New Year, New You?

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A new year is like turning a new page. Something fresh is waiting for you to put your mark on it. It’s like a breath of fresh air. New energy, new excitement, new hope, new goals. Especially here on the tip of Africa where Summer is in full force. Most of us have had a long-awaited holiday and are just getting back to work or studies with sunkissed skin full of Vitamin D. We’re a bit more rested and ready to tackle the year ahead. It’s this feeling that lends itself to the thinking that the start of a new year is the time to reimagine oneself, set new resolutions and create the best version of yourself. A new year, a new you.

But is that really what happens?

If you are anything like me, by the second week of January somehow all your dreams and resolve have dissipated away like water in the Karoo. The same old same old of the past years becomes the present reality of this fresh new year. I don’t doubt that New Year’s resolutions work for some but for most of us they just don’t seem to hold and very quickly become a distant memory.

So what are we to do with all this hope and energy that we have at the start of the year? Tony Robbins, the NY Times and many others seem to suggest that well thought about goals are way more effective in bringing about change in our lives than New Year’s Resolutions. Goals involve a plan, they involve steps in a direction. Goals give us an endpoint, they give us a task we can achieve. Goals seem to be more ‘sticky’ than New Year’s resolutions. Often New Year’s resolutions are ethereal imperatives framed in the negative such as “Lose Weight”, “Stop Eating Ice Cream (which of course is never a good New Years resolution especially in Cape Town with so many good Ice Cream places around)”, “Stop Drinking So Much” and so we can go on. Goals on the other hand seem to be positive milestones that we can aim the direction of our lives towards.

So setting goals, learning to manage time, being more intentional and deliberate seems to be more effective than creating another list of New Year’s resolutions.

The question is what does any of this have to do with your favourite Stationery Store? I am glad you asked. Well partly because we are interested in goals, productivity and the ways that analog tools can help us. This is where our passion meets the desire for people to move forward in their lives. We believe that analog tools, and in this case a notebook, can help people as they seek to have a better year than the last. Many people write about how it is essential to write down your goals. Those that write down their goals are more likely to achieve them. But not just write them in notes on your phone, write them down in a notebook. It’s more difficult to delete when discouraged. The act of hand-writing improves memory recall, it provides a place you can come back to assess where you are at with your goals. Basically, something as simple as a notebook can help one turn a fresh page on life.

In fact there has been an explosion on the net, YouTube and social media of how people are using analog tools to improve productivity, make changes, track important information and achieve their goals. Ryder Carroll’s Bullet Journal is one of the obvious systems. But that is not the only one. There is the Chronodex system by Patrick Ng. There are the many goal tracking ideas that the Bujo community shows off, there is the time proven diary systems such as Filofax and of course there is the simple but beneficial habit of journaling. Analog tools help people disconnect from the endless treadmill of life and the distractions of constant notifications so they can focus on what is important. Pen and paper helping a new year become more than the same of what has gone past. New Year, New You?

For me it is more like A New Year, A New Notebook. A new notebook where I can start planning, dreaming, put down my goals and then use the rest of the pages to track my progress as the year goes by. Over the next few weeks on the blog, newsletter and social media we will be looking at some of the ways we can use our favourite pens and a new notebook to set better goals, become more productive and take on 2022 with all the vigor we have right now. Stay tuned!

Need a new notebook for the new Year?

Here are some of our favourite notebooks right now that are good for productivity and journaling. All the below notebooks are in the A5 size as we have found this seems to hit the sweet spot for most people interms of portability and functionality.

6 thoughts on “New Year, New You?

  1. roshaimulder says:

    Bought 2 Apica notebooks from you guys just a few days ago with exactly this in mind! They are wonderful btw! The paper is so incredibly smooth! The nice sparkly shine they have to them is also so beautiful in person, I think it’s very difficult to capture it accurately in a photo. Perhaps in the future we might see more Japanese notebooks/planners like Hobonichi or Noble? In any case, happy new year and good luck with the fulfillment of your goals!

    • Jamie Ternent says:

      Hi Roshai, glad you are enjoying the Apica notebooks. We love them so it is great to hear others do as well. We are always looking at expanding into more brands. We love getting the best stuff here. Hopefully you will enjoy some of the things coming to Write GEAR this year 🙂

  2. Tracey Wild says:

    I’m loving my new fountain pen and this post has inspired me to investigate some journal options. I’ve never heard of Bujo – so that’s my next rabbit hole saved for lunch time 🙂 I’m so glad I found you guys! I’m saving for my next pen already!

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