Transcription
When someone said journaling had changed their life completely, I used to think it must be one of those clickbaits. After 20 years of journaling, I must admit I stand by that notion. Journaling is one habit you should seriously consider trying if you feel like your life is moving forward in a specific direction as you aspire.
But here's a catch: although journaling has definitely helped me to have transformative experiences in my personal, spiritual, and professional life, I found that how you journal matters.
Hi! For those of you who are new, my name is Liz. I'm a graphic designer turned calligrapher. In this video, I'll show you how I use one notebook and one digital app for my five-part journaling system: yearly goal tracker, monthly habit tracker, daily journal, monthly review, and time blocking. I'll show you examples of how I do each of them and also share some powerful journaling techniques and prompts that you can use throughout the video.
After 20 years of trying various methods, this approach that I'm about to share is what I found works best for me.
So, this is the journaling notebook I'm currently writing in. The cover is an A5 3-ring binder that I purchased from Amazon for about $15. The inside journaling pages have been custom designed by me, and I print them out at the end of each month for the following month and put them in like this. Of course, you don't have to custom design your journaling notebook—any notebook will do the job. Although I would recommend one with dotted paper because it will give you the structure but at the same time some flexibility as you make it your own style and need.
Don't let not having the perfect tool get in the way of actually starting your journaling journey. You'll gradually want to and will find the one that you enjoy writing with along the way.
As for the pen, I usually use a Zebra Sarasa pen as my pen of choice. I like this pen because it allows me to create very thin strokes, which helps me to write better with more control. When I feel like I can write with more control, it makes the writing more tidy. I find that it becomes quite a motivation to keep writing. They come in tons of color choices, making it perfect for my diverse journaling needs. I've especially been enjoying using the Vintage color series.
I'm also a fountain pen enthusiast, but I like using ballpoint pens for daily journaling because I don't have to worry as much about ink smudges. I like to keep things simple, easy, and convenient with no friction. However, I sometimes use a fountain pen for resonating quotes or mantras I want to remember.
So here is my five-part journaling system that I use with this notebook and a digital app called Notion. The very first page of my journaling notebook is the yearly goal tracker. This is where I write down the goals or resolutions I want to achieve for the year. I place it on the very first page so that I am reminded every day, ensuring I stay focused and on track rather than leaving my mind messy and unorganized.
Speaking of staying focused, I think the goal of journaling is transformation—whether it's achieving your financial goals, business objectives, personal growth, or building and strengthening relationships. By journaling consistently, you have a powerful means to filter and organize your thoughts and feelings so that you can make important, meaningful decisions in your life to do something and focus on moving in a certain direction as you desire. I believe this is one of the biggest benefits of journaling.
This process itself, by doing journaling, has the immense benefit of helping you find out where you are in your life and where you should be heading. Thus, the yearly goals must be challenging enough to push me out of my comfort zone so I can grow and achieve, but also attainable so I don't give up along the way. It's also important to come up with a way to measure your progress.
I wrote down about 10 goals that I wish to tackle this year. Knowing that I often get overly enthusiastic at the beginning of the year, I chose the top three goals to prioritize and place them at the very top, which I focus on the most every day. When I open my journal, I am reminded of the goals I'm pursuing. This constant visual reminder immensely helps me to stay focused throughout the entire year to fulfill those goals.
Here, I have 10 small checkboxes for each goal to track my progress. For example, for one of my goals for 2024, I have colored in four out of 10 checkboxes so far, which indicates my current progress towards fulfilling that goal. The checkboxes provide a clear indication and direction on what tasks I should focus more on each and every day.
While the very first page of the entire journaling notebook is the yearly goal tracker, the first page of each month's journaling section is dedicated to a monthly habit tracker. Here I write down all the daily habits that need to be done to achieve the yearly goals I've set. This is where I check if I am constantly doing what I am supposed to do. The things that you want in your life become your goals; to achieve those goals, you need actions. And as these actions become your habits, then transformation starts to emerge.
For example, if you want to lose weight, you set a goal of reaching a specific number by a certain date. To achieve this goal, you need to engage in actions such as running or working out. Here, I check if I am doing those actions consistently and actively on a daily basis.
Every night when I write in my journal, I revisit this page of the habit tracker and evaluate how well I did in completing those tasks for the day. Right before I write in my journal, I quickly fill out one column of the habit tracker. You might be wondering what these small circles are for. I color in the circles as check marks, depending on how much I've accomplished. Sometimes I only fill in half a circle if I feel like I didn't quite complete a particular task fully.
By doing this simple tracking, I can objectively see how productive I was today. If I noticed I didn't hit as many habits as I had hoped, I remind myself that I can do a little better tomorrow.
I think this is a good time to share my experience following the bullet journal technique for about a year and a half, about six years ago. At first, when I was introduced to the bullet journal technique, it was mind-blowing because it opened up my eyes to see the infinite possibilities of designing my own journaling pages. I remember thinking to myself, "Why didn't I think of this simple idea before?"
Discovering bullet journaling, as a stationary lover, I continuously purchased brand new notebooks and planners, which I never really fully used, leaving many blank pages here and there and in the middle. It wasn't easy finding the pre-designed layouts and prompts that worked for me, and they all felt rigid with no room for flexibility.
I guess the idea of bullet journaling figuratively provided me with some sort of permission that you don't have to be fixated on the strict forms of pre-designed layouts and that you can come up with the layouts and systems that actually work for you. I devoted myself passionately and did bullet journaling consistently for about a year and a half.
At the time, I was working as a graphic designer. Every lunchtime, I would quickly finish my lunch and open my notebook to do daily bullet journaling with full enthusiasm. However, the problem I found with bullet journaling was that I ended up spending too much time creating the same layouts and moving boxes and tables to the next weekly and monthly pages.
Additionally, I got carried away trying to make my journal as aesthetic as possible, which eventually became another burden and made me question the purpose of doing all this. That was one of those epiphany moments when I realized the goal of journaling is transformation. So, I needed to make the process as focused as possible to help achieve that.
Then gradually, I developed the journaling system that I am now using. After the first page of the monthly habit tracker, the rest of the pages are dedicated to daily journaling, which is the main focus of my journaling where I write down how my day went before I go to bed each night.
So let me show you how I do it. First, I use a stamp to date my page. This is why I have to design my page in a horizontal format. Having a flat layout without any obstacles is very important to me.
After trying many techniques and prompts, I have settled on these five main journaling prompts that I reflect on and answer each night. These are the five prompts that I find useful to use. You can take them for your daily journaling as well, if you wish, and tailor them to your preferences.
1. What bothered me today?
This is a fundamental question to look into my mind and open the door to reflect on how I responded to the day. The word "bothered" doesn't necessarily carry a negative connotation; it's more about reflecting on your day from an objective point of view, even though it's based on subjective emotions. When I do this, I imagine my day as a pond of still water, and I try to observe what or who threw a pebble into the water, creating a wave. The pebble can be positive or negative; it can be big or small. I believe it's crucial to look back on your day to understand why that pebble created such a wave in my mind. This is a good starting point to understand yourself and how you should respond to those pebbles.
2. What can be improved tomorrow?
This simple prompt is more about having the opportunity to ponder an ideal way to respond to the answer from the first prompt, which I hope to implement the next day to help me grow as an individual.
3. What's today's mantra?
A truth that helps me stand firm and avoid being skewed by false beliefs.
4. What lessons have I learned, or what ideas do I need to hold on to?
5. What's today's prayer?
As a Christian, I know that no matter how much planning and passion we put in, there are limitations to our own understanding and solutions. This is where I surrender control and lift up my hopes in faith.
6. What are you grateful for today?
This is quite self-explanatory. The answers to these questions can be repeated from yesterday, but I try to make them as genuine as possible each time I write them. Just like writing new ink on paper, having powerful prompts dictates the quality of journaling.
I tried many diaries and notebooks that already came with good prompts, but as I gained a better understanding of myself, I arrived at these five main prompts which I think work really well so far. By any chance, if you ever wish to use these prompts, I will leave a link in the description below for you to download them, so that you can print them out and use them for your daily journaling.
Speaking of making them look neat and organized, how aesthetic should journaling be? I see many people give up journaling for two reasons. One of them is the desire to make it as pretty as possible. When they realize they're not satisfied with the aesthetic result, they soon give up. I totally understand what that's like, because at one point, I also got so stressed about making my journal aesthetically pleasing.
However, I soon realized the real important purpose of journaling is not its appearance. After all, journaling is a powerful tool for transforming and directing my life towards my ideal self. Therefore, I think it's important to make it as neat as possible rather than making it as pretty as possible. For focusing on how to make it easy on your eyes when you revisit your journal, try not to spend too much money or time unless it directly supports the goal of journaling, which is personal transformation.
Another reason people give up journaling is when they skip journaling for a couple of days and feel like they've lost their consistency. As a result, they just end up stopping altogether. Please know that it's okay to skip—there's no shame in it. You just have to start again. Journaling should not be an obligation; it's not something you have to do. It's something that you're inclined to do because you need it for your own sake and for your own benefits.
The problem I find with skipping entries is that it creates large empty pages, which is an even more serious issue when your journal is predated. To solve this, I use interchangeable undated sheets in a binder format like this and use a date stamp.
While the first page of each month's journaling section is dedicated to a habit tracker, the last page is where I do my monthly review of how I did overall. As I look back over the month, this monthly review is also called The Wheel of Life because, as you can see, it is represented by a big circular diagram.
There are four main categories that I review and evaluate: relationship, health, wealth, and growth. Under each main category, I write down specific areas to check how I did for the month. For example, under the relationship category, I have relationships with God, my husband, and my two boys as a mom, and so on. For each specific subcategory, I give myself an appropriate score based on how I feel I did, with five being the highest.
Once the scoring is done, I connect these dots to see my overall score for the month. Your aim, of course, is to make this score circle as wide as possible. Lastly, for areas where I got a low score, such as the friend subcategory, I write down things I can do to improve in the coming month, such as texting Kandra to ask how she and her family are doing lately.
Finally, the last part is time blocking, which is my to-do list for specific times of the day. Among my five-part journaling system, this is the only part that I use a digital app called Notion for a reason. Rather than squeezing it all in a notebook, I usually open my notebook to end my day, but I usually start my day by opening my computer and checking today's time block.
Another reason I use Notion for my to-do list is that it saves me a lot of time moving tasks I couldn't finish to the next day or rearranging them based on exceptional circumstances. I also found that the four-part system in the notebook is more suitable for handwriting due to the characteristics of their purpose, whereas typing is better for filling out the time blocks.
So before I finish, let me quickly explain why I chose handwriting over typing for my daily journaling. At some point in the past, I tried typing on my iPad for my entire journaling system, but I quickly realized that handwriting has more benefits and impact in fulfilling its purpose.
Number one: numerous studies show that handwriting promotes better memorization and brain development.
Number two: when I type, I tend to do so quickly, which becomes problematic because it prevents me from taking the time to really review and evaluate my thoughts and organize them effectively.
Number three: handwriting feels more controlled. I can sometimes utilize pretty stickers and draw as freely as I want and have more control over the layout as well.
Number four: I also appreciate the classic feeling of writing on paper, and the sound of writing is both calming and replenishing. It makes me feel more grounded as I end my day.
Journaling is like having a good coach who holds you accountable. It's like someone who can help you see yourself more objectively with new eyes—someone who motivates you and encourages you to keep improving every day. More importantly, having a coach through journaling helps you see where you are now and where you should be heading, ultimately becoming the person you want to be.
With that being said, I can't stress enough how beneficial journaling can be as a powerful tool you can leverage today. However, please keep in mind that it takes time to find the ideal method that works best for you. As you try various techniques and prompts, try to enjoy the process. You will find the perfect journaling system that suits your needs and unique style down the road. Then try to stick to it and see how your life changes.
So today, I have covered the whole system of how I journal. I hope it inspired you to keep journaling or start journaling if you haven't already. If you want to try the prompts that I have used for my journaling, please go ahead and incorporate them into your journaling system. I will leave the link in the description where you can download it for free.
If what I've shared today helps you in any way, please like and subscribe. Then I'll see you in the next one. Bye!