The YosekaLab Planner, Part 2: Vertical Quadrant (Divided)
A brief housekeeping note: I started a new Instagram account, @gatheringofcuriosities, just for fountain pens and stationery, and as a companion to the blog. Please feel free to follow me there. I will post a screenshot of each blogpost over on the Instagram account for those who like a bit of discussion.
Earlier this month in the Method and Mayhem series, I wrote about my experiments with the YosekaLab planner’s Gantt layout. Today I am exploring the Vertical Quadrant (divided) on p. 26 of the planner as a tool to track my many, many projects. Note: I am not affiliated with Yoseka in any way, but I think that they are lovely people.
At any point in time I am working on academic projects (articles and books), fiction projects (books, short stories, poems), translations, peer reviews, and other things which are intended for publication or are supporting publication (such as peer reviews of other people’s work). I have been eyeing the beautiful Vertical Quadrant (Divided) spread in the YosekaLab planner as a potential tracker for my various projects, so I tried it for about a week.
What can I say? It’s rather perfect.
Projects I’ve actively worked on between October 17 and October 24, 2023
Between October 17-24 2024, I finished and submitted a short story translation, finished a full draft of a disability studies article and sent it to a colleague for opinion, worked on a short story (not finished), finished a full powerpoint of a study and gave two talks about it, finished and submitted a peer review, and started copyedits on my novella. I also, agonizingly, queried an academic journal that has been sitting on my article for 1.5 years. (I have stickered out the journal names for both the query and the peer review.) That’s a lot of projects, but it’s actually not an exhaustive list of them - I have a main manuscript I am working on which is tracked elsewhere. I will cross out or mark projects which are published.
Journaling about the work in my Hobonichi day-free
As usual, my companion Hobonichi Day-Free journal is used to reflect on what is happening with these projects as I work on them. For example, today I journaled about the difficulty I am experiencing with the stuck academic submission, and what I want to happen next.
My work desk with stuff pushed together for the photograph - the YosekaLab planner, my hobonichi journal, Stickii sticker sheet, coffee from 1900 Barker.
I really enjoyed this spread. It works well for me, and accomplishes what I want - it allows me to track my many projects side by side, so I can see many of them at a glance and keep adding updates as they happen. I want a whole journal of this spread on fountain-pen-friendly paper, preferably Tomoe River or Midori.
Can it be found? Let’s take a look.
Where to find planner spreads (Yosekalab, an insert); pen is Edison Menlo Fingerpaints with FC BB Sig nib, inked with Ferris Wheel Press Hearty Harvest.
Taking a look at the Planner Matrix insert, I am noticing that the Vertical Quadrant layout is available as: Kokuyo Bushimen Pal Planner; OURS Research Project Journal; and Takahashi torinco #8 no. 531 planner. In addition, the Vertical+Memo ( a slightly different layout, found on p. 28 of the Yosekalab journal) is available as Takahashi torinco #7 no. 757 planner. None of these are familiar to me.
Kokuyo Bushimen Pal Planner: sold by Yoseka for 2024. I love the rounded corners. Paper might not be all that FP friendly? Frustratingly, pages are dated, so not as adaptable as the YosekaLab day-free layout I am reviewing. The dealbreaker for me is the line in the middle of each quadrant. I don’t need it, I don’t want it. Size is B6, just like the YosekaLab planner).
OURS Research Project Journal will be sold by Yoseka soon - it looks interesting, however I miss the rounded corners. This one also has dated pages, and so is not as adaptable as the day-free layout. It’s A5 - a format I dislike, but which is popular (the Yosekalab planner is B6)
Takahashi torinco #8 no. 531 planner (this link is affiliate): You can buy it from Amazon for 2024. I do not know what paper they use and am not sure that it’s FP friendly. It’s a B6, which is great. The quadrants are dated and divided - half of the quadrant is unlined, half is lined. This is not for me.
Takahashi torinco #7 no. 757 planner: The only thing I could found online is this one on Amazon (affiliate link). I don’t see any quadrants here, might be missing them, so this is a nonstarter for me. I might be missing something here… if you know more about this planner, please let me know on Instagram.
Bottomline: a bit frustrated with my ability to find the planner with the advertised layout :) I might order the OURS journal from Yoseka and see what I think.
My biggest takeaways from the YosekaLab experiment have to do with what I actually need.
Here is how I want to document my workflow:
I want to track wordcounts and daily progress (Gantt Chart-like spread)
I want to track milestone updates for individual projects (Vertical Quadrant Divided?)
I want to keep a log of projects I completed - even as I churn out thing after thing, my brain lies to me and tells me that I am finishing nothing.
I want to take notes on my projects in my daily journal as I work on them (A6 daily journal)
I also want to keep a running list of project ideas
I am already doing most of these things, but not in a put-together way. I am considering adapting a blank notebook :)
Thanks to everyone who linked to my blog, followed, subscribed to updates, and talked to me about various posts! I appreciate you.
Bonus: a vision of fall on campus.