibility feature and I hope to improve them asap. Thanks for watching. 💛
Thanks for sharing the update. What size is this book? I have never seen a Hobonichi in person. Do they have one that has months and weeks but not dailies? Do the Stalogy books have dated dailies?
Is the Uniball 5 in 1 about the same circumstance as the 3 color Hobinichi one? I’ve been so curious about it, but I was worried about how big the grip would be.
Thank you for the walk-through. To me, the most annoying thing about a notebook is when pages got pushed out. Other than that I'm handling it just fine. 😊
I wish I knew!! 🥲 My very first video I think was good timing, because my Hobonichi order came in SUPER fast and I think because of that lots of people checked out the video and it spiralled from there!
@@NotebookOverloadd That was my second guess. 😅🤗 You speak so fluently, if it weren't for the German words, I would have thought you were a native American speaker. 👍
To avoid breaking the binding on a brand new book, you can "open" a book by going through page by page slowly and sliding a finger down the middle of the binding or flat fingers over the middle. We used to do it at the library I worked at for new books so the binding didn't break easily. There is likely a video if you can't visualize what I am saying, it easy but takes some time so people don't do it. It will save the binding of hard covers and paperbacks.
Yes!!! This works amazingly. I'm a medstudent and my books can get *thick.* Every time I get new books, I spent a couple minutes "breaking the spine." It really helps maintain the quality of the book for long term.
flat fingers over the middle of the page? or inside/outside of the binding? or something else entirely? :D
I have ADHD, and found this so relatable. I appreciate how in tune you are with your productivity, and how the layouts made you feel and influenced your productivity.
I have ADHD too and I am still looking for a planner that I would stick to… I have tried about 10 (including BuJo) and I am still figuring out what could work for me.
Thanks for showing all the different iterations, even the things that you tried and didn't keep! It's really encouraging to see the process :) I'm still struggling to find the balance between work and personal, and keeping track of priorities and todos... but your videos remind me that it's worth it to keep trying.
Also (idk how to phrase this properly) I find it very comforting to watch planning-related videos from people like you who have a "normal" (I hate that word) job, I find it easier to relate. Or maybe youtube has only been showing me full-time youtubers and I've been missing out, idk. Point is, thank you for doing what you do!!
It’s amazing the tricks we left-handed fountain pen users have to implement. I find blotter paper under part of my left hand when writing does the job.
I feel like the cousin is perfect for managing school and personal life with all the space it has and the 3 types of calendars
I have had to cope with IBS for so long. It’s quite comforting to see a planner friend with it too.
I hold my pencil the same way you do! It’s called a lateral quadrupod grip
I’m glad that you’re liking the Hobonichi so much. I like your channel’s vibe 😊
So interesting! I had to look up the terminology, and now know that my grip is the dynamic quadrupod. What I already knew was I had a lucky escape from being forced to change in primary school. There was another American immigrant student in my class who happened to hold his pen the same way. The teacher imagined we had learned it in American schools and left us alone. Pure luck 😅
@@oonarhu4681 I'm American and we were taught to hold our pencil in the dynamic tripod grip. But since it hurt my fingers I got good at switching back and forth so I would only hold it the painful way while the teacher was walking by
One thing that I find helpful with the yearly tracker is to still use the tracker in the weekly section or to write the habits as to-dos at the top of my dailies and then update them every couple days to the big list. The big one is helpful for seeing patterns that I don't notice with the normal weekly trackers.
Good idea!! I might end up doing that
Could you explain this a little differently? I wanna use the idea for when I get mine but I don't know if I fully understand what you're describing 😅
I also hold my pen the same way you do! I was forever being told off for it when I was a kid. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. 😊
I'm left-handed, and I love fountain pens, inks, and Tomoe River Paper so much, that I re-trained myself to write with my hand under the line so I wouldn't smudge. I used to write like you, or with an even more extreme over-hand. It took me about a year to re-train, I used the Spencerian method of handwriting. When I write in print, or use pencil or ball-point pen, I revert to my old over-handed style.
I just recently bought the Sarasa vintage pens and was mourning the sepia black one because I dropped it and it stopped working. I also love the Muji pens and how thin they are, but they're really not comfortable to hold. When I tell you I JUMPED to switch the ink... You made my whole week with that fact alone, thank you!!
So glad I could help! Enjoy your new pen combo!
YES YES YES to a planner podcast!
this is such good information, stuff i never would have thought about and im just about to start my journey 💜
so glad this was helpful to you
19:00 This purple spread is so beautiful. 😍 💜✒️🦉
thank you so much!! Purple is my favorite color :)
I use the blank page at the beginning of each month to brainstorm all the things I want and need to cover in the month. Then based off that page I migrate to do's into the daily pages. I don't tend to go back to it during the month. If I've got a "loose" but priority important item on there that I've not assigned to a day, I'll stick a post it index tab on the top edge (where it's annoying enough that I'll get the item sorted so I can take the tab off....). Otherwise I just check back to the page when I'm brainstorming the following month. Ie it's kind of a WIP to do list page
As a fellow leftie I hold my pen that way too!!! I have never seen anyone else hold it that way either… nice knowing I am not the only one😊 for my monthly to does I set a date I want to have them done by so I don’t forget about them. Great video!
Love to see how you're adjusting to the Cousin! I had the "ridge" issue with pages being pushed away from the spine as well, but I was quite rough with it too 😅 I vote yes for a planner podcast!
Glad I’m not the only one hahaha, I was like did I break my planner?? Lol
Are the ridge issues happening on the used pages though? Because I've found they natually do that.
@@keiralee No for me it was when the planner was new, but I was trying to put it in a cover that was a tiiiiiny bit too small which resulted in the spine bending too much and the pages being pushed out permanently. Totally my fault though
New to the channel so I’m not sure if you tried it or not but in the blank page at the beginning of the month, what about ways to achieve your monthly focus - sort of like a brainstorming of how to make it happen. Then the highlights could become something like achievements. Steps you took to accomplish that focus/goal.
I like this idea!
Groente soep! I knew you were Dutch 😆 That being said, I noticed the Action has washi tape and planner sticker books that are really cheap, so might be worth checking out
😂 I saw this too ❤
LOVE the stickers on your cousin cover!!
As someone below suggested blotting paper has been essential to my Hobonichi cousin use. I only use fountain pens and although I am not left handed I am not patient at waiting for ink to dry. With my blotting paper I don’t have to and it lasts forever. I have been using the same piece all 2023 in my cousin and the paper still looks brand new.
[Based solely on this video] We have the exact same taste in pens, even down to switching the MUJI cartridge into the Sarasa pen! How cool!!
OH! And I hold my pen very similarly to you! Maybe that's how that worked out hehehe
OMG I'm left handed too and I also hold my pen like you!!!!! I've never met another person in my entire life who holds their own like us. You've made me so happy - I've finally met my pen holding twin 😂 Re TRP and fountain pens, I have the same problem. My solution is that for my work planner I use a pencil because I need to be able to write without worrying about the ink, but for my journal and fun planners I hold a sheet of blotting paper over the part of the page that I've already written on so I can continue writing without smudging. Thanks so much for sharing your leftie pen struggles! ❤
Despite the fact that I live in Japan and have seen hobonichi planners many times I’ve never considered using one before.
But I’ve been checking out your videos and really want to try it out. I started grad school this month and I think having a dedicated school planner that I can kind of journal in about school things I did that day sounds great.
Now I have to try to find a 2023 one because I can’t wait till 2024!
Fun video - such a thorough walkthrough & it’s nice how much you’re enjoying it! ❤ I hold my pen the way you do. In my Hobonichi Weeks, I use a Hi Tec Coleto C multi pen (2 ink colors + pencil & eraser units) and UniBall Signo gel pens. I like .38 gel pens bc I write small & they dry pretty quickly.
Thank you so much for this video! I currently just use a random notebook I bought at a Bruna one day as self made planner/journal. The thought of having empty pages in a planner like this always put my off from using them. But this video plus your video about planner tips for bad mental health days really made me interested in using the cousin!
Looking forward to watching the rest of your videos! (also you really have a pleasant accent!)
Thank you so much!! I’m glad I could make you feel inspired. I feel self conscious about the accent so I’m glad to hear you enjoy listening :D
I bought a cousin for next year after using a jibun techo this year, but I had a similar realization that flipping back and forth to switch between weekly and daily isn’t really for me lol. I love using a todo list and time blocking for work, so the jibun techo works well for that. The cousin will end up being a daily journal, but I’m still debating what to do with the weekly pages 😅
I hold my pen very similarly to you, and I also love the Zebra pen grips! I am right handed but I've also found a good combination to write on the tomoe river paper with a Pentel Energel ink cartridge inside one of the Zebra sarasa clip pens. Happy journaling!
i sort of hold my pen the same way, my thumb doesn't always cross over (it depends on the angle of the pen). i'm an underwriter, though, when i use fountain pens (still the same grip, more relaxed) and i have not had an awful time with TR. i use a scrap piece of paper to cover wet writing, but honestly, i only put it on when i'm not working on that section it just gets in the way. good luck, the struggle is real!
Just found your channel recently and have been enjoying it!! Also Behind the garden wall 🤣
I keep misremembering the name for some reason!! Lol
For the weekly to dos - have you tried rolling weeklys? In my personal planner I don't use them heavily, but they are SO central to my work planner. I love the way it lends itself to soft planning completion dates in a simple visual way
Thank you for the review. This was nice to see, esp. as a lefty also. I love my G2 pens and knowing ink doesn’t dry fast is important to me. I also hold my pen the same way & never thought anything of it 😅 But, I do write completely perpendicular to my paper to keep me from smearing haha
I write the same as you with my fingers the same weird! And i am a lefty too!! I write with a card under my hand so i don't smear as much, but i don't use fountainpens.
The anxiety at minute 3.00 lol. I "plan" to be more like you. I have made progress. Love the video!
I don't hold my pens like you, but I hate Muji pens for that barrel and I forgot you can just take the ink out and put it in something else! I switch all my uni-ball refills without issue but I had a weird block for the muji pen, not sure why, haha. Thank you!
I'm right handed but hold my pen the same too 😊 The barrel of the pen makes a huge difference to my experience with a pen too, and I have that permanent bump on my third finger (iykyk).
You're the first person I've ever seen who holds their pencil the same as me!! I was listening to your video in the background while doing other things and came back when you said that to watch that part because I was sure you wouldn't have held it the same as me.. and my jaw dropped.. JUST like how I hold it
Pen-holding-twins! 🥰 I got a few comments like this one so we’re not alone!
Me too! I’m a lefty with the same grip. My ex calls it “the claw” 😆 I’ve got a nice little callous on the knuckle of my ring finger and I am forever sweeping ink across the page. In high school I used to fold up a piece of notebook paper and put it under my hand as I wrote. PaperMate pens were the worst - they turned the side of my hand blue. Now I love the Staples brand OptiFlow rollerball pens. Nice and smooth ink flow but dries super fast on most papers. It’s fair on Tomoe. I keep a stash of them because people keep stealing them and I’m always afraid they’re being discontinued. Usually I end up going with Uni Jetstream rollerball, I get great control on all types of paper and it never smudges.
I also have trouble with my fountain pens on Tomoe. It’s disappointing.
The claw omg! I have the same callous in the same spot. Twinsies, lol. Thank you for the pen rec!
Midori makes and A5 clear plastic notebook cover that fits the cousin. I have one for my A5 Hobonichi notebook
I also hold my pen like that! I think it might be a lefty thing? For some lefties anyway.
I hold my pen the same way, just right-handed. I think they call it a tripod grip? So nice to meet you, my twin hand.
Thank you for sharing this with us!
Kombuca is great for ibs
Tomoe is hard for leftys. There are inks that dry faster, noodles makes some food leftys
Thank you for this video❤
I see that sometimes you take up several daily pages for one block of writing. What do you do on the days for which pages end up covered by the previous day's writing? Do you skip writing for that day, write somewhere else, or do you ignore the printed dates altogether and just keep writing on the next page?
Thank you for this very thorough review. ❤
I am right handed but I hold my pen the same way with two fingers instead of just the index finger!!! I've never seen anyone else hold it that way either!!
Adding a second comment because I forgot to include that in the 1st....
Would you consider adding subtitles to your videos? I think it would benefit a lot of people and might help you reach a wider audience. (For me personally, it would help me focus/retain information from your videos more easily as someone with ADHD. It would also help as a non-native English speaker)
Auto-generated subs just aren't as good and can be hard to follow, especially when they inevitable mis-transcribe words and sentences.
I understand if it's a lot to put in place, but it would mean a lot if you would just consider it :)
Hi, super fair question to ask! As this channel grows and I can hopefully afford it, my intention is to pay someone to subtitle the videos properly. Until then, I have been going back into the videos after they're uploaded and have been changing the biggest mistakes in the auto-generated subs manually as doing subs completely from scratch is just too much of a time commitment for me if I want to get a video out each week. However, (in my opinion) a flaw in TH-cam's system is that it takes a few (sometimes more than a few) hours to generate the subs, so I had no chance to do it yesterday before I went to sleep. Subs are a super important accessibility feature and I hope to improve them asap. Thanks for watching. 💛
My sister also holds her pen on her fourth finger, but she's right handed.
My son is left handed - he holds his pen exactly the same way as you
Thanks for sharing the update. What size is this book? I have never seen a Hobonichi in person. Do they have one that has months and weeks but not dailies? Do the Stalogy books have dated dailies?
The daily pages truly gives me anxiety 🙈📖 never look back and getting back to buying my 2024 weeks
Is the Uniball 5 in 1 about the same circumstance as the 3 color Hobinichi one? I’ve been so curious about it, but I was worried about how big the grip would be.
Oh i hold my pen the same way!
Can you tell me what is the difference between the Cousin and the Hon version?
7:07 use a brown marker
Thank you for the walk-through. To me, the most annoying thing about a notebook is when pages got pushed out. Other than that I'm handling it just fine. 😊
You could try and clean the cover with an eraser, it doesn't do magic but its something😂
Wait not a bad idea actually! I will try this
I hold it like that!
I also hold my pen like that! :D
i'm right handed and i hold my pen like that
Ik zie zondag friet dag. Toevallig ook Vlaams?
Hoe ben jij aan de hobonichi geraakt? Waar ik zoek zijn hoge verzendkosten
Nederlands - I kocht ‘m op Penstore.nl
@@NotebookOverloadd ah, ik van Vlaanderen maar niet ver van de Nederlandse grens
❤
Inquiring minds (a/k/a ME) want to know....HOW did you get 2000 subscribers in a month? What is your secret??
I wish I knew!! 🥲 My very first video I think was good timing, because my Hobonichi order came in SUPER fast and I think because of that lots of people checked out the video and it spiralled from there!
Are you German? Begonnen, bestellen..
Dutch :)!
@@NotebookOverloadd That was my second guess. 😅🤗 You speak so fluently, if it weren't for the German words, I would have thought you were a native American speaker. 👍
I love stickers. But I can't use them they are too distracting and I find myself struggling to focus on what I wrote.
I am the same way!! :)