my journaling flow
I used to hate journaling. I found it kinda odd and uncomfortable to do at first. I've had journals before, but they were kinda shallow and half-used. Almost like I was scared of writing down my own thoughts.
Since then, I've really grown to like journaling. When I first started trying to journal seriously, I tried to do a bullet journal, but found it to be a bit too rigid for my ADHD brain. So, I've since shifted my approach to journaling that I find to be much more fun. I wanted to share how I personally journal so that maybe you can take something out of it and add it to your journal.
For starters, what do I journal with? I basically have 2 journals. I have a tiny pocket composition book that I carry around with me everywhere. It's more of a productivity thing I suppose. If I'm talking with someone and they recommend a book, I write down that book title. If I'm going to the store to pick up a couple things, I write down the list. Random thoughts, song lyrics, blog ideas, etc. all go into this notebook.
Then I have a "main" notebook, a leuchtturm1917. I've used this brand of notebook for 3 years now, and I love them. They're simple, and let me customize them to my liking. Everything I write in this journal is written with a green ink Rami Safari fountain pen (it's also the same pen I use to write letters with. My personal style if you will). Where the pocket notebook is for random stuff that I wanna note. This journal is much more methodical in its approach. Lemme explain.
For the past 3 years, I acquire a new journal every year and mark it by the age I am. So, I have a journal for ages 25, 26, and now 27. The idea is to fully encapsulate who I am at that age. Wishes, events, ideas, etc. The objective isn't to necessarily completely fill the journal, but rather try and capture as much "me" as I can. I do want to fill out more of my journals, so I came up with an idea that I am implementing for this current journal.
On 2 pages, I write down the days of the week with enough space between them to distribute evenly and then add a "week summary" at the end. With each day I write bullet points of little things that happen: did I work in office that week, did my daughter hit a new milestone, did I go on a date with my wife. Stuff like that. I find myself often wondering "what the hell did I even do this week?" So this kinda gives me something to look back on. The summary is then a reflection of that week. I've found myself not writing entire journal entries because I will go weeks without feeling like I have much to say. So this approach balances that out.
For the journal entries I do write, I follow a naming convention. Sometimes I wanna look back on things I did and wrote about. The problem comes with trying to figure out where the hell I wrote it since "Jan. 19" tells me fuck all. So, I decided to name my journal entries, and for added fun following the naming convention of Friends episodes "The one where/with/when...". It's fun and it makes it easier to get a quick gist of what I wrote about in case I want to reference it later. I treat my journal entries like my blog posts, only writing when I feel I have something significant to say.
I've started to treat my journals like arts and crafts projects. Another reason why I like the leuchtturm1917 is because if I go with some fancier, leather journal like I have in the past, it makes it difficult to customize with stickers and such. Besides sticker-izing the cover, I also kinda scrapbook with my journals now. If I went and saw a movie, I will glue the tickets into the journal. If I went to an arcade with my wife I'll take one of the physical tickets and glue it in. Stuff like that. It makes me wanna look out for stuff that I could add to my mini scrap book.
Other pages are filled with things like wish lists, current favorites, mini book reports for stuff I've read, coordinates to places in my Minecraft world, etc.
I feel like this approach to journaling makes it much more fun and fulfilling for me. I hope this maybe inspires you to do something new and fun for your journal. It doesn't have to be #aesthetic or instagramable, it's meant for you. Make it as ugly or as pretty as you want. As long as your having fun with it.
Reply via email: me@absurdpirate.com
as of writing this...
Been working a bit on a Classic Halo shrine for my neocity site. Been copying the CSS from an old screenshot of a bungie.net page from back in 2007. It seemed fitting to rip from this page because bungie.net used to be THE place for Halo-related stuff. Outside of that, been really wanting to get back home and play some Minecraft. I've started playing the Better Than Adventure mod from the recommendation from Kami. But being stubborn and resistant to change as I am, I rejected it pretty quickly on initial playthroughs. I've since watched some videos on the mod and committed to seriously giving it the ol' college try and now I'm hooked on it. It sorta feels like I'm playing Minecraft for the first time again and that's exciting. There was a big ass accident on my commute to work this morning. Traffic was completely stopped for a little bit, but the road cleared pretty quick. Just hoping everyone in the crash was okay.