Weekly Discussion: Let's have a re(s)olution!

[annofowlshire]

I know we've talked about which journals/planners people are getting for next year, but I want to know--what is is the plan for your planner? What is the goal of your journal?

What is your journaling/planning resolution for 2023? How do you plan to do it? What do you hope to get out of it? Are you planning to "stash down" that stationary? Is there a new system you're hoping will be your silver bullet for maximum productivity?

Let us know in the comments!

Comments

[annofowlshire]

Our household had a perfect storm this autumn of our son starting school and both parents beginning to do a lot more business trips with Covid restrictions lifted. Just in the last six weeks one or the other of us parents has been away for five of them, 2-6 days at a go. In addition, our son's already slim wrap around care arrangement got reduced further (due to the school's budget cuts) and at the moment there isn't a satisfactory alternate solution (believe me, we've been looking). Plus all that other stuff of life like trying to build/keep social ties, making healthy meals, looking after our small holding, administrivia...

In any case, to say the last three months have turned us upside down, spun us around, and has been complete and utter chaos feels like an understatement.

So my planner/journal goals are based around trying to get a grip and not losing visibility on every day life.

Planner: I do want to "stash down" a bit, so I'm going to be making use of half filled notebooks and the like for habit planning and to-do lists, because to be honest I never look back on them once I've used them so who cares if they have a bunch of different miscellaneous content from different years?. Also, get back to using my stickers and washi tape because I have so much!

I need to get more in the habit, though, of not only doing my habit tracking and to do lists, but actually reviewing and completing them. So I'll be making a daily list (plus any longer term kinds of lists, either in paper or Obsidian) and making a point to check it multiple times a day.

Journaling: I was reading recently about journaling/diaries and the benefits of keeping a record of everyday life, but also the benefits of looking over them again. One thing I realized was I tend to read through my DW entries again, whereas I almost never look at my handwritten entries, or even other digital solutions (750 words, etc.) I've tried.

So I'm going to do a "DW 360 Project," which is of double meaning--most practically, it means I'm not going to say I must post every single day of 2023 because I will almost certainly fail to do that. But I will try to post something almost every day and gracefully accept that sometimes I will miss a day, and that's okay. And the other is the goal that it gives me a "360 degrees" view of life. With all the chaos happening, the days disappear quickly into months and years, and I want to remember these times as more than just a blur of being busy.

[lunabee34]

I have been doing the same thing (intentionally going through my notebook and pen stash and using it rather than acquiring more) and will continue to do the same. It's a nice feeling to use what you've got.

[lunabee34]

What a great question!

I am close to finishing the current journal I'm using. It will probably go a bit into January, and then I will start a gorgeous journal a friend gave me for Christmas last year; it has this beautiful "jeweled" cover. I did a pen test on the back page yesterday, and nothing bled through, not even the fountain pens, so yay!

I put a padfolio on my Amazon wishlist and I cheated to see if anyone got it for me for Christmas, and they did so I'm super stoked. LOL I needed an upgrade. I got a leather one a few years ago, but it's really too small. Only the thinnest of notebooks can fit in it and just a few papers in the slot opposite. The one I wishlisted can take a much larger notebook (top or side bound) and it's got a zipper pocket that you can put a laptop in but I wouldn't; I'd put books or more notebooks or folders or whatever. It's just going to be so much more useful for work.

[annofowlshire]

Oooh. Padfolios get my academic geek soul excited.

[korble]

So many of my 2023 resolutions revolve around journaling and planning and community.

With my girlfriend moving in in less than a month and graduation done, a good portion of my routine is about to be thrown right out the window, especially after... seven years living by myself (dog and cats not included) and ten years of university (without a gap year), so I'm grasping for any semblance of structure I can get. I think I'm done with most of my "big" personal tracking/collection spreads for 2023, but I still need to plan out and commit my social spreads to their respective pages, then decide if I'm keeping monthly/weekly in a separate book -- I usually use one book for everything until I run out of pages.

The stationery stash is fine, though the current organized chaos leaves much to be desired. That's one of the priorities once she's settled in; no point in doing more than collecting all my stuff out of the way so we can find our organization synergy together!

[annofowlshire]

That's lot of huge routine changes! Good luck finding your footing on new ground. 10 years of university sounds amazing, tbh. I sped through my bachelors in 3.5 years, and have been wishing ever since that I'd stayed longer LOL (That was almost 20 years ago now...) I tell my partner that once our son is grown and I'm retired I'm going to audit all of the classes forever to make up for it.

[lunabee34]

Congrats on hitting these big milestones! That's wonderful. <3

[pasta]

2023, I'm going to try to shop from my stash. I have so many things in the basement, I'm just going to take from my own stash. I am also moving from Pocket sized rings back to Personal sized rings. I think I'm going to need the space for 2023. So that'll be fun.

[lunabee34]

I love how so many of us are planning to shop from our own stash. :)

[severina]

I'm really enjoying everyone's answers.

This year I'm streamlining things a bit. I'm planning to incorporate things that would normally have their own big section into my daily journaling. I'm doing my To Do lists outside of the journal on a notepad next to my computer, so it's more easily noticeable. I've set up a separate tracking section for January for writing in the hopes that seeing it will kick me in the butt.

Journal-wise, I went with a Siixu journal. Once I got used to my old one I quite liked it, and it folds down nicely. And it's significantly cheaper than a Dingbats.

I've been incorporating holiday stickers in my daily December journalling and it's really helping me to stay motivated there, so I intend to continue that into 2023.

[annofowlshire]

I've got a couple of notepads (one gifted to me that is actually templated for "to do") and I was thinking yesterday that maybe I'd have it on the outside of my notebook for easy review... although then I might not use the actual notebook, LOL.

[lunabee34]

I keep my to-do outside of my journal, and it's really helpful for me. I hope that works for you.

[finch]

I'm planning to make a larger post in my journal about this in the near future, because that's how I actually work through stuff, but I've got a full-size 8.5x11" metaphysician's planner that I intend to use for tracking as well as planning magic, and then a little pocket planner for everyday carry. I just need to figure out how to build the habit. Surely I can do that, right?

[lunabee34]

*cheerleads*

You can do it!

[kaishin108]

I have the same type journal as last year, a week at a glance planner that is full size, yes 8.5x11. It has a two ribbon marker that I love and this year I taped monthly tabs in it. It has a lot of room to write, so I am going to plan to write Something every day. :)

[lunabee34]

I love huge planners and journals. A4 is really my preferred size for everything.

[egret]

I'm going to use my Erin Condren Hello Kitty planner because the cuteness cheers me.
I will use the Hobonichi I also bought as a Bible Study Journal, and the numbered days will encourage me to study every day.
I will journal in my 5 year Hobonichi and also here. I have many many notebooks to be catch alls.
Currently struggling to stop myself from trying again to go back to just using my phone because that never works and everything collapses when I don't write stuff out on paper. I need to just accept about myself that I need to plan on paper or live in confusion. Argh.

[annofowlshire]

I got an iPad Mini/Apple Pencil a couple of months ago and I was like could this replace analog for me?

... the answer is no. So now I end up carrying around the iPad and a notebook. *facepalm*

[kalloway]

I'd love to keep having less~ I donated a ton of extra pens and pencils to coworkers this last year and that cut down my stash exponentially, but I definitely still have more than I'll use before they (especially the gel pens) start dying on me. (I have twelve full pen cups that I can see, and while I'd like to get down to maybe three or four, let's start with aiming for eight?)

As for the notebooks and the Emotional Support Notebooks, maybe just sorting through those?

I ended up getting one of the Clever Fox budget notebooks that was mentioned on here and it looks great for both bills and expense tracking. Maybe I won't buy so many pens if I have to keep writing them down.

[lunabee34]

I did this, too. I gave a bunch of notebooks and other stationery stuff to my daughter's college roommates who were happy to have them. And I gave some pens to some colleagues. It's nice to give things to people who appreciate them.

[octahedrite]

I want to start writing daily plans again -- a day-to-day to-do list, either the night before or the morning of. Also going to try keeping a separate notebook to track workouts -- details of what i did/learned, reflections on how it went, that kind of thing. AND I want to refill my fountain pens and start using them again -- I kinda stopped in October because life has been so crazy.

[annofowlshire]

I find when life gets crazy, I'm either living by my planner religiously, or it gets completely abandoned!

[lassarina]

I'm trying out a new journal type next year after five years of Leuchtturm (next year's is from Notebook Therapy and has much thicker paper that should stand up to fountain pens and decoration better.) I want to rethink how I'm approaching goals and daily journaling, especially since I've completely dropped daily journaling/bullet journaling from my life over the last month due to [everything is on fire.]

I don't know yet what that looks like, and I may not know by January 1, but the nice thing about it is I can change as I go.

[lunabee34]

Yes! You're not locked into anything; you can always change and adapt. That's the perfect way to think about it.

*cheerleads*

[justanorthernlight]

In 2023 I want to get back to tracking my win(s)-of-the-day. I rarely use the monthly calendar page in my planner, so in 2021 and the first couple months of 2022 I was using it as bit of a gratitude journal type thing and writing down 1-3 things I was proud of myself for doing that day, as I struggle with motivation.

I started doing some actual journaling around April/May, and my win(s)-of-the-day went by the wayside because they felt redundant, and then I basically stopped journaling a couple of months ago, so now I feel like I have no records of my recent accomplishments.

I also plan to buy fewer stickers and use up some of my leftover ones from the past few years.

[lunabee34]

I love the idea of wins of the day, not just gratitudes, but here's how I kicked ass. What a great idea!

Re: user of exclusively digital tools checking in …

[lunabee34]

I love that you wrote a script to remind you where you are in your menstrual cycle; I haven't had a period in years (hurray!), but that is so so useful.

[smallrobot]

My main goal is to sort the materials I am using into two categories: fun and archival, and to use them semi-consistently.

I use several types of journal: the "planning" type and the "diary" type. I keep my diaries, but I noticed that combinations or uses of some materials have led to the notes (almost) disappearing, I really don't like it. :( I especially have concerns for coated paper (such as Oxford or Tomoe River), since some of my notes on Oxford didn't get "soaked" into the paper and almost evaporated (?) in about 4-5 years! I'll keep the "fun" materials for journals I don't necessarily want to keep, and only use "archival" materials for diaries.

(And I mean "archival" in the very loose sense that the material won't give me trouble after 10+ years in good storage conditions.)

[lunabee34]

Oh that's so interesting and something I hadn't thought about it. The reason ink looks so good on Tomoe River paper and Cosmo Air Light and etc is because of the coating and because it's not absorbed. I hadn't thought of what that would mean for the longevity of the document. I find Tomoe River paper too fiddly (I don't want to have to be so careful not to get my hand oils on the page), but this is an intriguing data point.