In this video I’m setting up my 2026 research journal, and I’m honestly so happy to be doing this again. If you’ve been here a while, you already know I love researching historical people and significant events (it scratches my brain in the best way). I used to do this in a Take A Note planner, but for 2026 I decided not to wait on shipping/fulfillment coming from Taiwan—because I’m not trying to be a month behind and then have to back-research 30 people. Instead, I’m moving my research journal into my Aura Estelle 2026 Magnet Vertical Weekly (A5) inside my Galen Leather Smoky Horse cover. The columns are slimmer than Take A Note, so I show how I resized all of my photos in Canva, printed them in black and white for a consistent aesthetic (my mom was right), and then cut them down with my Fiskars paper trimmer. I paste everything in with my favorite two-way Zig glue (no crinkling on Tomoe River paper), and I talk through my plan to keep the pages leveled (top/middle/bottom) so writing doesn’t get miserable later in the year. I also share my printer/ink struggle and why I love HP Instant Ink for keeping printing affordable, plus ideas for using the extra blank pages in the back for “on this day in 1924”-style significant events. And at the end, I ask you: what are your planner goals for 2026?