preparing for the new year
2026 is hurtling towards us, a little too fast for comfort for my own taste. At this time of the year, I usually take some time to reflect on my systems for planning and organising, so I know what I want to keep or change for next year. Come along for my musings!
I've divided this post into two sections, the first one about work and productivity, and the second one about hobbies.
Work and productivity
YearCompass
This will be my fourth year filling out the YearCompass. It's a nice excuse for sitting down and looking back at the year and considering the next one, and gives me a structured way to do it. I usually set aside a few hours. I think I heard about it the first time from Frannerd, on one of her Patreon posts.
Revisiting my planner system
Fall is the season for shiny new planners. I've previously loved using a physical planner, but my work requires me to use a digital calendar so this feels like a waste. I have a physical calendar, but I mostly use it for memory keeping.
What I'm continuing to use:
- Traveler's Notebook Passport size with four inserts: 2026 weekly; kraft paper folder; canvas wallet; and my commonplace notebook. This is my everyday carry, and holds my notes, wallet, and calendar.
- Digital calendar for meetings, appointments, reminders and timeblocking.
- Todoist for tasks, both work and home-related. My partner and I have shared lists for groceries, shopping, and house projects.
- Midori MD monthly desk calendar. I keep this on my work desk so tasks, deadlines, and meetings are visible. I also write monthly summaries to help me track my progress and remember what I did each month.
- Monthly wall calendar. This is mine and my partner's shared calendar. We need a physical one so we actually keep it updated and look at it.
What I'm leaving behind:
- Clockify. Tried using to keep track of what I spend my time at when I'm working. It works fine but I couldn't be assed to keep up with it.
- Notion. Tried to set it up so I could track and share my PhD process with my supervisors, but it was too time-consuming and the AI-nagging soured me completely.
Knowledge management for work
I'm currently in the last year of my PhD, so making sure I keep track of my thoughts and where they came from in a way that I can find them later is important.
- Obsidian for all writing that isn't for a specific project, like essays or articles.
- reMarkable 2.0 for reading and meeting notes.
- Zotero for managing my references and their respective files. I need to fix the automatic moving and naming of PDFs, it broke in a big update in March... PDFs and epubs are stored on my uni's servers to avoid sync issues, Zotero links to them for easy access.
- A5 research journal for reflections, planning, stray thoughts, and to-do lists. Currently I'm using a lined notebook from Muji.
My workflow consists of reading on my reMarkable, transferring notes and quotes to Obsidian, where I try to follow the Zettelkasten method - writing out my own thoughts and connecting notes to each other. This helps me make connections across recent and old readings. My research journal is for more fleeting writing and thinking, it's not something I'm meant to go back to often (if ever). If I have important breakthroughs I'll transfer it to Obsidian.
Hobbies
Memory keeping
Memory keeping and journaling has become a hobby of mine. I've had a Midori 5 year diary for three years, and I absolutely adore it. Seeing what I did on this date for the last three years is so fun. I try to sit down a couple of times a week to fill it in. In order to remember what I've done, I make short notes in my passport TN every day.
When I travel I like to journal in a dotted A5 MD Journal. I will print photos with my pocket printer, stick in memorabilia and write whatever I want. It's a creative outlet for me, and flipping through old pages brings back memories. And if I ever want to revisit my favourite restaurant, I know where to find the name!
Reading
I've been using Storygraph to track my reading for the last few years. Currently several friends of mine are moving to Hardcover for the improved social aspect. I haven't fully made the move, but will be testing Hardcover in 2026. So far I like that HC lets you make lists, so I have one "to-read" list and one "interested"-list, for books I've heard about but haven't committed to reading.
Knitting
I've had to abstain from knitting for over a year because of issues with my hands, but now that they're better I'm easing into it again. I've used Knitandnote to keep track of projects and my stash of needles and yarn. I loved that it was available on a simple app on my phone, and it's honestly a lovely app! Some features became subscription based while I was away, and I don't feel like I can justify the price considering I'm not knitting much right now. Instead I'm considering moving over to Ravelry, but I need to check if there's a phone app.