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This past month, I’ve had a lot of journaling revelations (see my last post). One of them was realizing how much I needed a space for long-form journaling. Do most people use one journal for everything? Probably. But I love to be fun, artsy, and creative in my Hobonichi and I needed another space entirely for my long-form journaling and rambling thoughts.
Since we’ve just entered a new season, a new quarter, and are almost to a new year, I thought this would be a good time to share my thoughts about long-form journaling, the supplies I use, places to find prompts, and what has been helping me build a journaling routine these days.
Supplies
When I was a kid, I gravitated toward composition notebooks. As an adult, I love Leuchtturm A5 size notebooks. My current one has dotted pages, but I think I’ll go with blank pages for my next one. But honestly, whatever you have is good to start.
I’m revisiting a Leuchtturm I bought a few years ago right now and I added more stickers to the cover to make it feel fresh. Sometimes buying a brand-new notebook gives me journal paralysis and I feel nervous to actually write anything. So this time, I tried to remove that pressure by repurposing something I already had. Working well so far!
My favorite pens for journaling are here and here.
I recommend pen-to-paper journaling, but I have also been loving the app Day One! I first heard about it in this video by Wesley Anna. I have a widget on my iPhone screen to hold myself accountable to do it daily. I jot down a few things about the day, my feelings, or just a sentence or two. I don’t put any pressure on myself.
This app is nice for when I don’t find time to sit down and write, but still want to keep my thoughts somewhere. When I do handwrite a lot in my journal, I’ll just take a photo of the page in my journal and add it to the day’s entry.
There is a free version of the app, but also a paid option where you can add more than 1 pic or video to your entries and use your “journal” on multiple devices. I recently upgraded and backlogged my old 5-year journal into the app (which took a long time) but it is really cool to have everything in one place now!
My Routine
The biggest thing that has helped me is bringing my journal everywhere I can and keeping it near where I wind down every day. Ryan and I watch shows every night together, so I’ve been keeping it on our coffee table which allows me to see it and reach for it at night. I’d also recommend keeping it next to your bed or at your kitchen table or desk, wherever you eat breakfast/have time during your morning routine!
Prompts & What I Write About
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