Techo Kaigi 2024: My Planner Review - Part One

I initially had this post cover both my review of my 2024 planners and my 2025 planners, and it just became too damn long. So, here is Part One, my review of my 2024 Planners. In this entry, I cover a little bit about how I got interested planners, what I used for 2024, and what I did and didn't like about them. Stay tuned for Part Two, or what I am using for 2025 (and why!). This is a bit of a self-indulgent series of posts to start this blog; I love talking about planners, so I will infodump here about it. Hopefully, there's some helpful info here! A tl;dr can be found at the bottom.

The Online World of Planners

I am a Planner Person. This often is a surprise to people because there's a stereotype that people with ADHD just can't use planners. I don't think this is true! Like most things, there are many truths:

• There are ADHD people who obsessively use planners to compensate for feeling forgetful and disorganized
• There are ADHD people who love the novelty of a new planner, but tend not to stick to using one
• There are ADHD people who feel guilty and like they should use planners, but struggle to keep up with them, and then feel guilty about wasting their money
• There are ADHD people who (no judgement!) don't care about keeping track of things, so they don't use planners

And, of course, more variations.

I have been a mix of all of these. In the past few years, I have relaxed into a "enjoys planners and uses them pretty regularly to help keep up with tasks, with brief breaks that I don't feel guilty about" ADHD person. But I have always been a person who loves office supplies, cool pens, and great notebooks, so it makes sense that this would extend into planners and personal organization!

Then, in December 2023, I discovered the world of Japanese planners. (If you haven't visited this universe, I'm sorry and you're welcome. Visit JetPens or Yoseka Stationary and you'll see what I mean.) I think the gateway Japanese planner is the Hobonichi, and - spoiler - yes, I picked a Hobonichi Cousin for 2024.

I quickly realized there is a huge niche of online content for Planner People - bullet journaling, decorative bullet journaling, people who like disc planners (ex. Happy Planner), people who enjoy Japanese planners, boutique planner brands (or, that's how I think of them - ex. Archer & Olive), and so much more. Then, there are goal-oriented planners, such as Passion Planner. Then there is the world of planner accessories, like stickers (ex. CoffeeMonsterzCo, who designs specifically for Hobonichi planners), pens, highlighters, and so much more.

YouTube is full of people making content to help (or not) you design and use (or not) your planners - to the extent that it can quickly become overwhelming. People have "stacks" of planners that they use for different things. Spend too long looking at this content - especially with ADHD - and you will start to feel like you also need endless planners to organize your life! So, I tried to be very limited and specific about what I tried for 2024!

Techo Kaigi - 2024 Planners

Towards the end of this year, I learned about the idea of a Techo Kaigi, or a Japanese concept of reviewing how you used your planner(s) in the previous year to help you plan for the upcoming year. (Yoeseka Stationary made a fun series of videos on YouTube about this with their employees!)

I love this idea because it helps you refine how you use your planners to get the most out of them in the future. I've informally done this in the past, which has helped me realize what style of planner really works for me, but I wanted to do a bit more of a specific review this year. Here are a few highlights:

• 2024 was the first year that I've genuinely finished a planner.
• Even though I used the Hobonichi the whole year, I chose a different planner type for 2025!
• My "stack" has been minimal in 2024, and it is slightly larger for 2025.

So, let's get into it!