Are you a beginner, or are you considering if you should start a journal? Ask all your questions here. Are you more experienced? Feel free to share tips, tricks, pictures of your journal, anecdotes. Anything else related to journaling is welcome in this weekly thread, don't hesitate.
Edit: I forgot to welcome new subscribers. Like, really what was I even thinking?
So—let's all pretend I did not forget—welcome!
I don’t really do journaling on my freetime, but I do it at work.
I never considered it like that (I'm my own boss) but I can related to that, and back when I had a regular office job (and a boss) that's also how I worked. Like you said:
More than once I’ve been thankful to myself that I do this when I need to look back at notes and it just helps me organize my head.
It's such a great help, I'm always surprised a lot of people is not using it.
I do try to keep it pretty too.
:)
The obvious question then is how do you do that? Feel free to not answer, obviously, but you're more than welcome if you have some suggestions/tips to share with everybody here :p
I guess being your own boss blurs the boundaries of work/freetime :) But indeed! it is amazing and I am also often wondering why is it rare that people do that. I learned this from a uni professor back when I was studying; he said that not only is it for you, but it it is your last backup against accusations that does hold value if you end up arguing with someone who doesn't have any evidence. That's a bit hardcore reason to keep notes but I started journaling because of that class.
About keeping it pretty: I'm by no means keeping it as pretty as some people are from what I've seen lol! I envy how pretty some people can keep their journals! But I try to mix colors and give meaning to colors:
normal blue ball point pen is for everything
red is for important/interesting details that I add afterwards and scribble around the notes (also if I come back to a day's notes)
I use highlighters if I think I will come back to it later, not really while I'm writing for today
to keep it more interesting I try to switch the orientation of some text, and draw free-hand lines to separate sections
I sometimes put more effort into my mind-maps and try to decorate my mind-map bubbles
for some important "NOTICE" type of texts I try to illustrate more fun illustrations, like a stick-figure with a speech bubble around the text
Now I know that all sounds probably basic and uncreative to some, but since I don't really have coworkers and a coffee room in my current job I try to take breaks where I do these more "fun" things (or when I need to design something, scribbling helps free the mind!). When I'm concentrated and working I can't really put much effort into my notes.
I do admit that recently Lemmy has ruined my breaks lol. I've been spending my short breaks browsing lemmy... damn you lemmy for becoming so active! /s
How about you? You got any special thing you do to keep it pretty that comes to mind?