I tried to transition to planning my days in a digital calendar; however, I found my experience lackluster, and soon found myself not tracking my days at all. The lack of a customizable experience — to the extent that I felt like it was easily identified as my planner and not anyone else’s — pulled me back to paper planners. But, my former Moleskine planners were ill designed for sufficient, flexible realestate on a page. I looked into creating my own bullet journal, but lack the time to make one completely to my liking.

So, I did some research and found myself purchasing a Hobonichi Techo Daily Planner. It’s a daily planner that is made in Japan that is rather compact, with Tomoe River paper (which before I ordered the planner meant absolutely nothing to me, because I had never experienced writing on it before), and bound in a way such that it lays flat. I was very nervous with this purchase, having gone from store to local store hunting for a copy for me to touch, maybe run a pen over. I am very particular about how my notebooks feel as I use them, and how much of a struggle it is to write close to the binding. My previous planners did not hold ink very well, or forced a structure that did not suit my lifestyle. These things you unfortunately do not realize until after attempting to use the planner for a while.

Immediately, when the journal arrived, I ran my fingers over the cover, the Tomoe river paper, and tested the paper with a fountain pen. To my pleasant surprise, the ink did not feather nor bleed through onto the next page. I was thrilled to find a resilient and compact planner with just enough printed structure that would suit my commuter life, and I have to say I am sold for life.