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Dear Diary

thinking about a new journal layout

Let me get this out of my system:

I hate the way I edited photos for this post, but it’s been 🤌🏻a day🤌🏻 and I can no longer be arsed.

Moving on.

I’m playing with the idea of going back to one big book of everything instead of separate thematic, because the separate ones always get out of hand. I start with a media journal/ commonplace, then I decide I want a separate cp because where do I put quotes and thoughts unrelated to books and movies, then I start a friggin food diary, then I decide that I want a languages journal, a side jobs journal, a makeup journal, fashion, food, and I also have morning pages/ dream journal and a planner, and my junk book and ahdh uhhBBB chdjebdh *explodes*

*takes a deep breath*

So I think I’m going to go back to my original “system” of about three – it’s never one anyway – and a sketchbook.

In my junk book I played with planner/ bujo part of what it might look like when I end up merging it all in one place. The spreads are reversed, but so far I have:

1st spread (second photo) is a monthly calendar and tracker of things like sleep and moods. Once I merge the media back into this (after I finish my current reading and watching notebook) I will have columns for watched and read under the tracker (where I currently have senseless text). The tracker will also have a different colour for each thing I’m tracking.

2nd spread (top photo) is a weekly grid of very short daily overview so that the days don’t run away from me, a weekly habit tracker of things I’m cultivating/ need reminders on, and after that a running task list for the week, with dates marked if necessary, maybe highlighted in a different colour if for job.

After that it’s just regular catch-all pages of my usual journalling, commonplacing, quoting, idea lists, etc. I am thinking of also just using it as a junk book as well. But a junk book for me is something I always carry with me. Up to this day – Lord is merciful – I have never lost one, but it’s always out in the open on my desk at work, for example. And I’ve been getting a biiiiit personal in my regular entries lately, and people are strange, you know. So maybe junk will remain separate as always, but then I would have to potentially put calendar and running weekly there, so I never lose sight of my to-do list.

Tarot journal, at least of spreads for others, will also stay separate.

Morning pages will also stay separate, because it’s a very specific type of journalling.

Make-up book has the potential of being merged, but it will be a while, because the notebook I have for it currently is thick. Thicc.

Recipe/ cooking will stay separate.

I am unsure what to do with side jobs, because technically it’s an income registry. I might just merge that one with my spending journal, which is basically a ledger, and will stay separate from all others forever.

I’m running out of time to write – need to drive home – but for now I have:

Definitely separate:

  • Tarot for others;
  • morning/ dream;
  • spellwork;
  • recipe/ cooking;
  • ledger;
  • sketchbook.

And that’s already six, which strongly speaks in favour of keeping junk as part of regular. Another thing that might work is make sure I keep the junk books very thin (12-24 pages) or very small (A6 and smaller), which will make me rotate through them at the speed of one per week lol. I am not yet sure why I think that would work better than a thicker notebook. I will ask my brain later.

Might even journal about it.

And I will also need to pick a tagging system for the Big Book of Everything and stick to it. Which seems impossible right now.