Lately I’ve been gravitating towards One Big Book of Everything more and more, however I still have a couple (more like a dozen…) separate notebooks to keep my main journal company. I don’t have a system that is set in stone, and although I don’t jump notebooks, I do modify my setup throughout the year. Usually it’s fluid, though – I have a thing about finishing every notebook I start, so even if I abandon it as, say, my main journal, I will finish it as a junk journal or work scribbles later. Throwing away perfectly usable unused paper is a sin in this household.
Here’s my current line-up.
As mentioned, we have the Big Book, which acts as my catch-all daily diary, and also a commonplace book. This is where I write the daily goings-on, any deeper thinking I might have, and also things like book notes, article quotes, what I watched and read that day, etc. I also write down content ideas here, and even initial drafts, because often I think much better “on paper” than “on screen”, so to say.
Then there’s the Small Book. Its purpose is the same as the Big Book’s, but this one stays in my handbag, and I carry it everywhere with me. Journalling is a habit, a hobby, but also a coping mechanism for me. I need to have a notebook on me at all times, because I never know when I would need to ground myself by putting pen to paper. The Small Book is indeed small most of the time – either in terms of thickness (12 to 24 pages), or in terms of page size (around A6), or in both of these terms.
Next up is my daily planner/ appointment list thing. It’s small – A6-ish, but thinner and taller – and I really only put places and times in here. Sometimes when there’s space I might put in a short grocery list or a to-do list, but mostly it’s just “noon – brunch with A” and “1400 – dentist” type stuff. The notebook is undated, so if I don’t have any plans on any particular week – and I live to not have appointments lol – then I just skip inputting that week to avoid blanks as much as possible. Which is why this notebook will probably last me longer than the supposed 9 months to a year.
Then there’s the media review journal. When I finish a movie, or a series, or a book, I write the title here, print out the cover/ poster on my thermal printer, and try to come up with a short review-like note. It used to house daily rambles about the books I read as well, but I moved them to my Big Book, because I kept rambling about that there anyway, and constantly jumping between notebooks as I went disrupted the flow. I am not exactly happy with the set-up I have going on for the media journal, but I don’t think the set-up is at fault. It’s just that I have a lot of catching up to do, and seem to never find a solid pocket of time to sit down and structure my thoughts.
Then there’s the junk journal. I usually repurpose an abandoned planner or any other kind of notebook for this. Junk journal is what it says – I usually just collect a bunch of receipts, clothes tags, paper scraps, flyers, promotional stickers, etc., and glue them in here. Since I’m also prone to writing down notes, lists, quotes, etc., on random pieces of scrap paper, I glue them in here as well. Sometimes the pages work really well and are worth sharing, other times it really is just an amalgam of random scraps. Some of the things mentioned, like bus tickets and tea tags, also end up in my main book. Junk journal usually gets leftovers or things that are ‘out of date’, so to say. For example, if I have a bank queue stub that I remember to use in my main, I’ll use it in my main, and write about why I was at that place in said queue anyway. If I don’t journal that day, or forget that I had a queue stub to glue in, it will end up in my junk journal.
My sketchbook comes next. It’s exactly what it says on the tin – a sketchbook. I’ve been getting back in to drawing and painting slowly. There are some weeks where I sketch daily, but mostly it’s once or twice a week. The notebook I picked for the purpose is hardly functional – the paper is thin, and it bleeds with every marker and rips with every eraser. I’m even considering abandoning it and then repurposing for a junk journal later down the line – or, oddly enough, for a media journal, since I don’t do much in my media journal apart from write a review and glue in a thermal print-out of a cover/ poster or a relevant sticker.
ETA: decided to keep as is.
Then I have a recipe journal. I’m not a prolific cook by any means, but oddly enough I cook well. 99% of the time I go without a recipe, though. So if I get comments on how well the thing was cooked, I try to remember what herbs I used exactly and for how long I fried it on each side or whatever it is that you’re supposed to remember, because chances are high I’ll get a request for ‘that soup’ or ‘that mushroom dish’ again, and I’ll draw a blank unless I write it down. This notebook is also where I put down shorthand notes for my patreon ‘rock bottom gourmet’ series, though usually the things in there are so simple, I’m able to keep them in my head until I have time to write the thing down.
Write. Everything. Down.
And then there’s the language learning journal. I’m tackling a few languages at a time, and to keep track of my week rotation and materials I use I have this notebook. It’s nothing fancy – just dates of the month listed with a literal one-liner about what language I practised that day and what materials I used. If I’m feeling exceptionally bold, I write it down in the target language, but the vast majority of notes here is in English and Russian, i.e. my main languages.
I also keep a Tarot journal. The one in the picture is an old one. My current is a simple marbled composition notebook, and it’s lasting me ages, because I no longer write out detailed meanings of cards by hand each time I do a spread. So it’s just spread information (date, querent’s name, deck used, card layout), and then a list of cards the deck supplied for each position. Afterwards I jot down some thoughts on what I think it all means, and then either elaborate in my Big Book (if the spread is for me), or type up a doc file to send to the person who requested a spread.
I have a separate notebook for morning pages, but since I’m really bad at writing first thing in the morning – I should make it a challenge and get back to it – the notebook has been lasting me ages. It’s a vertical pad, A5 in size.
For my job, I keep a job junk notebook. It’s different from my junk journal, because this is basically for scribbles whenever I’m on the phone for my job, or to write down any questions I get throughout the day to ask my supervisor later. But mostly it’s just phone scribbles. I can’t stay alert during a phone conversation unless I scribble something as I go.
Lastly, we have my makeup/ panning journal. This is to keep track of all the makeup products that I am currently trying to pan/ finish. I have a really big beauty stash, and I make panning content on youtube. This helps keep track of everything. I have an electronic duplicate of projects and video schedule in Notion, but this one stays on my vanity, and makes it easy to track usage, write down product names, note down when I finished something, etc.
That’s it. I’m getting really close to finishing my main notebook, which means I will probably modify the entire line-up as well. I might start a separate commonplace notebook, or I migh start a separate one for my content, or I might abandon the media journal altogether and just squish it all in one volume, together with everything but the sketches and recipes and appointments. Who knows? Certainly not I. I don’t sweat it, though, because I’ve been keeping notebooks for as long as I remember myself, so whatever happens will be quite natural anyway.
ETA: I’ve started a new Big Book, and everything is so far as it was.
I’m curious, what kind of journals do YOU keep? Let’s chat about our notebook obsessions in the comments!
