The reason why many people love journaling is that it is a major source of joy and inspiration. I love talking about this part of the journaling process where you get to incorporate the things that make you happy into the pages of your notebook or journal. While journaling can benefit productivity, planning, and organization, it can also be a huge reminder about coming back to the positive and enjoying the things in life that make you the happiest. This post is all about the things that make you happy. Watch the video tutorial to get a quick how-to on creating a page of “pick-me-ups” and then browse some of the journal examples to get inspired. There is no wrong way to incorporate the things that make you happy in your notebook. There is only adding more of this type of content into your journal to balance out the hectic busyness of planning, organization, and goals.

Journaling can be used for all aspects of life. This year, I am trying to use more than one notebook to work on projects throughout the year. I have chosen to focus on reading, cooking with different food and recipes, and planning out my work on the blog in a Passion Planner. Even though I am working in different notebooks, I always come back to my daily journal to be the constant notebook I have nearby.

A daily journal is critical to keep up with the daily chaos that surrounds our roles, our schedules, and our minds trying to keep up. This blog post is not just about starting a journal; it's about creating a personalized outlet for your thoughts, dreams, and aspirations. The best part about journaling is that it is customizable. You may like my setup, and you may want your journal to look a bit differently. I invite you to take what you need from my daily journal. After a lot of trial and error, you will see my journal mainly focuses on planning, thinking, reflecting, and dreaming.

Got a blank notebook around the house you don’t use? Have a half-filled notebook that you love that you don’t want to ignore any longer? Find a use for any blank notebook using this giant list of 100+ ideas. Any blank notebook will work for any of these activities. Some of these notebook ideas may travel with you throughout your day, some notebooks will stay at home on the shelf. If you need a notebook recommendation, check out the product review page on the blog. One of the main messages on the Writing Mindset blog is that “you are what you write.” However, even more so, you are all of your dreams, goals, and habits. All you need is a blank page.

If you don’t know where to start with a journaling system, start with the post “Choose a Journaling System That Works For You.”

Anxiety and stress have always gone hand and hand. On the blog, I have written about the natural anxiety and worry that comes with being a classroom teacher for years. Many of my posts mention waking up in the middle of the night thinking about lesson plans, feeling like I can’t get ahead of my to-do list, or wondering how to fit it all in to achieve the ever-elusive “work-life balance.” Then, I became a mama, and a newer level of worry took over. Anxiety is a natural part of life. Tapping into the fight or flight response, anxiety is one of the most natural things that someone can feel. However, when unchecked, it can also make life more difficult. Some people seem to worry more and some less. Some people cope better with stress and worry than others. No matter where you are on the spectrum of anxiety, a notebook or journal can be a useful tool to calm a busy mind. This post includes a video overview of 5 different strategies for responding to anxiety including grounding, timed release, squared release, making a creative music playlist, and growing your own thought garden. You can also go a bit slower and look at the description of the exercises in detail.

Interested in using any notebook or journal to make life more positive? I have found that people use a notebook or journal for six different reasons: productivity or planning, expressing emotions or feelings, reflection, setting goals, learning something new, and getting inspired. The best part about journaling is that you can design a system that works for you. You do not have to have the perfect planner-you can create one! You do not have to wait to find joy-it can be found within the pages of your notebook! This post offers a basic introduction to the WHY behind journaling and also an overview of how to SETUP your notebook to get you off on the right track. You can choose how you learn throughout the post: 1.) Watch the Youtube video 2.) Review the Google Slides presentation on your own 3.) Listen to me walk you through the presentation through the Loom link.

I often get the Sunday scaries during the school year. Sometimes, I even get summertime Sunday scaries just because my system-body and mind-have become accustomed to expecting what the coming week will hold. One strategy that always helps whatever level of scaries I am dealing with is the organization and planning of my upcoming week. I have planned my weeks for a long time now on Sundays. It has become a Sunday morning tradition where I will look to the week ahead as a fresh start, a way to get ahead, or just a way to find some time to relax. This post contains a quick Youtube tutorial that shows you 3 different examples on how to plan your week. You will also find some more weekly layout examples in this blog post and detailed directions on how to use any notebook or journal to plan your best week.

August always feels far away, and then all of the sudden it is here. It has to be one the fastest moving months throughout the year. Back-to-school advertisements and sales are everywhere. All of the teachers I know (including myself) are struggling with how the fall will look for students, teachers, and families as we return to teaching during a pandemic. How quickly will burnout set in? Will everything be okay? The new dynamic of being a mom will also be on my plate as I enter the upcoming school year. Managing family schedules, daycare, and finding time to fit in what really matters is going to be an added challenge. I have loved bullet journaling for the past 4 years, but I have also used a Passion Planner occasionally when I need to get myself back on track in terms of organization and goals. This post outlines how I plan to use BOTH a Passion Planner and a bullet journal to keep myself on track in terms of goals and tasks, but also dreams, family time, and trying to fit in a certain amount of self-care to avoid burnout.

Many of us are done in all ways with 2020. Starting this post out saying it has been quite a year would be redundant, to say the least. We know this year has had many challenges; however, moving on to a new time period is always an excellent way to reset and restart our intentions and goals for not only the coming year but in life in general. I love making vision boards. They help me get my priorities in line as I start to plan for the year and each individual quarter. I always feel like after I complete a vision board exercise I feel lighter and a bit clearer. The key to creating a great vision board is to allow yourself to dream, but also let yourself wander into the territory of who you want to be and what it actually feels like to be him or her. I always like to start this work with some journaling prompts, and then I move into the cutting and pasting part of the project. This post outlines some helpful prompts, shows you a quick vision board video tutorial, and also walks you through the 4 main steps to create a vision board in any journal you have around the house.

It’s officially November! Last month, I wrote about my new journey with a traveler’s notebook. In a traveler’s notebook, there is a cover, notebook inserts, and an elastic band system to hold those notebooks. I got a chance to play around with my new system, and I tried out using four different inserts for the different parts of my life. I am keeping the traveler’s notebook system for the month of November, but I am adding in a different notebook insert that resembles more of the bullet journaling I have done in the past. This post shows you all of the different parts of my November planning, a review of my new Archer & Olive notebook insert, and some of the ways I am planning for big goals using project planners.

I love all things paper. A new notebook, journal, or planner is enough to get me to feel motivated about my goals. Fresh pages that are blank are sometimes all you need on a rough day to feel like a fresh start is in order. However, maybe like me, you have also had a notebook or office supply obsession get out of hand over the years. While I love a fresh notebook or journal, I will be the first to admit that I am one of the first people to not finish a notebook or journal and move on to something new. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that because of the inspiration that a new notebook brings, but I also know many of us are on the hunt for notebook, planner, or journal peace where we find a system that works for us in all ways.

If you check out examples in the planner and journaling communities, you can see a variety of journal types, writing and typography, designs, layouts and spreads, and ideas for organization. New notebooks make us feel good. Half of the fun in this journaling journey is the trying out of new ideas and systems to see what will work for us. If you are like me, you know what definitely doesn’t work for you. This post proposes different styles, types, and considerations when trying to find a journal or planner peace. The goal of this post is not to present you with a correct option, but show you the options that I have encountered along the way so that you find what works best for you.

So, I understand now that there are these things called traveler’s notebooks that everyone seems to love. I have been obsessed with my Leuchtturm 1917 bullet journal for over a year and a half now. When I first discovered bullet journaling, I couldn’t stop looking things up on Pinterest, checking out YouTube videos, and seeing how other people were doing layouts. It helped me discover a love of drawing I never knew I had as a teen or even as an adult. Who would have thought that a woman in her 30’s would discover a love of doodling? I think that is one of the main reasons why I love all things journaling and keep talking about writing and journaling here on the blog. Now, when I wasn’t in my bullet journal, I was working in my Undated Lush Green Passion Planner. Passion Planners are amazing. They serve a specific purpose because they help you figure out routine when everything feels like chaos, and there is a layout for everyone. Journals seem to have different purposes for different parts of life. Cue the traveler’s notebook.

The move to online and distance learning has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions, feelings, and actions. I have simultaneously felt like I am not doing enough, and then in another moment, I am trying to tackle all of the things to make myself feel better, more productive. I am asking myself,

“Are you reading enough?”

“Are you writing enough?”

“Are you thinking enough about what matters? The work that has to be done when we go back?”

“Are you sleeping?”

All of these are check-ins with normal routines and behavior. However, we aren’t in a normal routine or behavior mode. This is something different. I have noticed that many of my first reactions to emails, news feeds, blog posts, and videos about distance learning come with “knee-jerk” reactions that make me feel well,...like a jerk. I started last week working purposefully to get myself out of negative reactions immediately, and then focus on the positive aspects of all situations.

During the course of the past month, I have watched other teachers and people in education take on distance learning with full force. What teachers are doing is powerful. The expectations and protocols to move online and the variances from district-to-district are also stifling. Some are being asked to do too much, other teachers not as much. The moral compass of all of this begs the question, what is right in all of this? My answer would be whatever is best for children and creates a positive response in both you and your online classroom. This blog post outlines how to use your journal to shift to positivity, and it uses many negative reactions as writing prompts to get you thinking about your own mindset.

Sometimes we need to make our own positivity.