Midori Traveler's Notebook: My Life Planner

If you haven't noticed, I've been planner-obsessed lately. I fell down the rabbit hole into the world of creative planning, and found a new hobby. It couldn't have happened at a perfect time. I've been feeling stressed, and planners have become one of my outlets. I actually have three right now: a journal, a work planner, and my life planner -- a Midori Traveler's Notebook. 

Midori is a Japanese stationery brand that sells paper products and accessories. It is best known for the Traveler's Notebook though, which is why when people say "Midori" they usually mean the notebook. It's a leather notebook that can be used for anything -- a journal, a planner, a sketchbook, or all of the above. It is customized with refills and accessories, and is held together by a simple elastic band.

I was looking through the planner hashtags on Instagram (#planner, #planneraddicts, #plannerjunkies) when I came across the Midori. I didn't understand it at first. I thought it was too flimsy to be the sort of planner that you could carry around, since it's a mere sliver of leather wrapped around a bunch of paper. Then I came across The Reset Girl's Midori 101 video on YouTube, and I realized just how much the Traveler's Notebook can be made my own. After that, it was pretty much a slippery slope for me. I was using what is now my journal as my life planner back then, and I was finding it sorely lacking. I didn't have "planner peace" -- a term used by the planner-obsessed that basically describes the feeling of not being satisfied with a planner. I surfed the Net, watched endless Midori setup videos on YouTube, and scrolled through Instagram nonstop for days until I made up my mind that it was the planner for me.

The husband got me a beautiful Midori Traveler's Notebook for Valentine's. I've been staring at it for days now. Can't wait to customize it and make it my own. I got a bunch of accessories already! Thank you @namazukom! 😘

A photo posted by J (@liatenshi) on Feb 17, 2015 at 6:46am PST

I was so obsessed, my awesome husband got it for me as a Valentine's Day gift. We trooped to Scribe Writing Essentials in Shang and spent a while there just looking at the Midori shelf. I was in planner heaven! I ended up with a black, regular-sized Traveler's Notebook that came with the 2015 Diary Pack. We thought it was nice, since it had an entire year's worth of weekly refills (January to June and July to December) in it. Plus, it was being offered at a discount because it had 2015 refills, and it was already February. The deal made me feel like it was meant to be, heh.

The entire kit came in a minimalist, yet practical box with an elastic band keeping it together, of course. I love Japanese packaging!

The box opens up to reveal a cloth pouch and an extra red elastic band. Inside the Traveler's Notebook are the two refills that are part of the diary pack.

I had to get refills and accessories, of course. The best thing about a Midori Traveler's Notebook is that you can customize it according to your needs and wants. You can use just one refill in it and keep it plain, light and simple, or you can stuff it and decorate it to the hilt. (Here's a list of official Midori refills and accessories.) I ended up with a starter kit of sorts that day. Here's a rundown of what I got:

• 009 - A set of colored elastic bands
• 005 - Daily Planner Grid Refill with planner pages with blank months and days (day on one page)
• 018 - Free Diary Weekly Refill with a week in two pages and time columns
• 2015 Monthly Planner - Month on two pages, with a calendar-type boxed layout
• Mushroom Clips - A pack of 18 pastel-colored mushroom paper clips (each one can hold 10 Midori pages)

I also ordered a bunch of accessories from Planners and Journals (@plannersandjournals) on Instagram. (I thought it would be convenient to get all my initial accessories before I started customizing my Traveler's Notebook.) The seller was so cute and sweet! She even added a little note and threw in a couple of freebies -- a Midori rubber band that I've since put to good use, as well as some vintage stamp stickers. Here's the loot:

• Blank refill
• Card holder with zip pocket
• Kraft folder 

I set aside a weekend to work on turning the Traveler's Notebook into my life planner. It was such a rush! I loved decorating it and figuring out the best way for me to use it. That's going to be for another post, but here's a sneak peak of my Midori decorating day:

  

It didn't stop there though. My Midori is constantly evolving. I keep adding stuff to it, and it just keeps getting better and better. Since I got it, I feel like I'm more organized, I'm not forgetting things, and it makes me feel accountable and I try my hardest to stick to the plans that I write in it.

Things making me happy on this Monday morning: my now customized and fully functional Midori + a Toby's Estate Coffee Roasters Flat White 🌞

A photo posted by J (@liatenshi) on Feb 22, 2015 at 5:55pm PST

I take it with me everywhere. Whenever I find myself waiting or killing time, I pull it out and jot down thoughts, plans, ideas. I love it, I'm completely obsessed, and right now it feels like I'm going to have it forever.

I'll post in detail about how I use it and how I decorated it soon.

What do you think of planners? Let's talk.