Our Essential Planner Supplies 📙

0:00Hello and welcome to the Planner Pals Podcast, a podcast hosted by two true planner pals. My name is Mark and I go by marker pages. And I'm Jess Ojasi, Karen, and today's episode is an exciting one because the topic was selected officially by the Planner Pals community over on YouTube. This being in particular our channel membership, where if you join up, you can get early access to our videos. You get them sometimes at least a week in advance, maybe a little more depending on how ahead we get. So if you wanted to join up, be sure to hit the join button beside our name over on YouTube if you're watching over there. And if you're on Spotify, jump over there. Get episodes early.

0:35We'd love to have you. Today's episode is a really great topic and we really thank the Planner Pals for such a good one, which is all about planner essentials. What are the things that we cannot plan without? This isn't just saying like I can't plan without it, but it would be a nice to have like these are just like bare minimum for us as we think about how we plan and what we do. So Jess, let's go ahead and get started. You've done a great job of organizing these episodes into themes and areas, and the first one is notebooks.

1:03So go ahead, kick it in. What is the absolute must have essential for you when it comes to notebooks and planning? Yeah, definitely. Because you know, in thinking about essentials that really bare minimum kind of thing like cool, need something to write on, need something to write with. So I figured we'd start with write on. As somebody who does prefer to set up their own planner, I am looking for a notebook that doesn't have any kind of pre printed stuff in it.

1:22My personal preference is dot grid, but I also wouldn't be upset with just a grid notebook. If it was the only thing available to me, I'd probably use it. But where I do get a bit just nickety and a little bit particular is the actual paper itself. So an essential for me is one that has, you know, that kind of like bright white or maybe even a cream colored paper. But it can't be a colored paper or like a really heavily pigmented paper, like a dark blackout type thing.

1:48Because if I have to write with a white gel pen, I I won't plan. It won't happen. I feel like anybody who has ever done that, I give them all of the flowers because the dedication that it takes to write in a blackout notebook, it is there. It is. It is crazy, but I feel you on a lot of those things. My essentials when it comes to the notebooks are almost everything that you mentioned because we'll just kind of group these all together into the same thing.

2:12We know that we have similar taste. I would say that the one thing I would like to have, even though I said it's like an essential, but page numbers I think are really kind of essential when you don't have them. Running them in is something that I'll just do myself. I will never ever in my entire life use those little page number stickers. I think that that is not not for me for sure, but everything else works out. You know, the one thing that you mentioned about the ivory paper, you know, I'm always kind of iffy on that one there personally because I feel like especially taking photos of it, it's like, I love that Christmas of the bright white of like the page when it's like that. So like not having to overly edit it. Have you used any notebooks recently that had the ivory paper?

2:52Recently, definitely not, but I think that, you know, if we're coming back to that idea of essential, for me, it's just essential that I can actually read what I've written so heavily preferenced towards a bright white because I like the way my pens look better. I like the contrast between my like black ink pen versus the paper itself. Like you said, for taking photos, it is, I guess I just prefer the way the image comes out if I don't have to go and like color corrected and such. You know, it's a little harder to get the white balance right if you have a cream kind of colored paper. But I do appreciate if I'm ever working in direct sunlight, which is not often because I'm pretty sure I'm like half removed from a vampire the sun.

3:30But if you are working in direct sunlight, it is a lot easier on the eyes if you have a slightly tinted paper tone in especially that kind of like warmer direction. I just don't do that very often. So I wouldn't consider ivory be essential. I wouldn't consider bright white to be essential, but it's definitely a preference. I would say also for me with the paper type itself, definitely has to be fountain pen friendly, even though I'm just finding more and more and more like people can write that on their notebooks, but I don't think they actually test it themselves. Because I've had a few that have been like fountain pen friendly. And I'm like, does that just mean that I can write in your notebook with a fountain pen?

4:04Like I can do that in any notebook technically, but really paying attention to the bleed through and the ghosting and when the bleed through specifically is like how it bleeds through. I didn't realize that was a thing until I compared my current journal, which is a hemlock and oak to an Archer and olive notebook. And while they tend to have, well, I'm not say similar paper, but the way they react to fountain pens is different. Where like the arch and olive paper kind of like blotches and cut, I'm going to say pools, but it like feathers out, but it's with the ghosting slash bleed through.

4:36So it's on the other side of the paper and you get kind of this like feathering. Whereas what I've noticed with the hemlock and O, while it's not 160 GSM paper, I think it's like 12140 or something like that, you just see where the lines are. So it's not like soaking in and feathering out. I'm just coming to kind of accept it. I prefer not to have ghosting in my notebooks, but I think that I have to slowly accept it where it happens with the fountain pens, just because I like writing with fountain pen. So it's kind of like a necessary evil, but just making sure the paper can handle it is kind of important to me and really just essential at this point.

5:16Whereas before it was like, oh, I like to write with fountain pens in my notebook, now I just do it all the time. So like it has to perform, it has to do well. Yeah. And I think that's, you know, if we're thinking about the term essential type thing and taking it from that standpoint of like this is the must, this is like the bare minimum type of a deal. I also feel feel like the essential category will definitely change over time as you, you know, get further in with your planning, as you understand your preferences more and whatnot.

5:40Because I know that earlier in my journey, one of the things that I came to have as an essential was a thicker paper notebook because I didn't love the ghosting or bleeding. I liked taking photos of my notebook to show on Instagram or whatever, which are very like, you know, aesthetic forward platform meant that, you know, having ghosting and bleeding in there didn't really lead to the best quality images and bus engagement on the posts and all of that type of a thing.

6:04Nowadays with my planning, given I am tending in a kind of more minimalist, streamlined kind of direction, I don't think it's as essential. But for the enjoyment factor of planning, I definitely prefer to have thicker paper. So my tendency will always be to pick up 160 and because I have the options in that category to grab 160, it's going to be the one that I go towards. Like there are enough different notebook brands and companies and such that are producing 160 that I can and usually find one pretty easily, even if it is a little bit more expensive compared to something that is, I don't know, an El cheapo notebook from the dollar store.

6:41Not that I even have the dollar store, but you get the idea. You know what you mean? I mean, before I started using fountain pens, like I remember switching from the Loystroms over to Archer and Olive and it being like this glorious awakening because I was like, wait, I can write in a journal and I don't see through the page. And that's when I was using not fountain pens. So gel pens and other ink pens where that wasn't, it doesn't typically. So it's just funny, like for all of these years, I was in this beautiful, glorious space of not having to worry about it. And then I go ahead and start writing with liquid ink out of a fancy fountain pen.

7:14And then I feel like I'm starting that all over again. And then I'm like, on this search for the perfect notebook that acts in a perfect way. It's just unrealistic for me. So now it's just important to test it out, make sure that it is working well. And then I'm like, yeah, OK, we'll make this happen. Yeah, you're just going to get Piper that's thicker and thicker and thicker until you have like a 2 notebook and you're like perfect. I love this. I can't see anything through this paper and I only have 10 pages.

7:39Gonna last you all of like 2 weeks and 1/2 or something. I'll make it work. I'll just get like a big like one of those big like letter sized ones. I don't know what they're called, like Ledger ones or whatever where it's just like giant pages. I'll just like cut a page into like 3 weeks at a time and we'll see how it works. I think that with the mention of the Ledger size, that's actually a very important consideration for me is definitely the size of the notebook as well.

8:00It's not necessarily something that I to be like the most essential thing, like if I have something to write on I can do my planning, but my preference will always tend towards specific sizes, mainly being the A5 and the square. Though I'm kind of tempted to try my hand at a Travellers again, I also do a lot of Basics. The basics is an absolutely excellent size, especially for three month planning. Do you have a preferred size for yours? I mean at this point now it basically comes down to square and B5.

8:25I think that just works best for me. I have a lot of a fives I have to at some point start like using them up. You know, I think my big thing was like, Oh my gosh, I'm using 3 and 4 pages a week when I'm using an A5 size. But now I'm like, go and do it Mark, because like you'll just cut through those pages and they'll cut through those notebooks a lot faster and just kind of take down that inventory a little bit. I've been really, really good about not buying extra notebooks probably over the past like 6 months or so.

8:53So it's just one of those things where like I'm looking, I'm paying attention and I'm like very much aware of it now, but I will always, no matter what, especially like square is just the perfect size for me. It's like right in between an A5 and AB5 size, like perfectly matched inside of a nice little perfectly square container. So you only have to figure out like your line spacing for one side and it works for both. It's fantastic. You know, I totally agree.

9:19I do love the square size. I think the thing that has me tempted to try Travelers again is just because of how I'm using the square size at the moment. And I've been finding that for a lot of my pages. I've been dividing them in half vertically and I'm like, hey look, a travel is no. So I'm like maybe that size would work for me? I mean, I could, I guess if you're thinking about it that way, it's just you're using multiple pages versus just giving yourself that one page. That's what I really like about the square is like I can fit an entire week onto one page versus 2. And then if I need a little extra, I have it versus again, like I said, if I was using travelers and even A5, I know it would be multiple pages.

9:52But I don't know, I think after this next bullet journal, when I'm finished with this one, I definitely need to maybe just like go with it. Be like, yeah, who cares Mark, if one journal doesn't last you all year, like just use them. And somebody who hasn't had a full journal for one year and like ever, I think if we're thinking everyday journal, my everyday journals will last like maximum 2 per year if I squeeze six months into it. But at the moment I'm going with, at least in my mind, I'm going with A1 journal per quarter type thing, so three months per.

10:22But I think that with the square that I've got at the moment, I'm going to have a lot of pages leftover if I do that. So I'm kind of rethinking that at the moment, like, oh, do I just try and cram another couple months and then because you've been kind of laxed with the space you're using? Or do we just move to a new one? But then I feel like it's wasteful and that you're also creating it. I want to keep using it. It's a future made problem. It definitely is something to think about early on.

10:44I remember being like, I have to fit an entire year into one notebook. And then now I'm like, oh, it might work out. I'm OK with this, you know, make it work. I think if I get into December and I'm running out of pages, I'm figuring something else out. I won't start a new journal for like a month of a year. But usually if it's like half or I've even started like a new journal, like September, like that still feels like there's a lot left to the year so that I'm not just like wasting the rest of it. But it all depends, you know, It's one of those things like I feel like a grown up planner now where it doesn't matter as much, where I was very persnickety in the past with it. Yeah, I find that I'm similar in the sense that I would really love to start a new journal with the new year. That's usually my preference.

11:25Like if we get to November, December, I'm like I'm going to make something work. I'm going to get real crafty with the type of a deal. I have started a new planner in September before, but in thinking about starting that, I'm then very intentional about what kind of notebook I would choose for it. I will intentionally choose one that doesn't have like, you know, 192 pages or something saying that I'm not going to be able to use up in that four month period. I'll go for something like AB6 or an A5 with the lower page count or something like that.

11:51In thinking about notebooks though, I feel like we all know what the answer to this is going to be, but preferred brands? I mean preferred brands right now are Archer and Olive and Hemlock and Oak just because. I mean this is my first time using the Hemlock and Oak but I'm really liking it. I liked it as page numbers. It has line grid option, which always makes me feel very fancy and it's handling most of the material that I'm throwing at it. So there's nothing to be mad at. And then Arch and Olive, I just, you know, again, like first true love, you know, really kind of having that moment with them when I've discovered them and then just kind of growing with them and watching that brand grow as much as it has and all the different designs, all the cool stuff that they're doing. I mean, I'm not going to lie to you, just it has been a little bit weird.

12:34Like for whatever reason, it's not feeding me as much Arch and Olive content recently. I don't know if it's because I'm not really kind of talking about those notebooks as much or posting about them as much. It's kind of odd, but it's just one of those things where I've always really enjoyed it and I've liked it, but like, I'm not seeing a whole lot and I think that's okay. It's just Instagram being a little bee and not showing me any planner content honestly.

12:56Yeah, no, they're just saving you from your over consuming self. Truth. Truth, Truth. Yeah, for me, definitely Ultra and Olive, they are going to be my preference like pretty much every time. I don't think that there's been a notebook recently that wasn't like an R&D notebook or a scribblebook or something that wasn't an Ultra and Olive because they are just the ones that I prefer to use. I love their designs. The notebooks work really well for me. Every so often I get a lemon, but their customer service is like unmatched.

13:22So I always like very willing to go back and support a brand that also has supported us really nicely. Outside of that though, I think my other preference would be Tifosi, which they have worked with me before. They've gotten a lot of their notebooks and gotten to try a lot of those ones out. But the quality of those is quite comparable to Art and Olive. The only thing I will say with that one is that depending on the notebook you get, especially if you're getting some of their older designs, the paper can be quite different.

13:50I think that when they were, you know, just coming up and really finding their groove with things and such, they tried a lot of different things to really see what would work, which did mean that they had a lot of variety in terms of what you could get. So you could get your bright white paper or your cream colored and your lined and your dotted and all of that type of a thing. Nowadays, the ones that are coming out from them are just the bright white dot grid page numbered notebooks. Those ones go up to a lot of the time, like 256 pages. So if you need a lot of space, they do offer that, which is kind of nice, but my preference alternative. Yeah, I've, I haven't used DFOC in quite some time, I think since they originally kind of came out. But a number of people recently have been commenting on other videos and they were like, I just got this brand. Have you heard about them?

14:33They're really nice. I really like them. They're in a good price range. The paper is really great. So I might have to give them another try at some point just because it's been a minute. And just see like what the difference is. Because like you said, when we got them, they were early on and that paper was just, it took forever to dry. Everything. Did I forget what it was like some kind of like stone wash something paper? I forget what it was, but I've heard good things. So I need to need to head back to that brand and see what's up. Yeah, they're much more lefty friendly nowadays compared to some of those earlier ones.

15:04Super important. All right, well, let's move away from notebooks to talk about what we put inside of those notebooks. So the next thing that we're talking about is rulers, which seems like a weird thing for someone to be like. It is an absolute essential, but like it's an essential. So share a little bit about your preferences when it comes to ruling. Definitely. So. In particular, I used to be very, very specific about having very crisp edges on my boxes. Nowadays I am less anal about having those really super kind of straight lines, but anytime I want to measure something out in my notebook or figure out the sizing of a box or whatever, it is always faster for me to just use a ruler than it is to count. I mean, personal preferences for a grid spacing ruler, those are great.

15:48But if we're thinking bare bones essentials, I'm thinking like a very cheap ruler that you'll probably get, you know, at the craft store or on Amazon or like something like that. Really, really kind of bottom of the barrel type deal. But the things that I'm very much looking for here is that it has to be safe through because I need to be able to see the dock grid through the ruler to be able to line things up properly. And it definitely has to have centimeters because if it's inches, then it's not going to work with the dock grid because the dock grid that I use in my notebooks is 5mm or half a centimeter. So every two boxes is 1 centimeter. You can very quickly count things out being like, oh look, this is a 5 centimeter space, It's ten boxes. This is a 12 centimeter space, you know, it's 24 boxes or whatever and vice versa.

16:28So being see through and being able to do those measurements really quickly because it's blind with the centimeter markings, that's really essential for me. Yeah, I agree with you. If you can get a planner ruler, super important. I mean the one that I got this is from Archer and Olive. Every time I use it, people are like, where do you get it? How do I get it? I'm like, it came in a subscription box like AB5 size 1. I use this all the time. Last week I accidentally closed this in a journal that I was doing some R&D stuff on, forgot that it was there and then couldn't find it. And I was like, what is going on? And then I cleaned my office this weekend and I found it. But when it comes to like that essentials, I agree with you absolutely clearest.

17:05The way to go, something that I like must have with my rulers now is there's like a little bit of an an edge that's cut on this because someone in the planner space told me about when you're using brush pens or mild liners, if you flip the ruler upside down where that edge is down, you can use the marker on it and it doesn't accidentally smear the ink because it gives that little bit of a gap. And once I learned that, it was like game on, you know, I was like, oh, now I want to use my mild liners more. Now I want to use my inkier markers more because I always hated when you put down that line and you move that ruling, that little skid mark on your paper and you're just like, no, like I didn't want that there.

17:44So that's always been a really cool tool. You know, any time that I have, I have some other like neat looking rulers that I've kind of collected over time, but every time I use them, I'm in the same boat. I'm like, I can't see my lines, I can't see my dots. I need to kind of know where I'm going because even though I pencil things in, I notice I don't give myself like a long enough vertical on that. So like it's just a little pencil dot on the line and I can't see it anyway.

18:08So I have to be able to see where that line is, because otherwise I'm drawing straight through it. Yeah, very that. And I think that you're thinking about the shaping of the ruler. My preference is always going to be for that. You know, is it called like a bevel edge? I don't know. It's essentially when you look at the ruler straight on or whatever, from the side angle it looks like a little trapezoid or whatever that that is always very like. It's going to be my preference. It'll always be the one that I tend towards. But I don't necessarily use mild liners like you do or rule coloured blocks.

18:39I'm much more inclined to either. If I'm being very particular about it, I'll put down a very kind of non sticky washi tape, one that I can very easily pull up off the page and I'll use it to mask off sections so that I can get perfectly crisp boxes of colour. Or more often than not nowadays I'll just freehand it and just go slowly and hope it doesn't get too cattywampus. So is that I like to always, well, the only time I ever don't use a ruler with them, it was when I want to have like more of like a natural looking like color drop shadow.

19:08Like it's OK if it's a little bit off, you know, But then Even so, I'm just like, get out the ruler, make it look perfect, Mark, it must be perfect. Yeah, I watched one of my older videos the other day because we, I was just looking through things and I saw myself ruling out my lettering and I'm like, oh, nowadays, absolutely not. Jess would either just go type something up with a font online, print it off and stick it in, or she would just avoid using that lettering style completely.

19:32Yeah, that is some I I've done that before too. And you're like getting all your edges and your angles and whatever else. I'm like, I love beautiful fonts. Still got me wrong, but my goodness that takes forever. Forever. Exactly. I know, right? It's OK though. The ruler is still a staple, even if we're not necessarily using it in that way. But next category definitely would be writing implements the tools that we're going to be actually putting the plans onto the paper. You know, if we're going back to that idea of something to write on and something to write with, this is the to write with. But in terms of your writing tool preferences, what do you got?

20:06Yeah. So I'll break it down into 3 categories, but definitely the one I forgot to mention as we were planning this episode is the importance of a pencil. I don't know why I didn't think about that at first because like, pencil first is always the way to go. That's how I start all of my plans, my ideas, my spacing, all of those things before I even touch a marker, fine line or anything to my notebook. So that is the number one thing any type of pencil works. Usually a nice light graphite is good because it erases really nice and easily.

20:34I'm finding more and more that the erasers usually the more important part than the like the graphite pencil that you're ready with in the darkness. A good eraser can erase anything, that's for damn sure. So that's definitely the first piece when it comes to pens and I'll say non fountain pens just because that's its own little like fun category. But like finding a really nice pen that just writes nicely, doesn't skip, you can trust the Uniball Signo DX, the .38mm.

21:02I know all the specifics of that because I still use that to this day as my tried and true pens. Just like never can go wrong. I've never ever had an issue with those pens. And like that's a rare thing I feel like to be able to say about most kind of pens. I just like the way it writes. It's really nice and crisp and it's a fast dryer. And so for me specifically, being a lefty, fast drying ink is super important. And then just continuing on to like the fine liner part of this is just, I really, well, I like to have a lot of different things, but I'll say something very, very fine and then something really bold.

21:37And I feel like between that you can kind of make things happen. So like I like the least just from a minimum stand point pencil, good pen and like 2 fine liners just to be like yeah I can kind of do anything I need to do with this line art writing, you know, gritting out my pages. Everything works really well. Yeah, I like that pencil was in your lineup of like an essential supply because I was kind of thinking about them like, oh, you know, pencil probably good to have. But for me, that's more of a nice to have than it is an essential.

22:05Because nowadays the way that I plan my layouts is using my digital layout planner. I would just always mock it up over there and essentially make a map for myself in terms of how my layouts would get set up because I can figure out all of the spacing in that digital space, chop and change things, color code it so that then it gives me kind of a visual representation of what the page will actually look like when I'm done rather than sketching things out in pencil.

22:27I think in particular because I've moved away from a style of planning that is very like intricate doodle heavy where you know, I, I would really want that detail on there before I got started. It means that the pencil isn't as essential for me. I'll do all of the planning out in terms of spacing and sizing digitally instead. So I guess like that is an essential tool for me. It is one that I use every single time I go to set up my planner to make sure that things are going to fit the way I want them to. To make it so that then if I'm write a checklist or something, I actually give myself enough space for a said checklist. But when it comes to the actual writing tools, for me it's going to be a black pen.

23:04Sure, I know you can in theory write your plans down in a blue pen, but like, I can't, can't do it. To me, a blue pen is reserved for like I need to write a shopping list or something like that. It is not for the things that I need to get done. Like blue pen is like a casual pen color. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, too. School for school. Like sitting in the back of the class like Pitbull and people or whatever. That's the kind of blue pen kind of aesthetic.

23:28I'm also like the, you know, front of the classroom here to take notes down to business. Black pen. When it comes to a black pen though, and for everyday writing, it's going to be a ballpoint because I get a little bit ham fisted with my writing implements. And if I'm using a fine liner, then that nib will not survive. Like as soon as I start writing something, when you get 2 lines in that nib will be bent or blunted or just like it's always so upsetting when you you get a new fine liner and the tip is like beautifully rounded and it looks gorgeous.

23:58We have the perfect line weight and then you write like 3 things and now it's like flat landed at the top and you have to handle it like a very specific angle to actually get it to write anything. It makes me so sad. Anybody who has ever had a Micron pan knows what that feeling is like. There's nothing worse than taking out that like .01 millimeter, like basically the the length of like a hair follicle and, and there's like pressing it down and just watching it like cut in half or go up inside the metal piece. You're just like, no, that was so expensive. I mean, I think everyone probably has one or two of those in a drawer somewhere.

24:34I know when I did my whole like pen clean out a number of those and even the thicker ones too, you know, I didn't realize how heavy-handed I was until I went to go do a writing sample and I realized that I had like, I don't know the right word for it, like frayed the like 1mm one. Like I pressed on it so heavily that it was almost like a brush pen, like not a fine liner part there. But I think that's why I like the the emote I think is the name. Like Uniball makes one that's like a plastic tip fine liner, which is really nice.

25:03And that way you can press as hard as you want. It's not going anywhere. But I don't know, there is something so very nice about like the Super fine fine liners. Yeah Micron does have a plastic nib one which is my now go to fine liner but they from my understanding at least only have it in one line. Wait, don't ask me what it is, I can't remember, but it is my go to and I do use it. But when it comes to just getting my plans into my planner, it will usually just be a regular black ballpoint.

25:28But I'm very particular about making sure that it has a really good quality of black ink. I need the black to be saturated and dark and deep and you know, like the blackest of black. Mainly because if it isn't, I will spend way too long just trying to figure out like, is my pen running out? Is it Gray because it's running out? Or is it Gray just because of the nature of the ink which distracts me from doing my planning? How am I going to give my plans in if my pen's distracting me?

25:51So I need to make sure it's actually dark enough that I don't question those kind of things. That makes a lot of sense. You know, one of the things I've been exploring with the pencils are like different types of it because I used to just use like a mechanical pencil all the time and then now I'm like, oh, I'm refined. And they make these clutch pencils, which are super nice because it essentially has like a really long piece of graphite, but the tip of it's really cool like grips and clutches onto your graphite and it just is, it's just so fancy to write with. I have two of them, one that's like a big thick boy and then one that's a like finer point.

26:25But it's just like one of those things where you're just like, oh, I like writing. And so you kind of up your game a little bit from like fancy pencils into like fancier pens if you want to. It's one of those things where it's just like, well, I'm already writing an analog, so I might as well have cool materials to do so. So for me as like a collector of things and like liking all these fun, like, you know, you take a clutch pencil somewhere and then like, oh, what is that like? Oh, that's so neat.

26:51That's so cool. I'm like, yeah, it's cool. And it doesn't break when I press down like a mechanical pencil. Like it is awesome. So it's definitely like a fun thing. And I think every planter Powell can relate to like exploring with those different pens and, and figuring out what you like. Like you said with certain types of fine liners, for instance, like part of the fun of it is the experimentation to figure out what it is. I just wish there was a place you could go to, to like test them out before you like buy them all. And then you just have the giant collection of like 5 different brands of fine liners that pretty much are all the same. Yeah, I think that there are definitely some stores where you can test some pens, like they will have their little tester station, but usually those are the ones that are, I don't know, heavily available, I guess the ones that are quite common. So you don't get to test those more like fringe brands or whatnot.

27:40I love your pencil though, because it reminds me of like year 10 art where we were told we had to buy Progresso pencils, which are essentially just like all graphite the whole way through. I, I, I still have them like I, I, a lot of my supplies, you know, if we're thinking about the idea of forever supplies, a lot of the supplies that I have in my stash and the ones that we're talking about today are ones that I have had for a good on like, you know, 8 or more years, sometimes up to like 1520.

28:05Oh my God, how long has it been since I was in high school? Too long. It's been too long. No, trust me, my art closet down the basement. Both my wife and I both went to school for art and design and we have so much charcoal. You know, all of the different type of pests. Dells like all of the things and but The thing is like, they were so damn expensive. But to our point, it's been a really long time since we were in college and high school where we had those materials still holding strong. If you ever feel an artsy, you just go right down into the art closet and get yourself a little art product. Go for it.

28:40Well, what I I still have my like eraser that I've had since year 4 and I still haven't used through it. So anytime I get a new yeah, well, there's the thing like I don't don't pencil all that much in, so I don't need to erase all that much. So just still kicking around my pencil guys. I use it more often now to prop up the front of my notebook when I'm just starting a new notebook and you get that kind of like, you know, ledge going. I prop up the front cover of my notebook more than I actually erase things with it now. I just foresee this like one of those like, absurdly comic erasers with just so many like, pencil points poked into it. Like every elementary school art classroom, probably. Hold it up like a little beauty Blogger. That does that looks like an antique. That is something you've like uncovered from like a dig. Gosh.

29:29His robe is falling off because I've had to like, sellotape the outside cover back on because it's so worn out. You take. That off Jess, that is years of finger oil and Greece he'll be. Naked then. And then I'll just get more years of finger oil actually on him. True, true, true. All right, our next section that we're going to talk about right now. I love this. I love when Jess adds these fun little titles. This is called Color Adder. So Jess, when it comes to colour adding, what is your essential for your planning?

30:00I was very entertained by this category because I was, you know, reading through the suggestions that you had for what you wanted to talk about in the episode. I'm like, Oh yeah, I guess I have something adjacent, but I wouldn't really pick the one that you've got. So. Haha, yeah, you're always good to have a point of contention. For me, it's definitely going to be Tombos. They are like my favorite. When it comes to the brush pens, technically speaking, yeah, it is just brush pens as a category.

30:23I could use in theory any brush pen, but then my favorite and it's very much one of those supplies that, you know, if I lost everything, you know, somebody came in and robbed me, you know, knock on wood, I don't want that to happen. But if somebody came in and robbed me, what kind of supplies would I definitely replace? Tombos I would definitely replace. But brush pens in general I like to have mainly because that is how I add a pop of color to my layouts. It's how I can color code if I want to. I don't do a lot of color coding, but it is technically how I would do that.

30:49It's how I do my second line highlights in particular, which can add some visual interest to my pages, but also increases the readability of sections. It's how I add headers to different sections. So I'm like, OK, yeah, this is your routine tracker, this is your meal plan, this is your priorities list or whatever. The header for all of those is done with a Tombow or a brush marker. I think that if I had to kind of pay down to the bare minimum, like the absolute essentials, it would really be the pale colors at a minimum. Mainly because if you're doing second line highlights, especially if you're doing them by hand and like free handing it and it's a lot easier to make it look nice if everything is kind of paler, blends into the page a little nicer because as you're practicing, a lot of those lines are going to be quite cattywompus, very skew with look a little wobbly. Most of the time you can get away with it with the cheerleader effect.

31:36You know, if you do all Neph lines in a row, they kind of all merge together and they look kind of uniform and OK. It is a lot easier to pull that off though, if you aren't using something like super saturated punch you in the throat kind of a colour. You know, if you have a really wobbly line, green line, that's a lot more kind of stand out and aggressive compared to something that is a pale mint or something like like that. So at a minimum, I'd want to have the pale colors in whatever brush pen.

32:00If I'm going to get to pick or, you know, actually have options here, they're going to be Tombos. Nothing wrong with that. I mean, I think it's important to have those favorite brands. I mean there are a ton of different brush pen brands out there. Some are high and well known, some are low and not so well known. And I think it's great to have options, especially depending on your budget. I mean, when we talk about Tombos specifically, I remember buying my first pack because when I said her bullet journaling, everybody was using, right?

32:27It was just like Loystrom notebooks, Tombow brush pens. And then that was kind of like it Micron for black fine liners. Like that's what everyone was kind of using. And I know we've talked about it before with like, you see that you buy it and you're just like, OK, now I have the entire collection. For me, the brush pens haven't always been what it's saying essential, but like how I use my mild liners though could kind of fall into that brush pen kind of space because I use most of mine for or the accent colors.

32:57I typically do a lot of my journaling in black pen. Only recently with adding, you know, fountain pen color to my pages is there now a color on the page. But before it was just like black ink all day, all day long. And I was like, OK, how about like a little pop of something on here? So I use them a lot for drop shadows before I found the love of like a smear proof ink, like the bark on pens or the signals I was talking about before, you know, you had to highlight first and then right over top of it.

33:28You know, when they finally came out with the nicer pens like the mark ONS that you can highlight over top of it, then I just feel like, oh, now I can use them more. I also will use them similar to you like you talked about for like headers and things like that. You know, sometimes it's just a really fun place to use those and not the chiseled end, but I'll use like the bullet end of those to do lettering because it's all monoline also. So like if you like the look of that, it can come across really nicely. There are so many colors.

33:54So like I don't think that like an essential is having every color. I would say like my essentials are definitely going to be like a lighter blue color. Definitely some types of Grays. It's hard because there's like cool Gray, light Gray, dark Gray, Gray, Gray. And I'm just like, OK, it's Gray, but I also really like the cyan is like always like the blue I end up like picking just because it's so nice. And then I always will like juxtapose that with like a really like in your face yellow.

34:22Like those two colors to me are really like fun. So like, I'll just say cyan, yellow and then like a grey. Those are like the fun spaces I play. And do I have every other color under the rainbow? Yes, absolutely. Do I do. I use them sometimes, but not often. You know, just talking about essentials today. Yeah, I think that it's funny that mauve liners are one of your essential tools because recently I did a pen declutter because I'm slowly trying to, I've got a project this year and pulling a project. Use your shit, essentially.

34:51But it kind of has three parts. So one part is to just use the stuff I have. Another part is to declutter and rehome the stuff I don't. And the other one is to be a bit more intentional about what I'm bringing into my collection so that I don't come to have to do this project again, is the idea. And so part of that being decluttering my pens and whatnot. I got rid of 590 pens from my collection of over like 1500 pens. You know, if we're thinking of all of the different sets, you know, you've got your Tombos and your Hoo Hoos and your Karen markers. Everything else, small liner chisel tips got the job. Like I just, I have so many of them and I'm like, you don't use these because a chisel tip is not your preferred type of pen nib.

35:32If they had that color range in the brush marker, heck to the yes, I would drop my money on that because I do like the color range, but I don't use chisel tips so well, you know, chisel tip hardliners and maybe you're essential. That's like one of my, I don't know, I'm just saying regrets. Well, The thing is, is like working with them, they are very generous with gifting you things. So it was like I need to have anything. They're like, hey, we're going to send you this.

35:53Or when we met up the very first time it go wild. They're like we have this 800 pack of every single color rainbow. You want one like Jess, you want 1? You guys want one? I was like, yes, do I already have these at home? Absolutely. Do I need more? Absolutely. Yeah. When I did my pen declutter, it was in the same thing. I counted all of them out. One of the reasons I also really like them specific likely as they write their color names on the barrel very important for this very color deficient boy.

36:19And so I went through and any of them that I had three or more of I kept two of the colors in my collection and if I had any 3rd, 4th or whatever else, some I had like 5 of the same color. I was like that goes into the donate bin and I was able to call them down, which I think is very good because I don't really run out of them. I don't use them enough to ever like honestly, I've never run out of a fine liner before or a mild liner before. But it was one of those things though, where I was like, it's OK, Mark, to like, let other people love these. And I took them to work.

36:48It was like piranhas on me. They were just like, yes, I want all of these because they're just fun to have. You know, they're great because you can write, you can see over top of them. They're mild versus just like a very bright highlighter. But they're not a marker for me. They're perfection. I think one of the things that is definitely a win for mod liners is just the aesthetic of the pen. Like they are a very attractive looking pen in terms of, you know, the body and the calf been having that little pop of color that is against the white or whatnot. Whereas something like a Micron, like Micron is an ugly pen. It's just not very attractive.

37:22The best thing you can ever find is like a blacked out Micron pen, you know, just like all black like that. I don't know like tannish color that's on there is just. Not my personal preference, but to get to the job done. All right. And the last area is a spot that I don't have an essential here because I don't do very much of this. I'm doing more of it now, but not as much. But Jess, you have cutting tools on here as an essential. So curious about this one.

37:45Definitely. Because I was thinking about, OK, you know, typical structures I use in my layouts and whatnot. You know, what kind of things do I use repeatedly time and time again? And one of those things is Dutch doors. You know, I like to be able to trim away a page or cut down a page so that I can either, you know, do decoration once and have a go over multiple spreads. Or currently in my weekly setups, I've been using a Dutch door system that's kind of like a vertical Dutch door where you just cut away the side of a page so that I can have my weekly dashboard and then flip it over and then see my daily log spaces, which has been working really well while being able to like see the daily logs, see my kind of daily task lists right next to my priorities list, but then also have the fully decked out weekly dashboard. Like cool.

38:27So if I was going to set this up with my bare essential supplies, I'm not just going to RIP off a page out of my notebook. That's not going to work. Or like it will, but it won't fill me with much joy and it will probably fill me with much rage. So in trying to mitigate that, a cutting tool is definitely going to be necessary. Just going to use scissors. I mean like you can use a guillotine. I do have guillotines and little paper trimmers and such, but more often than not, I'll just whip out my scissors. Key factor has to be sharp, right? It has to be like, you know, screwed together properly or whatnot.

38:55Because previously I have tried working with scissors for actually for way too long I have tried working with scissors that are just kind of rickety and they don't bring the blades next to each other very nicely. And you're trying to cut and the paper just kind of went bends instead of actually cutting. And it's one of those things I feel like I do this too often for myself. I will just struggle through using crappy supplies because I just won't go and get myself a decent replacement. I don't know if it's because I've like worked it up in my brain that it's too hard to find a replacement, which it isn't because you can like order things online now and get practically same day delivery, you know, depending on where you live and where you're ordering from. But still, I think it might might just be like the research part of it or worrying that I'm going to buy something and it's not going to live up to the hype or it's not going to work very well.

39:40But I found that I, I actually got gifted a pair of scissors. They're one of those kind of like comfortable grip ones that look like tiny little garden shears kind of a thing. But they work so well. I absolutely love them. They are like the fiskas comfort grip something or other. I don't know. All of the things that we actually love. We've linked them in the description box. It's all good. You know what there is, but they are absolutely excellent.

40:12The only problem is that, you know, given that one of the key factors for me for a pair of good scissors is that they're sharp. Funnily enough, they're sharp. So more than once I have stabbed my hand on it. But it's fine. I'll take that. I don't mind taking that as a battle word because then at least I've got good scissors. Roots yeah, I guess I don't have any type of cutting materials of mine is because the thought of cutting my pages, it just it doesn't make me feel good.

40:36I mean I have like a reaction anytime anyone ever talks about cutting pages. I get why people do it. I understand it. I will forever be a faux Dutch door boy because I'm like, I can't cut this page. So I just fold it behind and I'm like, oh, look a little secret. It's behind this here. So like I'll find other uses for it. But recently I have been thinking about it though, because I just did a video where I like journal say which Oh my gosh, I'm addicted to that freaking store. But there was this this cutter that's like a ruler and it has this little blade on it that you like press down and it cuts. And I was like, this is going to be really cool. And someone in the comments of the video was like, Oh my gosh, like now you can like easily cut your pages just like with a slicing versus trying to stick it under a guillotine or in another kind of like paper cutting machine or whatever. And I was like, you're right now will I ever do that? Probably not.

41:28I can't cut my page. I can't do it. But if you are a page cutter, then like it could be right for you. But I have been thinking about it because this also came with a deckled edge slice. So like I can like cut down a page and get like a deckled edge cut on it now with like a nice fine straight line versus when I have those like crappy craft scissors, it's all caddywhompus. I'm using your words today. It's not a straight line. It doesn't look good, but I have a feeling this would look really cool though. Yeah, I know that like you're using the paper cutter tool like you've got there or one of those little guillotines or whatnot can make for a very quick cut.

42:05I find that where I start to fall down in terms of like time saved is getting it lined up in a way that like brings me peace in the mind hole. Whereas when I cut my pages down for a Dutch door, typically I will just align the cut with the dock grid because that's going to be the thing that is most obviously aligned or not aligned. So I'll just position my scissors so that they sit slightly inside of the dock grid and cut away so that then there's none of the dots remaining.

42:29But I've at least cut in a a straight direction based on the printing on the page. I like that. You're very like a straight direction. Is it 100% straight? Maybe not, but it is cut in a straight direction. That's what's most important. And I mean, of course, like, you know, in talking about these essential supplies, we've glossed over a lot of the ones that would be very much nice to haves because there are definitely other items in these categories and beyond that we like to include in our journaling and planning practices. We'd love to know from you planner powers, what are your essential planner supplies?

43:00The ones that by your ride or dies, they're the ones that you cannot plan without. You're allowed to be very strict with this if you want to and really only nail it down to the writing on and writing with or get a little LAX with it. Tell us all of the ones that you definitely feel like you need to have when you're doing your planning. Either let us know in the comments or you can hit us up at [email protected] or over on Instagram at Planner Pals Podcast. And shout out to the official Planner Pals crew over there on YouTube suggesting an amazing topic. So thank you all for this.

43:29I hope you enjoy it and don't forget to head over to YouTube as well for us. You can join us as a part of this. Get in early, get these episodes early, vote on things. It truly is amazing. I mean, you know, just because it's our thing doesn't mean that it's not. You know, I'm going to say it's great. Like it really is great. Yeah, we definitely would love to have you with us. And as always, thanks for watching.