Art of Journaling

I mentioned a few times in my blog post about my routine and productive nomad that I journal. I have a confession: I am a terrible journal-er. Therefore it took a lot of trial and errors to find a way that works for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love watching bullet journaling on YouTube and see page layout on IG - but let’s be very honest how many of us actually replicates it? Finding a method to replicate it habitually has always been a challenge for me. This post is to share with you a lazy-(wo)man to journaling - I will share you with you some of my methods and hopefully will help you find yours.

Let’s get started! I will break it down to 4 parts.

1. How to Use It?

2. Types of Notebook

3. Types of Tools

4. Examples of How I Organize it

How to Use It

Similar to all my previous posts, I would recommend you figure out what you want to use this journal for. Is it for reflections, planning or goal setting. Of course, it can be a multi-purpose journal and have different layouts for different purposes. I prefer to separate my work journal and my personal planner. I have also changed my journaling style when my lifestyle changed.

For example, when I was in my corporate life I liked to keep my work life siloed from my personal life, therefore I have two notebooks that are specifically for it’s intended purpose. Since I spent 8 hours + per day at work, my personal journal displayed the whole week on a two-page spread, mainly contained to-do lists, reminders, and planners. I also had a page to track my personal goals, to remind myself if I am keeping up with my goals. During my student life, each one of my course work would have it’s own notebook, and there is a notebook to keep important notes on subject that are not frequent enough for its own notebook. However, my planner turned into Google Calendars, as my schedule changes multiple times throughout the day. I only have planners for big project, like my thesis. Now in my Digital Nomad life, to become more productive I use a daily planner that I can plan in detail how my day looks and what I need to accomplished.

Recently, I also built in a reflective part in my daily journal, writing down at least one positive thing that happened that day. The older I get, the more I realize how we overlook how far we came - especially on bad days or experiencing set-backs. We forget how far we came on the journey and the set-back is only temporary. Writing down something I am grateful for or a positive message to myself is how I keep focus on my goal when my negativity started to come out.

Types of Notebook

Disclaimer - There are no partnerships related to this post, the following are just my personal opinions.

I have a confession, I love spending time in a stationary store. One of my favourite activities is examine notebooks, yes examine. I used to love buying notebooks, and my mom refer to my collection of partially used notebooks as notebook graveyard. Therefore, I don’t buy a notebook unless I absolutely love it. For journaling, I mainly used four different types of notebooks.

Leuchtturm1917 - Medium Dotted A5

What I love:

• This was my very first notebook and it was great

• Table of content and the pocket at the end is essential

• Very popular within the bullet journal community

Moleskin - Grid

What I love:

• Softcover :)

• Available in most stationary stores therefore it is easy to find once you run out

Rhodia - A5 Goalbook

What I love:

• Softcover

• The thickness of the paper, perfect for ink pens

• Back pockets are great and very sturdy

Stalogy - A6 1/2 Year

What I love:

• Size, softcover, thickness of the papers and thickness of the entire notebook (pocket size!)

• Each page is already marked with month, day of the week and day of the month. Great for daily planning and journaling

• It won the best stationary award in Japan a few years back

• Although grid, the grid is very faint therefore is as effective as the dotted notebooks

Leuchtturm1917 - Medium Dotted A5

What I love-less:

• I think over time I begin to like soft-cover notebooks, and Leuchtturm1917 are known for its hardcover

Moleskin - Grid

What I love-less:

• I still like dots a bit more than grid

• The thick-ness of the paper is a bit too thin got me, as I mainly use ink pens therefore the reverse side of each page is always a bit havoc

Rhodia - A5 Goalbook

What I love-less:

• The size of the book is a bit too thick for me, the more I travel I realize I like something that is smaller and more portable (especially different size bags etc.)

Stalogy - A6 1/2 Year

What I love-less:

• No pockets

• Difficult to find in offline stores

Types of Tools

I am generally not too fancy with my tools, and I tried to be colourful for a long time but I find it very unpractical. Since, during your day to day, you’re lucky if you have one working pen on you - let alone having 5 different stabilo pen with you all the time while you are traveling or working. I personally just use an anti-smudge black ink pen and when I’m reflecting my day I use two different colour highlighters as markers to show I either finished the task or if something I mark down is particularly meaningful.

My criteria for pens are:

• Ink

• Anti-smudge

• No bleeding

• Waterproof

• Thin 

Here are some of my favourites over the year, I changed from time to time mainly due to availability:

• Muji Diagonal Pens size 0.25 (every colour!)

• Pigma Micron Pens size 0.3 to size 0.5 (Super waterproof, used to use it in watercolouring)

• Stabilo size 0.4 (My go to for note taking, for the different colours)

• Uni Pin Fine Line (Oldie but a goodie, my parents had these in the house since I can remember and I used to steal them from my parents’ office)

• Sharpie Plastic Point Stick Water Resistant Pen, Ink, Fine (My favourite pen during my college/undergraduate days - written many 4-hours case exams with them)

Examples of How I Organize it

Note: I have terrible hand writing

Daily Summary

This is done on a Stalogy - as you see the very left is from 8 to 21 - and it’s great to plan out your day. The top is pre made dates, I typically use a lighter highlighter to go over the exact date. I use the left half to plan my day, the right side top for to-dos (including getting coffee) and middle of the journal for the positivity reflection (in orange). I use different markers (check marks, forward arrow, and highlighters) when I reflect on my day.

Project Tracker

The entry was done on a Rhodia notebook. This grid style I developed over time. For this time during my life, I have 4 main categories to work on: MBA Project (thesis), Careers, Blog, Others (errands and such), and left side is the time marker. I still use boxes to indicate “to-do”, like a symbolic checking off the box.