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October 23, 2019-This was me a year ago today. I started covering journaling on my
blog. The reason was I journaled and I
still journal. I needed something new to put a spark in this tired blog, so, I
started talking about journaling as a way to fill a void and to talk about a
form of writing that I am passionate about.
Have you ever journaled before?
If the answer is yes, then you know what I am talking
about. If not or have not heard of the
concept before, I have a whole series about the beginnings of journaling and
why is it important to keep a journal.
I will not rehash the reasons why I do journal, I have them
sprinkled throughout this blog: The topics I want to home in for beginners are:
·
Put it together: Conclusion to journaling
 |
| from Pixabay by unknown photographer |
It is also good that the rest of the more experienced people
who journal to read as well. I also have
some tips to become better at journaling, and some things that I have learned
about the process of journaling.
1)
Find Your Why.
It does not
matter to the rest of the world your reason for journaling unless you do like
me and announce that you are journaling (i.e. this blog). What matters is you know your reason. These reasons can go from “I want to know
what it is like to journal” to “I want to go back someday to see how I am at a
particular time in my life where I was happy, sad, curious, or going through something
difficult because a child, friend, or spouse is going through the same thing.” These are all valid reasons for journaling,
but if you are using the entry at a later time as a means for guiding someone
through the same situation, be careful.
This person is not you and for you to offer advice on something that you
have handed well in the past, may not end well for that person, unless they
first ask for help. Wait, they will talk about it if they want to.
2)
Use entries as lessons learned
Let me address one of those
reasons. The reason is “I want to learn
from this”. The real reason could be
that you are going through a situation and you want to be able to learn from it
and teach someone when they go through it.
Let me address the art of financial planning as an example.
You may be having problems with
keeping money in your bank account month to month. This is a common problem for people these
days. You may want to keep a journal documenting what is happening, what you
are saving for (if you are trying to do that as well), and another money
situation the average person is having: getting out of debt.
This is how I would do this type
of journaling. There is no wrong way of
doing it, but it is necessary, at least for me, to document this, in case you
need to show this to someone at the bank for advice. For this type of journaling, I might suggest
that you buy:
§
an inexpensive notebook binder, Tabs (Jan-Dec)
§
Using a spreadsheet, like MS. Excel or Google Sheets,
or software like Quicken Books (your choice, no right or wrong, it depends on
your experience and your tech budget)
§
Some notebook paper or online journal.
·
Note: You may also want to print out your
statements from online banking app (if applicable).
§
Divide your notebook from Jan-Dec (using
dividers, like the Avery Customizable Table of Contents Dividers, Jan- Dec Tabs (11847)).
§
Add in the following each month:
·
your spreadsheet
·
Goals and Aspirations
·
Journal entries (reflections)
§
At the end of the year your feeling on how it
went.
o
You never know, this could turn into a book.
3)
Project entries
I have often had journals where I
wanted to document a trip or a project.
Same thing as the other journals, where I have entries and reflections
within those entries. These looked a
little like this:
Project: Christmas card
Materials Used:
o
Bazzill Basics - Card Shoppe - 8.5 x 11 Cardstock - Premium Smooth Texture –
Marshmallow (100 sheets) for Card #3 to get a head start and to replenish my
white cardstock-$.48 each
Budget for the total Project: $150.00 for the project. I spent $89.00 so far.
This can be applied to any home
improvement, business, or trip project.
4)
Document everything
If you want people to learn from
the mistakes you have made as well as your successes, list everything no matter
how big or small. I will say something
like this (using the Christmas card project as an example):
“One
of the things I have learned from making Christmas cards is I need to start
early finding everything I needed for them.
First, I did not anticipate the cost.
I thought that if I had a budget of $150 for the project, I would come
out ahead. I had so much fun that I made
3 more types of cards and I ended up spending $200 for everything. The next lesson I learn is to estimate the
time of arrival for the products I ordered.
Amazon did what they said they did, which was to deliver in 2 days. As for the products I order from
Scrapbook.com, they were out of the Nuvo Drops I wanted for the impromptu 4th
card I decided to make. They were rose
gold, which would have been perfect for the rose gold embossing powder I order
from there, and I ran all over town going from craft store to craft store. This prompted me to finally order from
Amazon, again, who got it to me in 24 hours, after I put a rush on the
order. I guess it pays to plan ahead.”
Even if this documentation is for
your eyes only, it serves as a reminder for the next time to plan ahead.
5)
Plan ahead.
Yes, I am will ask you to plan to
make a journal. The reason is so you can
research into what type of journal you want to have. Not every journal is a narrative journal (the
“dear diary, I had a bad day type). As
you see from the examples above, I did not have a narrative journal. I had a planning journal. Well, did you know you have to plan a
planning journal? Even if you were to
follow some examples, you may not want everything you see in the example
journal. For example, if you were to
follow my plan of attack for the Christmas card project journal, you have to
ask yourself, “should I sketch out my card to have a general idea I want in the
card?” “This example does not show that.” “I also do not see how many she was making;
I want to put that in there.” “I really want a spreadsheet of my inventory and
cost, should I put the journal in a binder instead of a regular notebook?”
(trust me, it is perfectly fine to make that decision). In other words, you can make your journal any
way you want. There is no right or wrong
way of writing a journal. It is what you
make of the journal. It is what makes
you happiest. You are the master of your own journal.
Well, it is late, and I must get some sleep. I hope you will find this very helpful as you
begin your journaling process. Oops, my
bad, I did not get to planners. This is
part 1. Part 2 is around the corner and
will be addressed next time. So stay tuned to this blog for hopefully an
exciting post.
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