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.

Positivity is something we have to actively seek even when it isn’t easy. It is important to have a strategy to know how to shift from a negative place to a more positive one. This shift is known as a mindset shift because we can choose to voice our feelings, state our goals, and come up with a plan that is obtainable. You are literally shifting from a negative place to a positive one with a specific set of steps. A mindset shift can be used for a variety of reasons:

• You woke up in a funk

• You don’t feel like getting out of bed

• You are having a bad day where it feels like one thing after another

• You don’t want to work out

• You are dreading doing something

• You are struggling with motivation or procrastinating on a project

• You are completely overwhelmed

• You are cranky and no cup of coffee is helping

This post contains a quick video tutorial on how to do a mindset shift in any notebook or journal. You can also get some ideas of when to use a mindset shift from the informational slides that follow.

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.

When I think of productivity, I think of schedules, goals, and the day-to-day grind. I think of planners. I think of lists that get to be checked off. I love a good list. Productivity may be one of the main reasons I will often turn to a journal or notebook, and bullet journaling has created an outlet where planning can become beautiful. Whether you choose a more formal setup of a planner like a Passion Planner or if you prefer a blank page, sometimes figuring out what system works best for you can make the difference between feeling in control and calm or full of chaos and overwhelm. This post contains ideas for daily, weekly, and monthly layouts for scheduling, and it also has a focused list of journaling prompts to help you figure out what really needs to go into your planning setup. Remember: Your journal can operate as a planner. No need to reinvent systems. You can create your own systems based on your style.

This post is for those on a mission or the ones that may not know what their mission is yet. As a middle school teacher, I have made it my career and life to incorporate all aspects of learning into every part of my life. Simply, I am a learner. We are all learners. I am a problem solver by nature. When faced with something I don’t know, I try to find the answer. This might include literature study in my classroom or figuring out how to install a flapper on a toilet. It might involve looking up how to insert code on a website or following directions on how to assemble a piece of furniture. Learning is about the ah-ha moments-big and small. If you are at a place in your journaling where you feel stuck or you need to figure out what you want to learn next, this is the post for you. Write down which prompts stick out to you and then jot them down now or for later on. This post provides the journaling prompts needed for learning, exploration of new ideas, and finding a pathway to your own education. It also highlights some helpful layouts for traditional bullet journaling.

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.

One of the things that I love the most about bullet journaling and the bullet journaling system is that you can combine your want-tos in life with your have-tos. I’m talking about your work stuff, your appointments, and your to-do lists with your dreams, your passion projects, and your ideas. You can use your one notebook as a planner and the same notebook as a journal for your thoughts. You can do your morning pages right next to your grocery list. You can mindmap a project, and then on the next page draw a doodle or two. You get what I am saying.

With me returning from maternity leave in April, I hesitated to go back to what I normally did which was plan one month at a time. One of the biggest things I hear from people when they look at bullet journaling from afar is “I don’t have time for that.” If you are a person who is trying to balance life and also balance how you feel AND your dreams…I don’t know how you are managing without some help. Notebooks are a big help if you have the right systems in place that work. So, knowing that I wouldn’t have time to plan on a monthly basis, I extended my journaling method to a 3-month or quarterly basis setup. Basically, this one notebook is going to get me through the 1.) first three months back from maternity leave 2.) the end of the school year 3.) quarter two for my blog.

This post will walk you through how to set up a notebook 3 months at a time. Are you a business person? You will use 4 notebooks for the year (one for each quarter). Are you a person with long-term goals? Set up check-ins for every 3 months. Are you a person that is struggling to try to find balance in all areas of life? Use a 3-month notebook to get yourself on track.

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.

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.

As I reflect on the planning that I did at the beginning of August, I am keenly aware of the transition to the fall teacher schedule that happens in September. Yesterday was the first day of school and our first day implementing our district’s online learning plan. While today was the first full day, and I think it went pretty well, there still is something to be said about the major adjustments in the schedule that happens in not just my life, but in the life of a teacher. Really, anyone associated with someone going to school. Different pockets of priorities sneak up around keeping track of new tasks, email inboxes, trying to stay organized, and encouraging personal creative growth and inspiration. One way I like to try to maintain life’s course during times of transition is through journaling. Last month I wrote about how I was utilizing the Undated Daily Passion Planner in Lush Green in order to take things one day at a time. I can focus on the goals and the tasks that need to happen that day. This has been an adjustment in how my brain thinks. I am a habitual planner-aheader. I want to know what is happening a week from now, a month from now, and a year from now. I am constantly making lists. However, I think this particular fall season calls for all of us to maybe considering slowing down.

However you find yourself slowing down this fall season, I hope you get a chance to focus in on your goals, get curious about your own learning, and indulge in small moments that make you happy. One way to do that is to focus on your journaling habits. You may be choosing to use a bullet journal system, keep a Passion Planner, or write down your thoughts in any notebook you have around the house. My process for September involves figuring out where my motivation is through an inspiration layout, and then planing for each day, one at a time. This post is a preview of my inspiration layout for the month, some dailies, and my process for tackling the rest of the 29 days ahead.

I feel like I would normally be starting this post with what it feels like to finally be in summer. it’s official. Writing camp at Western Michigan University wrapped up last week, and I started to work on the anthology this week with a renewed sense of feeling (more) free from obligations. While I always stay busy, summer is a freedom of sorts from time. However, this year has been so different. We had five weeks off in between schools closing down and starting online learning. We then ran through online learning at a sprinting pace, and June hit all of a sudden before I could even register that I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to my students. I can’t honestly say the number of Google Meets I have been on since April. I miss my classroom. I miss my students. Now, it’s July. I am just as tired. I feel just as drained. However, I am wondering if it is for other reasons than the weird way the school year ended.

I think I am exhausted because I was not feeding my own creativity and growth in terms of reading and writing during the time of online learning. I felt so frustrated with online learning and the systems and processes in place that I realized that my own goals in terms of creativity just weren’t there. So, after figuring this out about myself, I made July’s plan-with-me post a mid-year check-in review and inventory of where I am at in terms of goals, habits, and dreams. This post outlines how I set up my productivity pages for the month of July, and it also includes how I am doing a mid-year check-in. If you want to also do a mid-year check-in, follow along with the prompts. I hear so many people in the teaching profession and in my own personal life saying that they have “given up on 2020” and “I am already looking forward to 2021.” We have this time, and I know that living in the present moment has been the necessary water my life garden has needed for each phase of my life.

Let’s grow in July.

Distance or online learning creates the opportunity for teachers to learn new ways to approach students. I have always loved educational technology, and I have to admit, getting excited about learning how to screencast, edit videos, and use technology to meet with students has been good for my student-soul. I created a video tutorial for how to create a journal vision board, put music to the background, and transitions, and you would have thought I was the next coder to grab a hold of a mouse and keyboard. It is a powerful thing to keep learning. And while we must remain open and shift our mindsets to remaining positive during school closures, the most powerful and important tool I have right now in my teacher bag is the student journaling assignment.

This is not a blog for finances. I cannot offer specific information about how to invest money, create a magical envelope system, or use a snowball payment system to pay down your debt. However, during the time away from school, I am taking the time, like many of us, to look at my simple budget and make some goals during the school closures. A simple budget is something we all should be doing often. I love using my journal for everyday life. I find that there is something satisfying about having one page be journal writing and the next page to be my monthly budget. Our journals should be living documents of our lives. I like to break down steps and make goals that go into my monthly plans. Financial practices are a form of self-care. I feel like financial self-care is a place that opens a world for us in terms of new learning, growing in good habits, and making goals. In this post, I outline four simple steps to use your journal to create or review a simple budget.

I stumbled upon bullet journaling one day on Pinterest when I was looking for a new planner. As a middle school teacher, I, like many others, am addicted to office supplies. I know what pens I like, I know what size sticky notes I prefer, and I know that the idea of a fresh new notebook makes me almost giddy. I even started making my own notebooks with my dad as a hobby because I love notebooks so much.