My Guide to Techo Kaigi

Techo kaigi (ๆ‰‹ๅธณไผš่ญฐ, planner meeting in Japanese) is basically an opportunity to reflect on your planning/journaling system. It looks different for everyone, but Iโ€™ve been using planners for more than 10 years, so I designed this exercise with some examples for folks who either want to start using planners for the first time or are unsatisfied with their current planner lineup:

  1. Define Personal Tracking Needs (whatโ€™s in scope?)
    • ๐Ÿ“… Events / Key Dates
      • Birthdays
      • Trips
    • ๐Ÿ’ช Health
      • Food log
      • Sleep stats
      • Exercise
    • ๐Ÿ“š Learning
      • Lessons / Classes
    • ๐Ÿค” Reflection
      • What did I do for my future self today? How did I respect myself today?
      • Mood
      • Gratitude
      • Major purchases
    • โœ– Things I do not want to track in a planner (whatโ€™s out of scope and why?):
      • Shared life aspects like trip planning, cleaning schedule - These things need shared visibility
      • Work-related professional development - I need to divide work and life
      • Habit tracking - I always fail at tracking this in paper planners
  2. Define Ideal Techo Specs
    • Hard Requirements: List the features and how they serve you (do not consider techo without these)
      • Dated to keep me accountable
      • Grid paper for neat handwriting
      • A6 space or less for a single day to avoid having blank pages
    • Nice to have Features
      • Not TRP - all my fp inks forever smear
      • The fewer notes pages, the better because I only need one for pen/ink testing
      • Half year / avec style to cut down on deco chonk and increase portability
      • A5 or A6 size since I have so many covers I need to use
  3. Evaluate Planner Models - List out pros & cons for each model youโ€™re considering
  4. Sort Tracking Needs into Spreads - Using the list from Step 1, slot these into the different spreads of the techo you picked from Step 3 (ex: track trip dates on the monthly spread, log meals on the daily spreads)

For more techo kaigi goodness, I recommend: