How to Journal Like No One is Watching

Does this sound familiar? You’re in a shop, maybe you’ve even gone to a specific stationary shop, then you see a notebook. It’s an object of beauty and you must have it. As you stroke your hand over the cover and inspect its blank pages (they must be the correct type after all) you imagine the possibilities.

I’m going to write most of my novel in this, you say to yourself. Or maybe, this is perfect for my article ideas or I’ve found my new journal!

You dream about a notebook filled to the brim with your handwriting. Perfectly neat and ordered. But once you get home you stall. Maybe you write a few pages then refuse to make use out of it because, That’s my novel notebook, it’s not for to-do lists!

I have so many notebooks that have less than the first quarter filled in. The need for the perfect book, stopping me from using it is as the tool it’s supposed to be.

The desire for perfection is more pervasive than ever. The nature of Instagram is to project a better-than-real-life persona and this applies to journals as well.

Instagrammers share their bullet journals filled with little lists, topped with pretty calligraphy and surrounded by adorable stickers. There are some people who share their ideas on difference designs that can be put to use in your own journals (if you are skilled in enough to replicate them).

Photo by @milkyystudy on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/milkyystudy/

As aesthetically pleasing as these are they become another example of someone making something to a ridiculously high standard. A journal is supposed to be useful and/ or a mental health helper, a way to clear the thoughts in your head. The last thing you need is another thing in your life that has to be pretty enough for the ‘gram.

Photo by @art_love98 on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/art_love98/

Going back to the empty notebook problem, a few months ago, someone on Twitter shared a useful bit of advice. Stop buying fancy notebooks. You put too much pressure on yourself to use it properly, to the point that you never use it at all. Instead use basic notepads because you’ll suddenly feel a lot let precious about what you do with it. And don’t dedicate a notebook to a single purpose, use it without limits and you’ll feel freer.

After seeing this I realised the Tweeter had a point and it turns out my notebook obsession wasn’t unusual at all, it happens to lots of other people, writers especially. This tweet also happened to time perfectly with my idea of getting a journal. I was having a rough time mentally and I thought that starting a journal might help to free me a little bit.

I did bend the rules, however. For starters, I bought a cute notebook that I love, going against the advice to just use a cheap notebook. I’d also labelled it “a journal” giving it a purpose as I always had done.

The difference was that this time I set some rules of my own. Nothing was off-limits in this thing. I called it a journal but it was actually a bit of everything. It was a journal, a Twitter replacement (I left social media for a while), a place for writing fiction, a place for writing articles and somewhere to put the cute stickers I had been acquiring. The result was that I returned to this journal time and time again.

One night I might write a portion of my next article, the next I might just be playing with stickers. Writing, doodling and sticking might seem like an activity for kids but it’s honestly a good way to get out of your own head for a bit and relax. I’ve had evenings where I’ve been full of stress, only to have it seep away as I stick a bit of washi tape across the corners of my next page.

I recently gave a sticker to a friend (one I had designed myself). She thanked me for it but then said, “I love stickers, I just never know what to do with them.”

I used to be in exactly the same boat. I’ve admired sheets of marvel-themed stickers at comic-con, only to leave it be as I failed to think of what I could do with them.

“Here’s the trick,” I told her. “Get a notebook and just put them in there. Make a sticker book like you would when you were a kid, I swear you’ll have so much fun.”

There are lots of articles out there on how to effectively use a journal. By all means, follow their advice. Write about what you achieved that day or what stressed you out. Just do me a favour, when you’re done, flip the page and go nuts with every coloured pen, sticker and roll of washi tape at your disposal.