Hello and welcome to best laid plans. This is your host, Sarah Hart Unger, and this is a podcast where we talk all things planning and planning adjacent.

Today I have for you what is also known as a Techo Kaigi. I didn't call it that in the title

because I didn't want to intimidate anyone who didn't want to see a different language and be like,

I'm going to skip that. I've never heard of it. But for those who are into planners, you may have

heard this term, which is a Japanese term that translates to planner meeting or notebook meeting. And it's a

practice where people can gather either alone or with friends, I think with friends sounds like

much more fun, to review their current planners and notebooks, reflect on how they've been

used and to plan their systems for the upcoming year or period, whatever season is chosen.

And the goal of this Tetchokaii is to ensure

that the person's planner system still works and feels good and maybe generate ideas about

what might be good to try in the future. So I first learned about the Tetsu Kagi, probably through

the stationary cafe podcast, because the ladies on that podcast, they are lovely,

and they actually don't release episodes that often anymore. I haven't seen them come up in my feed,

but I'm sure their archives are there. And they did this practice at least once per year,

where they would all get out all their planners and books that they were using and talk about

what was working and what didn't. And they tended to have very interesting taste in products. A lot of fountain pen users there, plotter products, Hobonichi products, brands I hadn't even heard of, but super interesting. And then I would say that Amanda's favorites, one of my favorite planner YouTubers who does great reviews of different planners, she doesn't use the term Tetchokiaii, but she often will do a mid-year or even like one-quarter

in what's working and what's not.

So that's her analysis.

And finally, the team at JetPens has been releasing their own YouTube videos for their

mid-year Tetsho Kagi talking about what's kind of stood the test of time throughout the year

and even a glimpse of

what they're thinking about for next year. And I had fun watching those recently. So I was trying

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