I remember when I was a freshman or sophomore in high school and I had a tiny little planner with tiny little entries and I about burst with frustration. It was just too small and it made me feel like I couldnāt think properly. I was stuck at boarding school so I couldnāt just go out and get another one, and I think I texted my mom to let out my (perhaps irrational) built up emotion. There were definitely some ALL CAPS and exclamation points in that text message, and my poor mom undoubtedly thought I was overreacting.Ā
Soon enough, I had a larger planner in which I could write my giant to-do lists, and my nerves were relieved. My point of this incredibly entertaining story is that if you donāt have an organization or journaling system that works for you, it can cause you a lot of unnecessary stress, or at least fail in reducing stress.Ā
Iāve developed a journal organization system over time, and itās ended up being 7 notebooks that I use on a daily/weekly basis. Some people like to keep one journal that they use for everything, usually in the form of a bullet journal. While I do bullet journal, Iām one of those people who has a more layeredāand perhaps more chaoticāorganizational system. Every individual notebook that I list below can be included in my bullet journalāand it would probably be more portable to just have one journalābut that to me is like having one folder in a filing cabinet versus multiple folders with their own respective labels.
But this is just my system; it takes some trial-and-error to find your own.
Bullet Journal #1
I still have some logs in my old bullet journal that I periodically use, such as my Books to Read log.
But I also have a strong attachment to this journal, because I made it my own. Not all of the pages are pretty, and there is a lot of trial-and-error, which I think is normal for someone’s first bullet journal. It’s a messy conglomeration of thoughts, poetry collages, to-do lists, and quotes, and I quite like it.
It was what I needed when my brain was a mess and I needed to transfer that to paper however I wanted.
Bullet Journal #2
For my second bullet journal, I bought a Rhodia notebook, which has thicker paper but doesn’t break the bank. The paper just feels incredible, and I highly recommend.
The great thing about a bullet journal is that you have an entire notebook of blank/dotted pages that you can do whatever you want with. A pre-designed planner is better than no planner, but it can also be rather limiting. It may seem like a rather simple adjustment, but getting rid of those extra limitations can be rather freeing for your mental health.
Login Info
For obvious reasons, I can’t show you an actual entry in this notebook. I know there are a ton of apps for protecting passwords, and a paper notebook is a rather outdated and perhaps less secure way to remember login information. However, my mind always seems clearer whenever I use pen and paper. Besides, my technology tends to be messy. I always have over 100 tabs open on any device (no, that’s not an exaggeration), and navigating folders on my laptop is embarrassingly difficult. Long story short, I’m not tech savvy.
So paper notebook it is.
Blog and Writing Snippets
These two journals are just your basic lined notebooks. I use the Audrey one for jotting down blog ideas and writing bullet points of topics I might want to include per blog post. The multi-colored notebook (which I think looks a lot like jellybeans) is where I jot down writing snippets, poetry drafts, or short story ideas.
I have used my jellybean notebook for such a long time, and it is fascinating to see how my writing ability and my creative process have progressed. Which is another great thing about journals. You can just flip through and see a story unfold. And if it’s paper, it just adds that tangibility, that sensory aspect, that extra layer to the experience.
Sketching
This is my smaller sketchbook, about four times smaller than my largest sketchbook. Needless to say, this one is a lot more portable.
Whenever I have recurring thoughts that I want to get rid of, transferring the image to paper can be very therapeutic. The image then stops bugging me, and I have spent time using the creative side of my brain. Alas, the beauty of art.
Miscellaneous
This notebook is the kink in the system. One of my annoying idiosyncrasies is that I can’t write in a notebook until I find the perfect use for it, so the fact that I don’t like how I’ve used this notebook is so unsatisfying. It’s just a bunch of random, unrelated notes. The good news is that the actual notebook part is a replaceable leaflet, so the pretty outside won’t ever go to waste.
Ā
This is my organizational system. If you’re unsatisfied with your own, hopefully this gave you some ideas as to how to adjust. If you’ve already found yours, what does your journal organizational system look like?
