Pen Rotation Transition

If you follow me on Instagram, you likely know I’ve just started a new pen rotation. It’s been a while since I shared how I manage pen rotations, so I figured I should remedy that, especially since I recently changed a few things to help with paring down my collection.

For most of you, this process will likely seem like a lot, and it is. But it also makes the rest of my rotation go faster and provides me valuable information for decision-making.

Transitioning to a new rotation starts during the final week of the existing rotation. I handle the transition in three phases:

• closing out the previous rotation: the data phase,
• preparing for the new rotation: the processing phase,
• and starting the new rotation: the planning phase.

Note: I used smaller images on this page so that they wouldn’t take up so much space. But they’re all clickable to view larger if you want.

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Closing out

This phase is data processing. Anyone who isn’t a data hoarder or collecting decision-making data could give this a miss.

1. Catalog inks used

I catalog of what pens I ink, which ink I fill them with, and what nib I have in the pen every time I ink a rotation pen, including my long-fill pens and my always inked pens. This isn’t the pretty version I share in Instagram. It’s a quick, compact log I can easily keep for my records.

I don’t track the pen fills of the two ink testing pens I have… although I’m considering doing that.

I flip through my “catalog” and log the uses for each ink in Airtable. Bottles of ink are tracked separately from samples of ink. This isn’t my preference, it’s just that I’m nearing Airtable’s free account limits on my ink samples database, so I had to separate them.

Bottled ink usage helps me decide if I can/should get rid of an ink. Sample usage helps me decide if I should buy a bottle of ink or relegate a sample to the dupes bins.

2. Catalog pens used

Once again, I flip through the “catalog” and log all of the pens I used during the rotation. These are also Airtable entries, and this is new to this past rotation. I backfilled data to 6 rotations ago, as I’m planning to use this information to inform future pen sales and retirements. For example, pens that haven’t been used in 3 rotations will automatically go into review to potentially sell, since I’m clearly not eager to use them.

On top of usage, I also note if a pen is sold, retired, on break, for sale, or in review to sell during a rotation.

3. Note unused pens

I also add a list of unused pens to the final page of my rotation “catalog.”

This is how I used to track what went unused, and I continued it this rotation for continuity. I’m not sure I’ll keep it for this new rotation now that I have the data in Airtable.

4. Archive catalog

My rotation “catalog” lives in my blog binder. Not, perhaps, the most logical place, but it works for me. Once I’ve pulled the information into Airtable, I archive the catalog — AKA move the pages to my archive binder.

Preparing

While I often intend to manage this phase during the final week of the previous rotation, it often ends up happening on the first day of the new rotation before I fill the first round of pens. Mostly this is because I prefer to clean and put away all of my pens — long fill and always inked excluded — before I do these steps.

1. Cull & reincorporate pens

Based on my pen usage data, I cull pens that are being retired or moved into review to potentially sell. I store my three categories of pens (pretty ink sticks, fantastic writers, and art pens) in separate cases, so I go through each one to pull out any pens I want to sell, retire, or set aside for a review break.

Sometimes, I also bring a pen back into the cases if I’ve decided to keep it after review.

2. Reorganize pen cases

Between removing some pens and pen purchases near the end of the previous rotation, I usually need to reorganize my cases. I like to keep my pens in rainbow order within each case, so I’ll shuffle the pens around as necessary to keep that satisfying organization.

3. Choose number of weeks

Ideally, I’d like to have a 17-week rotation (85 total pens) so that I could use my pens three times a year. But, I have too many pens, so I have to decide how many weeks’ worth of pens I want to include in a rotation (5 pens per week).

For both my last rotation and this new one I’m starting, I’ve planned for 20 weeks. The initial plan always extends due to “pen show week” pens, new purchases, and occasional week extensions when I don’t get a chance to use my pens at all when they’re inked.

4. Empty the rotation layout

Last time I wrote about my pen rotation, I mentioned “creating a layout to plan out my full pen rotation with sticky notes.” Well, I did that, and it’s been incredibly useful. Each pen is written on a sticky note and assigned to a week right at the beginning of my rotation. I don’t have to run a randomizer every week, and I don’t need to worry about accidentally clearing what pens I’ve already used in the randomizer.

I tend to think of this as the last step in finishing a rotation — even though it’s not part of the closing out phase — since it’s clearing out the last part of that previous rotation. I remove all of the sticky notes and set them aside, ready to re-populate the layout for the new rotation.

I… may… have forgotten to take a picture of the empty layout. Oops.

Starting New

And we get to the fun phase, actually starting up the rotation.

1. Choose pens per week

With an empty layout, I can start choosing the pens I’ll be using each week. I start with the pens that hadn’t been used the previous rotation, to make sure I use them in the new rotation. These are often pens that I have several colorways of (TWSBI 580s and Pilot Custom 74s, for example) that I split between rotations. Think colorway 1 and 3 in rotation a and colorways 2 and 4 in rotation b.

When I have pens that weren’t used in the previous rotation that I still don’t feel motivated to use in the new rotation, they either get put in the appropriate column of unused pens (see number 2 below) or into review.

Once the pens skipped in the previous rotation are placed, I fill in the remaining slots with pens used in the previous rotation. Sometimes I do this with my randomizer, sometimes I just pick pens at random. I don’t pay too much attention to which pens are grouped together on any given week other than to make sure I don’t have two of the same pen.

For the curious, the sticky note color did have meaning when I first started this practice:

• Pink: pretty ink stick that will be used every rotation
• Orange: pretty ink stick that will be used every other rotation
• Yellow: art pen
• Green: fabulous writer that will be used every rotation
• Blue: fabulous writer that will be used every other rotation
• Purple: non-fountain pen (rollerball/ballpoint)

The past three rotations, though, I’ve treated pink/orange and green/blue as single groups. I just didn’t want to waste sticky notes to have them all be the same color.

2. Setting at a glance usage

Once I’ve filled every week of the rotation layout that I plan to use — 20 weeks, in this case — I place the unused sticky notes (the pens not getting used this rotation) onto my “at-a-glance” usage page. I need to re-do it, since pens that haven’t been used in 3 rounds are now automatically in review, so I don’t need that category.

This page really just makes setting up the next rotation easier. I know which pens to start with when filling in the planning layout instead of having to filter pens out in Airtable. I also know which pens may need to be culled for review.

3. Start new catalog

And last, but certainly not least, is starting my new inked pen catalog. I use A5 Muji loose leaf paper without ruling. The lines you can see below are from a lined cardstock under the page.

Each week, I transfer which pens will be used from the planning layout to the catalog (the writing in black). Then I choose inks and, as I ink each pen, I write down which ink it is and which nib I used.

The first page of a catalog gets a sticky note with the month and year the rotation started (for easy identification once archived) and a washi tape border that helps hold the sticky note in place.

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And that’s it. It’s a lot, yes, especially when written out this way, but it works well for me.

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Do you have anything like a pen rotation? If so, how do you transition between rotations? If not, is it something you’d consider? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Make sure to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.