Journaling: A Practice & DESIGN

My title page from my bullet journal

I am an avid journaler. I started when I was in high school (typical angsty teen) and have continued into my adulthood (with less angst). Despite the occasional lapse, break, and silence, I am grateful for this practice. When people talk about writing in their journals, a lot of us, myself included, might think of the near-daily practice of writing thoughts or a summary of the day. But I think there are other ways to think through journaling that are wonderful exercises in reflection that I put together here: 

 To no one's surprise, I am a huge fan of bullet journaling and have already written about how I've designed them here (and here in more detail) and explained: 
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• how I use monthly spreads for gratitudes (photo-left),
• how I (try to keep track) of daily and weekly habits (photo-center, righthand), and
• how I plan my weeks and track my productivity with tomatoes (photo-right).
  
  

But I wanted to talk a bit more about how I've been incorporating an intentional reflection through monthly check-ins (photo-center, lefthand). At the beginning of each month~ish I ask myself the following 4 questions: 
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1. How is my body? (i.e. how am I physically feeling? )
2. How is my mind?  (i.e. what's been on my mind recently and how am I feeling about it?)
3. How is my spirit?  (e.g. do I feel at peace? some people can take this religious or spiritually as well)
4.  How is my heart?  (i.e. how am I doing in relation to and with the people I love?)
   
   

I interpret and answer the questions however I want and I don't always answer all four questions in the same sitting. But having that check-in to ask myself different aspects have brought out a lot of surprising reflections. Additionally, one thing that's helped me, in reflecting, is making the boxes kind of small (about the size of a post-it note). This helps alleviate the pressure to "fill the whole page" (where I then feel like I need to write, just to write) and instead just jot down a thought or two.  Having started this in 2020, I'm excited to look back and see the ways I've answered this question throughout the year~ 

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​AND SPEAKING OF PRESSURE
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Sometimes, I create systems too complicated or overwhelming to manage. Often times, that is my bullet journal. And the thing originally intended as stress-coping becomes stress-giving. To flip it back,  here are some things I've adjusted:

• Habit tracker (photo-center, righthand): Sometimes, at the end of the month, I'll stop tracking my habits because I got lazy or tired or exhausted. But I still want every box to have a symbol. So now, in my key where I have a check (for yes), an x ( for no), and a dot (for not applicable that day), I now use a dash, which means not tracked that day. 

• Goal-setting (photo-left, righthand, covered by pens): I used to do 31 goals for 31 days. I thought it would be cute. Since goals could be professional (e.g. apply to a conference), personal (send a card to a friend), events (like a vacation), I figured it would be manageable. It was not. I got quickly overwhelmed and kept referencing the list, knowing I wouldn't finish half and then would re-write them for the next month (and create a repeated cycle where I kept feeling like a failure). So instead, now I write between 10-15 goals and always end with "finish writing this list" to remind myself that goals should be attainable. (I've written a similar reflection here about how I revised my weekly goals/planner system too). 
• Combined weeks (not photographed): Towards the end of December, my weekly layouts are just really empty. I am usually traveling, celebrating events, and generally taking a vacation. But, because I like my weekly layouts to be filled, I find the comparative emptiness to be stressful— almost like that sharp reminder that says we shouldn't be resting (don't listen; you should rest). So, for weeks like those (and other high-travel months *cough November, March*), I don't adhere to having my week be spread over the two pages (my usual). Instead, I'll design for those 10 days, two weeks, etc. to be across the two-page spread. The boxes are smaller and so feel less empty. Ta da!