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starting your journal 
— a thread
— a thread
before we hop into this :
these are tips based on my own experience!
this is gonna be more oriented towards people journaling towards goals instead of specific things like an art journal but stick till the end still bc im gonna try to make it as general as possible!
these are tips based on my own experience! this is gonna be more oriented towards people journaling towards goals instead of specific things like an art journal but stick till the end still bc im gonna try to make it as general as possible!
please remember you’re gonna have to START eventually. the stress is gonna be there esp if it’s your first attempt and you’re gonna make mistakes (i will go over that). but most of the questions you ask yourself will be answered by just. starting and experimenting. 
[1] GENERAL PAGES. there are some pages that most people include regardless of what their journal is for and what their scheduling needs are. let’s go over a few of them to give you an idea of how to start your journal before getting into spreads.
future logs. this is usually the first ‘spread’ people have in their journal: it’s an overview of your entire year, that you keep referring to as you build monthly and weekly spreads after. you add very long term commitments & important dates to it, & can add more as you go.
what can go in a future log:
school vacation or important school related dates (finals), work stuff, birthdays, doctor appointments, trips etc. if you know abt events way ahead of time: put them in your future log. it will overlap with your monthly spreads but that’s fine!
school vacation or important school related dates (finals), work stuff, birthdays, doctor appointments, trips etc. if you know abt events way ahead of time: put them in your future log. it will overlap with your monthly spreads but that’s fine!
what i usually do is just add birthdays, & use it more as a calendar that i fill as i go, recording the events throughout the year. it’s totally fine if you don’t know how your year is gonna be like, nobody does. it’s just a reference to avoid jumping straight into your spreads.
it’s a great thing to look at the end of the year & it can be formatted in a lot of ways. also a good way to practice breaking the stress that comes w writing on a blank page, bc it’s a spread that does NOT need to be filled right away. some examples of formats for future logs:
goals pages / resolutions these can be done every month, every week, even every day in the form of a to-do list but as we love using the new year to set resolutions, having a page dedicated to the goals for an entire year is a good way to help stick to them.
try not to make goals that are too specific or too harsh. the goal here is NOT to pressure yourself. be realistic and also accept that you can only control so many things. not checking off everything on that list is OKAY. you can also add goals or modify them throughout the year.
see your goals page like this: when you’re wondering what to do for the month or the week or even day, looking at these goals can you help decide what task to tackle, and choose steps that go towards realizing your goal. that in itself is already a success.
