The year 2023 will end in a few days. I am looking forward to the new year and what the Lord will unfold. One of many other things I am preparing as I enter 2024 is to get my planner and journals ready. Throughout the year 2023, I was back and forth between paper-based and digital planner/journal. I used Notion excessively to the point I got overwhelmed by its complexity. From the first time I encountered Notion, I fell for it and have been using it since for planning, daily journaling, and note-taking. But, the year of glory for this app is ending for me in 2023. Thank you, Notion, but I am going analog in 2024.

Before I show my 2024 planner line-up and expand how they work, let me take a few seconds to review my pros and cons when it comes to digital planning, journaling, and note-taking.

Pros:

1. It is certainly convenient to easily add pictures, embed videos, and insert clickable links to any resources.
2. I can write on the go using my mobile phone.
3. I can download and print my entries as PDFs when needed.

Cons:

1. The need to turn on my laptop is an extra task in itself. There is time when I don't want to turn on my gadget at all for a day or two.
2. I have no tablets or iPads, the only other option to access my digital planners and journals is my little smartphone which is a very inconvenient tool for long-in-depth thought documentation. I don't mind using my smartphone to record fleeting ideas or knowledge, but I am sure I need a better way of documenting my worth-to-elaborate thoughts.
3. I forget what I typed more often than things I wrote down. Retention is the problem here when it comes to writing digitally. Planning, journaling, and note-taking are not the same as writing an essay or this blog entry — refined products of some thought processing behind the scenes. Planning, journaling, and note-taking are often unfiltered and unrefined. I need to see them, possess them, use them, absorb them, and think about them again and again. Digital means have proven unhelpful in my case.

In light of that reflection, I have decided to go fully analog in 2024. I am not saying that I will never use digital means at all. I might digitize my journals and notes in the future for database purposes, but I aim to use pen and paper to give myself time to refine each knowledge and thoughts. Here is a budget-friendly line-up of what I will use in 2024 and how I will use them.

Planning

Three-column calendar

My mother-in-law has been using calendars to record family's birthdays and another calendar for any appointments and events. I think it is quite handy so I adopt her method. When I saw this three-column calendar at Poundland, I thought it would be a great compact calendar to use for a family planner. I'll use the first column for anything related to my husband. The second column is for myself, and the third is for miscellaneous. If you haven't got your calendar and think a three-column calendar would be handy, you can get them here.

Pocket common book + sticky notes

For the last two years I made and printed my weekly planner, but I decided to simplify everything this year and I got this pocket planner as a common book. This planner doesn't have much space to write, so I put some sticky sheets on the inside of the back cover. This way, whenever I need an extra space to write, I can move a sheet on the page. Find a similar pocket planner here.

Creative planner

This is an old journal I got some months ago. I have started to use this as a creative planner for planning my content, and anything creative productions. My system in this creative planner is very simple. I dump and list my ideas, and establish thoughts for blog posts and/or videos. When one idea has been executed into a content or two, I will simply cross it from my list. A similar notebook can be found here.

Journaling

Simplified day-a-page journal

When it comes to daily journaling, I need a good-sized notebook. It shouldn't be too small or too big. My daily entries vary in length. Sometimes I write a lot, and the next I might write a few sentences. But I want space to add photographs or inspiring clippings. This day-a-page diary is a common size and a perfect one for what I need. I got mine from the Works for £2.75.

Notetaking

Jonathan Edwards' notetaking system

I have been using this system for my studies since May 2023 and I would say it is the best system yet!

Insert sheets — In the past, I had so many notebooks and journals to record my studies. It seemed very neat but was chaotic because I didn't know where to find what when I needed to recall something. So, I've decided to buy more Bibles rather than more notebooks in the future. This is because I am now doing note-taking in the Bible. I inserted blank or decorated sheets and glued them in the spine. I get messy with this and yes, it might damage the Bible but that's fine for me. It is just so much easier this way. I also do annotating and indexing straight in the Bible or on the insert sheets which point to the big study folders. This helps when I want to dig deeper into a certain subject.

Folder "S" — It is a folder for Biblical theology studies. I don't compile the content systematically (not a systematic theology per se), yet certainly, there is a somewhat systematic essence in assembling this study folder.

Folder "H" — There is nothing new under the sun, even heresies you find today were there long ago. My interest in learning history in general and Church history sparked more when I was doing my doctoral studies researching the damages feminism caused in the Church and society. I remember I was doing my shift at the college library when a mature grad student came to the front desk and we ended up having a long conversation about our society today. He was quite helpful as he elaborated on significant times in world history that impacted modern thinking. That conversation ignited my quest even more to understand the world today by discerning history. My husband is also someone who likes history and I use his books to study.

Folder "A" — This one is a collection of archaeological studies related to Biblical stories. I find this subject interesting, helpful, and certainly worth learning. I usually piggyback my husband on this subject as I don't know what to read and where to search. Every time my husband mentions his latest interesting reading on archaeology, he emails that to me and I would print and read it for myself.

Insert sheet glued to the Bible's spineArticle clipping and insert sheetAnnotating and indexing what I readFolder "S"Folder "H"Folder "A"

Notecard/Index Card System for reading notes

Before I came across this system, I somehow already practiced a similar method. After I finished a book, I put the book away for a while. After a month, I will pull the book and write summary on my Notion. The record will be exclusively based on book rather than topic/category. It means that it was a lot harder to recall a specific thing when I need to find them. So, I did a little research for a better way of doing 'reading journal' and I found this notecard system. I started this simplified Zettelkasten method very recently and am excited to see it grow. Ryan Holiday popularized this method which he got from Robert Greene. Both are well-known writers, but I honestly never read their books.

Index cards for quotes and thoughts — I write quote(s) with or without my thoughts on the subject in each card. I think you are supposed to have only one quote per card, but I write one to three similar quotes from the same book on each card. After I finish writing down significant quotes from the book along with the book bibliography, page, and category, the cards will be added to the category deck. I use one to three categories in one card, but I arrange the cards on the deck based on the first category written on the card.

Index cards for references/bibliography — I haven't done any of this since I just started, but the point of this deck is to index categories by book. I will soon have cards for books I have read and documented. Each card will have a bibliography and index of categories based on quote and thought cards.

These are my preferred ways of planning, journaling, and documenting my thoughts and fleeting knowledge I encounter in 2024. Perhaps you like to stick to digital gadgets on this. If you like me — you want to give yourselves time to see and ponder on thoughts and ideas by writing them down with pen and paper, what would be your method? After all, knowledge is interconnected and vast, yet my mind is so limited. My analog approach has proven effective compared to the digital way of maintaining my studies. But, whichever your preference, I wish you a good 2024.

Study hard, for the well is deep, and our brains are shallow. — Richard Baxter