Why I Quitted Journaling… For two Months

Hello my Lovelies, 🙂

I hope you’re safe and sound. Do you have specific goals for this year? Are they related to journaling? And how many journals do you use at the same time?

For this year I really questioned myself and my journaling chaos: How many journals do I really need. So, one way to answer this question, is by analysing last year. Well, there were some dark journaling times. They were so dark, it was nearly pitch black. It was the first time that I was thinking about quitting journaling all together. Spoiler: I continued journaling again – obviously 😉

What Happened?

At the beginning of 2021 I sat down and put all my planners/journals together which I used in 2020. To be honest I was quite shocked and so many months after my journaling break, I can see why I had stopped, why I had lost my passion. It was the huge amount of journals and planners. I had so many journals and planners, each of which I tried to fill in on a daily base. I was just journaling about my journaling.

What Planners/Journals Did I Use For What?

	Usage	Love it? Y/n
Erin Condren	Daily stuff	No
Happy Planner	Daily stuff	Yes sometimes
Travelers Notebooks	Scrapbooking	Yes
5 year journal	Some lines a day	Yes
Hobonichi Avec in A6	Reviews	Yes sometimes
Hobonichi Cusin in A6	Blog ideas	Yes sometimes
Hobonichi Mega	Daily stuff on the go	Yes sometimes
Nuuna	Bullet Journaling	Not so much
Leuchtturm1917 in A5	Lists	Yes

What Have I Learnt?

Well, what can I see? It was a lot. Erin Condren and Happy Planner were planners which I compared and after all the testing my favourite is the Happy Planner. After over one year my Erin Condren is still smelly and it doesn’t smell nice at all. I used a lot of sticker kits or stickers which belonged to the planners.

Travelers Notebook had three inserts: a blank one, the monthly and the weekly one. I liked the blank one because there was this freedom to be creative, messy and have fun with it. The monthly one had a sticker for each day which showed what I did that day. The weekly was scrapbooking. Ok, I tried to scrapbook 😀 A real scrapbook pro would say it was scrapbookish 😀 But that is totally fine for me.

My 5 year journal is the only one which I have used since 2019 and I am really happy about it.

Both Hobonichi in A6 are great but I realised that I like one Hobonichi for my blogging notes, ideas, preparation system.

The Hobonichi Mega was cute and I adore it but my handwriting is too big and the days are too small. I bought a lot of cute sticker kits for the Hobonichi Mega. And yes it was cute but I had the feeling that it was pasted up. It was bulky and it was bulky in a weird way.

My Bullet Journal was always in a Leuchtturm A5 but I wanted to try a different notebook. Well, the Nuuna wasn’t a great choice for me because the dots are 3,5mm. Such a square is tiny and the journal was too heavy, so I didn’t take it with me like my Leuchtturm in the years before.

My Leuchtturm1917 is just a book with all my important lists like my favourite authors and their books, all the series which I would like to watch or journaling spreads I tried and worked for me. I think I used this one once or twice a year.

In total, it was too much on a daily base. It was overwhelming and I didn’t have any fun. Journaling can help you, can guide you, can give you structure in your life, can bring you joy, can help reflecting and I could continue this list even further. But it wasn’t doing all that for me anymore. Even the cute and wonderful stickers which I had didn’t help me at all.

What Have I Changed?

I knew that I had to change something if I wanted to keep going with my journaling. So I checked every journal and planner, and I made a quick pro and con list why I should keep it or why I should leave it.

Yes, I know it sounds like a major expense but my mind wandered through the pages and my decisions came quite easily.

I bought a Hobonichi Avec in A5. A6 was just too small but the Avec was perfect. It is for my blogging. I put my notes and ideas in it, and the review preparations too. I can prepare the post so much better This way because I have enough space for it. I colour the weekly overviews, my tasks and blogging time, so that I have my business in one spot.

I use a Travelers notebook with three inserts. One is a Everyday Journal by GalenLeather. I love the thin paper. It is my monthly calendar. Then there is a dotted one as my weekly planner and for smaller list, trackers and doodles. The third one is my writing journal. I like to write scenes or very short stories. Normally, I had them in my bullet journal everywhere where I had a little bit of space left. 🙂 But this year I would liket to give them more space, so I can evolve them and maybe I will write my first cozy mystery. My husband would love to see it. 😀

My 5 year journal is there and I will do it until it is full. 😀

That’s it. The best part of it is that I can take the journals and my pencil case and take them all with me. At the moment, when I would like to journal in bed, I take all my stuff and go there. It is so amazing. I reduced even my colour codes and fountain pens down to really that minimum which I really need. If I am going to decorate my journal I go to my studio aka my messy lovely cozy place and switch the colours or put some washi on it.

I am really glad that I questioned myself and my method of journaling. If I wanted to try out something crazy, I could use a different journal but it wouldn’t be a daily journal anymore.

Wisdom of the Day: Sometimes it helps to check what you are doing and whether it brings you fun/enjoy. Decluttering can be helpful. 🙂

Love to you all and stay healthy,

Chrissi
The Evil Journalista