MultiYear Hobonichi Weeks: ReConfiguring the Week-View 2/5

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Mapping This Series: Setting Up a Multi-Year (2019) Hobonichi Weeks

✦︎ Overview
✦︎ 1. Exploiting the 2019 Year view; RePurposing the 2018 + 2020 Calendars
✦︎ 2. → ReConfiguring the Week-View → Editorial Calendar / Record
✦︎ 3. Enlarging (69 → 99 pages) and Mastering the Notes area
✦︎ 4.  Enlisting a Few Memo Pads for Core EDC Use
✦︎ 5. Eliminating Items from the Weeks, and Why

Converting the Hobo Weeks → 5-year Editorial Calendar

I don’t want to consult my 2016 AND my 2017 AND my 2018 Blogger’s Bullet Journal, whenever I’m reviewing past blog postings. I want one book, holding a comprehensive record.

Why not search at the server? Analog, once constructed, addresses my easy & quick bone.

Bloggers gotta blog … and deal with social media. The described customized Hobonichi Weeks reflects these realities.

 

Revising Extraneous Pages: November & December 2018 Week Section

10 pages make up this section. I covered all. I pulled clean sheets from archived Weeks and pasted them over the 2019 dated pages. 8 host my Quotes collection. The 9th page remains blank.

The 10th page immediately precedes the start of the 2019 weeks. It holds the 17 image posts (shocker 🤣: all but one = birds) published during late 2016. That period formed my get-the-feel-of-it maiden posting period.

Bird pics form a large part of my branding, requiring tracking, lest I hit visitors with the same birds repeatedly. Hence, nothing to lose and much to gain by creating a comprehensive record, e.g. with the 2016 image postings.

Left Page: Seizing the Boinkies for 3-Year Usage

Study any one of the left pages in this dated horizontal weeks section.

You’ll see the “boinkies,” little drips appearing along each line, serving as alignment cues. Using each provided cue, I first attacked the October 2019 pages, creating 3 columns on each left page—with a light gray (0.3mm) Staedtler TriPlus Fineliner pen, then penciled the headers: 2017, 2018, and 2019. Including 2017 nods to my complete blog record jones.

As I smiled at my handiwork, greed set it.

Right Page: Following the Margin’s Lead for 2 Additional Columns/ Years

Turning my attention to the facing right page, I accepted the pre-drawn margin, with its 6 horizontal grid blocks. Counting 6 blocks to the right of the margin line, I created another column. These 2 would cover years 2020 and 2021.

The right-page revision yields a wider far right-side blank area —11 horizontal grid blocks. Counting the rows and performing a few quick math equations, I confirmed: that wider column spells perfection for the FaceBook Page segment. Thus, one of three parts of my desired Social Media Editorial Calendar was covered.

Dancin’ with Dates

With the skeletal outline in place, it was time to add the flesh of dates, per year. Or so I thought.

Trust me on this one folks. Start adding the dates at the January 1st mark. Rationale: ain’t no way you’re gonna get it right —for all 5 years— starting anywhere but at the beginning of each year.

Incidentally, I didn’t post on New Year’s Day of 2017, so nothing lost by ignoring its existence, BuJo-wise.

Adding the date numbers for each year

One word: PENCIL! While all-caps can signal rudeness, in this instance, failure to emphasize would amount to contempt toward you, the reader.

When you think of this chore, envision a munstah crawling ’round da floe with a mega flashlight. Every mental hiccup will find you. I provide the steps below so you will emerge with your mental booty intact. In essence, I established a shadow structure in pencil, then went back to finalize in ink.

Choosing the Tools for Preliminary Work

Selecting highlighter colors for the date blocks

Entirely optional. I share for those considering this option. Choose you preferred colors, then test.

Grab any paper, drawing roughly ½ inch lines with the highliner. Does the marker leave excessive puddling at the end of the drawn line (hi, MildLiner and Monami)? Do you like the color enough to see it dozens of times per facing page set, over serial pages?

I suggest you pick at least 2 obviously different colors. More on this topic in the Unexpected Hassle section below. Spoiler alert: I use 3.

Construction Tip: Creating the Skeleton

⚠ Do yourself a humongous favor. Don’t go near washi tape ⚠  until you COMPLETE the entire date-labeling chore. It’s easier to pencil the dates, then finalize in ink, withOUT the protrusions, lumps, and bumps produced by successive washi tape application.

1️⃣ Decide on a Monday or Sunday start date for the week. The pre-dated info will be ignored, so you’re free to create your dream setup. The first horizontal row will always reflect the choice. I chose Monday. Why? Errrr, ummm, it’s called weekend, folks. Since I was knee-high, I’ve treated Saturday and a Sunday as a unit separated from the work week. Ain’t changing now.

2️⃣ Grab a full year calendar reflecting the year you assigned to the first column. Because I wanted a full record, I retrieved a 2017 calendar. A complete analog blog posting record relieves me of the Filtering Queen chores encountered via multiple server searches.

3️⃣ Vow to handle ONLY one month at a time, completing one year at a time. Honor the vow. Get up, walk away, take a nap. But do NOT act like a plodding Joe Frazier, moving forward no matter what. You’ve been warned! Wanna ignore me? Okay. Alternative suggestion: grab a large jar of Vaseline; Murphy’s Law will be with you shortly.

4️⃣ Keep your eyes on the first column of days, Monday or Sunday, presented by your this-year-first full-year reference calendar. Hone tennis-match eyeballs. Move your retinas back and forth, full-year cal ←→ Hobo, as you enter successive start-of-week numerical dates. The goal here: flip through one Hobo year, entering the Monday/ Sunday start date on each week page. Skip none. Situate the penciled date near the block’s middle area, not at the top.

5️⃣ When you get to the end of a month, pencil in that last-day date in the corresponding Hobo slot, e.g. “1/31” within the January 31st date block. Consider this a double-check, destined to keep you on the straight and narrow throughout the dates entry process.

6️⃣ After completing one year, rinse and repeat for each additional year. Imma say it again: BREAKS ARE YOUR FRIEND! You’ll SAVE time long term, cuz ya won’t need to correct boo-boo’s. This is a calendar. One mistake will adversely impact every dang page that follows. Taking breaks greases your I-see-it wheels; prolonged tedium nullifies your senses.

7️⃣ AFTER entering the first-day-of-week numerical dates, WITH last-day-of-month numerical date, for EACH month of EVERY year, it’s time for Round Two. Go back. Still using pencil. Fill in the remaining blocks, so every block has an assigned numerical date.

This is where you catch date-insertion errors. No tears, cuz easy-fix when required per the penciling. Write with a light touch, to ease later erasures.

8️⃣ Round Three, your next to last pass. You’re adding the colored date blocks. BUT READ THE NEXT CONSTRUCTION TIP “HASSLE” SECTION FIRST. For this chore, I worked through successive months. That made it easy to switch markers when attacking a new month.

Go to bed.

9️⃣ Round Four. Now you get to enter the inked date numbers into the blocks. You have the penciled date per block, immunizing yourself from Murphy’s Law. Erase the penciled date numbers when convenient. Because the penciled dates sat in it near the middle of each block, erasing disturbed nothing.

FYI: I cheated. I triple-checked the penciled dates. Once satisfied the dates were accurate, I hopped ahead to October. I inked those dates first. You know the reason: I wanted to start my planning in the Weeks immediately. I performed these setup chores in September. You best believe SherlockReena here was gonna move into this condo 3 yesterday’s ago!

I say all that to say this: once you have the basic penciled skeleton in place, attack the rest as you please. No harm; no foul.

Rinse, repeat, for each year of desired coverage. Done!

===

To summarize, I entered penciled dates by month. When I finished one year, I followed the same steps — until I completed all years in pencil. Next, I added the date color blocks. Finally, I started the ink-it process on the October 2019 pages. That allowed me to start planning in the October pages immediately. (Hey, I earned that quick gratification, Sporty!) I’ve also completed November and December. I’ll work through the earlier months at a leisurely pace.

My reaction as I added my maiden entries in the October 2018 slots?

Construction Tip: Finessing an Unexpected Hassle

With the basic structure outlined, decide how you want to handle presenting the dates. Artistic folks will have a field day with this chore. The rest of us will indulge involuntary head-scratching.

I decided to provide a background color for my scribbled numerical dates. Why? My one complaint with the Hobonichi Weeks: number sizing designed to caress only the retinas of a flea. But a pop! date-block stands out from surrounding text. I. Can. See. It.

Under my initial plan, the date-block color was the same throughout all months and years. Fortunately, I tested 3 serial months in an archived Hobo first. Dang good thing! I’d have been in a world of hurt if I skipped that test. Why?

A hands-on illustration best conveys the sorry tale. Grab a sheet of paper. Free-draw 7 rows, then create 4 columns. In a top corner of each horizontal slot (left or right all the way down, your choice), create a block with a light-colored highlighter. Walk away for 10 minutes to allow plenty of drying time. Next, ink date numbers within the blocks, so none are left bare. The month holds 31 days:

Notice: there’s no visual cue, separating the two distinct months —here, July from August. The problem intensifies, because the numbers change from year-column to year-column.

I could have drawn a thick dividing line to signal a new month. Instinct ruled out that option. Why? I prefer 2fers. (My blog; I get to make up words as I go along.)

I break down my goals, intentions, projects, and milestones by quarter year → month → week. My personal reporting period occurs every 4th month. The red blocks serve as a gentle, yet ever-present reminder, of my responsibilities to me.

In this instance, the same mechanism employed to highlight certain months simultaneously provides a vital reminder. A 2fer!

For the two remaining months of each quarter, I wanted only a subtle difference in the coloring. Going through my highlighter stash, I found several shades of yellow. The difference is strong enough to discern, yet subtle enough to avoid a jarring effect.

Employing 2 yellow-family highlighters, in addition to the red, produced the cleanest method to resolve the ever-present recipe for confusion. No serial months would sport the identical color. Only pay-the-man months would show red blocks.

I tested this scheme first on draft paper. Through that process, I learned I did not want, yellow, orange, and green; nor blue, yellow, and brown. Too much visually. That’s why I settled on the two yellow variations.

Test yourself. Rinse and repeat the rows & column drawing above. But this time, switch to another color each time you insert date number 1. I know of no other testing scheme to efficiently reveal what you can and can’t live with, visually, over a multi-year time-frame.

 

Summarizing my date-block coloring scheme

• color 1/ red: January, April, July, October ← JustFit Red
• yellow 1: Feb., May, Aug., Nov. ← Stabilo Yellow
• yellow 2: Mar., Jun., Sep., Dec. ← Bic Brite Line

Sample Spread: October into November

Tools:

• JustFit Red Highlighter (JetPens): mostly cuz of (1) comparatively minor puddling and (2) as close to red I could find, without the color overwhelming /killing the inked date
• Stabilo Yellow
• Pigma Micron black 001 / 0.25mm

Asked and Answered

• Pam, it’s late 2018! You mentioned wanting a full blog posting record. Why —specifically— do you want that level of comprehensiveness?

A few reasons:
1⃣ JetPack sometimes comes up with weird choices for Related Posts. I added a plugin, empowering me to accept it’s choices, reject all and choose my own, or mix up that combination. (LH JetPack Related Posts free plugin).The problem? The related special search interface does my bidding only if I recall a word in the title. Even when I do, only a handful of resulting titles appears at a time. We’re talkin’ a whole ‘nother version of sheer tedium. While it takes extra time on the front end to include 2017 and 2018 postings, doing so saves time on the continuum. I can simply flip through my Hobo to remind myself “oh yeah, I touched on this same subject back on..”

Blam, related post pinpointed for inclusion. Keep in mind: I color-code the blog titles, in the BuJo, to reflect post-format, e.g. video vs QuickNote (external link as focus) vs Article vs Image. That fact provides a eyeball-friendly filter, further shortening the time to visually grasp the content type desired. Incidentally, I stay with JetPack for two reasons. First, the most popular alternatives cause such an adverse impact on the server, many (most?) quality hosts ban them by name. Second, if I removed JetPack, the site would immediately lose all Related Posts. None would reappear absent a replacement plugin —bound to have its own (unknown to me) foibles. I’d rather work around known hassles than expose myself to unknown grief.

2⃣ By including prior years, I can ignore the multiple books holding those iterations of my Blogger’s BuJo. Ditto the soon-to-be-archived 2018 Blogger’s BuJo. I no longer need to carry/ consult those extra books when I’m planning blog posts (e.g. idea generation while reviewing old post titles); or compiling related posts, internal cross-links, etc.)

3⃣ Think! We’re scrutinizing a Hobonichi Weeks —sized to slide in and out of most pockets with no hint of grief. I can half-step, or I can take extra time to devise a comprehensive package from the git go. This badBoy will serve as a premier all-in-one reference aid well beyond 2021. I’ve stacked its contents accordingly. 😎

Dated Horizontal Weeks Section as 3-Year Social Media Editorial Cal

The focus here = planning ahead; no record needed re previous postings. Therefore, this section covers 2019 through 2021.

I exploited space to include planning for October through December 2018.

Facebook Page

These posts are entered on the right page, in the wider blank trailing column. I doublespaced Monday through Friday, providing decent space for planning.

I messed up on the first few pages, including only 2018, 2019, and 2020. Quick fix: I simply added year 2021 at the end of that column.

There is perfect. There is done. I went with done.

InstaGram

My second account, devoted solely to planning and bullet journaling, won’t launch until mid-November. By that time, I will have prepared the first two months worth of posts.

This dedicated section appears in a lower area, spanning each page of the facing-page set. I restrict my current blog posting to Monday through Thursday, leaving open the Friday, Saturday and Sunday horizontal slots for mid-2018 through 2021. I lose the 2017 and earlier 2018 column slots to post titles. Either way, the lower section of blank space accommodates my tentative 2x or 3x a week IG posting.

Having BOTH the blog and social media posting schedules, on the same weekly page, makes these aspects of my life tons easier. Example: because postings from prior years are front and center, I enjoy potential Facebook feedings I’d otherwise miss.

Example: Look at the 10.03.2017 posting, written with a purple 0.38mm Pilot Juice pen. The color tells me this is a video, i.e. TED Talk. I grabbed that for a Facebook Page post, scheduled for later in November.

Other

Twitter: ✓ only

I schedule tweets via IFTTT and Google Calendar. gCal thus doubles as my planning mechanism. For analog purposes, check marks confirm postings. All I need since the details are in Google Calendar.

Pinterest: don’t need it

For this analog container, I desire no Pinterest details. Therefore, the only place this network appears, within the Weeks, is the Stats section in the Notes/ Collections area.

Google Plus: 😂😆

Google, caught with its pants down, announced it will pull the plug (on the consumer version) come August 2019. The problem? Years-long user data exposure per a weak something or other. Google, fearing regulation, didn’t bother to inform anyone until early October 2018.

To my mind, the announcement transformed G+ to formal DOA status. I killed my related Pinterest section board, and now act like G+ never existed. Frankly, that’s not too different from the way I and most others treated the wannaBe network since it’s inception. Indeed, my account lived in name only.

Why did I bother? to open a G+ account in early 2018? Research indicated a G+ account elevated some blogs in search results. Guess what? True!

Etc

If I post to Reddit or elsewhere, the first letter of the network will appear within the corresponding date block, on its last line. I’ll devote one 0.3mm Staedtler TriPlus Fineliner to this chore, thereby ensuring a unique color. Easy. Done.

WrapUp

To summarize my treatment of the built-in sections described thus far:

Next: embracing the Notes section, from a multi-year perspective