(My beautiful new olive green notebook, isn't she pretty)

A few weeks ago, I came into my daughter's room and was pleasantly surprised to find her journaling. 

About a year ago, we had started journaling together. We both had gotten new notebooks for Christmas and we were on vacation with plenty of time to kill. We enjoyed doing a few journal entries together, but the hobby fizzled out like things sometimes do.

Which is why I was surprised to see her journaling again. Apparently, she had gotten interested in it again after she had watched some videos on YouTube and became inspired to try some different styles of journaling. 

I wholeheartedly support this hobby, I think it's so life enriching and useful and happen to have been interested in starting up again myself. So I quickly jumped on the train and said let's do it, let's get back into journaling.

Types of journaling discussed in this post:

• morning pages
• digital journal in the notes app
• junk journaling
• bullet journaling
• art journaling
• online journaling

The Artist’s Way and the morning pages

It’s not my first foray into journaling. Writing in my notebook is something that I have been into on and off throughout my life. When I'm going through rough times or when I was doing therapy or working on myself, I would also throw journaling into the mix. It’s a great way of regulating emotions and processing your thoughts and feelings.

About 15 years ago I read The Artist Way by Julie Cameron. It was a life-changing book for me in terms of finding myself and finding my creativity, which in turn, led to this art/design business I’ve been running for the past 13 years. In the book, Cameron talks about the concept of doing morning pages, which is basically just a brain dump of thoughts every morning. A loose transcription of things going on in your head first thing in the morning. You write three pages of what’s going on inside you and that's it, just like that it’s all out on the page. It’s a really valuable way of processing thoughts and letting them flow in and out of you.

Using your notes app as a digital journal/notebook

I also have used the notes app on my iphone religiously for years. Some might not think of that as journaling, but I very much think it counts as a way of digital journaling, or writing in a digital notebook. My notes app is chock full of folders, compartments and notes full of inspiration, ideas, to-do lists, references and more. Years and years of insight and value for me.

Other types of journaling and some ways to use it

Though I have a digital system for note taking, I still think it’s valuable to keep an analogue version as well. I think there is something to writing things down in real life. Actually, taking your thoughts off-screen and feeling your hand and pen/pencil make actual connection with paper. Maybe I’m romanticizing it a bit, but there’s something so much more real and calming about it. Now let’s go over some other types of journaling and some things you could put in your journal.

A simple diary to write about your thoughts or day

Probably the most common sense way to journal. Simply write about thoughts or your day. What happened, what you’ve been thinking about, what was done, what was said, what you’d like to do or achieve, the list could go on. I will most definitely be using my journal for this simple, most straightforward way of writing in a notebook.

Bullet journaling

I know there's a big bullet journaling community out there. Bullet journal is using a simple bullet point format for making lists, organizing your days/life, thoughts, ideas and interest. I’ve actually never claimed to be a bullet journaler, but thinking about it now, this is actually pretty much what I do in my notes app. I will do some of this type of journaling in my notebook as well.

Junk journaling

I’ve been hearing a lot about junk journaling, where you're collaging or gluing in different physical things from the day that you might want to remember. Like a receipt or some packaging from something you’ve bought or something like that. 

There is a cool junk journal-er I recently stumbled upon who I find super inspiring. I love the idea of keeping a journal but also making it cute, kind of like an art diary. It just makes the whole journaling idea so much fun and so inspiring and playful and I'd love to experience that kind of energy for this hobby.

Art sketchbook

As a working artist, I do have an art sketchbook that I use mostly for sketches and art ideas. I might do some drawing in my new journal, but mostly I’ll keep them separate.

Some other types of journaling

I find Austin Kleon, who has a substack centered around writing, particularly inspiring. He keeps four different journals and they're all for different types of journaling, a diary, logbook, commonplace notebook, and pocket notebook. He talk more in depth about those here. I personally plan to have this one journal as a catch all notebook for all types of journaling for now.

Speaking of Kleon, I also really liked the concept that he writes about for doing a weekly review. I think that's so valuable to reflect back on what you were interested in and where your thoughts were focused that week. And then you make connections and process and plan for what’s the main focus for next week. I’ve already put this into practice in my journal and found it incredibly insightful.

My journal ideas/interests:

Really, I'm not even sure what's all going to go in this new journal. I'm sort of in an exploratory phase right now. This is all trial and error, but for now, these are the types of journaling ideas I plan to practice in the journal. 

• jotting down memories from the day, especially good things that happened
• writing down things I’ve been thinking about
• creative ideas/pursuits
• reflections on life and work
• weekly reviews
• practicing noticing things and writing them down
• possibly morning pages, or at least an abbreviated version
• possibly junk journaling
• some light art and drawing

Keeping an online journal or blog

Lastly, I'm also interested in journaling online, or blogging as some would call it, which is more of a professional journal on my website. In my case, not totally professional and business-y, but more public for the sake of sharing about creativity, art, other interests as it may (or may not, I’m not sure yet how loose I’m going to make it) relate to my business. That is what you’ll see here on my website and what I talk more about that in this post.