Do you ever leave for the grocery store, but realize you can’t find your list? It was just on the kitchen counter this morning…
Or perhaps your cousin’s baby shower starts in an hour, but you can’t find the invitation with the address?
How about the time you went to the mall to buy a birthday gift, but couldn’t find the wish list?
The phrase, “a place for everything and everything in it’s place”, suddenly comes to mind doesn’t it? And your frustration begins to rise.
Been there, done that, and that phrase has become my mantra! So now I use small journals kept together in a cover known as a traveler notebook.
Good Intentions
The best-laid plan of “places to go and things to do” can go awry very quickly. More often than I care to admit, somehow the post-it note with valuable information always seems to disappear. The coupon from my favorite ladies’ clothing store in yesterday’s stack of mail is nowhere to be found today. Sometimes, organization can be so elusive, don’t you think?
I’ve used planners for years; scratch that, for decades. And I’ve probably tried them all – spiral, 3-ring, composition book, expensive, hand-drawn, small, large, etc. You name it, I’ve tried it; however, they were never quite right for my needs. For a few years I even made my own from scratch in a ruled notebook. A former boss told me I should design one and have it manufactured; genius – why didn’t I think of that?
A New Discovery
Enter Moleskine© notebooks, and the bullet journal system by Ryder Carroll, and Midori© (now known as Traveler Notebooks©).
I first heard about Moleskine© notebooks through our son decades ago. He was in high school and was intrigued by Ernest Hemingway’s use of these small little notebooks. About ten years later, I learned about the Documented Life Project, started in 2014, by Art to the Fifth. That first year, they used the Moleskine© weekly planner as the basis for their combination of planning and making art. I loved the concept and started in that project in 2015 but I just couldn’t keep up with it. The art portion didn’t come easily to me, so I fell behind quickly and became frustrated yet again.
Around this same time, our daughter was getting married and setting up her own household. She was active on Instagram learning about junk journals, while I was learning about Moleskines© being used as bullet journals. We inspired each other with new recommendations of people to follow and learn from. After many years of hit or miss with various planners, 2016 marked the beginning of my bullet journal journey. I began using Moleskines© as my three journal inserts into a traveler’s notebook cover that I made. At last, my planning needs had finally been fulfilled!
Serendipity
The best thing about these journals is you can make them exactly how you need them to be. This system has kept me organized with planning and running my life and business. Finally – a place for all the information that used to be on all those little pieces of paper. With this method, all the information and details that I need for my day-to-day activities are in this one place. Which means no more searching for that little piece of paper that mysteriously disappeared.
A friend has a saying that I love because I can certainly relate. “If I could get back all the time I’ve spent looking for things, I’d be a young woman!” I’m happy to say, things have become much better with the use of my travelers notebook method. How about you – how many hours, days, or weeks of your life have been wasted unnecessarily? Maybe it’s time to start by keeping just one area of your life in a journal. Perhaps having a place for everything will make the difference you need in your daily routine. Who knows – you may end up like me, with a stack of journals for every facet of your life.
Are you ready to give it a try? Read the post on “what life happenings do you need to capture” to help you discover what’s important to include in your own bullet journal. https://yourlifeinjournals.com/life-happenings-to-capture
us.moleskine.com; travelers-company.com; bulletjournal.com