Planner Day (Techō no Hi)

What Is Planner Day?

December 1st is "Planner Day" (Techo no Hi) in Japan. It was established by JMAM (Japan Management Association Management Center), publisher of the Noritsu Techo -- now branded NOLTY -- one of the pioneering business planners in Japan. The idea is that as December begins, people look back on the year while choosing next year's planner, and picture how they want to spend the year ahead. The day is registered with the Japan Anniversary Association.

The Hour Scale That Changed the Japanese Planner

The Noritsu Techo first appeared in 1949, as the first planner in Japan to print an hour-by-hour time scale, born from the wish that people would treat their time as something worth protecting. At first it was distributed only to members and corporate clients, but demand from individual buyers grew, and general retail sales began in 1958. In 2013 the brand was renamed NOLTY.

• 1949: The Noritsu Techo debuts, the first Japanese planner with an hour scale
• 1958: Sales open to the general public, beyond members and companies
• 2013: The brand is renamed NOLTY
• Established by: JMAM, headquartered in Nihonbashi, Chuo Ward, Tokyo

Paper and Digital, Side by Side

Phone calendars are good at sharing appointments and firing reminders; paper is good at showing a whole week or month at a glance and at letting you think while you write. In a JMAM survey of 24,800 people aged 10 to 60 across Japan, close to half of those who keep a planner or diary said it helps them feel they are growing (company survey). Rather than choosing one or the other, many people split the job: meetings go in the digital calendar, reflection goes on paper.

Choosing the Format

What trips people up is usually the format rather than the cover design. Decide first how many appointments land in a typical day, and whether you need to track them by the hour; that narrows the field fast.

• Monthly: a whole month across two pages, for light schedules or work that moves month by month
• Weekly (left-page style): the week on the left, a blank page on the right, for keeping schedule and notes in one book
• Vertical: each day laid out on an hourly axis, for anyone with several meetings a day
• One page per day: doubles as a journal, though a light schedule leaves a lot of white space

Tips for Marking This Day

• Handle next year's planners in a bookstore or stationery shop -- check how flat they open, the paper weight, and how a pen feels on it
• Match the format to how full your schedule is: weekly, vertical hourly, monthly, or one page per day
• Page back through this year's planner and notice which sections you filled and which stayed blank
• Write three things you want to do next year on the very first page, alongside the appointments

A Book You Hand to Next Year's Self

A planner manages your schedule, but it is also a record you can reread twelve months later. December 1 is the day to pick the volume that will keep you company next year -- and write the first line in it.