People who know me personally know that I spend quite a bit of my free time scrolling Reddit (possibly to my detriment at times, but because I curate my social media fairly well I’d say it’s generally a net positive). One aspect of Reddit that I suppose exists to inspire more engagement is that it will often recommend communities that are related to ones that you already follow. Because I interact with a lot of crafting (knitting, crochet, general crafts, needle felting, etc.) I tend to get a lot of related suggestions, one of which is journaling.
I’ve tried the bullet journal and “junk journal” thing in the past, but I have that ADHD problem of buying tons of supplies and then freaking out “because perfectionism” – I don’t want to put pen to paper and misspell a word, or paste a sticker somewhere that “looks wrong,” so the supplies and journal sit around doing nothing. Recently, however, the subreddit r/hobonichi got recommended to me, and I was instantly hooked. The Hobonichi Techo is a Japanese planner brand that (and I didn’t realize this until I actually had one) has its origins partly with the blog of Japanese writer Shigesato Itoi (Earthbound). I admittedly get excited by Japanese Stationary just on its own, so the hobonichi line of planners already had that going for it. It’s also known for its smooth paper, interesting footnote quotes, and very customizable layouts. There are a few different versions that come in varying sizes and serve different purposes. Something new to nerd-out about? Yes, please!
I purchased one of the A6 Hobonichi Techo Hon planners (standard size, but with one of their 2025 custom covers in their “Hon” line that’s meant to give the impression of carrying around a favorite book). So far I’ve tried out a couple of different pens, but for right now I think I’ll probably stick with my Sharpie S-gels until I try out a few more different ones that I’ve ordered but which haven’t arrived yet. Mostly what I’ve used it for so far is to recap my day and keep track of a few to-do items (mostly meetings related to the convention I help staff, as well as my sister’s wedding stuff that recently took place).
I think one thing that was holding me back from journaling in the past was that I for some reason felt obligated to have deep introspective entries about life and whatever, when in fact I think any kind of day-to-day accounting, even by us normal folks, has value to our future selves. Likewise, I think something that’s been preventing me from posting any writing here (aside from my recently very spotty anime viewing) is that there are things written here that I’m very proud of, so any kind of brief insight on some anime I may not really care that much about seems cheap and not worth posting. Ultimately I think there’s an audience for almost everything, though, including niche writers talking about niche entertainment media, so really I shouldn’t worry that each post here is essay-quality.
Sitting down at the end of my day and spending ten or fifteen minutes just jotting down the things I accomplished, some brief thoughts, and maybe even making a few doodles or placing some stickers, has helped me shake the rust off a little bit. I’ve heard that the solution to writers block is simply just to write and not worry so much about the quality as it’s on its way out of your head. Writing in pen on real paper, you kind of just have to go with the flow and deal with little errors as they come. There’s a limited amount of space on each page, so it’s an exercise in prioritizing and editing as you go. It’s kind of refreshing.
I make no guarantees that I’ll somehow become prolific again as an anime writer; when I elected to remain at my day job I had to mentally let go of the idea that I could be a full time writer, and I’m at peace with writing as I have the time. But I think branching out a bit and just writing for the sake of recording some tiny portion of my day rather than attempting to analyze something else has helped me quite a bit. And most of you out there reading probably don’t even have to buy a $50 planner to get the same benefit, because unlike me you don’t need to blow crazy money on hobbies to get the same kind of dopamine rush 🙂