Compass Note — A Life Planner Beyond Scheduling

After buying and trying many different planners, and experimenting with all kinds of usage ideas, I eventually realized something simple: for me, a planner is essentially a practical tool — an external extension of my memory and a way to organize my thoughts.

Around 2011, I came up with the idea of the “Compass Note” and a compact wallet. The Compass Note is a portable version of my life timeline: it includes a chronological list of past events, a quick reference for annual recurring events, an age chart for people close to me, and a “future timeline” that points toward what’s coming next. In other words, it’s a compass for how I want to live my life, not just a schedule book.

At first, I made it in A6 size, but I kept thinking how nice it would be if it could fit into a pocket more easily. That led me to create a “half-size” version. It’s not just a simple A6 cut in half — I redesigned the whole layout from scratch to match this new, smaller format.