Using A Planner As A Journal
Have you every used the function of a planner for journaling? This is a fun concept to explore. The planner is already structured for your use, dated, and ready for your words.
Hello Fellow Journalers!🖊️📖
Have you every used the function of a planner for journaling? This is a fun concept to explore. The planner is already structured for your use, dated, and ready for your words.
Effective Methods
I've been brainstorming a bit on this idea. You are using the planner in a deliberate effort for memory keeping. While I firmly believe you can use a planner like you would any journal, I acknowledge some journaling methods will mesh with the planner better than others. Here's a few:
- One Line A Day
- Habit Tracking
- Affirmations
- Gratitude
- Key Daily Moments
Literally what it says, just one line. What you write about in that one line is up to you. Perhaps it was a big feeling day, or you had too much drama going on. Maybe it was boring, full of errands. What is the thought or memory you would like to look back to? Perhaps it was like any other day and rather than make your journaling feel high-stakes, just note that you lived it.
When you start journaling more frequently, you also can start seeing your own patterns. Why not use it intentionally? Habit tracking is a great method to write down your routines, patterns, and ineffectual redundancies. After writing it down in a planner, you can see the visual of your positive or negative quirks and take the next step in personal development.
Affirmation journaling is a favorite of mine. It's a wonderful way to inject positivity into your day, with intention and mindfully selected phrases that you design to bolster and build-up yourself rather than let your self-sabotaging thoughts take over.
Gratitude
Similar to affirmation journaling, but instead of reinforcing your inner self, you're looking outward and latching onto what is positive in your life. You focus on this outward approach to practice gratitude and as a result, you uplift yourself and create your own happiness.
Key Daily Moments
Rather than try to narrate your day, maybe bullet point or write down the sparse moments that you think mattered. Your kid's first word, tried a new food for the first time, or maybe had a great phone call with a friend. These are the moments that make life memorable and worth living. Write them down.
Strategies
- Are you a two birds, one stone person? Utilize a planner with weekly spreads to keep plenty of room for appointments and your journaling method.
- Use an oversized planner to maximize your white space for journaling and appointment keeping. This post here is a great reference when selecting paper sizes:
Cathy Diaz
- Maybe your life is best organized two weeks at a time? Use a biweekly planner to mentally compartmentalize your schedule and journaling method.
- Don't most planners come with a notes region? Take advantage! If those daily boxes aren't big enough, put your quotes, affirmations, and key memories in the notes region. If seeing the word "notes" bothers you, that's why stickers exist. Find one you like and hide it.
- Monthly spreads are a visual big-picture hack for many planner-enthusiasts. It also helps if you have small handwriting.
Beginner How-To's
Now that we've gotten past the overview, let's walk-through some beginner planner-journaling tactics:
- For habit tracking, pick one tendency that you have to track and evaluate yourself through this lens. Choose your appropriate frequency of tracking, and if you have trouble deciding, correlate to how often you think you do "the habit". Also, create a tracker key, the white space on the sides of the page or the notes space can be great placement for this.
- For the religious-inclined, write down your sacred text verse you are learning or meditating on.
- For gratitude journaling, pick a number of gratitude's (let's say 3!) and write them down in your daily boxes.
- For affirmation journaling, start with one affirmation a day, and write this down in your daily box.
- For the artsy inclined: your time, dates and lines are all done for you! Break open your stickers, markers, and crafty supplies and use them to create and pre-decorate a sense of anticipation and excitement to use your planner-journal.
Wrap Up
This was a fun post for me to write, and hopefully for you to read. Did you know that I give out free journal prompts monthly, as apart of my monthly newsletter called the Monthly 311? I love connecting with other journalers, and would love to hear your insights. Subscribe and comment— let's be journal-friends 😎.
P.S. Comment below on how you would use a planner-journal!
-A Very Enthusiastic Journaler
Stay connected with me on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook.
Follow and Review on Amazon, GoodReads, and StoryGraph.
Share and See all my social channels.
P.P.S. Are you a creator, blogger, writer, or just want to collaborate? Head here.
