I mentioned last month I was using the Jibun Techo as a time log so I can see how I am spending my day. The Jibun is a fucking expensive option for this and there’s a much cheaper but very similar product: the Kanmido 10 Min Weekly Time Management Notebook.

This is an undated planner designed to work in tandem with the Kanmido To-Do Board.

Each day gets a vertical listing from 7am through to midnight, with 15-minute increments marked in a grid faint enough to ignore if you want to.

There’s a notes column down the left hand side. Saturday and Sunday get equal space without the 15 min grid and without times.

The sewn binding is lie-flat. It’s 14.5cm x 21cm, or 5 3/4″ x 8 1/4″ aka standard A5 size. And it’s super thin: only 3mm.

Here’s the Japanese instructions, which I am basically putting in for Gillian St Kevern, as she will understand them.

As you complete each task from your To-Do Board Today list you can move the sticky note to the book to track how you spent your day and what you schieved, and you can also use the notebook for forward scheduling without the board. Of course the Kanmido sticky notes fit in these columns perfectly: a thin one equals half an hour, the thicker ones an hour.

Hobonichi stickies work just as well as the Kanmido ones. You’d want to trim 3M or generic ones, as you can see from the photos.

Each book holds 22 weekly layouts, so you’d need three to get through the whole year. However this notebook goes for a lot less than the Jibun. I’ve seen it for USD$8 and USD$10 on ebay (although the only one on there today is USD$14). Compare this to current copies of the Jibun A5 biz for around USD$100. And because it’s undated you can start at any time of the year without wasting pages.

The tradeoff you’re making is the paper. The Kanmido notebook cannot handle the pens the Jibun can. As long as you’re using a basic gel pen or ballpoint you’re good, but it just won’t handle drawing pens, or even my Uni-Ball Vision Needle, which was in a lighter shade. On the bright side, it had no problem handling my Lamy fountain pen in Dark Lilac.

if you’re looking for a small, light, inexpensive planner or time tracker, check out the Kanmido Time Management Notebook.