No meeting Tuesday was nice. I like days when I can plan my day without interruptions from meetings, listen to my body and mind and work according to my energy level. Not everyday is like this obviously so when it happens, it makes me specially grateful.
My journal method has been evolving over the last three months. My current way to use it for daily pages is to write down to my to-do list for the day for work and family/life, and meals. The rest of the pages is just a mental dump. I write some in the morning before I start the day, some in the evening if I am still awake, or complete the previous’ day’s journey entry the following morning. For habit tracking, month favourites, books, gratitude/quotes I want to remember, I use separate pages so I can see how I do in a month time instead of tracking everyday.
When I was teens, I used to journal a lot, usually about feelings and thoughts that I don’t want anyone to read so I hide them. I tended to write big emotions, negative ones more than positive ones, so it’s not really fun to re-read. Nowadays, I tend to write down positive thoughts, things that I am grateful, moments with the family that I want to catch (i feel like I’m afraid of not remembering these moments enough), and inner conflicts that i can’t make my mind to take a side. If anyone in my family reads it eventually, I don’t mind.
The entire exercise is soothing by itself because it forces me to slowdown, especially in the morning when I am eager to open the mailbox and get into “tackle/conquer” the day mode, which tends to increase my anxiety and stress. My ideal day (when there’s no early meetings or urgent task to deal with), I like to finish my journal entry of the day before, plan my day, read for 20 min a soothing book like this one (OMG! I finished it in my day and wish i had brought it with me to Boracay as it’s about beach life), before I officially start to work.
My breakfast for the last two days: rice cakes with avocado. I’m still trying to figure out if gluten affects my GI.
I am trying to stay a bit later than usual at work (4-5pm instead of 3pm) so I don’t need to bring laptop home. I like it as I feel I have an excuse not to continue to work once I am home. Once home, I can catch up with the girls and husband about their day, prepare dinner, and just relax.
Lizzy keeps cracking us up. She was making this move with her hand and mouth while husband and I were chatting. We looked at her and found her very funny so we asked what are you doing? Lizzy: oh, i’m sending a message with my phone 😆
Our New Journey 
I’m very interested in seeing how other people journal. I have sort of 3 different areas- my planner/ to-do list, then my habit tracker (separate area in notebook) and then what I call my “highlight journal” (where I basically write a paragraph each morning reviewing my previous day, just the basics of what I did/ “highlights”). I don’t put to do lists or anything in this space though- just a summary of my previous day. I do record my workout there though. I’m thinking about what I want to do next year. I like my system currently, overall, but the notebook I use is too big. I want to keep them, but if I keep doing it this way, these notebooks will take up too much space. I’m intrigued by maybe moving to a planner like SHU uses (a Hobonichi or the Wonderland222) but I’m not sure I want to be carrying my goals, lists, etc. around with me IN my planner (I currently keep that in a separate notebook that never leaves my home office). Anyway! I think I’m going to blog all about my current systems next week each day. You’ll have to chime in if you think of any good tips or ways I could improve. 🙂
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Looking forward to your post. I think journal method is very personal and you have to try it to find your method. I started as Sarah but found I want to write down more my thoughts on my journal so it evolved to to-do list + journal entry. For habit tracker, I do at the start of the month so i can see all of them in one place, just like you, but all in the journal. 🙂
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