When I started journaling daily many years ago there were no fancy blogs or Instagram accounts dedicated to the perfect bullet journal. It was just me with a notebook (with paper I didn’t like) and my attempts at figuring out the best way to structure my daily logs. 📔✍🏼
Nowadays, there are so many resources on journaling out there, that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Everyone is recommending expensive notebooks, special pens, stickers, washi tapes… Everyone has a unique spread, tutorials on how to do tabs and monthly logs… There’s simply too much going on. 😵💫
If you’re ready to start journaling but feel stuck in choice paralysis because of all the different options out there, this article is for you!
Here’s my mini guide on what to avoid when you start journaling, mistakes beginners often make, and how to fix them.
1. Striving for perfection
When was the last time you tried a new thing, picked up a hobby for the first time and you were immediately excellent at it?
Let me guess, probably never.
Drop the expectations of perfection. Your first journal is going to be all over the place: messy scribbles, changing page structure, abandoned daily logs, your pen will run out midway a writing session and ruin your flawless ~aesthetic~.
There are TONS of stunning bujo spread ideas out there. You can spend hours writing the perfect title for your monthly calendar… and then feel to tired to actually fill it out with tasks. I’ve been there, I’ve done it.
Three things will happen if you try to make every page look like a piece of art:
- You’ll be spending a lot of time just making things pretty instead of actually journaling. If you’re artistic draw in your journal during or after you’ve done the writing or unleash your creativity in a separate sketchbook;
- Spending a super long time on beautifying your journal every single day is unsustainable in the long run (unless you have a lot of free time on your hands). This will probably cause you to get bored or burn out and abandon your journal;
- You’ll never be completely satisfied because it will never look perfect.
So don’t strive for perfection in the initial stages.
Aim for consistency in order to establish the new habit and do it for the benefits of daily writing. The best aesthetic is a pile of completed journals you have stacked up over the years.
2. Holding yourself back
Not being honest with yourself defeats the entire purpose of journaling your thoughts and feelings.
Write as detailed as you possibly can. Don’t rely only on your memory for context. Years down the line, when you reflect on your old entries you’ll recall many special moments you forgot all the details of.
Everyone looooves nostalgia and nothing hits like revisiting a diary from years ago, reading about moments you forgot were so important to you back then.
Also don’t hold back you emotions. Unleash your feelings on paper, your journal is your private space to express yourself freely without worry of judgement. Writing daily, especially when dealing with difficult thoughts and feelings, can be an incredibly cathartic experience.
But at the same time…
3. Don’t turn your journal into a negative space
This is a mistake I’ve made in the past and it’s one I don’t intend on repeating again. A journal is a great tool to safely vent about everything that’s bothering you. But sometimes we vent too hard and it’s daunting to look back at an entire week worth of logs where all you did was complain.
Running in circles with anxious thoughts and sadness can be actively harmful for your mental health. Journal writing is a fantastic tool for self-reflection, don’t turn yours into a downwards spiral of negative thinking.
It negatively reflects on our daily experiences when all we write about are things that bother us. It’s worth noting the fun things, even if it’s something as simple as “I prepared my favorite meal for dinner today”.
Write down your troubled thoughts but also celebrate your good moments and wins. Life is colorful and every aspect of it deserves to be celebrated.
4. Thinking that you have to do it a certain way
As I mentioned earlier, there are countless online sources, social media accounts and YouTube channels teaching their methods and journaling rules. Watching and learning from others is the best way to learn new things and broaden our horizons. But don’t make the mistake of getting stuck with a rigid journaling system that doesn’t work for you.
This goes back to my example with beautiful bujo spreads. If you’ve tried making every page a work of art and you feel like it doesn’t work for you — drop it. Stop doing it. Switch it up, give it your own flair.
It’s YOUR journal, don’t put yourself in a box where you strictly follow someone else’s methods.
If you want to try art journaling do it, but don’t compare your creations to those of others. It will only discourage you in the long run. If you’re working on a gratitude journal but don’t feel particularly grateful for anything this week, well, take a break!
Oftentimes I talk to people about journaling and they say “but it doesn’t work for me, I don’t have the time, I can’t maintain the habit”. And it mostly boils down to this:
They were told journaling is supposed to be done in this very specific way and if they can’t keep up they just give up.
Journaling IS for everybody. Follow your own timeline and strategy, there is no right or wrong way to do it.
You don’t have time to write every day?
Write once a week.
Write once a month.
Do a yearly recap!
Don’t like the notebooks everyone recommends?
Pick whatever you like to write on! Could be a craft paper sketchbook, could be loose sheets of paper, could be sticky notes. You don’t even have to write on paper (although some people argue journaling is only done right if written by hand). Personally at this point I log daily entries both in a digital and physical journal, depending on how I’m feeling at the moment. It’s my strategy and I love it. Find out what works for you, don’t be afraid to experiment with it and keep the ball rolling.
5. Buying too many starter supplies
You’re inspired, you’re going to start journaling and you’ve got a list of supplies you want to immediately invest in. Luxurious notebook, a set of pens, a set of highlighters (multiple colors, of course), tabs, sticky notes, stickers, washi tape, that fancy mini printer so you can print all your cute photos on sticker paper… please stop 😅.
Before you splurge on a whole bunch of “necessary” desk clutter first of all: think of your budget. Beginner bullet journaling doesn’t require a fancy setup and your bank account will thank you if you don’t dry it out for a bunch of stationary you won’t use.
Second thing to note, if you are an absolute beginner you won’t know what works for you until you try it out for a while. Grab a regular notebook for journaling, a nice pen you enjoy writing with and use up all those stickers you have lying around at home (I know you have a whole bunch of them 🤫).
Turn off the perfectionist in your brain for a 2–4 week trial period and switch to a “whatever works” mindset.
I’ve owned both expensive and dirt cheap stationary. My favorite journal is a basic lined notebook from a local store. I write with whatever pen I like the ink and thickness of. I use ordinary tabs, same ones I use for annotating my books. Journaling doesn’t have to be complicated and doesn’t require a huge upfront investment.
Two additional journaling tips
Before I end this short guide, I wanted to mention a couple of extra journal tips I use that I believe everyone should incorporate in their diary notebook:
- Glue an envelope to the back or front cover of your notebook and collect little memories in there. One journal usually lasts me between 6 months to a year, depending on how much I write. Along with daily logs, I like collecting things like movie tickets, receipts from museums or tourist attractions and other little mementos of what I did during that period.
- Write a return address on the front page (or cover, or anywhere in a convenient, visible spot). I know journals are a private thing and most of us don’t display them to others. But if you are carrying it around a lot chances are you might forget it somewhere. In which case, having your contacts like an address, phone number, socials or e-mail are absolutely essential info to include in your journal
Thanks for reading!
Check out more of my stories on Medium! 💌
If you want to talk to me about journaling, you can find me on Instagram. ✧˖°🌷˙ ⋆｡
Featured image: Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash