Looking Forward to the 2015 Hobonichi Techo by Looking Back at the 2014 – Pen Paper Ink Letter

My analysis in the end is that this is one of the best planners on the market hands down. It has a thriving online community that was there from day one in the English market because it has been an extremely popular planner in Japan for far longer. If you’re looking for a fountain pen friendly planner, or simply a planner that can handle a lot and is well laid out you’ll probably want to consider the 2015 Hobonichi.

A really good overview of the planner that in short order has become one of the most important and meaningful items I own.

Borrowed Blackwings —Imprint.

When they arrived the next day, my wife asked, “Why did you overnight pencils? What’s the big deal?” “Oh darling, there’s a whole story to that. Just trust me.”

And, it’s a story wonderfully told here by Moisés Chiullan. A must read for 602 fans, pencil nerds, history hounds, and anyone who ever wondered what the big deal is about those funny looking pencils.

Hobonichi Love — A Message from Hobonichi Editor-in-Chief Shigesato Itoi

The first thing I think of is how a user writes about his“Life” in the Hobonichi Techo. Life in a bigger sense, and life in an everyday sense. Turn this into a verb, and you get live, which brings you to all kind of meanings: living in a home, living your life path, and even live in person.

In other words, the word “Life” has two meanings to it: one that’s on a smaller scale, with every little moment, and one that refers to the grander scheme of things. I find it amazing that it can encompass all that. And when I look at people’s techos, I realized the same thing is happening.

The Hobonichi Techo is, perhaps, the most important and meaningful thing I own. This lovely essay from the founder captures its spirit and fits very much with the way I use mine. It is a daily record of my life and the only “journal” I have written in consistently for any reasonable time. I could not more highly recommend one. When the 2015 edition comes out on September 1st, I’ll be ordering mine first thing.

A Little Known Hack From Japan To Get Your Notebook Organized — HighfiveBlog

You really have to read the post and look at the pictures to see how it works. This is a neat idea that I could see being useful in a number of situations.

The Sketchnote Workbook Launch! – Rohdesign – Designer Mike Rohde

THE DAY HAS COME! The Sketchnote Workbook launches today! I’ve heard that some orders are already being shipped because the books are arriving sooner than expected. What an exciting week!

If you haven’t ordered your own copy of The Sketchnote Workbook yet, order today at Peachpit, or at Amazon. Other options include: Barnes & Noble, Powells, or IndieBound. For bulk orders, use 800-CEO-READ.

I’ve had access to a preview copy and have followed the making of this book for some time. Mike is a good friend and an unbelievable talent. With that said, this book is an outstanding “next-step” followup to his excellent first book, The Sketchnote Handbook. The Workbook walks you through some more advance techniques and ideas for incorporating sketch notes as a daily practice. Even if you think you suck at drawing (as I do), this book gives you the skills to practice that can only make you better over time. This, in my opinion, is a must have book in your collection.

Sharpie Clear View Highlighter – OfficeSupplyGeek

Highlighting with the Sharpie Clear View Highlighter is a pretty eye opening experience. I usually find myself struggling to keep a consistently straight line when I use a highlighter, so these make a huge difference when it comes to my lack of any highlighting skills. The bright pink (yellow, orange and green available too) stripe in the tips window acts as a guide that you can align with the center or bottom of your text to ensure a nice even highlight across the page.

I too, suffer this same problem. I use highlighters all the time to mark up the non-fiction books I read.Therefore, I’m pretty excited to try these myself.

Learning to Write Again | David Alastair Hayden

Writing by hand is visceral, intimate, engrossing. Normally, I never smile as I write, unless a particular scene or line of dialogue amuses me. When writing on the computer, I wear my serious face practically all the time. Writing a draft by hand, however, makes me smile frequently, for no obvious reason. I look and feel contented while writing by hand. That is definitely a good thing.

Yep. Me too.

I Am TOM. I Like to TYPE. Hear That? – NYTimes.com

I use a manual typewriter — and the United States Postal Service — almost every day. My snail-mail letters and thank-you notes, office memos and to-do lists, and rough — and I mean very rough — drafts of story pages are messy things, but the creating of them satisfies me like few other daily tasks.

Great piece.