My Guide to Techo Kaigi

Techo kaigi (手帳会議, planner meeting in Japanese) is basically an opportunity to reflect on your planning/journaling system. It looks different for everyone, but I’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 (what’s in scope?)
   • 📅 Events / Key Dates
     • Birthdays
     • Trips
   • 💪 Health
     • Food log
     • Sleep stats
     • Exercise
   • 📚 Learning
     • Lessons / Classes
   • 🤔 Reflection
     • What did I do for my future self today? How did I respect myself today?
     • Mood
     • Gratitude
     • Major purchases
   • ✖ Things I do not want to track in a planner (what’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 you’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:

• This episode from The Stationery Cafe podcast”, which is run by my friend, April (@penguinscreative)
• The Stationery Selection’s techo kaigi blog post