Getting back to writing

This entry could have quite a few different titles because of course being someone that has been writing for years, what do I mean getting back to writing. Quite a few years ago (late 2013) I was challenged to see if I could write for 365 days without missing a day. I decided to give that a try because I was someone that did enjoy writing and journaling, so I didn’t think it would be too hard to do. Well, I must admit that the first year of trying to write every day even if I only wrote a few words was a bit of a challenge.

I did achieve that writing and wrote for 365 days and thought at the end of it that maybe I could try to do it for another year. What helped me to continue to do the writing was tracking how many words I wrote each day so that I had a means of being able to see that I did write each day, and slowly the number of words that I wrote each day started to improve a bit.

The actual writing seemed to get better the more I wrote, and then I decided to give myself a challenge, and it was to see how many blogs entries I could write for this blog in one year. In 2016, I was able to post 107 blogs, which made me happy and showed me that writing and showing others my writing made me happy. Then life decided that it was going to put some challenges in front of me, so I didn’t get as much writing done, at least for my blogs. I was still writing in my journal every day, but I wasn’t writing to show other people what “Life how I see it” was doing. Writing for someone else wasn’t something that I could focus on, so I took until 2022 before I could start to write more blogs. Yes, between 2018 and 2021 I did write a few, but nothing like I did before then.

The good news, through all of this, was I was able to continue to write every day in my journal, which helped so much. Now, here we are in 2024, and I hope that I get back to getting more blog entries written because that is what makes me happy. The writing every day has continued, and I have now been able to write at least in my journal for over 10 years without missing a day.

So, this year, I hope that I can continue to write in my journal every day and write more blogs because that is something that makes me happy. I am finally seeing that being able to write the various blogs that I do is what makes me smile because I have someone that enjoys writing, and I am not going to let what anyone says stop me from writing. Being able to write and show my writing to others makes me happy, and hopefully before long I will be able to write for others as well. Until then, I will continue to write my blogs and, in my journal, and know that I am finally getting back to writing.

Dot Journal Books

 

Recently I was trying to figure out a notebook that I was going to use for my note-taking as well as my brain dump. It was going to be something that wasn’t going to be neat as I would be putting down notes quickly, and it needed to be portable so that I could take it with me on the go. I thought this was going to be a simple grab a notebook and just go, but it didn’t turn out to be that easy.

Here is the process that I ended up going through to figure out which notebook I wanted to use:

Gridded journal book

Process: I figured given that I liked using dot journal books, there wasn’t going to be a huge different between dot and grid. Well for me there is a big difference. I spent a few days trying to use my gridded journal book, but every time I opened it, I had a challenge making notes.

Outcome: After trying the book for a few days, I sat back and looked at the pages and tried to figure out why I couldn’t write in them, and I concluded that the lines that formed the grid were too dark, and it seemed to impact my writing. The blocks were just too much for how I write, and I couldn’t seem to ignore the number of lines that were on the page, so it just overwhelmed me to the point where I couldn’t get the quick notes down. This book will now be used for silly things instead of my notes and brain dump.

Lined journal book

Process: I grew up using lined paper, so I should be able to sit and write in one of those and get the ideas down. I spend some time trying to write in this book and once again I had a challenge making the notes even though, I had a lot of ideas.

Outcome: I tried this book for a while and once again had to figure out just why I couldn’t seem to write in them. The conclusion was the lines on the pages were just too dark, and again it impacted my writing. I am not certain why this happened, but later through this experiment I came to a bit of a conclusion about the lined books.

Dot journal book

Process: After some time of trying all the other books, I decided to pick up one of my dot journal books and see what would happen. I opened the book and grabbed my pen that I was using for all these experiments, and guess what happened. I was able to sit and start writing without any issue.

Outcome: The dot journal book was the book that I could sit and use and get notes made without an issue. After getting the brain dump and notes down that I wanted to do, I decided to look at all the books together and try and figure out why I hadn’t been able to use the other books.

Conclusion

Through all the books and experiments, I was using the standard pen that I like to use, so I knew it wasn’t the pen that was the issue. The pen that I was trying to use was my .38 black pen, so that wasn’t the issue. What I found out was that the thickness of the lines and the number of lines on the page was what impacted me the most. Given that I use a very fine pen and enjoy using it, the heavy or thicker lines make it harder for me to focus on my writing.

I wanted to show you what I went through to discover the notebook that works best for me. The dot journal book isn’t for everyone, nor is the gridded journal or even lined journal books. Everyone is different, and we must find what we enjoy using and accept that other people around you may like one of the other books that you don’t like. Give a journal book a try and if it isn’t working for you, be willing to try something else.

Gettings things organized

 Yes, this seems to be one of my biggest challenges, and that is getting my planner organized and into a method that makes me happy.  I know that I have tried quite a few different planners that I purchased, but all of them seem to have something missing that I want in my own planner. 

Standard daily planners

I have tried the standard daily planners but that just doesn’t seem to work for me because my work isn’t based on a time in the day, it is based on getting things done that need to get done when they are needed to be done.

Blank books

I have turned blank bullet journals into my planners, but again they just didn’t seem to work for me. When I was sitting and looking at the last bullet journal that I used, one thing stood out to me about why I didn’t like it, and that was it wasn’t organized.  Yes, a bullet journal isn’t something that should be super organized as it is meant to capture tasks, ideas, etc.  For me, the bullet journal ended up being something that I just couldn’t seem to handle. 

For me a structure is something that I like, and now I am going to try another method and something that I tried to try last year, but it just didn’t work with everything else that was going on in the world and my own life.

Traveler’s Notebooks

When I first heard about these notebooks, I immediately thought of something very large, where you wrote about all your travels. Yes, it can be used to do just that, and I know that there are people that use this set-up to document places they have been and places they want to visit.  For me, it is a method of getting a little more organized and have things in sections. The purpose of a traveler’s notebook is to capture inspiration, ideas, thoughts, journals, and everything else.  Yes, the magic words for me are “and everything else.”

This summer I decided it was time to pull out the cover for my traveler’s notebook and start to set up my own version of what I wanted and now to see if it is going to work for me.  The first challenge was finding the books that I wanted to use for the inserts in my notebook.  I had made some in the past, but I have to admit that took a lot of time, and it started to get frustrating, so that just didn’t work. After some looking on various website for sizes and layout, I finally found what I wanted on Amazon.  I ended up purchasing the Coopay 24 Pack Journal Notebook Kraft Brown Cover Dot Grid Bullet Notebooks for Travelers A5 size. I compared a lot of things, and what I wanted was basically a standard letter size piece of paper folded in half.  That was the size of notebook that I was looking for, and the A5 was just that.

Once the books arrived, it was time to figure out what I wanted my traveler’s notebook to contain, and I ended up with five books in my cover.  To make a traveler’s notebook work, you need an odd number of inserts, so that is what I did.  Here is the list of the inserts that I have and the basic idea of each of the inserts:

1. Notes – this captures all the quick notes and thoughts that I have.  I normally am writing down all those quick ideas that I have so that I can either get something done later or work on setting something up.
2. Writing – here is the book that I normally use to capture the various blog ideas that I have.  I have more than one blog, so that means that I have lots of ideas and need a method of making sure that I can capture them when they occur.
3. Calendar – this is a weekly calendar that I have set up and on one side of the page I note all the things that need to be done that week.  It is set up with each week day having its own block, and then the weekend is combined.  On the other side of the page, I work on documenting the accomplishments that I have made that week.  I find if I can note what I did, it makes me feel like I am making progress, even if it wasn’t something that had a deadline that week.
4. Reference – this book is used to capture the things that aren’t going to have to be written too often such as the list of patterns that I have for cross stitch, the fabrics we have for our ETSY shop and items like that.
5. Spare book – this book is available when I need it, and it is currently just empty and will see when it either gets its own name or when it is used because I have filled out one of the other books.

General thoughts

One of the biggest things that I have discovered through trying to figure out my planer is I am not alone in this journey.  There are so many people that are having problems finding what works best for them.  Being able to sit back and figure out what you want your planner or organizer to really be.  It will probably take a few tries to get something that might work for you, but you learn so much during this.

I know that I am still learning what works best for me, and that doesn’t bother me.  What I have learned is that I need the information that I need, and it is going to be different from another person. My notebook is always beside me at my desk and the calendar is open so that I can see what needs to be done and document what gets done.

A planner or organize needs to be something that works for you, and you have to first figure out what you want and then look to see if it is available and if not don’t be afraid to make your own.  My journal probably isn’t over yet, but I know that at least I have something that is working for me right now, and that is what is important.