- Bruce Lee
My analogue system seems to morph and shift no matter what time of the year we are at. I think it comes from my background as a designer. I am on the endless quest to design and redesign the system. Not to "perfect the system" because there is no such a thing... but to find the true reflection of my life in my analogue world.
As we have settled on our new schedule as a homeschooling family, the idea of managing our "time" has become really important to me. To create and dedicate meaningful time to things that matter to us deeply and letting many other things go. Because at the end of the day... we all have a set of 24 hours that comes and goes. So I think my current layout carries through the theme.
Life
My Traveler's Notebook continues to be a big component. It is my super functional wallet, monthly calendar as a planner as well as a place for organizing my day-to-day operation and keeping my personal memory close to me.
In order to make Traveler's Notebook system work for my current needs, I asked Frido if he could design a loose leaf weekly dashboard I could incorporate. So I can have a singular location where my to-do list goes to as well as a place to sort out my week when I get to each Sunday. Detailed reminders and notes that are too much to be captured on my monthly planner fall on this dashboard page. This is helping my productivity tremendously and giving me peace of mind. Added bonus: I don't have to carry my previous to-do lists and other "reminder" kind of notes inside of my Traveler's Notebook once tasks are done. I love keeping my Traveler's Notebook lightweight and compact. (Crossing my fingers I can share this BK Dashboard with you soon. Frido is working with our local printer right now:)
And since this is definitely one notebook system that goes literally everywhere with me, I decided to include a refill notebook that is dedicated to my personal memory keeping. A collage of bits and pieces from everyday. Letters I write to Satchi and Coco. Pictures I print from my iPhone. It is probably one notebook that I flip through the most whenever I have a few minutes of downtime between our everyday chaos. Either to add few more words... or just to remember and appreciate the little memory that was captured before. This one notebook makes my Traveler's Notebook so much closer to my soul.
Brain Dump
Recently I realized how important it is to just braindump my thoughts each night without editing. Nothing visually pretty about the page and it doesn't need to be and I will most likely not read back these pages. The process of writing is truly everything. I'm using the MD leather cover with Hobonichi Avec right now. But really... any notebook compatible with fountain pen writing will totally work for me.
Visualizing Time
In order to get the most out of my time, I need to be able to see it first.
I came across Jibun Techo while we were in Tokyo in October and their weekly system with dedicated space to track 24 hours everyday really intrigued me. So I decided to give it a go... to sit down every night and quickly jot down how I used the time on the day. The notebook is in my Roterfaden and I am using the monthly page of the same Jibun Techo 2017 notebook for documenting what is happening at Baum-kuchen.
Catching ideas
In the Roterfaden leather cover where I keep my Jibun Techo, I decided to also clip the Idea Notebook to jot down thoughts and ideas for Baum-kuchen. The Tomoe-river pages are simple in layout and quite functional for idea generation. I think Frido and I came up with so many more new ideas once I started using this notebook so I think it is really serving the purpose!
