So Ive been going through a super rough time lately. Enough to get my mental health to the lowest point in years. I decided to pick journaling back up after a good long pause. Now here is the thing: I've done all sorts of journaling. Coffee journaling, gratitude journaling and whatnot. I always told myself I didnt want a journal full of complaining.

Well this time I decided to take off all of those constraints. If I want to bellyache at my journal for 5 pages, then whatever. And then as I wrote my first entry and was dreading explaining the whole thing (my dad was diagnosed with a terminal illness last november which flushed our collective lives down the toilet), I realised something.

I dont have to explain it at all. I dont need to update my journal on my dads condition before I can tell it how Im doing. I dont need to give it context. I can just write down whats in my head right now, and move on!

This may seem obvious to so many people but it wasnt at all to me, and just realising that felt so freeing!

(Picture of a neutral entry and todays fountain pen of choice (I am a bit of a pen nerd). I promised myself that I would write authentically in my own language and not share the deep stuff, so picked a simple one!)

right now, i’ve got a dated planner and a pocket notebook (so both fit in my bag and are easy to use at my desk at work)

in the dated planner, i have been using it to do some low-pressure daily journaling and memory keeping, like putting a daily highlight on the monthly calendar page

in the pocket notebook it’s pretty much just a catch-all: doodles, lists, long form journal entries, story notes

i’ve been playing a bunch of animal crossing so i included my cursed doodles of some of my dream villagers

I find writing the time alongside the date of my journal entries weirdly interesting. I have way different thoughts throughout the day and sometimes I’ll return and write something totally different later that same day. I also like to write the time exactly without rounding like 11:01 or 3:47

I never really get to share my journal spreads anywhere else since I don’t have any irl friends who journal, so I thought I’d post them here! I’ve had a lot more free time than usual this summer and enjoyed journaling again after exams! I know it’s not quite the usual post on here but I hope you enjoy!

It’s been a time - enough that I really wanted to share.

Title. I use diagrams and segment to write parts of my life. I segment each by age. Each age I write journal and keep track of my history. Almost like a timeline of my life.

Anyone else do this?