Pre-Portioned Planning

In the short story Memento Mori, Earl (the main character) recalls elementary school when his “day planner was the back of [his] hand”. Ever since his development of “backwards amnesia”, he’s come to the unfortunate belief that “The best way to [live] is with a list”. The way I see it, the only thing that’s working backwards here is Earl pedantic philosophizing about life and organization, not his memory. Although that’s derived from my zealous need to justify an inordinately well vetted and sized Techo Kaigi, that is my planner/journal line-up.

 

Stemming from a slight (?) obsession with the weekly layouts, I have a multi-national lineup of flagship models that break my time into bite-size chunks for me to fill and exercise discretion over. In a way, I suppose that makes me more similar to Earl than it does alienate me from him. Where a numbered checklist suffices for his 10-minutes explorations, my elaborate Kaigi ward my amnesia to only strike weekly. His so affectionately named “chain gang” of bumbling personalities that comprise his person, would find liberation in my methodology of dedicated Techos for each facet of life. Much to the horror of the genius led authoritarian regime that Earl (and perhaps Plato) would advocate for. 

My most anticipated planners for 2026, the Kinbor Weeks (left) and the Kokuyo Jibun Techo (right)

 

        Neither the tedious circular nature of Earl’s routine nor the rigidly linear nature of his “one through one hundred” step plans. Life is best organized into heterogenous partitions of aggregately positive experiences. For all my sheltered suburban middle-class ignorance offers me, a week more than satisfies my sweet tooth on life. The view outside my window continues to be some semblance of nature and not a late-stage capitalist hellscape, and so I consistently plan for an unassured future one week at a time. 

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