
Is every surface of your room filled with empty journals? Do cute notebooks in the store call your name but you hesitantly put them back because you still have dozens at home? Then this is the perfect post for you! I will show you 5 ways to fill your empty notebooks so you can buy new ones without feeling as quilty 😉 Also, I will give you a quick look into some of my journals to (hopefully) inspire you.
1. Bullet Journal
This is probably the most popular way to journal these days. If you don’t know what bullet journaling is, you can check out the original video explaining how it works. But if you just need a quick refresher; it’s a planning system set up by Ryder Carroll based on bullet points. There is an entire community dedicated to making super pretty bullet journal (bujo) spreads. And the great thing is, you can adjust the system to your needs so no worries if decorating isn’t really your thing. I personally like to add all sorts of thing to my bullet journal, such as pictures, washi tape, and handlettering. If you want some tips on how to spice up your bullet journal, I have a post with 5 easy tips to do just that.
2. Art Journal
At the moment I kind of mix my bujo with my art journal, but before I started bullet journaling I was sold on art journaling. Now I want to quickly add that I am not an amazing artist AT ALL. But I do enjoy having a creative outlet and an art journal is perfect for that. I personally used to use it for self-written pieces, illustrations, doodles, collages and everything else that came to mind.
3. Writing Journal
This is for the people out there out there who strive to be authors, or just write fiction in general (it will probably work for non-fiction as well, but I use it for fiction so that is what I can show you guys). When I started prepping for NaNoWriMo 2016, I decided I needed a way to gather my thoughts concerning my novel. And so my writing journal was born! I picked up an empty Leuchtturm 1917 journal (cause they are my absolute favourite) and started jotting down all my ideas. I am someone who loves to create visually appealing pages to summarize my thoughts so I made some collages for my main characters. Even though NaNoWriMo that year was a massive fail, I did feel like I got to know my characters pretty well.
I actually had other writing journals prior to this one, but they didn’t work as well for me because it was all just text (mainly research for characters), but if that works better for you than you could take that route instead.
4. Messy Braindump Journal
As much as I like being creative an decorating my journal, it does put a lot of pressure on me to make everything pretty. And sometimes that is the last thing you need. So that’s why I have a messy braindump journal. I won’t allow myself to decorate it. It needs to be all-over-the-place, that way I won’t feel quilty for jotting something down very quickly. Or for my bad handwriting (my handwriting is horrible when I write fast). In my opinion, everyone needs a journal like this. Just so you always have a place to write down your thoughts without judgment. Which brings me to the fifth (and final) journal.
5. Travel Journal
I call this a travel journal, but don’t let that fool you. You don’t have to be a world traveler to carry one of these. It just means (well at least to me it does) that it’s a journal you can take everywhere with you. I personally use a Moleskine Pocket notebook with a Midori Traveler’s Notebook leather cover (the passport size fits the pocket Moleskine pretty well). But it can be any notebook (I would recommend a6 so it fits in your pocket). You can use it to sketch ideas, write down thoughts, paste in news articles, jot down book recommendations or song lyrics. Anything. You never know when creativity will strike, or when you just need a piece of paper. So a ‘travel journal’ is an essential for me.
I hope this post gave you some ideas to fill your notebooks.
Do you have other ways to use empty notebooks? Leave them in the comments below, I am always looking for inspiration!