Planners and Pens Worth Trying: A 2025 Stationery Roundup for 2026

Introduction

If you have ever wondered how a year of daily planning actually holds up, this roundup covers the planners, pens, and small accessories that carried real users through 2025, along with the switches they are making for 2026. The honest verdicts here are useful: some products earned a permanent spot, one thick daily planner turned out to be too much, and a simple capped gel pen became the biggest surprise of the year.

Pocket-Sized Weekly Planning: NOLTY Pocket Casual

For a first full year of consistent planner use, the NOLTY Pocket Casual weekly horizontal planner proved the right size. It offered enough space to fill every spread without the intimidation factor of a larger book, and by the end of the year it doubled as a genuine log of the year, complete with small sketches of landscapes and everyday objects to capture moments as they happened.

One honest trade-off: some weeks stayed empty, sometimes two in a row, and were filled in retroactively to avoid a “missing memory” when looking back. That habit of backfilling is worth considering if you are starting your first planner.

Small Weekly Format: Hobonichi Techo Weeks

The Hobonichi Techo Weeks came out as the most consistently praised planner of the year, with two separate users choosing it again for 2026. It is compact enough for to-do lists and meeting notes, and the weekly format is easy to write in regularly. For next year, one user picked the design by Yuichi Inoue, while another went with the Mega version for extra writing room and plans to move meeting notes to the notebook pages so they are easier to find later.

One user ran into a familiar mismatch: the HON A5 in a cover was used for a daily drawing challenge but proved too large, while the previous year’s A6 HON was too small. The result is a possible move to the KOKUYO Jibun Techo Days in B6, a size that sits between the two.

The Hobonichi Techo Cousin, by contrast, showed what happens when a planner grows too thick. After a full year of gluing in extras, it became heavy and difficult to write in at the back, which is why one user is switching to the split-volume Cousin Avec, covering the printed year with a tearaway calendar to keep using an older edition in the meantime.

Thick Daily Journals: Cousin, Cousin Avec, and HON A6

The Hobonichi Techo Cousin Avec splits the same daily format into two half-year volumes, which directly fixes the chunkiness problem of the single-volume version. As a freeform memory-keeping and junk journaling book it shines: one long-term user has stuck with it for five years, backfills pages without guilt when life gets busy, and fills gaps with sticker dumps and album reviews.

The Avec is the more practical choice if you glue or collage heavily, since each volume stays manageable in weight and thickness.

The Hobonichi Techo HON in A6 was tried as a photo journal, but it did not stick for one user. That does not make it a bad product; photo journaling simply demands the right fit, and the community response showed plenty of interest in the format. If you want a book with an integrated cover for photo-heavy journaling, it remains worth a look at the smaller size.

Daily Journaling and Health Tracking: Midori Diary Hibino

The Midori Diary Hibino earned strong praise for its layout and paper while serving double duty for daily journaling and health tracking. The eventual decision to move those habits back into an existing planner was about consolidating books, not dissatisfaction with the Hibino itself. If you prefer a dedicated, well-designed daily journal rather than merging everything into one planner, it is an easy recommendation.

Language Learning on the Go: Midori Pocket Diary

The Midori pocket diary, with its charming dog cover, was used for language learning and praised as the perfect size for that purpose. It was also commended for a thoughtful layout detail: the monthly calendars sit just before the weekly pages, which makes quick reference convenient. Use lapsed in August when life got in the way, but the product itself held up well.

Entry Fountain Pens: Pilot Kakuno and TWSBI ECO

For pen experimentation this year, two fountain pens stood out. The Pilot Kakuno, in a medium nib, was wide enough to show off the sheening of inks, and it came highly recommended for first-time fountain pen users for its smooth writing feel, with a pink “Madoromi” series color singled out as especially appealing.

The TWSBI ECO with a broad nib offers an even wider line, showing more ink sheening, and its clear body makes it fun to watch the ink level drop. Blue ink shades were the unifying theme of the year.

The Unsung Hero: Uni-ball ZENTO Signature Gel Pen

The biggest accessory discovery of the year was the Uni-ball ZENTO Signature gel pen, which happens to fit perfectly into a planner’s pen loop. Being capped, it is loop-friendly in a way that retractable pens are not: pull it out, write, cap it, and drop it back in. It was hard to get, with the page needing constant refreshing, but the payoff was described as satisfying every single time.

The takeaway tip is simple: if your planner has a pen loop, choose a capped pen. This is a small detail that genuinely improves the daily experience.

Accessories and Next-Year Picks: Glass Pens and Blotting Paper

For those drawn to shimmery and glittery inks that fountain pens handle poorly, glass pens are the natural alternative. Most glass pens are pricey, which makes the Teranishi Guitar Glass pen an appealing entry point: it is one of the rare capped glass pens, which makes it portable and forgiving. If you get distracted mid-session, you can simply cap it and clean it later, which also reduces the fear of breaking fragile glass.

On the paper side, a piece of sample blotting paper served faithfully all year until it wore out, with the JetPens Kanso blotting paper in A6 planned as the more durable replacement, since the larger size is less likely to tear.

Buying Advice

Match the planner to the job. Pocket weekly formats suit first-time users and light schedulers; the Weeks format suits to-do lists and work notes; the Cousin Avec suits heavy memory keeping and journaling; and a B6 option like the Jibun Techo Days fills the gap between daily sizes that feel too small or too large. For pens, the Kakuno is the friendliest entry point, the TWSBI ECO rewards ink enthusiasts, and a capped gel pen like the ZENTO Signature is the ideal companion for any planner with a pen loop.

Conclusion

The clearest lesson from a year of real use is that size and habit matter more than features. A planner you actually fill, a pen that fits where you need it, and small extras like blotting paper add up to a system you will keep using. Choose based on how much you write per day, and you are far more likely to still be filling pages in December.