Wednesday Wonders 18

The first of the year...

1. Hobonichi Techo

A new year requires (yes, requires) new stationery. The A6 Hobonichi Techo has been a fixture for me for the past decade. Each page is dedicated to a single day. It's billed as a Planner, but I use mine more as an aide memoire - towards the end of each day, I scrawl a few lines about what happened or what I was thinking about or what the focus of the day was. It's not quite a diary entry, but looking back over the entries from previous years seems to bring things flooding back.

As with the next item, the Techo utilises Tomoe River paper, which is about the best paper you can put a nib to.

2. Hobonichi Techo Cousin

This is a new addition for me this year. Where I use the A6 planner for looking back on the day, the A5 is much more about looking forward. I'm trying this out as an alternative to my bullet journal, because I realised that I was only really using the bullet journal for task management anyway. The Techo Cousin has a day-per-page layout, complete with a timeblocking segment. It also has months and weeks set out at the start of the book. Think of it as a planning diary on steroids.

Paired with the truly astonishing Tragen cover, this is my secret weapon for tackling 2026.

The Hobonichi site is excellent for both of these, but those in the UK can also get everything from the Journal Shop.

3. Anytype

Yes, it's a notes app. And yes, I'm technically off those. But I'm giving this one a pass for being offline and encrypted and Swiss. This is not a hard-recommend, because I'm still kicking the tyres on it. But Anytype does seem to be an incredibly simple (grading on the curve of notes apps that are object-based and involve databases) and fast app and I'm currently enjoying throwing stuff into it.

4. Mind Node

An Austrian app that I have been using on and off for years. It has been through a transformation recently, from Mind Node Classic to Mind Node Next, but it seems to have settled now. I find mind-mapping incredibly useful, not just for outlining stories, but for tackling intricate problems or making big decisions. It's a really great way to get an overview of a situation, and to see the permutations of every possible decision.

Of all the mind mapping software I've tried, this is the best. And it's one area where, because of the infinite canvas, that digital beats paper hands down.

5. The Assassination Bureau

This is a movie I was obsessed with when I was about 9 years old and have never seen since. Arrow recently released a blu-ray, so I caught up with it again at the weekend, fully expecting to be underwhelmed. And I loved it. Yes, the effects are shonky as hell and it is an incredibly silly film. But Diana Rigg, Oliver Reed and Telly Savalas in an Edwardian adventure story as imagined from the height of the Swinging Sixties... Fascinating to see just how much of the DNA of Aldrich Kemp must have been planted in my brain all those years ago.