So, I've been using a pair of planners for the last 6 months. The first is a
Kokyo Jibun Techo and the second is
this one from Midori. It's a little exhausting (and redundant) using two planners each week, but I did it for
you. You're welcome! So, let's take a tour of the planner. Don't forget to scroll all the way to the bottom for a chance to win the second half of this planner!
The OutsidesThe Midori planner comes as a pair of thin books. This keeps the thickness down, I suppose, but it wouldn't be all that thick to begin with. It is convenient that I can give away the second half of the year to a reader, though. That's cool. Perhaps this is also because the Traveller's notebooks are generally
kept in their covers with other notebooks, and those are generally pretty thin.
The outer cover of the Traveller's Diary is fairly thick paper and coated so that it will be pretty durable. I kept mine in a Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter between two other notebooks, so it was pretty safe, but it still doesn't really show any wear. the coating makes it so that you can't really write on it, though, so I used this
little strip of sticky tape to label it.
The InsidesI really like the paper that Midori uses, and this MD paper is quite fountain pen friendly. In fact, it's pretty well everything-friendly. Other planners that use papers like Tomoe River can bleed when used with gel pens, but the MD paper is just fine with them. It's a cream paper, though, and not plain white. Not a big deal, but worth knowing in case you're a stickler for bright white pages. I'm not.
Your first page tells you which months are covered and you can write some things on it if you want to, I suppose. Perhaps you use different planners for different purposes and need to be able to tell which is which?
I also keep a few Post-It tabs on that first page so that I can locate particular pages when I want to.
Beyond the first page you'll find a yearly calendar layout. I've highlighted a few important dates in each month, but I don't know that I ever came back to this page to check them.
Next, you'll find a few pages with each month and a little space to write things like anniversaries. This replaces the larger calendar layouts that you'll find in other planners. (I like the larger layouts better.)
Next up: This is the part of the planner that I used the most. The weekly layout is Monday-Sunday, and that's a really nice layout once you're used to it. It took me a little while, but I prefer this now. It puts my weekends together instead of bookending the work week, and that really makes more sense.
I like to block my time this way. I chose a page without too much stuff on it because I use this for work and regular life. The blocks for class have a bit of room for notes I might need to make about them, and this is a good way to visualize your day. There's a little bit of room at the bottom for notes.
Sometimes I use that space for making general notes about the day (as shown below). It's good for all-day things like birthdays and such. There's also some room at the header for that, but I didn't find myself using that much.
The last page is just your basic "If found, please return to:" sort of thing in the style of a flight plan. I clearly didn't put much there.
Video Review:How to Win:This is what I'm giving away. It's a 6-month book, new and unused. Scroll down a bit more to enter!
Midori Traveller's Diary Giveaway**Everything here was bought with my own money. The links aren't affilliates, and JetPens isn't a sponsor. It's just an online store that I like a lot.**
