2021 is THE year that I am revamping my planning style. Last year, I found planning system in my work planner that works great for me. I decided to apply this system in both my personal and work planners. Also, I use to have planners for work and personal separately. This year, I decided to combine both in one planner which is why I chose the Hobonichi Cousin. The Hobonichi Techo Cousin has plenty of writing space and the content fits the style that I desire. Here are some ideas for you on how you can use the Hobonichi Cousin as your planner for work and personal.
Hobonichi Cousin – Calendar
Tracking school holidays, public holidays and pay day is great to mark in this page as it is viewable in a glance for the important dates. Colour code each items to understand your tracking.
Hobonichi Cousin – Annual Calendar
You can track monthly goals in this section. You can write tactics to achieve the goal in the date section as your strategy for the day. Alternatively, you can also track your habits. This is the most common use of the annual calendar by many Hobonichi Techo Cousin users.
Hobonichi Cousin – Monthly Calendar
You can track appointments, due dates, holidays, birthdays or any other important event. You may use digital calendar (eg: google calendar, phone) but honestly, looking at the monthly spread in your planner gives you better perspective on how busy you are in the month. You may write down future appointments or payments that do not have fixed dates at the writing space on the left side of the calendar.
Hobonichi Cousin – Horizontal Weekly Calendar
The Horizontal Weekly Calendar is the best section to plan your day hour by hour. Knowing what to do and when to do does not give you room to procrastinate. If you do not know what tasks need to be done, just colour code the time for activities that you would like to do in those hours.
Hobonichi Cousin – Master Tasklist
Next, write down future tasks or pending tasks for the month in the empty page next to the first day of daily page. This is similar to the future log from the bullet journal method. It is quite easy to flip through the monthly section and view your tasks for the month and also to know how productive you have been for the month. Print out these monthly stickers on this page to indicate the month for your master task list.
Hobonichi Cousin – Daily page
This is the page that gives you control of your task list. Separate both personal and work to dos by having different colour codes. This is just a suggestion, so that you do not have to be distracted with the personal to dos when you are at work. The top 5 boxes you can track your priority for the day which you must complete on that day. There are 5 boxes but I would suggest to write 3 tasks only to avoid being overwhelmed. The time section can be used to write your appointments for the day. By doing this, you do not have to turn to monthly calendar (saves time). Other things that you can write in this section is probably tracking your expenses, notes, short journal. It is entirely up to you.
Japanese Writing Section
There are a few pages at the end of planner that is written in Japanese. If you don’t want these pages, you can simply stick an empty grid pages in those section to give you more writing space. Here is the 4mm grid page that you can download and print on a sticker paper. Cut them along the line provided and stick it on the pages that you want to cover.
Hobonichi Techo Cousin Cover : Filofax Folio
The new Filofax Folio is the best cover for the Hobonichi Techo Cousin Cover if you are using the planner for your work. It is elegant and looks professional when you bring the planner for meetings. Alternatively, you can also try other leather artisan to get the cover you want. My personal favourite is Yard and The Leathersmith. Hobonichi do provide loads of pretty and elegant looking covers to protect your planner. Check out their website for more.
Hobonichi Cousin Companion : Stalogy A5
The Stalogy A5 is a great companion for your Hobonichi Cousin to jot down extra notes that do not fit in your planner. Meeting minutes can be long and may not fit in your Cousin. Write them down in the Stalogy A5 and index these pages. Also, add the pages in your Techo Cousin’s daily page so that you know exactly where to refer the notes in your Stalogy.
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