07/02/26
Hey out there! So I'm back for my notebook hobby! I am still using some of the same stuff, but not as much as intended. I realize I need to add visiting certain notebooks to my schedule. I have been leaving it to 'whenever I feel like it' and that is not going well since for me, if its out of sight, out of mind. I'm really good about my daily captain's log and thinking notebook. However I'm guilty of forgetting about my commonplace book and the others! Let me get to my current line up and then I will post about what I plan to do.
Jibun Techo - Frankenstein version
This is now being dubbed a captain's log, I'm still using the same Jibun Techo with a Daiso insert and the original Kokuyo Idea book. The Daiso addition is a bit too short, but it works out with a pencil board. I say captain's log because I mainly log what I did daily versus planning ahead. I have chronic health issues so I struggle to pick it up on a bad day. I still do my thinking and notes about the day with the log, but I wouldn't visit this to see when a doctors appointment will be. Important dates always go on my Apple Calendar. I was inspired by a YouTube creator 'Rachelle in Theory' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnrrRJ8mX20) to do a dashboard widget recently. It has been nice to do and helps me keep on task what to aim for during the week. That is the only planner-ish activity that happens here! I'm always trying to find minimal productivity methods. Too much of a system can be overwhelming and ends up contributing to procrastination.
The Idea book part is still mainly note taking of anything I want on hand. I did an outline of this blog in there, it still has phone numbers, and video game notes. It now has a project list and random thoughts. What I stopped doing was todo lists. I realized I would forget to look for them there, plus as a page filled up , the todo lists would be awkwardly mixed in with other notes. Instead, I'm using the dashboard that is made on a weekly basis. I already use the Finch app for chores, medication times, and such. Anything routine is added to there. Then I have a monthly paper list I have on a cork board. Any todos that are pc related and not major go in my obsidian vault.
Composition notebook
I call it my thinking composition book. Whenever I need to work through ideas, problems, dump my thoughts, or consider goals I use this notebook. I wanted something that didn't feel special. Otherwise I would be conservative about using it. It has worked out for me this year.
Media Journal
I still like my little media journal, but I forget about it! picked this ‘Premium Notebook’ from Daiso. While deciding to do this blog, I updated some of the book covers that were in there and didn't have writing yet. I decided on this visit back to it to add a little star rating system. The media journal covers books and games since those are my favorite types of media. The reason for it though is because I did get tired of trying to keep up with Goodreads. I feel like it does more than I actually care for and I felt the same about Storygraph. I'm just looking for a way to track what I've been up to without other people to follow, community stuff, extra junk emails, and the annoyance of having another login on top of all the other ones I have. I just need to USE the darn thing.
Tea journal - Bananya journal
Now my tea journal has seen some updates! I feel like I haven't been super adventurous with my tea purchases, but I've been trying various apples. So I started from the back of the journal putting some apple stickers, with the type they are, and if I liked it or not. Now I'm thinking of adding mocktails I've made to it as well. Otherwise it is mostly a tea review journal. I tape the little packets in there and where I purchased it. Funny thing was what got me started was I had a ginger tea I hated and I wanted to make sure my future-self never would buy it by mistake.
Commonplace book
My commonplace book is still the same. I haven't updated this one much either. Honestly same issue as the media journal. Sometimes I hyper focus with the deep need to fill the pages and then the rest of the time I forget to even flip through it. I'm a person that loathes notebooks / planners with rings and discs, but I do have an exception this one. The Kokuyo smart ring binder has really small rings and they are flexible. So even if my hand or wrist goes across it the feeling isn't awkward. I still mainly use it for information from non-fiction books, online articles, and podcasts. I also have personal info about my health in it.
Memory book
I used to be a Hobonichi lover and bought both the A5 and weeks every single year. I was super into journaling daily, but lately it isn't in my interest. However, I did want to have something for the memories so I intended to make this into more like little photo gallery. It hasn't been updated since 2022. My intention this year was to get it up-to-date and print out all the pictures and add them in. My ambition has fallen flat though, I haven't once printed out anything. I feel like it is overwhelming to try to make up for the past four years.
That is all of my notebooks! As for what I am thinking of changing is adding a dedicated time to visiting them. So where I have my monthly tasks and chores I'll add notebook time to it. It will be one of the few fun task on it and it will be on my radar more consistently. In addition, I have the notebooks I'm currently using separated from my old notebooks. They were all on the same little section of a cubby shelf so they don't stand out at all.
As for the Hobonichi I decided to think 'screw trying to make up for past years' while working on this post. I will print out the pictures I easily find and love plus some recent ones. Otherwise I will probably never use it. It does feel awkward given half the journal is used for another year with , but I really want it filled. I love the way the Hobonichi journals look on my shelf in the variety of colors. I look at them proudly. Is that weird? Also I love the brown cover so much, so I definitely need it with the others. So I'll push forward instead of trying to make up for what has passed.
So anyone out there, have you made any major changes in your set up? Any pitfalls you fell into like I did with forgetting some of them? Let me know in the guestbook / comments! I'm also going to cross post this with 'Substack' (https://substack.com/@chaimoon). I decided to give it another shot. If you post about journaling or notebook / planner stuff leave a link in the so I can check it out! Hope you guys are having a good summer!!
02/16/2026
It's been a while, but that's just how it goes with me lol.
I'm late to the party, but I still wanted to do a techo kaigi post! I'm one of those people with a ton of journals with different purposes. Although some have lasted years serving one purpose so I'm not really going through them fast. So here's my journal collection.
Planner - I'm reusing the Idea booklet and the cover from the Jibun Techo and switching out the planner part with a blank grid notebook I picked up from Daiso. I also printed out some coloring pages and kanji practice into it for a little something to do, but honestly I haven't made much use of it. The blank notebook is where I log daily activities and write down ideas I don't want to forget. The idea book is random notes from games, a list of devices, phone numbers, and to do lists. I experiment with that section to see what I find helpful and what ends up being better elsewhere.
>Media Journal - This is new as of 2026. I've been struggling with how to keep track of what I've been reading and playing. I haven't been enjoying using online services like Goodreads because it feels impersonal. I was a Goodread user for years, but I feel like it's not something I visit that often and its always annoying to have to login...plus I basically always reset the password. I did try starting a digital journal with the Goodnotes app last year, but I don't do well staring at my iPad for long. Part of me longs to admire the pages so I feel like I can laisurely visit the journal when it strains my eyes. So I figure I'll just print covers of books and games every so often and keep the entries short so it's more of a collection and timeline. This is another small Daiso notebook. I debated including cd albums, but I decided it might be too overwhelming.
Commonplace book - I've been using this for some years now, its a smart ring binder from Kokuyo. It's the perfect mix of letting me rearrange info and still feeling like a notebook. I dislike metal rings in binders so this has been great. I mainly use it for taking notes from non-fiction books and personal health.
Tea journal - its another one I've used for years but I at times forgot about it. It's a place to stick the teabag packets or labels so I can easily look up what brands I've tried and how much I liked a flavor.
Thinking composition book - It's for thinking in writing, dumping my thoughts, and worries. Last year I had started this in digital but decided to buy a cheap notebook since its not something to really be polished or sentimental. I figure if there's something of interest I'll write it nicer somewhere else.
Hobonichi Cousin - I haven't actually used a cousin in years! I came across this when I was cleaning and I have only partly used it. I used to LOVE journaling and sticking pictures in it, but at some point I fell out of interest in doing that. I still am not too interested in doing that, but I was thinking of doing maybe a monthly entry and printing pictures to add into it for some sort of memory keepsake. I don't have instagram or anything like that so I do need somewhere to be able to look back on memorable life events.
My general preferences : grid paper, journals that lay flat, brown or sepia ink, I don't decorate much
Thank you if you have read this far! My health issues got me down for a while, but I'm bouncing back!
November was utter madness.
12/10/2025
Ugh, looking back at my first post I have done zero writing! To be fair I did start a job, but I only lasted two weeks. Turns out my fibromyalgia had zero intention of cooperating with a retail job. I was worried about that, but the amount of hurt I felt was more than expected since I’ve actually been doing quite well generally! Not to mention the overstimulation as well, its like I continued hearing the chatter of the long customer line and beeps of the scanner even after I leave. So than it plays into the pain issues by effectively reducing my sleep. I felt bad that I finally got a job and then it was just not going to work out. The place seemed okay, but it did suck that there were no real breaks and once I learned the register I was pretty much planted there and….stayed there 5-6 hours with maybe a few minutes to run to the bathroom. Then they basically did everything I had asked them not to do (I don’t want to work more than 5 hrs, not work late at night). I on paper would be there to a certain hour but ended up staying over an hour and a half sometimes because we can’t leave until the store is clean. Initially I did cleaning and stocking and that was much better. My body just feels better when I keep moving rather than standing in place. I FEEL OLD! *cries in millennial + chronic pain* Appreciate your health / youth where you have it. I wish I had more so before I began having fibro issues in 2023. I tell you its weird to have chronic illness and not look ill. At all.
I just got over the flu which pretty much hit me right after I was recovering from working retail. Finally I have my brain back. However, I’m quite drawn to computing subjects at the moment and I’m waiting on an sd card reader so I can try modding my 3DS! For the moment I’m just going to try to feel a bit more normal and I’ll decide what to focus on from there. I have been missing all my hobbies the past 4 weeks. I was studying Japanese, still dabbling in Comptia A+, writing, working on a virtual portfolio for my art, and who knows. This. I will steer away from retail, but I’ll keep looking for something more office-like.
On the brighter side, I am very happy with Linux Mint on my laptop. It has some quirks with my 2 monitor set-up, but the performance over Windows 11 is SO much better. I still have some software and games I need to attempt to run, but I’ll get to it when I am feeling up for it. I use a program from Dreamtonics which is akin to Vocaloid, but has no Linux distribution. There seems to be alternative ways to attempt to run Windows programs but it’s sorta wonky as some solutions don’t work for everyone. However if it doesn’t work that’s okay. I’ll just hold on to my stuff until I get a pc in the future that can run it again. The make or break for me was RPG Maker MV as I’m making my virtual museum project in there where my art hangs in a little museum the main character can check out. I’ll make a cool post about that sometime. Maybe someone will have interesting input since I don’t really have anyone to chat with about that. I know I’m mainly making it for myself as I always wanted a way to view my old work that doesn’t feel as lifeless as looking through a digital folder with pngs, but I’m not one to enjoy having my own art hang in my room either. A virtual museum feels like a happy medium that keeps it together and yet the experience of it feels novel in itself.
First Entry!
11/02/2025
--On the topic of creative writing.
So for a while I was wrestling with the idea of writing at Substack, but honestly I am turned off by the part that feels so much like fake networking. The notes on there might as well be tweets. I don't know, I've never enjoyed twitter. I used to like Insta, but it began to roll downhill as I realized it began to be a source of stress instead of being inspiring. It made me feel guilty for not being as productive as everyone else, not living life like everyone else, and I need to post things to prove ...well I don't actually know haha! I'll let you know I've been far more at peace since I deleted the app years ago. Admittedly I was lazy to close my account, but I finally did after running into old friends that asked 'what happened? I haven’t seen you post' or ‘Did you get my message on IG?’ How dare I not post, but it made me realize I should at least close it so people don't assume I'm ignoring them.
Anyway back to Substack.
I did post some short fiction over at Substack, but I haven't bothered going back after a few posts. I had to make sure my writing stays short and promote myself replying to random notes. 'Haha I'm new too!', 'Check out my first post!'. It feels so fake and it has the same follow for follow practice like other platforms. Yeah, thanks random, for pretending to read my blog that one time and I’ll pretend to read your blog. I mainly tried Substack since I'm struggling to find a job right now. Although it seems like the type of platform that will take a long time to actually make any money. I don't have any followers from any other places. I deleted my IG and an old wordpress blog from ages ago. I don't regret IG though. I'll at least make the effort for my short fiction idea. I do like that part and I can post it here if I can't bother with Substack.
However, I'm looking forward to focusing on drafting my novel during November. I finally found a decent strategy to write which has been my hurdle for ages. Not to mention losing my work MULTIPLE TIMES in the past. I was inspired by solo rpgs in my approach to drafting. When I saw that people kept light notes about their game play and when I tried it out it dawned on me 'this the method I need!' My thoughts go too fast so trying to write a novel feels akin to playing a MMO game with tons of lag. The NPCs and your party are leaving me behind because I was too busy trying to describe a scene. So if I use some shorthand and write without worrying so much about it sounding coherent at all to anyone else, I can get into the flow. ADHD is a weird hurdle in front of the most mundane things I swear. I'm doing this with a fountain pen and paper lol. My notes on world-building are digital as initially I thought I would be typing and these notes go back years. I was doing the solo RPG (Iron Valley) with pen and paper and I enjoyed it, so I thought it would suit my drafting.
I had started drafting in this manner earlier this year, July maybe, but I been pretty inconsistent. So I plan to really throw myself into it for November. I joined a challenge that Heart Breathing has since NaNoWriMo (National Novel writing month) disappeared for some reason. I don't know the tea behind that organization, but Heart has some inspiring videos so it makes it feel less alone in the effort. I do have sticky notes on a poster board for plotting, but I find in drafting, I made some turns I didn't foresee!
Hope you visitors are well and thanks for reading! If you wish to leave a message post in the guest book.
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