My inspiration for this week’s spread was to use washi tape from the mt shop in Osaka. They had some limited edition washi tapes in color combinations I normally wouldn’t use. One in particular, is the square washi tape in the photo below (from my Japanese stationery haul) in orange, blue and green. That’s a color combination I’ve never used before so that was the washi tape I challenged myself to use this week!

The reason I normally avoid orange is because it’s so hard to find different planner supplies that coordinate in a similar shade. Most highlighters are either too pastel or too neon. Some orange pens are too neon and orange washi tapes vary so much in color.

Before the pen

I started with a simple strip of washi tape across the top of the pages. Because this washi tape isn’t a bold pattern e.g. pink background with white polka dots, it would’ve also looked good to add a second strip at the bottom of the pages if I’d had the room.

The mt washi tape can easily be peeled off and restuck if you wanted to change it’s position on the page. You could also put the washi strip vertically into the page margin to save space.

I put the dates before the washi tape but it also looks good if you place this in the middle with the washi tape on either side.

Thin washi tape (3mm) is so versatile, I actually use it more often than the more common 15mm wide washi tape. For this spread I used it as a vertical divider, for underlining, a horizontal divider and I also contemplated turning the appointments sections into a box using the washi tape.

Read more: My Favorite thin washi tape for planning

I was going to use the dot e pens from my Japan stationery haul for my checklist but the green is unfortunately very neon, so instead I switched to the tombow dot markers for the checklist and only used the dot e pens for my exercise tracker.

Read more: 7 Ways to use dot markers in your planner or bullet journal

The shades of each color don’t quite match between the various stationery I used, but there was enough variety that I think it still worked alright when it was all paired together.

I’m trying not to be overly ambitious with how much I can get done in a week so deliberately chose a small page size (A5). The esc goods notebook has thick bright white 160GSM paper that is very smooth to write on. It’s not the best at erasing the Frixion pens though, there was still some residue on the page (the focus time section on the bottom right).

You’ll notice that I don’t have a days of the week section. The appointments section for things with a fixed time is enough for me. I prefer to work off a to do list and complete things in priority order (hence the categorised lists), and when I’m motivated to work on things so I don’t allocate tasks to a certain day. Most of my tasks / projects are things I chip away at over the course of a few days. If I used a weekly planner with days of the week, I’d just end up writing the same thing across multiple days unless I broke things down into so much prescriptive detail that it’d take ages to set up my planner. I also find that really de-motivating / a ‘failure’ if I told myself I was going to do a certain task on Monday but didn’t end up completing it on Monday.

After the pen

Most of my tasks this week centered around the end of the financial year. If you’re interested in reading more I did a separate post on how I plan for a new financial year (review questions, tools and my favorite finance books).

I’m the kind of person that wants to ‘do it all’ so I always have plenty of projects on the go at once. It’s hard to balance my time across everything and I can get easily distracted. So the pomodoro / focus time tracker really helped this week.

I put a cross when I successfully completed the 25 minute time block with no interruptions, 1 line is when I broke my concentration (usually distracted by YouTube or Instagram..)

Supplies used:

• ESC goods notebook (see my review including pen test in this post)
• Pilot Frixion erasable pen
• dot e pens (from Japan, see the rest of my Japanese stationery haul here)
• Pilot Frixion light erasable highlighter (green)
• deli dual tip highlighters (blue)
• Zebra mildliner (orange)
• 3mm washi tape (green and blue) – Carefully Crafted
• 3mm washi tape (orange) – Illustrated Faith (unfortunately, this washi tape is a few years old and is no longer available to buy)
• Tombow dot markers

I wish the Frixion light highlighters came in more colors and similar shades to the Zebra mildliners, I really like muted green.

Would I use this layout again?

Yes, I liked the layout and had just enough space to write, but in a busier week I’d upsize from a bullet journal to a medium size notebook e.g. the Happy Notes.

I didn’t mind the color scheme but it’s not colors I’d use regularly. There are some other colors in this washi tape collection so maybe I’ll use one of those as my color combination inspiration next…

Past weekly spreads

• Week 41 (part 3): Daily planning bullet journal style (using a Plum Paper grid dot notebook)
• Bullet journaling in the Rhodia Goalbook
• List makers spread in the PAIPUR hybrid notebook

Planning tips

• Dot Journaling: A Practical Guide (Book Review)
• 7 Useful spreads your bullet journal should have
• 30 Minimalist Bullet Journal Weekly Spreads (set up the week in 10 minutes or less)

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