Method and Mayhem: the YosekaLab Planner

I am on research leave this semester, and as I’m working on many different projects, I wanted to try something new. So I ordered the YosekaLab Two-Month Weekly Planner, which is a great deal at $9.50 to experiment and do weird things. (I am not affiliated with Yoseka in any way, but they are lovely people).

This is an excellent product, and I recommend it without reservation. It was also initially confusing for me - I think I expected all spreads to be weekly, but there is a mix - some spreads are monthly, others weekly. We get some of the weekly spreads twice, others, like the excellent vertical quadrant divided, only appear once. I think the reason for that is that there are actually two vertical quadrant layouts, divided and memo - so I think they are counted as one type of layout. But they look different. My neurodivergent brain stumbles over things like these.

I love the planner.

What I especially love about the planner is the structural permission to experiment. Of course, any planner can be experimented with, but I think I’m not the only one who is often intimidated (and confused) by fancy readymade setups. In contrast, Yosekalab has many different layouts in a small, simple, yet perfectly designed package, with the idea to try out different layouts. Not every layout will work for everyone! Great! It’s built-in!

Love it.

I immediately tried and abandoned the standard monthly table layout. I am not a fan of these grid schedules - they are commonplace, but I find that nothing fits in them. I imagine it’s great for people who have one or two things a day, or who have small handwriting, or do not need to write notes. I’m glad it works for so many people!

The standard layout was tested and abandoned. Next!

Next, I’ve moved on to the vertical Gantt.

The “original” use of paper based Gantt charts is a mystery to me, and I don’t know anyone who uses them at work - for team coordination there are other apps and approaches. But the Gantt chart has long fascinated me. I used the YosekaLab Gantt chart to track one project - the first draft of a disability studies article - with brief notes, dates, and wordcounts.

The Vertical Gantt chart spread in my Yoseka Lab planner, used to track progress of drafts and wordcounts. Pen is the Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age, with an M nib tuned by Mark Bacas.

I used the date tracker on the top left to mark days I wrote. This was kind of pointless in the end, since I wrote every day, even the day I only added 20 words. That counts for me. The drafting progressed briskly, for a change. It is a pleasure to be able to dedicate actual time to my work, rather than steal moments between classes, meetings, and email.

Article is drafted, and mostly revised. Hurray for hyperfocus!

In the left column, I recorded the date (redundancy, I know, but I liked it), what I did, briefly. On the right I recorded beginning and ending wordcounts, and in parentheses how many words I added.

Any time now, I imagine someone leaping from the internet bushes and shouting, “That’s not how you are supposed to use a Gantt chart!!” I know. I know.

In addition to the Gantt layout, I used my Hobonichi Day-Free to take notes during the drafting process, noting things like stray thoughts and feelings about progress, anything I wanted to do the next day.

Thoughts and progress and ink comparisons. Pen: Leonardo Momento Magico Brooks Primary Manipulation

My A6 journal is not really methodical. It is a space to unburden my brain, which is a very busy place. Any page may contain lines or paragraphs without any order, including things like: progress on article, pen and ink thoughts, health journaling, personal reflections, worldbuilding, etc. It’s great right now.

I think the Gantt layout really worked for wordcount and draft progress tracking. And the Ungantt chart… for everything else. I hope to share more with you as I test more layouts!

The “Ungantt chart” - my journal. This is the mayhem part of the method. Pens here are: Sailor Pro Gear Après Ski, Onoto Magna Keats, Leonardo Momento Magico.