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Journal, Diary and Planner Lovers!
Hi everyone,
I have seen a lot of people on the forums take up journaling recently. I really wanted to have a space on the forums where we can share pictures and ideas for our journals, diaries and planners. 🙂 Apologies if a thread like this has already been made somewhere.
I'll be sharing the pages that don't have anything identifying me or people I know. It's also okay to show spreads and pages that you haven't written in yet. 🙂
Happy journaling and/or planning!
I think a thread for sharing journaling and planning ideas is a fantastic idea! It reminds me of when I started journaling a few years ago—I was looking for inspiration and ways to personalize my entries.
For many people, custom diary planners have become their first option since they are a simple method to keep your ideas organised. Diaries assist us in organising and comprehending our ideas.
What is your favorite bullet journal pen? Pilot G2 is my favorite. The ink of these pens flows incredibly smoothly, which is why it’s perfect for longer writing. The ink dries out quickly, so you don’t have to worry about smearing. You’ll love this writing tool for colorful and more spirited bullet journaling.
I’ll definitely use some of those ideas, I can’t wait to start more pages!
I made a list of my favourite journaling prompts!
Feel free to use them if you can read my handwriting. 🙂
I have no idea why the second pic keeps being flipped over. It appears as vertical when I upload it. I wasn't having that issue before.
Hi all!
Here are some page ideas I've tried out recently:
- Things I'd like to try (you could make this into a checklist that you tick off)
- Today's headline
- On this day (this one is for the history lovers - what historical events of interest occurred today? Anniversaries of your favourite forms of media count too! I've been using https://www.onthisday.com/)
- Today in one word (this is a good idea if you don't have much time to journal, and it can also help you track your mood)
- A mindfulness page. You could focus on doing a routine activity, the sensations that you felt while doing it and how it made you feel. It might help to imagine that it is your first time doing that thing or doing a body scan while doing it.
I also got another book with thick pages that can be used as a scrapbook or vision board, but I haven't decided what to put in it so far. I might make a list of ideas. 🙂
Hi all,
Here are some planner tips I've come across. Some of them I've tried for myself!
- Use clear plastic sleeves or pockets to organise receipts, cash, letters, etc. Alternatively, you can buy envelopes and adhere them to your notebook or planner with glue or adhesive dots, or buy pockets with a sticky backing (I think stores like Daiso, Kmart and Officeworks have these).
- Mark reoccurring events with colour-coded dots or stickers.
- Wrap washi tape around a card (e.g., a business card) and put it in a pocket or punch it into your planner rather than carrying around a full tape.
- Clip together old calendar pages if you no longer need to refer to them. This can help find the current page.
- Plan out events without committing to them using sticky notes or erasable pens. You can also use this to plan out meals or menus.
- Wrap a stretchy elastic band around your notebook and use it to store extra paper, pens and supplies. I know Kikki.k and Officeworks have ones which have a loop where you can insert a pen as well.
- Use a half-sized insert (you can cut a full one in half) as a to-do list in your weekly section of a ring-bound planner. Alternatively, you can use a sticky note.
- Use a heavy-weight sheet of cardstock as a page lifter. You can insert it into the back of a ring-bound planner to prevent pages from curling at the end.
- To-do lists don't have to just be checklists. You can divide them into a table to delegate tasks (e.g., important-urgent, important-not urgent, not important-urgent, not important not-urgent) or use Cornell note paper (here is a site where you can make your own).
- Printables can be resized to fit your planner by adjusting your printer settings. There are a few tutorials online for this.
- I am thinking of using a QR code that can be scanned so someone can see my emergency details at the front of my planner.
- Use washi tape to create a 'flap' of extra paper when you need more space to write, but still want to see what is written underneath.
- Use a display book with plastic sleeves to archive old planning pages.
- Use different coloured pens to categorise different subjects or categories (e.g., work/school, different organisations you are involved with, appointments, etc.). I've heard that you can also colour code by writing over pen with crayon.
- Using a binder clip on the side of a page may help get it to lie flat.
Hi everyone!
I tried the QR code idea and it worked out great. I generated a QR code with one of those free generators. Then I made a custom 'This Planner Belongs To' insert to fit my ringbound planner using a free design website and inserted the QR code into the page. I punched the page into my planner and I could scan the QR code from the page!
Some QR code generators use text that is embedded into the image, while others generate a webpage with your text. I'm not sure how secure the webpage ones are though.
I also made a DIY dashboard for my planner with a blank tab insert and stickers. 🙂
Another idea I have is to use washi tape to identify sections of a planner or diary if it doesn't come with tabs. You could wrap the tape around the edge of the page to find stuff easily.
What a cool thread @WheresMySquishy !!!
@Bananatime04 @xXLexi_Lou122Xx how have you guys been going with bullet journalling? It looks so artistic and cool
I’ve found that structured journalling isn’t for me, but I started freestyle journalling about 3 years ago and now I have lots of messy volumes full of ramblings and breakdowns and love letters and poems and little drawings and notes! My current journal is just a paper notebook I got from woolies and I wrote a quote I really like from a play called Angels in America on the front: “But still, still. Bless me anyway. I want more life. I can’t help myself, I do.”
That's so cool @DruidChild! Like you, I also have little volumes of journals I've filled over the years. It's so great to have a physical thing that you can look back on. 🙂
I've experimented with both structured journaling and freeform journaling. Sometimes, I prefer writing long paragraphs and sometimes, I prefer writing just a sentence a day on a certain topic. I've also used a lot of journaling apps.
Your current journal sounds awesome! What a nice quote! 🙂
I remember when I was younger, I used to write stories in cheap exercise books from Coles or Woolworths and decorate the covers with stickers. They weren't very durable and the paper quality wasn't great, but I loved writing in them every day.
@WheresMySquishy So cool! I love the flexibility of your approach, mixing it up depending how you feel! Also such a lovely story, I’m glad childhood you found a way that you loved to write out your thoughts/ideas/stories!
Have you found any good journalling apps? I’ve yet to find one that’s not too glitchy for me
@DruidChild Urgh! That's so frustrating that your apps have been glitchy! I've encountered that sometimes. So far, I've used these journaling apps:
tinythoughts (this one has prompts)
Writeaday (this one has prompts but you don't have to follow them)
Journal It! (I use this one on a daily basis but mostly for tasks, habit tracking, notes and categorising things. For example, you can use it to create a travel journal, a record of your activities, study notes etc.).
Grid Diary (this one has prompts that you can customise)
Journey (I've mostly used this one as a travel journal because it lets you see the places you've made entries at on a map).
Some calendar apps such as Jorte also have a diary feature.
I'd love to find some more though! I used to have a game on the DS as a kid that had a journal that you could decorate with stickers etc. It was great but it filled up quickly. The old Animal Crossing games also had a diary feature that you could write in. One day, we started the GameCube game up again and found entries that I had written years ago when I around 8 years old.
This thread is awesome!
@WheresMySquishy I've also found freestyle journalling a bit better for me too. I usually end up with a bit of a mess of a journal though I haven't really been good at sticking to a schedule when it comes to journalling.
Does anyone have any suggestions about how to be more consistent?
@TOM-RO I also struggle with being consistent with journaling, especially if I have a lot of stuff going on. Sometimes, my journals just end up being rants because I would only write in them when I was in a bad mood. I've tried to do a self-isolation journal with specific prompts I've come up with to make something a bit more positive that I can look back on.
I try to schedule a specific time of the day to journal and set reminders on my phone. Some journaling apps have reminders built in. Another thing you could do is trying a different style of journaling, such as a five-minute journal, a sentence a day journal, a stream of consciousness journal or a microjournal (for example, describing the day in a few words or with your mood and the activities you did). Sometimes, I find it a bit easier to start with a prompt and then writing whatever comes to my mind afterwards.
Hey @WheresMySquishy
Whether journaling is your thing, or it’s never really seemed to help you, I really like bullet journaling! I’ve never really found regular journaling very helpful but when I started bullet journaling it was like a break from everything around me because it took a lot of my focus! I’m making this post as @xXLexi_Lou122Xx and I talked about it a while ago but also heaps of other people are also doing it!
We could share ideas, inspiration, your designs/creations and even some suggested places to buy bullet journal essentials
So my dot journal is from typo along with my gel pens, fine liners, pencils and other supplies.
I have only done 3 pages so far:
- Reasons to live
- Contact numbers
- Self care
these are some of my inspirations:
These will be my next 3 pages, @xXLexi_Lou122Xx what do you think about joining me with these?
Thanks so much for sharing!
Since my mum went through my diary and I stopped writing, I have just made a new secret alphabet. I replaced every letter with a symbol and each symbol has a meaning so it’s easy for me to remember. I just wrote my first short paragraph with them after practicing writing each letter like over 20 times. No one will know what I’m writing now 🙂
here’s the short paragraph:
Can you show me what the letters are equivalent to, so I can use them too?
I’m sorry that your mum went through your diary... I hate it when random people go through things, when you haven’t given permission to do so...
@Sophia-RO if I show what each letters symbol is and I delete my previous photo of the paragraph I made, can you promise to not work out what it says because apparently you guys can still see the original post before it was edited? And you have to tell everyone else they can’t work it out.. please?
I was just asking, because I know that sometimes it can be fun to code things!
I can make my own alphabet! I think it will be fun... 🙂
Okay @xXLexi_Lou122Xx but I’ll still show mine 🙂 I just want to say that even if someone does happen to have the photo in the email notifications and look what it says, it’s not true I was just ranting and had a bad night but I’m not going to kill myself. The rest was true though.. but I promise I’m safe 🙂
I really like that idea @Bananatime04! 🙂 In the past, I've gone with diaries that have a lock on them to prevent my parents reading them. There have been a few times where I've found that my family members have gone through my things while I was away, so I used to hide my diaries.
Some other codes you can use are Pig Latin, braille and binary if you're not concerned with someone looking up a converter.