Confessions of a Serial Journaler – episode 2

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Yes, ladies and gentlemen (are there any men reading this?), I have many many journals/planners/diaries/whatever that I use daily.  Because all of this awesomesauce cannot fit into just ONE book!  And because I’m so finicky and weird that I have to have a different book for a different thing.  Y’all one book is NOT enough for all this crazy!  So here is my list of 5 books that I use regularly, at least for now.

I’m going through my journals and realizing there’s a theme amongst them.  Let’s see if you can guess what it is.  I won’t say till the end!

This specific one is probably my favorite journal.  It’s the first one I bought last year for myself and I absolutely adore it.  I think everyone should get it! It’s One Line a Day…. more like one short paragraph a day.  It gives you enough room to put a short synapsis of the most important thing that happened that day.  There are FIVE lines for each day though, because each line is for a different year!  So every year you’ll be able to see what you did the year before on that same day!  You’ll start to see patterns and get to remember interesting things that happened.  I haven’t hit my first year anniversary of owning this book yet, but I’m really excited to get there!  I think this would be great for a teenager who really wants to keep a short journal while they grow.  Might also be a great project for a mom/dad to do to write about their child as they grow too.  I could think of all sorts of things like that.  LOVE this book!  I write in it every night before I go to bed.

This next one is actually for both morning and evening.  This journal gives you prompts to write about.  It’s all about starting your day out right and ending your day remembering the good things.  Not always easy to do when you’ve had a bad day, but it makes you really think about it.  Inside it asks you to write down 3 things you’re grateful for each morning, 3 things that would make today great, and a daily “I Am” affirmation.  Then in the evening it asks you to write down 3 amazing things that happened, and how could today have been better.  I am not as consistent with this journal as the One Line a Day one.  Mostly because some days I wake up and I’ve got so little time that I don’t write anything down.  I give myself some grace on that though and just do it the next day.  I like this one because it gives me questions to answer and makes me think of good things, even on really shitty days!  Sometimes my answer is “nothing amazing happened it was a shitty day, ok!” and “the only thing that could make this day better was it never starting” but… most of the time I can find something to be grateful for!  😉

This journal, the 5 Second Journal, has only recently made it into my morning routine.  Not very consistently either.  It’s more of a project type of journal.  Based somewhat on the book “The 5 Second Rule” by Mel Robbins, this is one to help you keep yourself on track with projects you want to work on, or habits you want to change.  I like MOST of it.  The part I don’t like is the “Plan your day” section with lines for every hour and you’re supposed to plan out your day for each hour.  Like THAT’s gonna happen!  My life is just not that structured.  Really so far every time I’ve used this book, I’ve totally missed on doing the project itself.  But I’m still using it to see if I can make it work for me.  If you’re needing something to keep you on track with a short project each day, and you’ve got the discipline to do it, this book is definitely for you!

Have you read “Cultivate What Matters” or “Make It Happen” by Lara Casey?  If not, you should!  They are Christian based, but not in your face religious, books that help you to figure out how to really find what matters most to you and how to make the life you want to live happen!  Add to those books Lara Casey’s Powersheets and KaBAM! You’ve got a winning combo to really help you to stay on track of your goals and get things done.  Progress over Perfection though, ladies!  This journal/planner is about finding out where you are right now, and getting  you to where you want to be, but without the stress and pressure of being perfect!  I love mine!  It’s not something I write in or look at every day, but I go through it often and check off the things that I’ve completed and remind myself of  the things that I would like to do still when I have time.  The beginning of the book is about answering questions that help you to define who you are, where you are right now, and where exactly you need to cultivate the good things.  I highly recommend these books!

Last but not least is the 52 Lists for Happiness book.  This is a much more relaxed type of journal than most of the others, although all of them are simple and relaxed in their own ways.  This one is just lists though and only one for each week.  That’s right, not every day, every week!  So that means you can literally do this whenever you feel like it!  Which can be a bad thing for people like me who start something and then forget about it, but we’ll just pretend that’s not going to happen!  What’s nice about this book is that it gives you two large pages to write out as long as a list you can think up for each topic.  People you’re grateful for, your favorite movies, books you want to read, places you want to visit… 52 different topics like that, all to remind you to be happy, find balance, and stay positive.  So far, I’m really liking it.  Another nice thing about this book is that it’s not dated, so you can start it anytime, and come back to it any time.  No rush, just inspiration!

Did you figure out what my semi theme in my books was?  I didn’t even see it until I started writing this post.  It’s 5 books, and all but one has the number 5 in it somewhere!  5 years, 5 minutes, 5 seconds, 52 lists…. 5 books!  LOL  I love finding little patterns in the world like that.  Makes things sorta make more sense to me. 

So what do you use for journaling, planning and list making?  Share with me because I’m always looking for another great book to add to my collection!