Oct 21, 2026 intentional life

Ways I’m simplifying my life in 2027 & a look at my notebook lineup

My 2027 simple living plan: hand journaling, the notebook rule, reading deeply, a weekly day off and less screen time. Try these analog habits.

Dear Inklings,

It’s time for one of my favourite annual posts. This year has been challenging in many ways—personal and professional—but we are getting through somehow. As much as I tried to simplify my life, life had other plans and decided to throw chaos at me, which made these practices all the more essential.

Admittedly, I fell off with a lot of those things in 2026. My Lightphone battery kind of died, so I started using my iPhone again partway through the year. This will soon be remedied (though not soon enough) with the Lightphone flip that’s coming out next year. To nobody’s surprise, I have an addictive personality, and I don’t like myself much when I have a smartphone. My brain was happier without it.

2027 will see me online less frequently. Now that the book launch is over, I can retire my Instagram for now (thank fuck). I’m looking forward to returning to long-form writing that feeds my soul.

Practices I will be continuing

Journaling by hand

I started doing this consistently at the end of last year, and it’s been life-changing. It took some time to figure out what worked for me, but I have come to the conclusion that aestheticism is highly motivating. Having a beautiful journal and scrapbooking to make its interior beautiful triggers something in my brain that makes me want to write in it more.

These days, my journal is a combination between a planner and reflections. I have a weekly overview before setting up daily columns, where I’ll write down any events or appointments going on that day. I have two columns in the weekly overview: one for reflection and one for tasks. The reflections column is divided into a section I fill out at the start of the week, where I write where I want to grow personally, relationally, and three things I’m looking forward. At the end of the week, I write three of my biggest accomplishments, meaningful moments, what I think God is teaching me, and one change I can make the next week.

Every day, I start by recording the weather, sunrise and sunset times, and three things I’m grateful for. Sometimes I’ll copy down a quote that has stood out to me. Throughout the day, I jot down random thoughts. At the end of the day, I write what the highlight of the day was, when I was at my best, and one way I can improve the next day. These reflection questions are carried over from my Monk Manual practice.

At the end of the week, I include a two-page spread for “Memories,” where I glue photos or other memorabilia from the week. I have a mini photo printer that I love for this.

I also got a five-year diary, thanks to Petya K. Grady in this post. I don’t know how this never occurred to me, considering my husband and I used to have a joint one. The concept of distilling my day to a single sentence then seeing what changes over five years appeals to me.

Reading deeply and widely

In 2025, I read over 100 books but realised I wasn’t absorbing many of them. This year, I decided to slow down and take my time journaling through the books I read. I ended up reading sixty books at the time of this writing (21 October 2026). While my depression episode over the summer kept me in a reading slump for a few months, I finally felt the urge to read again this month. With that return of my one true love, I started to feel like myself again.

Using the Notebook Rule

The notebook rule is: "Before any interaction with a screen, I write down, in a notebook, what I intend to do. Then, as soon as I’m done doing that thing, I walk away (close the laptop, put the phone down, literally walk away, etc)" (J.E. Petersen)

Since following the notebook rule this year, my life has been exponentially better. I started carrying around a pocket notebook with me everywhere (I’m partial to Field Notes, and I’m on my third one this year already).

Not only do I use it for the notebook rule, but this little notebook has also largely replaced my phone notes app. I use it to write down everything from random observations and thoughts, to to-do lists, to things I want to research or look up later. It’s gotten to the point where if I find myself without a pen, I get irritated I have to use my phone lol.

Cultivating genuine human connections

This year was beautiful in the sense that I got to meet with quite a few people in person that I had previously only known online. There’s something special about seeing humans face to face that simply can’t be replicated digitally. I love doing it, even though I’m an introverted hermit.

A.I. wants to replace human interaction. I want to rebel against that in every way I can. As always, I’m not especially interested in having a wide audience; I prefer cultivating deep relationships.

Ways I’m simplifying my life in 2027

Review most of the books I read

I noticed that taking the time to review a book forces me to think about it even more than just journaling as I’m reading it. Both help create a fruitful reading life, but I’m always looking for ways to go deeper. Writing a review helps me consolidate and pull multiple disparate threads into a cohesive narrative, notice themes, and understand the book as a whole. Reading has the capacity to impact so much if we allow it to. Of course, not every book is that deep, and I’m an advocate of simply reading for pleasure and turning off your brain.

Here’s a list of all the books I’ve read so far in 2026.

I’ve also realised that I can’t move on to another book until I’ve written a review, otherwise I will never actually write the review. Several times, I told myself I’d come back to write one—then didn’t. So, as a related principle, I shan’t move on to the next book if I intend to write a review.

On a similar note, I started annotating my books perhaps two years ago. This would surprise anyone who knew me prior to that time, when I was extremely anti-marking-up-books. How times have changed. I still won’t annotate my precious hardcovers, and will instead purchase a cheap paperback for annotation purposes, but annotating while reading allows me to delve more deeply into the book. The act of slowing down to read closely has also been a life-changing experience. How did it take me so long??

Earlier this year, I did an experiment of a traveling book project with a couple of hand-selected patrons. A few of us read The Stranger by Albert Camus and annotated the same copy of the book together. It was such a fun experiment that I would love to do it again.

Until my new Lightphone arrives mid-2027, I’ll be using Brick

The nice thing about the Brick is that you have to physically go to the Brick to unlock apps you’ve blocked, so there’s an additional layer of friction. I got this for my also-phone-addicted husband earlier this year, but we’ve been negligent about using it.

Write by hand

Let’s try this again, shall we? Now that I’m somewhat more practiced at writing by hand, I think it won’t be as much of a leap to try writing my essays this way again.

In addition, I plan to start a letter writing system with you all in the coming year, which will help us all nurture a time set aside to slow down, connect, and build our fellowship. More details to come soon!

Commit to taking one day off a week

I’m sure many of you relate to this, but I struggle really hard with rest. I’m convinced performance-based evangelical theology paired with conditional Asian family acceptance and this capitalist society has something to do with it, but that’s a story for another time. Either way, when I try to rest, my brain whirs with all the things I could be doing to be productive, or it starts thinking about all the things that make me sad. Needless to say, my relationship with work is an unhealthy one, and I’ve thought more than once that my workaholism is escapism of some sort.

Anyways, this one is inspired by my dear Loaf, Jeannie Ewing, who started doing this earlier this year. If y’all know Jeannie, you know she has more reason than anyone not to take a day off, but she’s still committing to it because she recognises how essential it is. If she can do it, so can I (I think). 😭

LOL I can’t tell you how excited I am for this one. Yes, social media is great for some things. Yes, I met some truly wonderful people through it. However, it is such a soul-sucking place. I cannot. I prefer the slower pace of—whatever I have here.

Will I deactivate/delete my accounts again? I’m still debating. I likely won’t delete it completely again, but I may deactivate indefinitely.

My notebook lineup

I get super excited about new journals. My notebooks of choice are still from Quirky Cup Collective. I’m trying a new journal from Tiefossi for my reading journal, since the one I had my eye on from Archer and Olive has been sold out for ages.

It’s a good thing I stocked up on QCC journals a little while ago during a sale, because the shipping costs from Australia now are outrageous, and I doubt I’ll be able to order from them until it gets better.

Tiefossi isn’t my preferred brand since it’s from China and I prefer to purchase from small businesses with ethical practices, but it is the least expensive.