Journaling for me is a very fun and valuable addition to my life.
It's a way I organize my thoughts, shape my days, and plan my tasks.
I use it as a
mindfulness practice, a gratitude practice and to remind myself to always take good care of myself and the people around me.
It keeps me inspired when life gets me down, and it helps me to catch myself and find positivity again.
As a minimalist myself, I feel like journaling should be easy and quick and fuss free.
So many videos feature beautiful artsy journals.
And while they are inspiring to look at, they can also scare many people away from journaling by making it look overly complicated.
So today I will share with you three minimalist journal ideas that you can start doing today and together they make up my personal
journaling routine.
So I will show you my minimalist bullet journal, my daily journal the 6-minute diary, and my commonplace journal.
So let's dive right in.
Let's start by showing you my bullet journal. I actually have an in-depth video about my complete
2019 set up for this one. And it's an older video
so the production value is a little bit lower, but in case you are interested
I will link it in the description box. You can watch it after you're done watching this video.
I use my bullet journal mainly to organize my life.
I plan my tasks and make sure I'm doing things I want to be doing. And
what I love is that, since the bullet journal is completely empty from the start, I
get to design it the way I want to. And include everything that is important to me.
There is no set structure that I have to follow. I can organize my days in a way that fits my life and my
personality.
So I used to have all kinds of separate lists and schedules throughout my house and on my phone, and now I have one place to
gather everything and that is my bullet journal. And this thing is great for me.
It helps me to feel more in control of my to do's and just experience less stress overall.
I use the Leuchturm 1917 with a simple black fineliner pen.
And a few pastel colored markers. I will put the links to the products that I use in the description
but you can use any journal that you like.
I use the markers to add a touch of color here and there, and that is the only decoration this journal has.
Things you can include in a bullet journal are a yearly planner, a monthly
planner, a weekly planner, and a daily planner. You can include lists of books
you want to read, recipes you want to try, you can include a wish list for yourself, things you don't want to forget, birthdays anniversaries.
You can include a habits tracker or something to track your progress or improvements, something to track your mood
so basically anything you want you can add it in there.
I'm gonna quickly show you the parts of this bullet journal that I use the most, and I'm gonna do a flip through. So if
something is a little too personal for me to share on YouTube, then I might blur some things out occasionally.
To start, this is my future log or a yearly planner. And it's very simple.
It has a calendar for each month as well as the bigger picture highlights of the months listed.
My bullet journal also has some inspiring quotes and then I have my monthly spread. For me
I use this monthly planner to schedule my content, but of course
it can be anything that's useful for you personally. And lastly, the one I use the most is my weekly planner.
I keep it very simple, one page per week.
And this setup takes me about one minute to complete.
So it's very minimal, simple and easy to use. It is a simple to-do list for the tasks of the week.
And this gives me the freedom to work on things whenever I feel most inspired to do them.
I also have a little note section at the bottom to write appointments, and just things I want to take into account that week.
At the back of my bullet journal, I keep my personal journal. And I don't write in this part too often
But when the mood strikes me I write in here, usually on Monday mornings.
Now let's move on to my daily journal.
So I use this one to start and end my days on a mindful note.
With some very quick journaling. And I've tried several ways of daily journaling
But I've always found it very hard to stick with the habit. Until I found this 6-Minute Diary from Urbestself.
As the name suggests, you journal three minutes in the morning and three minutes in the evening.
And this helped me to finally make this into a habit for myself.
Since I started journaling daily and really sticking with that habit
I noticed changes in my overall mood and positivity, which is why I am so excited that they are actually sponsoring today's video.
Let's take a look at the inside of this journal. The daily pages consist of a section for the morning and for the evening
with an inspiring quote in the middle.
But the diary actually starts with an introduction. And this part explains the how and why of the journal and
explains how to make the most of it. But apart from that, I found this to be a
surprisingly interesting read. Because it dives deeper into the topics of positive psychology, habits
self-reflection and affirmations. And so I found this to be a fun and inspiring read on its own.
The basic structure of this journal consists of a morning routine and an evening routine which both take three minutes to complete.
As well as a weekly challenge and a monthly check to take things a bit further.
The morning routine consists of making list of things that you are grateful for.
Which is my personal favorite. And things you can do to make today great, as well as setting a positive affirmation.
Which I also really like. And then the evening routine consists of writing down your good deed for the day
how you can improve, and great things you experienced today.
And these questions are not random questions.
But they are actually built on research that is explained in the introduction part of this book.
Each week also starts with 5 weekly questions that invite you to do some self-reflection and dig a little deeper, as well as a
weekly challenge that invites you to do something good for yourself or others. And then there is also a
monthly check that I actually found very helpful myself.
You can use this to get a better understanding of yourself and how you've been feeling, by tracking your overall mood
mindfulness, healthy habits, relationships, etc.
And it becomes very easy to see which things are going well and which things need more attention.
For example, this gave me the clear view that I needed to invest more in time for myself
mindfulness, calm and serenity, and take care of my thoughts and emotions better.
So I started doing more meditation and that really helped me.
Something I don't personally use is the habits tracker. But if you like those things, it's in there as well.
For example if you want to start drinking more water.
I think this is a wonderful journal to have and especially if you are new to the world of journaling
you're really gonna like it. Because it already has everything laid out for you, gives you one place to do it all, mornings evenings.
And it's just really easy to use and get started with.
So they ship via Amazon and I believe it's available in three colors and by the end of the year
it'll also be translated into 14 languages.
So even if English is not your first language, you can still use this journal.
Alright, so let's move on to the third and final minimalist journal idea that I have for you today.
And I think you're really gonna love this.
It is called a commonplace book or a commonplace journal. And this is where I gather everything that inspires me
basically, from quotes, to passages from books or song lyrics or random poems and scribbles that I don't want to forget.
This is the real secret of life. To be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And
instead of calling it work, realize it is  play. Compassion is the spontaneous wisdom of the heart.
I think we've been oversold on the value of more, and undersold on the value of less.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it
move with it, join the dance. People everywhere try so hard to make the world better. Their intentions are admirable, yet
they seek to change everything but themselves.
To make yourself a better person, is to make the world a better place.
A commonplace book is where you can collect ideas, and memories and unfinished plans or random drawings.
I use it to write down things
I come across that inspire me, or touch my heart.
Or just make me think. And if I see something I don't want to forget I write it down in my commonplace journal.
I have always felt the need to save certain things that inspired me like for example from books I was reading.
But I could never really find a usable way to do it.
So, for example, I would take pictures of book pages that I was reading.
But then they would just end up getting lost on my phone. Or hang a note
on the fridge, and then take it off again because it was just too random.
And then I found that there's actually more people who like to save things that inspire them, and that there's actually a name for it.
And it is a commonplace book.
I have often come across life lessons, or quotes that inspired me, or
mottos that I want to live my life by. And when you first see them, you think I'm never going to forget this one.
But then you finish that particular book or that song or whatever, and life goes on and your newfound
inspiration does kind of sink to the bottom.
You don't think about it anymore and that is a shame because there is so much wisdom out there that we can gather and learn form.
And all this information is only useful when we can find a way to filter and keep what's really important.
Anytime you want to remember, you can flip through this notebook and find gems that
spark something within you, those really inspiring things you read a long time ago. This is what I have so far.
I started using this quite recently, about a month and a half ago.
And it's not as structured as a bullet journal or the 6-Minute Journal.
Sometimes I write in it a lot, and sometimes I don't.
So it's just nice to have around whenever the mood strikes you, or whenever you come across something you want to save.
I use different handwriting, depending on my mood. Some pages are a bit messier than others, but that's okay.
You can add things like stickers or washi paper if you like, but like with all my notebooks
I like to keep it simple, minimal, and easy to use.
So after seeing these three minimalist journal ideas, I'm curious what you think.
So you think you will ever use any of these and why? Or perhaps you already do. Please share your thoughts and questions in the
comment section. I always try to respond to everyone
So if you want to ask me something, please go ahead.
I have a video about how to overcome perfectionism right here. And right here is a video about waking up at 5 a.m
And why I don't do it. Don't forget to subscribe. I hope you're having a lovely day, and I will see you soon. Bye bye
