All My Journals and How I Use Them
I have a not so secret love for writing. I have loved to write since I was in middle school. It’s not something I do perfectly, but it’s something I enjoy. I like to write both by hand and by typing. My collection of ways to write has grown over the years. I’m currently really loving the system I have put in place for writing right now. This system includes some journals. I thought it would be interesting to talk about the journals I have and how I use them. So if that’s something you’re interested in, keep reading!
The Gratitude Journal The first journal I want to talk about is a guided journal titled The Gratitude Journal. You may have heard of The 5 Minute Journal, well The Gratitude Journal is basically a dupe of that because I wasn’t willing to shell out 30 bucks for a journal. I got it on amazon. Every page is undated and has prompts for the morning and evening, plus a quote at the top of the page. The prompts only take a few minutes to fill out. I try to use this journal daily. If you are new to journaling, don’t have a lot of time, or find that when you try to journal you don’t know what to write then I definitely recommend you give this journal a try!
One Line A Day; A Five Year Memory Book This is another journal I got on amazon. I just started this journal recently. In the journal, every page has the month and date of the day already labeled at the top. Then it has five small sections for 5 different years. In each section you put the year and then write a short reflection about your day. I try to use this journal daily. This is also a great journal if you are new to journaling, don’t have a lot of time, or don’t really know what to write about.
2023 Collections Journal This is a journal that is semi inspired by a bullet journal, if you know what that is. I just use a composition notebook from Walmart. Inside, I have written my word of the year, my yearly intentions, and my yearly goals. This is also where I set my monthly goals. Then, there is basically just a bunch of lists or collections, as I call them. I keep a list of what books I’ve read, TV shows I’ve watched, movies watched, podcasts listened to, and music listened to. I also keep a wishlist of items I want to buy. I personally love having this journal and I think it will be so fun to look back on in future years. I can’t wait to add more lists of things to it. I don’t write in it or even look at it everyday. I just update it as needed.
Writer’s Notebook This is another composition notebook. This one is from the dollar tree. In it I write all sorts of things pertaining to my writing. This includes blog post ideas, quotes that have stood out to me, and even more creative writing ideas. I also like to write notes on books I’ve read, so I include those notes in this notebook too. Right now, I’m doing some research for a writing project, so I’m using this notebook almost everyday to take notes on that research.
Everyday Journal This journal is probably what most people think of when they think of journaling. It’s a place where I write about my thoughts and feelings, what happened during my day, etc. It’s very private and I definitely wouldn’t want to share it with anyone. While I have used composition books for this kind of journal in the past, I am currently using a beautiful journal by journalbooks that I got as a gift. It has a P on the front! It also has a little ribbon bookmark which I love to keep track of where I am at. The name of this journal is deceiving, because I definitely don’t write in it everyday. Lately, it’s been more like once every couple weeks or whenever my therapist gives me a journaling assignment.
Digital Everyday Journal Sometimes I want to write, but I don’t want to write by hand. Also sometimes I want to include pictures that I’ve taken in my journal entries, but I don’t want to go to the trouble of printing them out and pasting them into a journal. That’s where I turn to this digital format journal! It is an app I have that syncs between my phone and IPad, so I can write on either. I used to use Evernote for this purpose, but honestly Evernote was getting confusing and then it updated to where you had to pay for even the basic version of it and I was like, this isn’t even worth it. So now I use an app called Day One Journal: Private Diary. If you type in Day One on the App Store it should be the first one that comes up. It is available in both a free and premium version. I had the free version for awhile and just used it on my IPad, but I found I wanted something on my phone too. Plus, I wanted some other features of the premium version so I upgraded and paid the $35 bucks for a year subscription. If at the end of the year I find I didn’t use it as much as I thought I would, then I’ll just cancel it, but so far I’m using it a lot. I haven’t entirely gotten the hang of it, but it’s easier than Evernote. I currently update this journal about once a week, but I’d like to get in the habit of doing it more. If you think this is something you might be interested in I say start with the basic version for a month and see if you can keep a streak of writing for so many days in a row. If you find you want more features, then upgrade to the premium version.
Prayer Journal This year I started a prayer journal! I’m using a gorgeous gray and gold journal from Walmart that I found on clearance for $8 bucks! It has stone paper. I don’t really know what that means, but the packaging said to use a ballpoint pen for best results so that’s what I’ve been doing and let me tell you it makes my handwriting so smooth and beautiful. I used sticky notes to divide my journal into sections. The sections are Daily, then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. When I’m using this journal I start by writing a basic prayer following some guidelines in the daily section, then flip to the day of the week it is. I have assigned each day of the week a different theme. For example, Tuesday is friends. So I write a little prayer praying for my friends. If I didn’t do this I would literally try to write/pray about everything under the sun everytime I used this journal. My goal is to get to a point where I am using this journal to pray daily (minus Sundays). Right now I use it about once a week.
I think that’s all the journals I currently have. I know. It’s excessive and slightly crazy, but it’s what I enjoy. If you didn’t already know that I’m a little extra, this post might be your hint. Let me know if you have any questions, because I’m happy to answer them for you.
