Index: Techo Kaigi 2026
My analogue system for the new year
The rain arrived after what seemed like weeks of oscillating day and night temperatures, and whatever warmth of summer that was left is now gone, making space for early sunsets and crisp mornings. Those of us in the San Francisco Bay Area are graced with mild winters where the weather forecast rarely dips below freezing point, but we pull out our sweaters and jackets anyway, creatures of habit, conditioned to what we know.
Around this time of year, I like to conduct my annual techo kaigi (notebook meeting) and think through what worked well, what didn’t work as well as I had hoped, and consider the changes I want to make to my analogue system. Building on my reflections from this summer, I’ve made up my mind on which notebooks will accompany me in 2026. Though not a lot is going to change, I still enjoyed the process of reviewing the purpose of each one and deciding if I would be carrying it over to the new year.
Memories in Place
Hobonichi 5-Year Techo
I committed to a 5-year journal for a few reasons - one being that I wanted to capture everyday memories of our newly grown family, and another being that it was extra satisfying to start one on a year that ended with ‘5.’
Writing in this notebook has become a part of my nighttime routine, where I spend a couple of minutes recording whatever details of the day that I recall most vividly. It’s not always positive and it’s definitely not structured. But the fact that I don’t follow a specific format is why I find it so easy to keep up. Looking back, I’m also glad I chose the smaller A6 size of the two - it doesn’t take many words to fill up the space.
If there’s a memorable photo from the day, I include it on the right page with a caption. I used to hesitate, thinking “what if I need that space for something else in future years?” but have abandoned that line of thought since then, choosing to focus on what I want to remember now. There’s no guarantee that a random day in the middle of the year will be just as noteworthy in the future. And in the same vein, the dates in 2025 without pictures will fill up with stories specific to 2026-2029 - it’s that I have no idea which year yet. The prospect of the time ahead of us is exciting and I’m sure I’ll have many moments where I’ll read through a previous entry, feeling nostalgia washing over me like waves.
Traveler’s Notebook
I’m currently in the third traveler’s notebook (TN) refill of 2025, despite telling myself that there was no pressure to do any decorative journaling coming into the year. The truth is, I love my TNs and miss them when they’re not in use - so keeping a blank refill in a cover was a great way to have a TN near me but without the demand of dated pages.
These refills are for expanded memory-keeping - the extra pictures and longer stories that don’t fit into the A6 5-year journal find their homes here. Much like the way I write in the 5-year journal, the TN also lacks structure in the sense that I work on it whenever I find the time and mental space. I pull out all of my favorite supplies and use them to my heart’s content: wooden stamps, washi tapes, PET tapes, stickers, everything goes. I try to play with layers when I can, but I mostly have fun and let intuition guide me.
The packaging, labels and stickers from various goods make up a large portion of this journal because more often than not, there’s a story associated with the ephemera I want to remember. Although most are rather mundane - a circle sticker from a to-go container of a new restaurant we tried, or a pair of disposable sunglasses we received for our daughter at her first optometrist visit - they accumulate over time to tell a narrative about this period of my life. What coffee beans were we enjoying? What was that one stall from the farmers’ market with the really good kettle corn? What were some of our favorite outfits that our little girl wore during these months? These details are small but precious, and they can be found between these pages.
An additional benefit of using the TN consistently is that I’m finally making my way through the pile of unused refills I own. I’ve previously discussed my effort to use the nice things in daily life and it is very satisfying to see the number of new refills dwindling, slowly but surely, through the seasons. I hope to have an even smaller amount by this time next year.
A Slight Change of Plans
PLOTTER → Traveler’s Notebook
As much as I have liked planning for my personal life in the liscio green PLOTTER leather binder, I will be moving my to-dos into dated horizontal weekly refills from Traveler’s Company.
I realized, and finally accepted, that I’m not a user of monthly pages in a paper planner. At first it felt like a betrayal of my analogue loving self to not purchase a monthly calendar of any sort, but I prefer to keep important appointments on our household’s shared digital calendar and I don’t see that changing for 2026. I have less trust in my ability to first write down the information, then have to relay it to my partner who rarely uses analogue tools. My memory is not what it used to be, so the more reminders I can receive through my personal devices, the better. It stings a little to admit, but I’m going to rely on the mechanisms that work for me instead of fighting my tired brain to track all of the events by hand.
In terms of weekly pages where most of the planning happens, I continue to use a rolling weekly format on the right side to track and check off to-dos. The left side with the dated sections were for food and exercise tracking this year, a practice that I once found helpful but am reconsidering now that I have better habits in place. Since the TN standard size refills have more room, I might use the space to write a line of gratitude or include smaller bits of ephemera. If I’m feeling adventurous, I can attempt to draw as well.
One of the biggest reasons I’m moving my personal planning to a TN is the form factor. I already journal in a TN and the idea of being able to keep planning and journaling refills in the same cover really appealed to me. Of course, as the months go on, I naturally run the risk of having to carry a heavy notebook around1, and I’ll have to figure out what to do if that happens. But until then, I’m going to appreciate the all-in-one approach.
In this way, I can pare down the planning to tracking the to-dos, which is sometimes all my mind has the room for. I set up extra pages and folders in my PLOTTER - a spending tracker, a destash list, etc. - that went unused. I’m taking the part I utilized the most and giving it more space, which I believe will help me pay better attention to the life tasks at hand.
An Invitation for Creativity
Nanami Cafe Note
This 384-page notebook is about a third of the way full with inspirational images, notes from readings and occasional reflections. The natural leather cover I’m keeping it in is aging beautifully, its time in the sun reflected through its darker color.
I didn’t have set expectations for when I would finish a notebook like this one when I started it in late 2024. At the same time, I’m a little embarrassed to notice how slow going it has been. I suppose I spent more time memory-keeping as best as I could in 2025 - it’s true that I had less capacity for learning as I settled into parenthood. Even so, I want to continue my efforts in here because I’m determined to have a compilation of knowledge handy at my desk. I’ve flipped through the notebook to spark creativity more than once, and for that alone, I’ll look for pockets of time to write in it, building a treasure trove of inspiration page by page.
Midori MD
Last but not least is the very notebook I drafted this post in - a Midori MD in the A5 size that I began in the spring to house all of my ideas. A part of me can’t quite believe that I’m still writing first drafts for this Substack by hand, but here I am late at night, sitting with the desk light on and watching the pen move across the page in between blinking to keep the sleep at bay for just a little longer.
What kicked off as a way to unload ideas and thoughts that were swimming around in my head quickly turned into a haven that I retreated to when I needed a moment. When I felt overwhelmed by the world, I came here. When I saw how terribly short my attention span was getting, I turned to this notebook as a way to concentrate on something meaningful. It sat overnight on the desk from time to time, open and waiting for the next chance I joined its company to write a few sentences before going to bed.
I tried returning to digital drafting earlier this month when I shared an oil pastel printable and to my surprise, I wasn’t as easily distracted on my laptop as I expected. It could have been a positive effect from the continuous practice of writing with minimal distractions, and perhaps my brain has made the connection that long form writing means focus time. Or, I was just very motivated to talk about my first ever printable that the words flowed easily, and I happened to be using a digital tool at the time.
Regardless, I am committed to finishing the current notebook before weighing my next steps for how I want to tackle creative projects in the future. If I keep going down the analogue path, I have one more Midori A5 notebook waiting in the wings. If not, I already have a digital archive of Substack posts in Notion and I would start drafting there instead. I wonder what I’ll be doing by the middle of next year, when I’ll be reflecting on my approach again.
And so, another techo kaigi is wrapped. I do have other project-specific setups like a baby milestone book in an A6 Hobonichi notebook and an A5 PLOTTER leather binder dedicated to my current attempt at The Artist’s Way, but I decided to keep them out of this post since they have been talked about before and I don’t have any new anecdotes. They’re still within my arm’s reach and get picked up regularly, which is a good thing.
I would like to consolidate down the road and ultimately end up with no more than three notebooks. It seems much simpler that way, doesn’t it? To someone else, jumping around different sizes and types of paper probably makes no sense. For me, in this particular time of life when it feels like my mind is being split into many compartments, finding separate spaces for each type of thought is helpful. I can let my thoughts wander toward each of their homes, knowing that they’ve been dropped off somewhere safe where they won’t be forgotten.
I’m grateful to these supplies for guiding me along a year full of countless questions and self-doubt. And I’m thankful for these books, old and new, that will stay by my side through another year of possibilities.
“Why not have a pocket notebook or binder with you?” You might say. For whatever reason, I have not been a tiny notebook user even though I’ve experimented with carrying one around in previous years. I love the idea of it, but it doesn’t work for me in practice.
Oh my I remember seeing & instantly falling in love with that Hobonichi 5-Year Techo special cover. The artist's work is delightful!