The Hobonichi Techo planners are more than a simple planner or diary, they are a book of our lives. This is at least how the brand defines its products. The brand launched its first planners 20 years ago, and throughout these years they have been improving their formats, in such a way that now all those who try Hobonichi planners, repeat.
These products are so special because we can adapt them to our lifestyle, whatever our activities and pace of life are. And once the year ends and, with it, our planner, we get a book of our year, with all the events, meetings, trips that we have done throughout the year, our whole year is recorded in this planner.
Anyone who knows this brand a little bit will know that there is a wide range of planners, with different characteristics, so that we can have one that is perfect for us and that fits our needs.
What are Hobonichi planners like?
-Solid structure.
One of the most notable features of these planners is their structure. Despite their lightweight, which is perfect for carrying them with us wherever we go, they are strong and resistant notebooks. In addition, they can be opened 180Āŗ, making them very comfortable to write in.
-High-quality paper
Hobonichi planners are made with Tomoe River paper, a paper from sustainable forests that is very light but, contrary to its thin thickness, very strong and resistant to bleeding. It is very smooth paper, perfect for writing with pencil, gel pens, fountain pens, and even watercolours. You may notice that inks take a little longer than usual to dry, but that's to be expected, just be careful if you use alcohol inks (markers or alcohol inks), as they take longer to dry and can smudge if you don't wait long enough.
-Wide variety
Whether you need a lot of space because you have a lot of things to write on it or if you prefer a small and compact Hobonichi to take with you, there is a special planner for you. Day view, week view, undated... All the different formats are presented in different textures, colours and designs.
In which formats can I find Hobonichi Techo?
Having known the brand and the basic characteristics of these planners, we can choose which Hobonichi is the best for us. Let's see the main options of Hobonichi planners that you can find:
-Planner
-Size: A6 105 x 148 mm (4 "x 6").
-The Planner Book format, is a 4 mm grid page format. At the bottom of each page there is space to take notes, make plans or decorate them as you like. In addition, a monthly calendar is included at the bottom right. It is the only one with most of the text in English.
-Annual and monthly calendars.
-It also contains a page at the beginning of each month to write down important dates, to-do lists and other notes to help you plan the month.
-At the end of the planner are pages of information and personal notes.
-Original
Since its introduction in 2002, the Original format has been one of the most popular ones.
-Size: A6 105 x 148 mm (4 "x 6").
-Day view with 3.7 mm grid layout. At the bottom of each page there is space to take notes, make plans or decorate as you wish. In addition, a monthly calendar is included at the bottom right. The daily pages are organized in a 24-hour timetable format, so that we can better organize our routines.
-Annual and monthly calendars. We can choose between planners with a Sunday or Monday start of the week in their calendars. These calendars include the rokuyo, a six-day cycle that is said to predict good or bad luck. They are often included in Japanese calendars for planning weddings and funerals.
-It also contains a page at the beginning of each month to record important dates, to-do lists and other notes to help you plan for the month.
-At the end of the planner are pages of information and personal notes.
-The Original Avec planner is the same planner format but divided into a set of two notebooks, each covering the space of six months. This way, the notebooks are lighter, which makes them perfect to take with us everywhere we go.
-Day-Free
The Day-Free layout is designed for users who ignore dates, as it's an undated planner that allows you to organize yourself at your own pace, without having to leave blank pages and waste your notebook. Just fill in the pages as you need them.
-Two sizes are available:
A6: 105 x 148 mm (4 "x 6").
A5 Cousin: 148 x 210 mm (5.8 x 8.25").
-Yearly and monthly calendars, including rokuyo.
-Day to day viewed on gridded pages. In this case, the pages are not numbered so that we can use them as we need and want. So, if we know that on certain days we don't need to write anything down, there will be no problem, we can continue on the next page. At the bottom of each page there is space to take notes, make plans or decorate them as you like. The pages include Small flipbook, a small moving comic book.
-At the end of the planner there are pages for information and personal notes.
-Cousin
-Size: A5 Cousin 148 x 210 mm (5.8 x 8.25")
-The Cousin format is a 3.7 mm grid. At the bottom of each page there is space to take notes, make plans or decorate as you wish. In addition, a monthly calendar is included at the bottom right.
-It includes a section that includes a week on two pages, with the hours marked from 0:00 to 24:00.
-Annual and monthly calendars.
-It includes a to-do list at the top of each page.
-At the end of the planner there are pages for information and personal notes.
-Weeks
-This format, Hobonichi Weeks, is smaller and perfect for carrying around. It is a 3.55 mm grid view of the day. The left-hand page is occupied by a weekly calendar, and the right-hand page consists of a blank sheet. To facilitate organization, the monthly calendar has small dots that delimit the days in time slots: morning, afternoon and evening.
-Size: 9.52 x 18.79 x 1.016 cm (3.75 x 7.4 x 0.4")
-Includes two bookmarks and pockets for notes, tickets...
-Annual and monthly calendars. In these calendars, the rokuyo is included.
-At the end of the planner there are pages for information and personal notes.
-5-Year Techo
This is the perfect format if we don't have a lot of things to write down and if we want to reflect on our lives and see how it changes over time.
The 5-Year format comes in two different sizes:
A6: 113 x 153 mm (4.5" x 6")
A5: 156 x 214 mm (6.2" x 8.4")
-Includes a bookmark.
-Annual calendar: this is the first section of the planner. It contains one year per sheet, containing five years.
Daily pages: on the right-hand sheet we find the same day in five consecutive years. The right-hand sheet is blank.
-At the end of the planner there are pages for information and personal notes.
Hobonichi accessories
Of course, we couldn't forget the accessories to personalize our planners as much as possible. Pens, transparent covers, leather covers that will last for years to be able to reuse them with a new planner every year, adhesive notes, stencils to help us decorate our planner, stickers for a quick way to decorate it... Hobonichi offers a wide range of products to help us to organize our days and to make it much more fun.
What do you think about these planners, do you already have one or do you prefer another planner format, like Happy Planner or My Prima Planner, for example? Tell us in the comments which planner format is your favourite and why ?
