I highly recommend getting a set of Pilot frixion ball point pens they are really great for erasing and their ink so their nice and bold without being afraid of erasing pencil and making a mess or ripping the page :)
Hi Chris, I loved this video, and i, too, have a kitchen wall calendar in my house to keep track of everyones appt. And planned stuff. I'm so glad that you are feeling better.
As I was watching this my husband told me he went and ordered the hobonichi weeks for me and it will be here next week lol. He said he decided for me hahaha. I’m so excited!!!! Eeek! I’ll have to scroll through your videos and see if you have any hobo videos . I’m so glad you popped up in my Instagram. I have missed watching these. I just posted a video showing some of the planners and notebooks I’ve been using. I’m sorry you got covid. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Much love from Idaho ❤we have had like -30 degree weather here. My family is in southern Calif and thankfully we’re not affected by the fires, but What a horrible loss for so many. Ok I’m rambling. Blessings xxx
Hi Rebecca!!!!! So nice to see you here!!! Oh wow -30 degrees reminds me of my home state ... growing up in Vermont we had some extreme cold like that some winters!!!!! Yikes! The Hobonichi Weeks planners are great ... I have a really nutty problem with them where I feel like I'm frozen about writing messy on them because they are pricey ... and for actual planning for my family I end up erasing a lot and changing things so the thinner paper isn't perfect for planning for me ... but I still really love them ... turns out they are great too for swatching inks into which I love!!!! :) I'm so glad your CA family is safe from the fires ... that is such a devastating situation I can't even wrap my head around all the loss.
Current notebooks that I can remember at the moment. My bullet journal is an Endless Recorder, I use a Galen Leather notebook for personal journaling, a Castelli (Italian) notebook for my poetry. I have a Stifflexible notebook for tarot and related stuff. I also have a pile of Odyssey A6 notebooks for occasional notes (game puzzles, quick phone calls, etc), and a Travelers passport size with 3 notebooks that are also occasional notes.
Hi Terri -- those Stifflexible notebooks are so nice and the cover art on some of them is just amazing ... I remember being willing to find a pen for it I had one with a sugar skull that I just loved. :)
Thank you Mike!!! I'm hoping my letter reached you ... Mom and I have had some really delayed letters. Also, I have been having times when I couldn't get to the post office fast so the post mark will not match the letter date. :)
Hi Chris. I don’t do digital planning either. Sometimes when something shows up on a google calendar, I have no idea how it got there. I use a small calendar like your dollar tree one. I’m a retired teacher and our union sends one every September. It’s always in my wallet. We also have a large calendar hanging in the kitchen. This year instead of using my Leuchtturm bullet journal I purchased a Hobo Weeks but I agree with you about the paper. Even a Japanese fine nib seems to be too much for the paper. I may try my EF Eco in it. I have a weight loss journal and one where I keep track of my counted cross stitch projects and a common place notebook. I also have a CVS Caliber 6”x4” notebook in my Nock Seed case with a few pens, small ruler, pencil and Wite Out that I use to do the daily Sudoku puzzle that I copy from my digital newspaper. It works for me.
Hi Kathy -- I am SO HAPPY to hear that someone else also doesn't know how google calendar entries actually got there ... I am like that and I still have no clue when something automatically shows up there. :) HaHa.
Great video, Chris. You have a lot to keep up with, but the system you've worked out is time tested and so nice it helps you organize things. I couldn't find a dated journal so I filled in the dates in a Life Noble journal. For the yearly and monthly calendars, I went online and found some to print out and cut to size to glue in. I put small month at the beginning of each month. It works for me but with 7 days on a 2-page spread, I sometimes run out of space on a particular day. For appointments, I use a monthly planner and the next appointments go right into when I know them. I do keep track of books read on computer.
Hi Erin -- I did have some good results keeping up with books online at Goodreads in the past. It really would be good for me to go back in and update that!!!!! That's wonderful you can use the print outs to glue in. :) Wonderful idea!
I also have several notebooks each with specific purposes. Many I use every day and some as needed, but I prefer things separated by purpose. My husband sometimes questions why I write everything down, but inevitably I’m able to answer a “when did we….?” question. Thanks for sharing with us!
Wow, you've plenty of notebooks and planners to keep you organised this year 👍. I have all birthdays memorised, so at the beginning of each month, I make a mental note of whose birthday it is that month. In the kitchen, I have a calendar and write appointments on that. Plus, I also make a digital reminder for the day before the appointment, so that I know whether or not I ought to set an early wake up alarm. I use a notebook when researching my family tree, so that I can jot down names etc., that I have to do further research on. I use Goodreads to keep track of what books I've read, and my yearly reading challenge. Oh, and a notebook for jotting down video ideas. Think that's about it, as I don't keep a journal. However, I've been thinking about writing down my life story for my grandchildren, so I'll probably start that by jotting down memories to start with in a notebook, then at some point expand on them into a coherent order.
Hi Annie -- Manuel also loves genealogy and he keeps a binder and notebook for that! :) I'm so odd ball with my smart phone that my biggest problem is forgetting to turn the sound back on in the morning. I'm such a light sleeper. LOL I love the idea of you writing your life story! Even if it's individual stories which I think may be how Natalie Goldberg recommends in Old Friend of the Family. Her book on Memoir which is very inspiring. :) Happy writing!!!!!
Really enjoyed seeing what you are using and what for. I am a big fan of CVS Caliber notebooks as well. I have a collection of their 5 x 7 spirals that are useful for many things.
So glad that your doing better. You had me worried. I use a ring binder and I make my own inserts and I finally found a fpf paper i can use from spiral notebooks that I already had.
Thanks for keeping us Californians in your thoughts. Just like earthquakes, fires are risks we here have to cope with, but these ones are particularly bad. In terms of notebooks, my daily planner is the Midori A5 1 Page 1 Day 2025 Diary, which I purchased off Yahoo Japan. It wasn’t cheap, but I trust Midori MD paper far more than the unreliable TR paper that Hobonichi has been stuck with. I also use a Life Noble A5 journal for my personal thoughts, Tsubame B5 notebook for logging my inks and pen experiences, and I plan on ordering B6 Slim Midori notebooks for use on the go.
Hi @chi-towncalifornia5916 -- oh that's so true - I would also trust Midori paper better than the changes in the TR paper here lately! I've been extremely impressed with Graphilo paper here lately but I wish it were a bit more affordable. :)
I am the same with needing to compartmentalize with different notebooks for different tasks, if I had everything in one I'd have to be carrying around a 10 lb Trapper Keeper!
I admire your ability to maintain so many different planners. I would need yet another planner to track the planners! I love my Hobo Weeks because the daily blocks aren't daunting. I do have lots of notebooks with different papers, and I bounce back and forth between them for notes and brain dumps, and when I'm looking for something I KNOW I wrote SOMEWHERE, I think I should be more organized, but I have entropy brain🤣
Hi Jackie - it's so funny because I do truly love the Hobinichi Weeks and likely will still want one from time to time... but I don't keep up with them as a planner as intended so I guess I truly need to look for a similarly sized plain notebook for the cover I have with decent TR paper. :) I admit.... at times I have to work at finding a specific entry like you mentioned lol. :)
@@ChrisSaenz13I want a hobonichi weeks so bad. They are pricey though. I might get one still, I keep going back and forth and now it’s almost February lol i
I use 4 notebooks on a daily basis and several others for special projects like keeping track of phone calls to companies and such. I usually use inexpensive notebooks like a Walmart Pen and Gear college ruled spiral for most things, but I love a nice Mnemosyne A5. I use a calendar on my phone but always back it up on the wall calendar so my husband can see it and know what's going on.
Hi @nancymckeand473 -- oh yes without a wall calendar we'd be so mixed up and double booked lol. My husband is good about updating the wall calendar!!!
I went screaming into the 21st century when I started using the calendar on my iPhone and iPad and for me it was a learning curve that involved a lot of swearing but now I’m ok with it. My favorite journal/brain dump is the Midori A5, all my pens work great in it. I also love the CVS paper which by the way they are closing a lot of them here in Chicago too. I have 4 notebooks going now, daily journal/brain dump, books I’ve read and left reviews of, my Spanish language learning, and one for spiritual stuff and stoicism notes. Thinking about all our California people…
I use Google calendar for our shared calendar. We both access it so no double bookings. We then print the current month and the following. One quick example is I just put in doctor's appointments for me
Hi Edward -- that is a really good idea! I can't get my husband to stay with a smart phone ... he went back to a flip phone (horrors) after telling me he just didn't like the smart phone otherwise we could try that! :) For myself personally I have very few appointments unless you count the cats. I do think I could put more effort into using the Google calendar on my phone and it could be helpful. :)
What a cute sticker! She does look like you ❤
I highly recommend getting a set of Pilot frixion ball point pens they are really great for erasing and their ink so their nice and bold without being afraid of erasing pencil and making a mess or ripping the page :)
I second that. I have a Frixion Multipen. It’s great for planning calendar events, and works well with Tomoe River paper.
Hi Marilyn -- oh I totally forgot about those .... somewhere I have some ... oh I think I gave them to Manuel. LOL :)
Hi Chris, I loved this video, and i, too, have a kitchen wall calendar in my house to keep track of everyones appt. And planned stuff. I'm so glad that you are feeling better.
Thank you!!!! Oh I'd be lost without a wall calendar lol we put everyone's appointments even the cats lol. :)
As I was watching this my husband told me he went and ordered the hobonichi weeks for me and it will be here next week lol. He said he decided for me hahaha. I’m so excited!!!! Eeek! I’ll have to scroll through your videos and see if you have any hobo videos . I’m so glad you popped up in my Instagram. I have missed watching these. I just posted a video showing some of the planners and notebooks I’ve been using. I’m sorry you got covid. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Much love from Idaho ❤we have had like -30 degree weather here. My family is in southern Calif and thankfully we’re not affected by the fires, but What a horrible loss for so many. Ok I’m rambling. Blessings xxx
Hi Rebecca!!!!! So nice to see you here!!! Oh wow -30 degrees reminds me of my home state ... growing up in Vermont we had some extreme cold like that some winters!!!!! Yikes! The Hobonichi Weeks planners are great ... I have a really nutty problem with them where I feel like I'm frozen about writing messy on them because they are pricey ... and for actual planning for my family I end up erasing a lot and changing things so the thinner paper isn't perfect for planning for me ... but I still really love them ... turns out they are great too for swatching inks into which I love!!!! :)
I'm so glad your CA family is safe from the fires ... that is such a devastating situation I can't even wrap my head around all the loss.
Current notebooks that I can remember at the moment. My bullet journal is an Endless Recorder, I use a Galen Leather notebook for personal journaling, a Castelli (Italian) notebook for my poetry. I have a Stifflexible notebook for tarot and related stuff. I also have a pile of Odyssey A6 notebooks for occasional notes (game puzzles, quick phone calls, etc), and a Travelers passport size with 3 notebooks that are also occasional notes.
Hi Terri -- those Stifflexible notebooks are so nice and the cover art on some of them is just amazing ... I remember being willing to find a pen for it I had one with a sugar skull that I just loved. :)
@@ChrisSaenz13 I have the sugar skull notebook!
Chris, really enjoyed this video. Lots of great content/insight! Glad to hear that you're feeling better. All the best for 2025.
Thank you Mike!!! I'm hoping my letter reached you ... Mom and I have had some really delayed letters. Also, I have been having times when I couldn't get to the post office fast so the post mark will not match the letter date. :)
Hi Chris. I don’t do digital planning either. Sometimes when something shows up on a google calendar, I have no idea how it got there. I use a small calendar like your dollar tree one. I’m a retired teacher and our union sends one every September. It’s always in my wallet. We also have a large calendar hanging in the kitchen. This year instead of using my Leuchtturm bullet journal I purchased a Hobo Weeks but I agree with you about the paper. Even a Japanese fine nib seems to be too much for the paper. I may try my EF Eco in it. I have a weight loss journal and one where I keep track of my counted cross stitch projects and a common place notebook. I also have a CVS Caliber 6”x4” notebook in my Nock Seed case with a few pens, small ruler, pencil and Wite Out that I use to do the daily Sudoku puzzle that I copy from my digital newspaper. It works for me.
Hi Kathy -- I am SO HAPPY to hear that someone else also doesn't know how google calendar entries actually got there ... I am like that and I still have no clue when something automatically shows up there. :) HaHa.
I am 100% a pen and paper girl! ❤️🇨🇦
Hi @loiscassels8966 Me too!!!!!
Great video, Chris. You have a lot to keep up with, but the system you've worked out is time tested and so nice it helps you organize things. I couldn't find a dated journal so I filled in the dates in a Life Noble journal. For the yearly and monthly calendars, I went online and found some to print out and cut to size to glue in. I put small month at the beginning of each month. It works for me but with 7 days on a 2-page spread, I sometimes run out of space on a particular day.
For appointments, I use a monthly planner and the next appointments go right into when I know them.
I do keep track of books read on computer.
Hi Erin -- I did have some good results keeping up with books online at Goodreads in the past. It really would be good for me to go back in and update that!!!!!
That's wonderful you can use the print outs to glue in. :) Wonderful idea!
I also have several notebooks each with specific purposes. Many I use every day and some as needed, but I prefer things separated by purpose. My husband sometimes questions why I write everything down, but inevitably I’m able to answer a “when did we….?” question. Thanks for sharing with us!
Hi @FranM6179 - oh that comes up a lot for us too ... I'm able to say when we did like oil changes even. LOL
Wow, you've plenty of notebooks and planners to keep you organised this year 👍. I have all birthdays memorised, so at the beginning of each month, I make a mental note of whose birthday it is that month. In the kitchen, I have a calendar and write appointments on that. Plus, I also make a digital reminder for the day before the appointment, so that I know whether or not I ought to set an early wake up alarm. I use a notebook when researching my family tree, so that I can jot down names etc., that I have to do further research on. I use Goodreads to keep track of what books I've read, and my yearly reading challenge. Oh, and a notebook for jotting down video ideas. Think that's about it, as I don't keep a journal. However, I've been thinking about writing down my life story for my grandchildren, so I'll probably start that by jotting down memories to start with in a notebook, then at some point expand on them into a coherent order.
Hi Annie -- Manuel also loves genealogy and he keeps a binder and notebook for that! :) I'm so odd ball with my smart phone that my biggest problem is forgetting to turn the sound back on in the morning. I'm such a light sleeper. LOL
I love the idea of you writing your life story! Even if it's individual stories which I think may be how Natalie Goldberg recommends in Old Friend of the Family. Her book on Memoir which is very inspiring. :) Happy writing!!!!!
Really enjoyed seeing what you are using and what for. I am a big fan of CVS Caliber notebooks as well. I have a collection of their 5 x 7 spirals that are useful for many things.
Hi @just_celia :)
So glad that your doing better.
You had me worried.
I use a ring binder and I make my own inserts and I finally found a fpf paper i can use from spiral notebooks that I already had.
Hi @mamahnita oh that's great about making your own inserts!!! :)
Thanks for keeping us Californians in your thoughts. Just like earthquakes, fires are risks we here have to cope with, but these ones are particularly bad.
In terms of notebooks, my daily planner is the Midori A5 1 Page 1 Day 2025 Diary, which I purchased off Yahoo Japan. It wasn’t cheap, but I trust Midori MD paper far more than the unreliable TR paper that Hobonichi has been stuck with. I also use a Life Noble A5 journal for my personal thoughts, Tsubame B5 notebook for logging my inks and pen experiences, and I plan on ordering B6 Slim Midori notebooks for use on the go.
Hi @chi-towncalifornia5916 -- oh that's so true - I would also trust Midori paper better than the changes in the TR paper here lately!
I've been extremely impressed with Graphilo paper here lately but I wish it were a bit more affordable. :)
You have a great selection of tools for keeping organized in 2025 for sure!! Great video!!
Hi Sharon -- hopefully I can be where I'm supposed to be lol. :)
I am the same with needing to compartmentalize with different notebooks for different tasks, if I had everything in one I'd have to be carrying around a 10 lb Trapper Keeper!
LOL oh I remember when I was young those Trapper Keepers were the grail thing to have!!!!! :)
@@ChrisSaenz13 For sure!💯
I admire your ability to maintain so many different planners. I would need yet another planner to track the planners!
I love my Hobo Weeks because the daily blocks aren't daunting. I do have lots of notebooks with different papers, and I bounce back and forth between them for notes and brain dumps, and when I'm looking for something I KNOW I wrote SOMEWHERE, I think I should be more organized, but I have entropy brain🤣
Hi Jackie - it's so funny because I do truly love the Hobinichi Weeks and likely will still want one from time to time... but I don't keep up with them as a planner as intended so I guess I truly need to look for a similarly sized plain notebook for the cover I have with decent TR paper. :) I admit.... at times I have to work at finding a specific entry like you mentioned lol. :)
@@ChrisSaenz13I want a hobonichi weeks so bad. They are pricey though. I might get one still, I keep going back and forth and now it’s almost February lol i
I use 4 notebooks on a daily basis and several others for special projects like keeping track of phone calls to companies and such. I usually use inexpensive notebooks like a Walmart Pen and Gear college ruled spiral for most things, but I love a nice Mnemosyne A5. I use a calendar on my phone but always back it up on the wall calendar so my husband can see it and know what's going on.
Hi @nancymckeand473 -- oh yes without a wall calendar we'd be so mixed up and double booked lol. My husband is good about updating the wall calendar!!!
My husband doesn't always put events on it, but he checks it enough that I am forced to keep it up to date! @@ChrisSaenz13
Great video, Chris!
Thank you @SandyQueue
I went screaming into the 21st century when I started using the calendar on my iPhone and iPad and for me it was a learning curve that involved a lot of swearing but now I’m ok with it. My favorite journal/brain dump is the Midori A5, all my pens work great in it. I also love the CVS paper which by the way they are closing a lot of them here in Chicago too. I have 4 notebooks going now, daily journal/brain dump, books I’ve read and left reviews of, my Spanish language learning, and one for spiritual stuff and stoicism notes. Thinking about all our California people…
I use Google calendar for our shared calendar. We both access it so no double bookings. We then print the current month and the following. One quick example is I just put in doctor's appointments for me
Hi Edward -- that is a really good idea! I can't get my husband to stay with a smart phone ... he went back to a flip phone (horrors) after telling me he just didn't like the smart phone otherwise we could try that! :) For myself personally I have very few appointments unless you count the cats. I do think I could put more effort into using the Google calendar on my phone and it could be helpful. :)