I had a SUPER BUSY end-of-year season at work, so this is up a little later that I would like, but!! here it is!! THE YEARLY HOBONICHI POST…!!!!
(note: I’m posting this in 2026, but I started writing this in late 2025 so every time I say “this year” or any variations of it, that’s 2025! okay you get it!!)
This is my fourth year in a row using the Hobonichi Weeks as my main planner, and I honestly don’t see that changing anytime soon. This year I even went a step further and got a second Weeks that I use for my job—let me tell you how that went!
THE CONTEXT
I work as a science communicator at a planetarium, but I’m also a comic artist. Comics-wise, I finished drawing our graphic novel The Do-Over: Friendship Goals pretty early in the year, and then the burnout hit so I didn’t make much comics after that. This year I also took a postgraduate diploma in science communication that went from May to December–a good chunk of my 2025!
My first Weeks is what I consider my “main” planner. Here I have all my appointments, personal tasks (chores, admin, etc.), comic and illustration work, and my scicomm diploma projects and assignments.
My second Weeks was kept exclusively for my planetarium job. I think it worked pretty well for keeping my job and my personal life separate…maybe too well, because I totally forget to look at the planner once I’m home. If there’s anything work-related that I need to do outside of work, I have to write it down somewhere else! Any time-sensitive planetarium events are duplicated on my personal planner.
THE TOOLS
For my main planner, I’m mostly keeping the same tools as last year: a black-ink fountain pen (I use J.Herbin Perle Noire), a colored-ink fountain pen for highlights (right now I’m using Pilot Iroshizuku Ama-iro), a brush pen for headers, and my trusty Zebra Mildliners for color coding:
- Red for comics
- Yellow for planetarium work
- Blue for everything else (personal + diploma)
- Gray for awareness (stuff to keep in mind that doesn’t directly involve me)
Looking back I should’ve used a separate color for the scicomm diploma, but I didn’t want to carry too many pens for this…oh well…
For my work planner, I am way less precious with the tools I use. Sometimes I’ll bring my fountain pens, but other times I’ll just throw in a black gel pen (I really like the Uni Ball One P) and call it a day. I also carry a yellow Mildliner (I have 2 for some reason), and a Zebra Sarasa in camel yellow for highlights. Later this year I also started using the Alettone cover to bring my Weeks to work, which has been super useful! ✨
THE YEARLY SPREAD
I used my yearly spread in the exact same way as last year: as a very-big-picture view of the year. I’ve actually seen the picture of my 2024 yearly spread show up on my Pinterest feed multiple times, so I might be doing something right lmao…..
Anyway: it’s deadlines, vacations, travel dates, my family’s birthdays, and important events at work. I also use the top section as a sort of Gantt chart for events that last multiple months, and to know when my yearly subscriptions get renewed.
As for my work planner, I didn’t really use this spread, so… ¯_(ツ)_/¯
THE MONTHLY SPREADS
Still going with the same setup for my monthlies! I write down big, important events (deadlines, birthdays, etc.), and then in a different color I track my personal expenses. In the bottom area I’ll track monthly bills and keep a small monthly to-do list. I tend to forget about the monthly to-do list, but I’m trying to get better at it…something something with object permanence, since my planner is usually open on the weeklies?
For my work planner I use the monthlies a lot less—I’ll write down big events in color, social media posts in black pen, and weekly tasks on the left column. In this case it was a specific project that I was breaking down into weekly deliverables to make sure I met the final deadline.
THE WEEKLY SPREADS (PERSONAL)
Everyone’s favorite part of the Weeks! 🌟 I use the weekly spread on my main planner as a dashboard that I reference for everything. 99% of the time, my planner is open on this page on my desk.
The layout is pretty much the same I’ve been using for the past couple years: events and tasks on the left column; and then the right column has habits, tasks without a specific date, and other notes. Later I started adding a “priorities” checklist where I’ll have my 3 main tasks for the week. It’s a great way to highlight what’s REALLY important to get done, versus all the little tasks I write down as they come to mind, regardless of their relevance.
Most weeks follow the same layout, but I did try some tweaks here and there. For example, here’s one where I made space for a “daily wins” column on the right-hand page, for when you need a boost in morale:
And here’s one where I tried to keep both personal and work tasks on the same planner, inspired by this video from Hobonichi. It feels a little too tight, but I really like this one for busy weeks where I keep jumping back and forth between work and personal tasks.
Also, I choose my best-looking spreads for this blog post, but they’re not all this full! Here’s one from a week where I got sick:
THE WEEKLY SPREADS (WORK)
Since I have different needs for my work planner, I got to try some different layouts! They’re not TOO different, but it was still a fun thing to tweak here and there as I found a way of organizing the information I needed for the week. For example, here’s one where I track social media posts on the right-hand side, and another one where I track daily talks/tours that I would give to visitors.
NOTES PAGES
I never get to use all of my notes pages (this year I used 24 out of 73), but I really like them for things I’d like to reference throughout the year! For example, here’s my classic “things lent/borrowed” spread:
This year I also tried a little “yearly overview” so I could have an idea of big events that were coming up, and tasks I had to get done on a specific month. It looks pretty empty, but it felt really useful for giving me a clearer image of the year! (plus it’s more spacious than the super-tight yearly view at the beginning of the planner)
Some other things I have on my notes pages:
- Yearly and quarterly goals
- Passive and freelance income tracker
- “When’s the last time I…?” (got a haircut? changed my toothbrush?)
- Trip prep notes
- Physical therapy tracking
- Gift log (so I remember what I get for people and don’t repeat gifts later)
I would also use the notes pages for when I needed a space to think on paper…for example, here’s some notes I was taking while planning a column on AI and critical thinking that I wrote for my scicomm diploma:
On my work planner, I used the notes pages waaayyy more!! Meeting notes, brain dumps, project planning…it felt a little small sometimes (before I used to take work notes on an A5 notebook), but it was really useful to have everyting in one lightweight and easy-to-carry book. Can’t really share much of that here, but you get the idea!
THOUGHTS FOR 2026
I’m really happy with the planner setup I had in 2025! My plan was to do the same setup for 2026, but I was gifted a daily planner that I’m going to use for work, while keeping the Hobonichi Weeks as my personal planner. And if at some point I need the weekly view at work, I know I can do the personal+work layout that I tried in 2025.
Also, I’m super excited about the Tamagotchi Weeks! the Hobonichi collaborations…finally catering to my specific interests…what a time to be alive…
Thanks for reading! 👋✨