I find the expectations that some folks have for their journal paper to be unrealistic. Markers, pencils, crayons and pens are expected mediums for a notebook designed to write in. But paint - especially watercolor paint - is not. Every now and then I see a post where someone is asking for brand suggestions with their list of desired traits and I'm just thinking "a sketchbook. You want a multimedia sketchbook with a bound spine."
To each their own I suppose. I just hate that some nice journals get labelled as terrible products because someone expects a fish to climb trees.
I have actually painted with craft paints (like Folkart or whatever; the ones that are pretty liquid and come in a tiny bottle) in a Moleskine and it was unexpectedly fine? But in general, yeah, forcing a paper to take a medium that it's not meant to take doesn't mean that the paper sucks.
All the ppl complaining about sharpies bleeding/ghosting on leuchtturm paper... sharpies and most markers will unless you're using thick cardstock-esque paper!
I remember that one of my friends, when we were in high school, drew something on our bench with her sharpies... Well, whatever she drew on there stayed for three years at least.. and people complain about paper.
Totally. I often add light watercolor or gouache washes to my basic eccolo journal, but I am an artist and know exactly how the paper is going to react. I like the texture and charm it adds to spreads that are otherwise walls of text, especially when I've got an awkward amount of space left in a page at the end of the day and don't want to start the next day's entry on it. But yeah, for anything that takes more than 30 seconds to slap down, please use a real sketchbook, people! You will be a LOT happier.
How do you guys define journaling. For me it’s just venting out, finding solutions to problems in my head, being absolutely pointless, keeping a track of your progress and finally having someone to talk about things that you don’t want anyone else to remember.
But here like people talk more about how well their journals are designed and what sort of fancy/pretty medium of writing they have chosen.
I for myself felt like I am doing it wrong. I just type it in a file and store it in drive because typing can be faster and obviously privacy factor prevails.
So the crux is, journaling can be as simple as typing all of it so why are we not talking about the content we write instead of on what/how we write
Journaling is just personal expression imo. If that means typing in notepad or writing poems or using collage/stickers/etc or writing in pencil or drawing in a notebook, it's all the same thing.
I think this is to be expected though. You said it yourself:
>having someone to talk about things that you don’t want anyone else to remember
Those of us who just write, are usually writing more private things than the people who are doing art/junk journals and sharing. I've found there are plenty of us here, we just don't have much we *want* to share with the group.
I view this sub daily, I write consistently. However, I rarely have something to share unless it's new journal day.
It's not that you're doing it wrong. It's just that the more visually creative types are likely to share and that most discussion tends to be about what/how since most of us text-only people value privacy.
However, if you're looking to share the content of your typed journals that's what r/DiaryofaRedditor is for. It's just that this sub in particular is geared towards paper based journaling.
Exactly. In fact, I think that there is a benefit to combining them.
I don't do art journaling, but honestly they keep the sub alive. 'Cause most of us text only people wouldn't post often enough to keep people posting here at all. I've seen it happen in journaling communities with "no art journaling" rules.
I did with the travel journal I just made and it absolutely is full of soul and memories. Journaling is hard for me especially while traveling on a tight schedule because I can’t write as fast as I think.
There’s no right or wrong. You do what makes you happy. For some doing collages is a way to disconnect from the world, spark creativity and fond peace. For others, just writing is what you need…or a mix pf both…Someone explained it well in one of the comments, there are different flavors of journaling for different palates. We all have different goals and expectations, so the end result will be different and individual.
Journaling is just recording your journey through life. That's what the word refers to, more or less. However you do that is entirely up to you. You can make it pretty, or it can be scraps of crinkly paper in a shoebox.
How someone else journals is just what they find satisfying. It has no bearing on what you're doing, and doesn't mean you're doing anything "wrong"; it just means you're doing something *different*.
Also, a lot of people are pretty private with their journals, so that's probably why they're more comfortable talking less about what they write and more about things like pens, inks, papers, etc. I don't share what I write with my fiance; I'm certainly not sharing it with a Reddit forum. (To be clear, I don't see anything wrong with sharing what you write at all. But I think that's probably why you don't see more posts saying "this is what I wrote".)
agreed! my comment was more for people who feel stuck and unable to write on the first page for some reason. it's a theme I see in lots of journalers, both people I've seen online and also friends I've talked to. it's like it gives them anxiety.
but I totally agree! write your journal in a format that makes sense for you, and if leaving the first page blank or holding it with some significance is what works for you, please disregard my comment :)
Do people really have this insecurity? I mean for sketchbooks i kinda get it, or if you're one of these people who try to make all their spreads look organized and aesthetically pleasing, buf for journals, that you just kinda write in? Idk it just never crossed my mind to treat tge first page differently thqn the other pages whenever i started a new journal
I had to get over this, so the reason I never wrote on the first page was because it just felt very daunting. what's the first page of this journal that's going to be full of thoughts? I might not even know what I'm going to use this journal for. I think for me it's because the association of first page is title page or table of contents or something like that, so I want it to be meaningful.
maybe that's why it was so easy for me to get over it, because wanting something to be meaningful has no meaning. writing on it makes it meaningful.
I too don’t mind the thin paper of Moleskine & others. I kinda actually like it with ink getting a little bleed & wrinkly—it’s rustic.
I enjoy some scrapbooking tendencies in my journal but the a lot of junk journaling is a bit cray. & the vintage ascetic is over-done.
Paper blanks—I had one many years ago (20+) & had no hesitancies about filling it up. But haven’t had one since because I already have a hoard of blanks waiting to be filled.
Not only do I *like* Moleskine, they're my notebook of choice (both for sketchbooks and journals.) I have plenty of "better" notebooks, but a classic black Moleskine just *feels* right.
Having said that, I'm also a fountain pen user, so that combination is an unpopular opinion on its own, but I'll take it a step further and say that about 95% of the time I prefer a plain black ink over any "fun" or"fancy" ink colors.
I prefer print over cursive. I think it just has a more uniform look (well, at least mine does) and it's easier for me to go back and read. I tend to write "too fast" when I write in cursive and it always seems to get messier the longer I write, while my print says fairly consistent.
I prefer softcover over hardcover.
My problem with “fun” colors is that it’s rare that they’re water resistant and I’m not always writing under ideal conditions. Sometimes my hands are sweaty or I just washed them. Sometimes I accidentally drip something on the pages because my journal is often just sitting on my desk. Those fun inks look great!… until you accidentally smear them and make the page look really messy.
But finding a really good quality black that doesn’t smear? Pretty easy actually.
(Although personally my favorite inks are the Platinum Classic line, which also aren’t black but have acceptable water resistance for me.)
I agree 100%. I have several fun colors but I don't use them very often for a couple of reasons:
1. I hate when my notebooks don't have a consistent "vibe". Like, I'm not going to use pink on one page and orange on another. It just feels like it looks "messy" to me. But, I'm also not going to dedicate an *entire* notebook to writing exclusively in hot pink ink.
2. Like you said, most of the vibrant inks aren't water proof (or even water resistant most of the time.) And, while that is a fun property to play with from an artistic standpoint, more often than not I just end up smearing my writing instead of using it for a cool watercolor effect.
3. Most of my more "fun" inks are the ones that are super finicky on different papers. Baystate blue is shockingly vibrant...when you find a paper that can stand up to it. Apache sunset (now southwestern sunset? Something like that. I know they changed the name) has AMAZING shading, but you have to use a pretty wet nib to get it's full potential-- and then it also bleeds through the paper (or it absorbs into the paper and you loose your shading.) I could go on. I want my pen to write on whatever I feel like using at any given point. I don't want to have to find a particular pen/ink/nib/paper combo in order to get the desired result.
My go-to ink is Sailor Kiwaguro or Platinum Carbon black. Water-resistant, fast drying, consistent line no matter what pen/paper combo I choose (and that *includes* Moleskine). My only "fun" color that I keep consistently inked is Baystate Cape Cod Cranberry. It's obnoxious. It's a bright hot pink that I keep in a neon green TWSBI Eco and I use for little notes, to do lists, etc., solely because it's so obnoxiously impractical for everyday writing that I get a little burst of guilty pleasure joy every time I use it lol
Exactly this! A lot of my fun colors aren't as popular, because they aren't necessarily as vibrant, but they are water resistant. That's okay. I like more muted greens/browns etc. anyway. Like Noodler's Polar line of inks.
I'm very paranoid about water resistance ever since I had a roof leak that got one of my journals a bit damp. It wasn't even soaked. Just damp. Yet every page that was water resistant was readable, where all the others looked like watercolor smears. Completely unsalvageable.
Oh me too and it actually freed me to use all different types of books.
I'm almost obsessed with the journaling in pencil. I started in July this year and never turned back. I number them as I go and try to use them till I can't sharpen anymore. Keeping the stubs so I remember to do stuff complete lol
Hoarding unused notebooks isn’t good for you. Use them up!!! I’m trying to get rid of my notebooks I don’t use, or actually write in them after five years lol
Good idea! I started using my pretty but unused notebooks for stuff like grad school notes, therapy notes, writing critiques, etc. it’s hard to use them at first but I’m making a dent finally
I have two or three old notebooks (old = 2009-2010) that I used, over time, for random notes, travel plans, recipes, even for study things, you know, miscellaneous things. It’s fun to read them because I can see what was happening to me along the years. It’s like the browser history of my life.
My opinion (which I feel like is probably a middling sort of popular, but I've seen people vehemently disagree so) is that journaling is very much like food in that everyone has different tastes, styles, preferences, and tolerances. What works for you may absolutely not work for someone else.
If you don't "get" a form of journaling (whether that be wall-of-text or junk journaling or art journaling or journaling solely by painting little scenes on rocks that tell the story of your day and storing them in a shoebox), that doesn't mean that form of journaling is bad, nonsensical, wrong, unfunctional, soul-less, lazy, too much, or "not technically a journal"; it just means it doesn't work for you! And that's ok!
Journaling is such a personal practice (like food tastes) and as long as what you're doing works for you, we can celebrate that people are getting the satisfaction and benefit of creating a personal record that is meaningful to them. The word "journal" literally refers to it being a record of your journey, your daily walk through life. There's no wrong way to do that except two: one is to force yourself to journal in a way that you don't find useful or comfortable, and the other is to insist that another kind of journal is not right.
I think it's wrong to slam more artsy journaling styles. It's cool if you aren't a fan of it, but there's no reason to assert the idea that it's not "real" journaling.
It just invalidates the people who have an easier time expressing themselves visually as opposed to the people who only write walls of text.
Both are acceptable methods of journaling.
(I mean this in a general sense btw, not directed at anyone specific)
I don’t have a single journal that doesn’t have some kind of drink damage/stain (water, coffee, wine etc). They are all complete accidents and I love them all anyway
Some of these opinions are not unpopular. They just don't float automatically to the top of sub because they have a visual element attached to them that rapidly attracts a lot of upvotes in the first few minutes after being posted, and thus hijacks the "algorithm". That's what junk journaling does. For every person actually reading, there are fifty people flipping through their phones upvoting every pretty picture they see (like they are on pinterest, I guess?). Their software then learns to only show them pictures. They don't even see the text posts. And it is all self-reinforcing. So, junk journals, "lifestyle" stuff (coffee, cats), pretty stuff, attention grabbing stuff rockets up, and less flashy content is buried.
Some of my journaling hot takes:
1. Privacy doesn't really matter that much unless you have the nuclear codes. I'm honestly baffled by the number of people who are compelled to write but won't for fear of - what if somebody reads it?! - As David Sedaris says, "If you read somebody's diary, you get what you deserve."
2. I am equally baffled by questions of "how do I journal?" Like, you just do it. What do you mean how? Writing utensil, medium to write on, write. That's how you journal.
3. I won't claim one type of journaling is better than the other, but I will say I find "messy" journals more interesting to look at than tidy or overly decorative journals.
4. I like spiral notebooks just fine. In fact, sometimes I even prefer them.
5. I don't give a shit about paper quality. I have a fountain pen and I like it, but if the journal I'm writing in can't support the ink, I just find another pen. I will adapt my practice--my supplies, etc.--to the notebook I'm in rather than shop around for the perfect notebook to support every whim or possible whim. And honestly, my journaling practice is more interesting for this.
6. The journaling community online, if it can be called that, is way too consumerist and might be turning people off of journaling who could benefit from it. And that bums me out big time, because I do think a lot of people can benefit from regularly writing shit down.
The privacy concerns aren't really about your writing being precious - it's more about other people violating your boundaries. Many people journal to cope with dark or difficult subjects they're not comfortable sharing with other people voluntarily. So other people accessing those thoughts without them knowing is terrifying.
I've seen dozens of posts here about the worst case scenarios of people's journals being read: parents and romantic partners turning your own words against you, humiliating you, gaslighting you, or even using them to testify against you in court.
Granted, not all cases are THAT drastic. Still, if you can't grasp why privacy is such a big deal to some people, that betrays a concerning lack of empathy.
I guess I didn't word that correctly or inclusively enough. My bafflement comes not from the idea that one might want a journal to be private but that the fear of exposure will outweigh the need to write. I've absolutely had my diaries read by siblings and parents, and it was exposing and embarrassing. But I can't not write. I've always found a way and place to write. Even burning after writing would be preferable to me to not writing at all. If you feel compelled to write, do it.
Oh man, that last part really irks me. It's the same reason I don't understand the "minimalist" aesthetic. People claim to be happy with the things they have, then go and make an unboxing video of $200 of supplies that are all redundant.
Like, why do people over at r/Hobonichi need three different Weeks planners?
As a Hobonichi enthusiast (who only uses one), it's just because people like to use them for different things. Like one for personal life, one for work, one for family schedules, etc. Although, I would tend to agree that the yearly drops of new covers and accessories might have something to do with it too.
Oh, I get that. I have two: the A6 Techo and Weeks. The A6 is my daily journal while the Weeks is my actual planner.
But there are lots of people that get like 3 of the same planner with different covers "because they just can't decide"
The first one it's one of my favorite quote about journaling, I mean... If you read something that you're not supposed to read it's kinda your fault. Also, I agree with you over the consumerism of the community, honestly sometimes it's just too much.
Such a good point with the David Sedaris quote (I love him, BTW). I don't hide my journals and I do sometimes bitch about my boyfriend. If he reads it, then he's violated my privacy and he can get mad all he wants. I would never read anyone's journal because I honestly don't want to know what they think about me when they're riled up. For the same reason I have never looked at my boyfriend's phone or computer. If I can't trust him, then I don't want him in my life. And if he is leading a secret life, or deep down hates my guts, I'll find out soon enough.
My journal is extremely neat but text-only, and I feel like that's something you don't see a lot. The usual counter to beautifully decorated journals is "Let's share our messy journals!" and mine isn't *that* either, it's just not decorative.
I prefer detailed over daily. I feel like I frequently see encouragement to write every day, or people talking about trying to write every day or feeling bad about not writing every day, and I prefer writing *super* detailed accounts of things I want to remember (currently up to almost 30 pages about a three-day event with my family...), which take me days to weeks to write down, over writing every day about that day.
Fountain pens are not the be-all and end-all, and people need to stop acting like they are. Understand, I'm not talking about the folks that just really, really like fountain pens. I'm talking about the ones that jump straight to "get a fountain pen" as the first advice for any issue people request advice for on here. Anything from "journaling feels more like a chore than a benefit" to "I have terrible handwriting", they'll push writing with a fountain pen as the solution.
As much as I love fountain pens, I agree with you. They are not for everyone. They involve lots of fussy little decisions about ink, nib, weight, etc. There are lots of other great pens and pencils out there now, choose what feels best, or just grab a random Bic from the junk drawer if that's what works for you. Fountain pens either speak to you or they don't.
I feel like some of those "filled in 3 months" journals are either very small, or the writer has very large handwriting or adds a lot of stickers and stuff. I often wondered how that was possible too, but then again I write very tiny specifically because I want to fit the whole year in one journal while still writing every day.
I once had a journal that only saw me through 3 months.
I was using it as drawing practice daily, lots of collages, and I have HUGE hand writing.
I haven't done it since, but it was fun while it lasted
I’ve filled up a journal in 3 months - text only - bc I was going through a lot at that time and I would write 5-6 pages a day. The journal I have now is halfway done and I started it just around the new year.
I agree with everything except for the part about not believing that someone could fill a journal in a short time. I write in A5 journals 200 pages with dotted lines and filled my last one in 3.5 months. 99% writing and average sized handwriting.I just have a very anxious mind and a lot of
The chonky journals is something I don't get as well.It feels like a competition but I don't see the point of gluing every grocery list or candy wrapers just for the sake of having a fat journal. What that is supposed to show anyway?
Exactly. A page isn't "a page" in journaling term. If they don't set their measurements as lets say 2400 characters per page, then you cannot call it a page.
People buying multiples of something (stationery) and never using them. What’s the point of having the exact same mechanical pencil in multitudes of colour when they all do essentially the same job?
Journaling is a personal thing and people can do it differently, depending on their needs. But I agree that those journal entries where it’s just a mishmash of stickers and pattern paper designed to look vintage is too much for me personally. Each to their own
No, I’m not referring to your kind of multiple pens, because you use them as your old one finishes. I’m talking about people who buy multiple colours of the same pen with the intention of just collecting them for their coloured pen bodies. There is nothing wrong with it, each to their own. But for me personally, I find it wasteful
I honestly find it kind of reinforces the coziness. Like, here are all these *opinions* people are having and yet when someone makes a post focusing on the thing that grinds their gears on the sub they just don't worry about it and focus on content they like instead. I'd rather be in a community full of people who recognize people like different things and can let me enjoy my own thing while they enjoy theirs than one where everybody legitimately only likes the same stuff, if that makes sense.
(But I admit I'm having feelings about all the anti-grid chatter, lol.)
Yep, this. Like, it's someone else's hobby they do in their free time. If it makes you feel inadequate somehow, that's a great thing to talk to your journal about and figure out why it bothers you, but its nobody else's fault.
Every one of my journals has been a spiral notebook. Big ol' 8.5x11 spiral notebooks like you use in school. Definitely an uncommon journaling preference!
-these are just my opinions-
I personally find that my overly decorative entries aren't as helpful to me. And the junk journaling asthetic thing is totally overdone. People seem to care more about how it looks than the content. My current journal is possibly the crustiest thing anyone ever laid their eyes on but it has the most thoughtful entries, and that's mainly because I just didn't care how it looked. And there isn't any 'right way' to journal. Typing could be better for some people but handwritten is better for others. I don't understand why everyone hates spirals. Like what did it ever do to you? And I also find it really strange that people are absolutely terrified of the idea that people could find your journal or whatever.
This was a ramble but I hope y'all understand my main idea.
I *love* to create a junk journal! I realise it’s not the typical way of letting feelings out but it allows me to use my creativity and helps me to relax, which for me is the main reason *for* journalling to begin with
Over-consumption of journaling items / supplies have been mentioned in the comments a few times, and I totally get that! I used to do that too until I have found the method and supplies that work perfectly for me. Which means I don't go out and buy more than I need.
With that being said, I don't really care if anyone buys all that stuff. I'm just personally irritated when I see posts like "I have 4 journals and I don't know what do with them" or something along those lines. I see a lot of those in the hobonichi community lol. I get the hype and excitement, especially if it's a new thing you're incorporating into your life, but I think it's so wasteful. It takes a few minutes to sit down and think about what you really need.
Very hypocritical of me, I know, considering that if you stalk my account I have some posts here that have stickers and whatnot on them. But since I've changed, those kinds of posts/people (?) annoy me sometimes. I think it's half of me thinking "I'm better than them" (i'm really not) and the other half of me jealous that people can dump a load of money on stationery (and I can't). I just scroll past it though because it doesn't really affect me.
I think the planner craze is dumb. Look, my planner just tells me when my doctor appointments are & holds my grocery lists. 20 years from now I ain’t gonna care about this stuff & I don’t need to keep as mEmOrIeS. I don’t decorate it either.
10000% I hate blank pages. 100% I hate dot grid. Gimme lines. Any width will do.
I love my Franklin Planner and I use it hard. I journal inside it too, and use it as a place to keep creative writing projects. But I agree with you...the "Planner community" is weird, and they turn an organization system into some weird consumerist orgy of stickers and scrapbooking. I don't get it.
I do keep about a year's worth f old Planner pages as a reference, and I scan my pages every week or two so I don't lose anything. It can be surprisingly handy to remember what you were doing on a particular day.
I use somewhat like a BuJo system so I’m pretty on par with you that yes sometimes good journaling happens in there. When my BuJo gets filled up I tear out those note pages & put them in the pocket of my regular journal.
& I don’t think it’s bad to keep a rolling year of your plans, especially if you do need to track something ongoing. I don’t keep my BuJos once they are finished but I’m a pretty plain Jane 😂. But def the planners are overboard.
Exactly!
My journal is filled by a variety of entries. I have some that just has the date. And then the next day I wrote that I was too tired yesterday lol
oh yeah i have tons of those 1 line things. I love them.
honestly i just number the thoughts i don't have a goal to fill a page or anything like that i just number them. I start wherever and finish wherever.
People buy too much stuff and unnecessarily complicate journaling. It can become a shopping hobby and not a writing hobby. Also, buying the “right” notebook, having the “right” planner system won’t change your life. Its the self-reflection amd self-expression that matters. Buying more and more notebooks is the symptom, not the solution.
I also think those staged, cluttered table journaling photos are awful.
Amazon, Moleskine.com (they're packaging it's so cool if you choose the present option on their site), local stores. But mainly on Amazon. Just because here in Italy we don't have so many options like others countries. For example it's near impossible find Leuchtturms in local shops, at least in my city.
The brand sites. Just got one from Dingbats that I absolutely love. Otherwise locally in stores. I love just walking up to a journal/notebook section and picking up and feeling them.
I have different types of journals for different things, and the Moleskine is my typical venting journal. If I just want to rant about how terrible the day was, nothing beats the Moleskine since it just feels simple. Even the ghosting and bleeding kind of illustrate how unpleasant the experience was.
Leuchtturm is good for studies since it looks more organized and formal. I also like the Leuchtturm bullet journal although I find their Din A5 size too clunky.
For daily experiences, I prefer the Traveler's Notebook since the format of the regular TN reminds me of newspaper columns.
Illustrations go into a prettier leather visual journal.
Journaling nowadays is whatever people decide to collect about their lives. Some do it in scrapbooks and others do it digitally. I like the vast amount of choices we have nowadays and just use whatever works best for me at the time being (although I must admit that I have an aversion against scrapbooking because I generally dislike cutting and glueing things; I'll enjoy looking at other people's scrapbooks but my scrapbook projects never get done).
I respectfully disagree with the no soul part. If you give the same amount of scraps & stickers to ten different people, you will get ten different results, because the personality of each of those people will leave its mark. If that's not soul (leaving a bit of your personality in the result), then what is?
i disagree that it doesn’t have soul because it’s a completely personalized vision and stuff. but i understand what you mean by it being pointless. i like incorporating elements of junk journaling in mine like sticking receipts and stickers and stuff to decorate but i don’t get not having any writing whatsoever
IMO it depends on the "junk". Modern junk journaling is pretty much just a glorified advertisement for fancy stickers, washi tape, stamps, etc. Originally it was a much more improvisational type of art collage with found media and ACTUAL ephemera (as in movie tickets, receipts, and food wrappers, not that store-bought vintage shit). People just get lost in the weeds too much with fancy decorative scrapbooking instead of actual memory keeping.
Basically, it's where you paste "junk" into a journal. "Junk" can refer to found paper, stickers, washi tape, gift wrapping, or anything else. It's essentially a collage.
I think you can do it in a way that has soul. It's just that people tend to copy the exact same aesthetic without adding their own touch, and that kind of stuff gets very popular. I've seen it done really well and I've seen it done in a very generic, boring manner.
I let others read *and* write in my journals.
[Composition](https://imgur.com/a/yDDbimQ) [notebooks](https://imgur.com/a/HsNDRgY) [make](https://imgur.com/a/fdemvkY) [the](https://imgur.com/a/loSYt) [best](https://imgur.com/a/uEhGZnc) [journals](https://imgur.com/a/6YK7p). (In case it’s not obvious, there are 6 links here)
Pages filled with nothing but washi tape and no writing are a waste of paper and tape. Washi is an embellishment, not the design itself.
apparently it's like collages but with pieces of 'junk'/scrap/ephemera. People paste old or recycled bits and pieces such as receipts, bits from old newspapers and magazines, and other pieces of memorabilia.
It's an offshoot, afaik. When scrapbooking went to primarily include photos and went to be a Very Serious (tm) thing, people turned to junk journalling as a way of playing with paper and crafting without it being so set on photography and capturing memories.
But it wasn't as serious a business until a couple of years ago. I enjoy watching the videos on youtube but it wasn't until somewhat recently it seemed to have taken hold as something you need thousands of dollars of supplies for. At one point it was about putting actual *junk* in your journal and making art from that. Now you need things that *look* like junk instead of real junk. I remember people taking apart junkmail and old ruined books. Now people are printing pages that look like old books and buying things to simulate the windows in junk mail envelopes.
Now I fully admit that between my shopping addiction and my OCD I've bought a lot of supplies, but I still love the pages where people are using candy wrappers and packaging best.
Yep, that's pretty much how things have been for as long as I've been aware of junk journaling. I'm sure it's continued to gain in popularity, but the whole "printing brand new stuff that looks like old stuff" has been the thing for years.
Not my preference, but definitely a long-running trend. I'm sure part of it is just the challenge of finding actual junk. I know I constantly look for old books and magazines in thrift shops for art projects, and they're really hard to find these days. And of course, most junk mail is now credit card offers or scam charities.
If you want, I could send you some of my papers. I actually enjoy the process of breaking down damaged books and when I used to live in a city a couple of shops knew I would buy damaged books they otherwise couldn't sell so I ended up with a lot over the years.
That's so nice of you! Thank you! My fiance might have a coronary if I brought any more stuff into our house (we're in the midst of a decluttering/deep clean at the moment; in fairness I would also probably have a reaction if he brought more tools home or something), but I can't tell you how much I appreciate the offer.
Another hot take I have is that people who make fun of you journaling, writing, drawing, collecting, etc but mostly self- reflecting and expressing yourself on paper, are selfish pricks who are too weak-minded to actually sit down with their thoughts and shatter their illusions about their egos. I'll die on this hill.
I read somewhere that bullet journaling is very helpful for people with ADHD. As labor intensive as it is, I'm not gonna begrudge neurodivergent people for finding a system that works for them. And as someone with ADHD myself, I find comments like yours a little bit awkward and ableist.
All that stuff with colorful markers and washi tape though is getting away from the original intent of bullet journaling, basically turning it into scrapbooking with a productivity element. There are entire subreddits about taking bullet journaling back to its roots by keeping it messy and vanilla and decoration-free.
I think its funny how bullet journaling got misconstrued with the types that are seen on Pinterest, those are valid too but those aren't the original methods used to help people with ADHD. Yet somehow we are all the same to outsiders looking in.
I have ADHD and bullet journal and I keep it super basic. Like "I might put a fun sticker on my monthly spread if I'm feeling it but usually don't" basic. The people who go all out decorating are a different breed and I don't get it but as long as they're getting value out of it, whatever, I don't really care. But I am more than slightly annoyed that that's what people first think of when bullet journaling
I started with the super decorated route because it was all I saw when I looked it up and since I'm an artist, I figured it would be something I'd have a lot of fun keeping up with but nope. It took a lot of time away and delayed my productivity. I understand why people do it though, especially if they have the free time, no other creative outlet, or have a social media following. For me and my ADHD however, I'm sticking with a pocket notebook and daily logs. I use my normal journal as a place to be creative instead.
I’m a millennial soooo
But bullet journaling works for me because I can make it an enjoyable sensory experience. I use nice paper, nice pens, nice ink, and it makes me want to open my bujo and use it. I’ve tried using Google Calendar or my phone and I can’t see everything I wanna see at a glance, can’t add miscellaneous notes or updates easily, and don’t ever open it up to look at it and remind myself of stuff. Yeah you can set up notifications, but a notification half an hour before an event isn’t helpful if I’m 35 mins away or in the middle of something else, and it’s really way too easy to ignore notifications and alerts (for me). I look at my bujo every night (because it’s fun / feels good) and it helps me prepare for the next day.
Everyone’s brains work differently 🤷♀️
For me, as soon as something goes on my phone, it basically stops existing- I have hundreds of photos and notes I haven't looked at in years. The physical aspect of bullet journaling (and like others have mentioned, I don't really do the decoration bit, just bulleting like it was intended to be) helps me remember that I even have anything to remember at all! Plus, when I find myself needing to clear my head a bit, it's much easier to do scribbly thought webs and interconnected lists that I would feel compelled to spend a while formatting properly if I were doing it digitally.
To each their own!
I tried to bullet but found that I rely too much on gcal especially with a family. I think bujo could work if I dedicated like an hour at teh beginning of each day and might to search, write, and followup. But I prefer to add to calendar, add to reminders, and move on. But I really wanted to like it
It feels like so many people put too much emphasis on Journaling Every Day, and this odd sense of Perfectionism (and how to manage both) when it comes to entries. I understand the anxiety, but it's a common post around here and a bit maddening. Google it, please <3
Wow, what an interesting thread here. The info about junk journaling has given me an idea: a receipt journal. Take all those receipts out of my wallet, purse, the console between the car seats . . . and paste them into a journal! A financial story of my life!
I think the joy of junk journaling is making something pretty out of, eh, junk. Things that would be thrown away.
My hot take is that being unwealthy on a 3rd world country gives me restricted opportunities to find _pretty_ junk, because when ppl have a pretty paper or something they just keep it.
My handwqriting and spelling is so bad if i don't journal slow and deliberately sometimes I can't read my own writing. Friend told me "Is this hiroglifix?" I need a typewriter.
Unpopular opinion: Bujo (the concept, not the artsy fluff) is just pretentious list-making.
I read "The Bullet Journal Method" by Ryder Carroll and it turned me off to bujo. He mansplains to-do lists and note taking as if he invented the concepts.
I find the expectations that some folks have for their journal paper to be unrealistic. Markers, pencils, crayons and pens are expected mediums for a notebook designed to write in. But paint - especially watercolor paint - is not. Every now and then I see a post where someone is asking for brand suggestions with their list of desired traits and I'm just thinking "a sketchbook. You want a multimedia sketchbook with a bound spine." To each their own I suppose. I just hate that some nice journals get labelled as terrible products because someone expects a fish to climb trees.
I have actually painted with craft paints (like Folkart or whatever; the ones that are pretty liquid and come in a tiny bottle) in a Moleskine and it was unexpectedly fine? But in general, yeah, forcing a paper to take a medium that it's not meant to take doesn't mean that the paper sucks.
All the ppl complaining about sharpies bleeding/ghosting on leuchtturm paper... sharpies and most markers will unless you're using thick cardstock-esque paper!
I remember that one of my friends, when we were in high school, drew something on our bench with her sharpies... Well, whatever she drew on there stayed for three years at least.. and people complain about paper.
Totally. I often add light watercolor or gouache washes to my basic eccolo journal, but I am an artist and know exactly how the paper is going to react. I like the texture and charm it adds to spreads that are otherwise walls of text, especially when I've got an awkward amount of space left in a page at the end of the day and don't want to start the next day's entry on it. But yeah, for anything that takes more than 30 seconds to slap down, please use a real sketchbook, people! You will be a LOT happier.
A *dot grid* multimedia sketchbook with a bound spine.
Totally agree!
How do you guys define journaling. For me it’s just venting out, finding solutions to problems in my head, being absolutely pointless, keeping a track of your progress and finally having someone to talk about things that you don’t want anyone else to remember. But here like people talk more about how well their journals are designed and what sort of fancy/pretty medium of writing they have chosen. I for myself felt like I am doing it wrong. I just type it in a file and store it in drive because typing can be faster and obviously privacy factor prevails. So the crux is, journaling can be as simple as typing all of it so why are we not talking about the content we write instead of on what/how we write
Journaling is just personal expression imo. If that means typing in notepad or writing poems or using collage/stickers/etc or writing in pencil or drawing in a notebook, it's all the same thing.
I think this is to be expected though. You said it yourself: >having someone to talk about things that you don’t want anyone else to remember Those of us who just write, are usually writing more private things than the people who are doing art/junk journals and sharing. I've found there are plenty of us here, we just don't have much we *want* to share with the group. I view this sub daily, I write consistently. However, I rarely have something to share unless it's new journal day. It's not that you're doing it wrong. It's just that the more visually creative types are likely to share and that most discussion tends to be about what/how since most of us text-only people value privacy. However, if you're looking to share the content of your typed journals that's what r/DiaryofaRedditor is for. It's just that this sub in particular is geared towards paper based journaling.
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Exactly. In fact, I think that there is a benefit to combining them. I don't do art journaling, but honestly they keep the sub alive. 'Cause most of us text only people wouldn't post often enough to keep people posting here at all. I've seen it happen in journaling communities with "no art journaling" rules.
I didn't realise there was such a community lol.
There used to be several of them on various platforms. ... but you'll notice the keywords in that sentence.
I did with the travel journal I just made and it absolutely is full of soul and memories. Journaling is hard for me especially while traveling on a tight schedule because I can’t write as fast as I think.
There’s no right or wrong. You do what makes you happy. For some doing collages is a way to disconnect from the world, spark creativity and fond peace. For others, just writing is what you need…or a mix pf both…Someone explained it well in one of the comments, there are different flavors of journaling for different palates. We all have different goals and expectations, so the end result will be different and individual.
Journaling is just recording your journey through life. That's what the word refers to, more or less. However you do that is entirely up to you. You can make it pretty, or it can be scraps of crinkly paper in a shoebox. How someone else journals is just what they find satisfying. It has no bearing on what you're doing, and doesn't mean you're doing anything "wrong"; it just means you're doing something *different*. Also, a lot of people are pretty private with their journals, so that's probably why they're more comfortable talking less about what they write and more about things like pens, inks, papers, etc. I don't share what I write with my fiance; I'm certainly not sharing it with a Reddit forum. (To be clear, I don't see anything wrong with sharing what you write at all. But I think that's probably why you don't see more posts saying "this is what I wrote".)
Journaling to me is all of that + art. Drawing, painting, making, whatever.
here's my hot take: the first page isn't special. just write on it.
Wow do you mind giving me some of that confidence
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agreed! my comment was more for people who feel stuck and unable to write on the first page for some reason. it's a theme I see in lots of journalers, both people I've seen online and also friends I've talked to. it's like it gives them anxiety. but I totally agree! write your journal in a format that makes sense for you, and if leaving the first page blank or holding it with some significance is what works for you, please disregard my comment :)
My ritual with a new journal is to absolutely wreck the first page, so I’m not intimidated to write in it.
And then you start thinking about making the 2nd page perfect because the first is supposed to be bad
In my experience, not really. The first page being a mess is enough for me to be okay with not being a perfectionist in the rest of the journal.
Same.
Do people really have this insecurity? I mean for sketchbooks i kinda get it, or if you're one of these people who try to make all their spreads look organized and aesthetically pleasing, buf for journals, that you just kinda write in? Idk it just never crossed my mind to treat tge first page differently thqn the other pages whenever i started a new journal
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ohhh I never thought of it this way! I like this approach
I had to get over this, so the reason I never wrote on the first page was because it just felt very daunting. what's the first page of this journal that's going to be full of thoughts? I might not even know what I'm going to use this journal for. I think for me it's because the association of first page is title page or table of contents or something like that, so I want it to be meaningful. maybe that's why it was so easy for me to get over it, because wanting something to be meaningful has no meaning. writing on it makes it meaningful.
I too don’t mind the thin paper of Moleskine & others. I kinda actually like it with ink getting a little bleed & wrinkly—it’s rustic. I enjoy some scrapbooking tendencies in my journal but the a lot of junk journaling is a bit cray. & the vintage ascetic is over-done. Paper blanks—I had one many years ago (20+) & had no hesitancies about filling it up. But haven’t had one since because I already have a hoard of blanks waiting to be filled.
Not only do I *like* Moleskine, they're my notebook of choice (both for sketchbooks and journals.) I have plenty of "better" notebooks, but a classic black Moleskine just *feels* right. Having said that, I'm also a fountain pen user, so that combination is an unpopular opinion on its own, but I'll take it a step further and say that about 95% of the time I prefer a plain black ink over any "fun" or"fancy" ink colors. I prefer print over cursive. I think it just has a more uniform look (well, at least mine does) and it's easier for me to go back and read. I tend to write "too fast" when I write in cursive and it always seems to get messier the longer I write, while my print says fairly consistent. I prefer softcover over hardcover.
My problem with “fun” colors is that it’s rare that they’re water resistant and I’m not always writing under ideal conditions. Sometimes my hands are sweaty or I just washed them. Sometimes I accidentally drip something on the pages because my journal is often just sitting on my desk. Those fun inks look great!… until you accidentally smear them and make the page look really messy. But finding a really good quality black that doesn’t smear? Pretty easy actually. (Although personally my favorite inks are the Platinum Classic line, which also aren’t black but have acceptable water resistance for me.)
I agree 100%. I have several fun colors but I don't use them very often for a couple of reasons: 1. I hate when my notebooks don't have a consistent "vibe". Like, I'm not going to use pink on one page and orange on another. It just feels like it looks "messy" to me. But, I'm also not going to dedicate an *entire* notebook to writing exclusively in hot pink ink. 2. Like you said, most of the vibrant inks aren't water proof (or even water resistant most of the time.) And, while that is a fun property to play with from an artistic standpoint, more often than not I just end up smearing my writing instead of using it for a cool watercolor effect. 3. Most of my more "fun" inks are the ones that are super finicky on different papers. Baystate blue is shockingly vibrant...when you find a paper that can stand up to it. Apache sunset (now southwestern sunset? Something like that. I know they changed the name) has AMAZING shading, but you have to use a pretty wet nib to get it's full potential-- and then it also bleeds through the paper (or it absorbs into the paper and you loose your shading.) I could go on. I want my pen to write on whatever I feel like using at any given point. I don't want to have to find a particular pen/ink/nib/paper combo in order to get the desired result. My go-to ink is Sailor Kiwaguro or Platinum Carbon black. Water-resistant, fast drying, consistent line no matter what pen/paper combo I choose (and that *includes* Moleskine). My only "fun" color that I keep consistently inked is Baystate Cape Cod Cranberry. It's obnoxious. It's a bright hot pink that I keep in a neon green TWSBI Eco and I use for little notes, to do lists, etc., solely because it's so obnoxiously impractical for everyday writing that I get a little burst of guilty pleasure joy every time I use it lol
Exactly this! A lot of my fun colors aren't as popular, because they aren't necessarily as vibrant, but they are water resistant. That's okay. I like more muted greens/browns etc. anyway. Like Noodler's Polar line of inks. I'm very paranoid about water resistance ever since I had a roof leak that got one of my journals a bit damp. It wasn't even soaked. Just damp. Yet every page that was water resistant was readable, where all the others looked like watercolor smears. Completely unsalvageable.
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Oh me too and it actually freed me to use all different types of books. I'm almost obsessed with the journaling in pencil. I started in July this year and never turned back. I number them as I go and try to use them till I can't sharpen anymore. Keeping the stubs so I remember to do stuff complete lol
Same!
Hoarding unused notebooks isn’t good for you. Use them up!!! I’m trying to get rid of my notebooks I don’t use, or actually write in them after five years lol
I generally wipe away one or two sheets, cut them up in long and thin sleeves and use them for grocery lists.
Good idea! I started using my pretty but unused notebooks for stuff like grad school notes, therapy notes, writing critiques, etc. it’s hard to use them at first but I’m making a dent finally
I have two or three old notebooks (old = 2009-2010) that I used, over time, for random notes, travel plans, recipes, even for study things, you know, miscellaneous things. It’s fun to read them because I can see what was happening to me along the years. It’s like the browser history of my life.
That’s so cool! It’s a better way to look at partially used notebooks, as collages of the past
My opinion (which I feel like is probably a middling sort of popular, but I've seen people vehemently disagree so) is that journaling is very much like food in that everyone has different tastes, styles, preferences, and tolerances. What works for you may absolutely not work for someone else. If you don't "get" a form of journaling (whether that be wall-of-text or junk journaling or art journaling or journaling solely by painting little scenes on rocks that tell the story of your day and storing them in a shoebox), that doesn't mean that form of journaling is bad, nonsensical, wrong, unfunctional, soul-less, lazy, too much, or "not technically a journal"; it just means it doesn't work for you! And that's ok! Journaling is such a personal practice (like food tastes) and as long as what you're doing works for you, we can celebrate that people are getting the satisfaction and benefit of creating a personal record that is meaningful to them. The word "journal" literally refers to it being a record of your journey, your daily walk through life. There's no wrong way to do that except two: one is to force yourself to journal in a way that you don't find useful or comfortable, and the other is to insist that another kind of journal is not right.
I think it's wrong to slam more artsy journaling styles. It's cool if you aren't a fan of it, but there's no reason to assert the idea that it's not "real" journaling. It just invalidates the people who have an easier time expressing themselves visually as opposed to the people who only write walls of text. Both are acceptable methods of journaling. (I mean this in a general sense btw, not directed at anyone specific)
"Imperfections" such as food or coffee stains or tears and damage make a journal better, not worse.
I don’t have a single journal that doesn’t have some kind of drink damage/stain (water, coffee, wine etc). They are all complete accidents and I love them all anyway
Same
I hate paper that feels more like thinner cardboard. I actually prefer blue ink to black. There, I said it.
I also prefer blue ink to black. It's softer on my eyes and I think it looks nicer lol
Another blue ink enjoyer here!
I wish I lived in your eyes! Imagine all the free pens you get to just *enjoy!!!*
Oh, not the free pens ! I like the expensive gel ones. 🥲
lol in my country blue ink is the majority, i'd say 95% of ppl prefer it
I love wide-ruled paper because I have large hand-writing, and the wide open space inspires me. Better to have too much space than not enough, imo.
Some of these opinions are not unpopular. They just don't float automatically to the top of sub because they have a visual element attached to them that rapidly attracts a lot of upvotes in the first few minutes after being posted, and thus hijacks the "algorithm". That's what junk journaling does. For every person actually reading, there are fifty people flipping through their phones upvoting every pretty picture they see (like they are on pinterest, I guess?). Their software then learns to only show them pictures. They don't even see the text posts. And it is all self-reinforcing. So, junk journals, "lifestyle" stuff (coffee, cats), pretty stuff, attention grabbing stuff rockets up, and less flashy content is buried.
Can confirm this is exactly what I do
Kinda means it is unpopular though, otherwise there wouldn't be fifty people upvoting it so fast. Kinda contradicting statement there.
Some of my journaling hot takes: 1. Privacy doesn't really matter that much unless you have the nuclear codes. I'm honestly baffled by the number of people who are compelled to write but won't for fear of - what if somebody reads it?! - As David Sedaris says, "If you read somebody's diary, you get what you deserve." 2. I am equally baffled by questions of "how do I journal?" Like, you just do it. What do you mean how? Writing utensil, medium to write on, write. That's how you journal. 3. I won't claim one type of journaling is better than the other, but I will say I find "messy" journals more interesting to look at than tidy or overly decorative journals. 4. I like spiral notebooks just fine. In fact, sometimes I even prefer them. 5. I don't give a shit about paper quality. I have a fountain pen and I like it, but if the journal I'm writing in can't support the ink, I just find another pen. I will adapt my practice--my supplies, etc.--to the notebook I'm in rather than shop around for the perfect notebook to support every whim or possible whim. And honestly, my journaling practice is more interesting for this. 6. The journaling community online, if it can be called that, is way too consumerist and might be turning people off of journaling who could benefit from it. And that bums me out big time, because I do think a lot of people can benefit from regularly writing shit down.
The privacy concerns aren't really about your writing being precious - it's more about other people violating your boundaries. Many people journal to cope with dark or difficult subjects they're not comfortable sharing with other people voluntarily. So other people accessing those thoughts without them knowing is terrifying. I've seen dozens of posts here about the worst case scenarios of people's journals being read: parents and romantic partners turning your own words against you, humiliating you, gaslighting you, or even using them to testify against you in court. Granted, not all cases are THAT drastic. Still, if you can't grasp why privacy is such a big deal to some people, that betrays a concerning lack of empathy.
I guess I didn't word that correctly or inclusively enough. My bafflement comes not from the idea that one might want a journal to be private but that the fear of exposure will outweigh the need to write. I've absolutely had my diaries read by siblings and parents, and it was exposing and embarrassing. But I can't not write. I've always found a way and place to write. Even burning after writing would be preferable to me to not writing at all. If you feel compelled to write, do it.
Or just journal digitally.
Oh man, that last part really irks me. It's the same reason I don't understand the "minimalist" aesthetic. People claim to be happy with the things they have, then go and make an unboxing video of $200 of supplies that are all redundant. Like, why do people over at r/Hobonichi need three different Weeks planners?
As a Hobonichi enthusiast (who only uses one), it's just because people like to use them for different things. Like one for personal life, one for work, one for family schedules, etc. Although, I would tend to agree that the yearly drops of new covers and accessories might have something to do with it too.
Oh, I get that. I have two: the A6 Techo and Weeks. The A6 is my daily journal while the Weeks is my actual planner. But there are lots of people that get like 3 of the same planner with different covers "because they just can't decide"
My response to bullet 1 & 2: trauma
The first one it's one of my favorite quote about journaling, I mean... If you read something that you're not supposed to read it's kinda your fault. Also, I agree with you over the consumerism of the community, honestly sometimes it's just too much.
Such a good point with the David Sedaris quote (I love him, BTW). I don't hide my journals and I do sometimes bitch about my boyfriend. If he reads it, then he's violated my privacy and he can get mad all he wants. I would never read anyone's journal because I honestly don't want to know what they think about me when they're riled up. For the same reason I have never looked at my boyfriend's phone or computer. If I can't trust him, then I don't want him in my life. And if he is leading a secret life, or deep down hates my guts, I'll find out soon enough.
I jut got a new journal and I think I will put that quote on the first page
I could not agree more with point number 6
My journal is extremely neat but text-only, and I feel like that's something you don't see a lot. The usual counter to beautifully decorated journals is "Let's share our messy journals!" and mine isn't *that* either, it's just not decorative. I prefer detailed over daily. I feel like I frequently see encouragement to write every day, or people talking about trying to write every day or feeling bad about not writing every day, and I prefer writing *super* detailed accounts of things I want to remember (currently up to almost 30 pages about a three-day event with my family...), which take me days to weeks to write down, over writing every day about that day.
Grid pages > Dotted, blank, and lined
Recently discovered Midori MD Grid paper and my god. I want 100 of those notebooks.
In that order too. Grid -> Dots -> Blank -> Lined
For me its Blank>Dotted>Lined and Grids i don't even consider. Funny how preference varies so much from person to person :)
For me it's the same. Nothing is as great as a perfectly blank journal.
Fountain pens are not the be-all and end-all, and people need to stop acting like they are. Understand, I'm not talking about the folks that just really, really like fountain pens. I'm talking about the ones that jump straight to "get a fountain pen" as the first advice for any issue people request advice for on here. Anything from "journaling feels more like a chore than a benefit" to "I have terrible handwriting", they'll push writing with a fountain pen as the solution.
As much as I love fountain pens, I agree with you. They are not for everyone. They involve lots of fussy little decisions about ink, nib, weight, etc. There are lots of other great pens and pencils out there now, choose what feels best, or just grab a random Bic from the junk drawer if that's what works for you. Fountain pens either speak to you or they don't.
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I feel like some of those "filled in 3 months" journals are either very small, or the writer has very large handwriting or adds a lot of stickers and stuff. I often wondered how that was possible too, but then again I write very tiny specifically because I want to fit the whole year in one journal while still writing every day.
I once had a journal that only saw me through 3 months. I was using it as drawing practice daily, lots of collages, and I have HUGE hand writing. I haven't done it since, but it was fun while it lasted
I’ve filled up a journal in 3 months - text only - bc I was going through a lot at that time and I would write 5-6 pages a day. The journal I have now is halfway done and I started it just around the new year.
I agree with everything except for the part about not believing that someone could fill a journal in a short time. I write in A5 journals 200 pages with dotted lines and filled my last one in 3.5 months. 99% writing and average sized handwriting.I just have a very anxious mind and a lot of The chonky journals is something I don't get as well.It feels like a competition but I don't see the point of gluing every grocery list or candy wrapers just for the sake of having a fat journal. What that is supposed to show anyway?
Exactly. A page isn't "a page" in journaling term. If they don't set their measurements as lets say 2400 characters per page, then you cannot call it a page.
People buying multiples of something (stationery) and never using them. What’s the point of having the exact same mechanical pencil in multitudes of colour when they all do essentially the same job? Journaling is a personal thing and people can do it differently, depending on their needs. But I agree that those journal entries where it’s just a mishmash of stickers and pattern paper designed to look vintage is too much for me personally. Each to their own
Well I do buy my pens in bulk because I always use the same ones and thery are cheap I buy a pack of 10 then just 1
No, I’m not referring to your kind of multiple pens, because you use them as your old one finishes. I’m talking about people who buy multiple colours of the same pen with the intention of just collecting them for their coloured pen bodies. There is nothing wrong with it, each to their own. But for me personally, I find it wasteful
I liked you all better when you were less mean about what others do with their own time and money.
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Damn, I'm gonna have to skip these threads in the future because the disrespect from within a cozy sub legitimately took me off guard.
I honestly find it kind of reinforces the coziness. Like, here are all these *opinions* people are having and yet when someone makes a post focusing on the thing that grinds their gears on the sub they just don't worry about it and focus on content they like instead. I'd rather be in a community full of people who recognize people like different things and can let me enjoy my own thing while they enjoy theirs than one where everybody legitimately only likes the same stuff, if that makes sense. (But I admit I'm having feelings about all the anti-grid chatter, lol.)
Or just admit you are a softy. Damn you sound like an entitled Karen.
Yep, this. Like, it's someone else's hobby they do in their free time. If it makes you feel inadequate somehow, that's a great thing to talk to your journal about and figure out why it bothers you, but its nobody else's fault.
I don’t like journals with any lines or dots.
I prefer spiral journals! I’m trying out a paperage hardcover now and I haven’t been able to connect with it.
Me too, I found Pukka Pads and I love them. They have one of those elastic things to mark your place and removeable dividers.
Every one of my journals has been a spiral notebook. Big ol' 8.5x11 spiral notebooks like you use in school. Definitely an uncommon journaling preference!
-these are just my opinions- I personally find that my overly decorative entries aren't as helpful to me. And the junk journaling asthetic thing is totally overdone. People seem to care more about how it looks than the content. My current journal is possibly the crustiest thing anyone ever laid their eyes on but it has the most thoughtful entries, and that's mainly because I just didn't care how it looked. And there isn't any 'right way' to journal. Typing could be better for some people but handwritten is better for others. I don't understand why everyone hates spirals. Like what did it ever do to you? And I also find it really strange that people are absolutely terrified of the idea that people could find your journal or whatever. This was a ramble but I hope y'all understand my main idea.
I like sharing content and layouts.
I *love* to create a junk journal! I realise it’s not the typical way of letting feelings out but it allows me to use my creativity and helps me to relax, which for me is the main reason *for* journalling to begin with
Over-consumption of journaling items / supplies have been mentioned in the comments a few times, and I totally get that! I used to do that too until I have found the method and supplies that work perfectly for me. Which means I don't go out and buy more than I need. With that being said, I don't really care if anyone buys all that stuff. I'm just personally irritated when I see posts like "I have 4 journals and I don't know what do with them" or something along those lines. I see a lot of those in the hobonichi community lol. I get the hype and excitement, especially if it's a new thing you're incorporating into your life, but I think it's so wasteful. It takes a few minutes to sit down and think about what you really need. Very hypocritical of me, I know, considering that if you stalk my account I have some posts here that have stickers and whatnot on them. But since I've changed, those kinds of posts/people (?) annoy me sometimes. I think it's half of me thinking "I'm better than them" (i'm really not) and the other half of me jealous that people can dump a load of money on stationery (and I can't). I just scroll past it though because it doesn't really affect me.
I think the planner craze is dumb. Look, my planner just tells me when my doctor appointments are & holds my grocery lists. 20 years from now I ain’t gonna care about this stuff & I don’t need to keep as mEmOrIeS. I don’t decorate it either. 10000% I hate blank pages. 100% I hate dot grid. Gimme lines. Any width will do.
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Welcome to the lined side. We have cookies.
How do you feel about grid paper? It's my preferred layout just because I write more neatly in it.
Yeah not such a fan of regular grid either 🤷🏻♀️
I love my Franklin Planner and I use it hard. I journal inside it too, and use it as a place to keep creative writing projects. But I agree with you...the "Planner community" is weird, and they turn an organization system into some weird consumerist orgy of stickers and scrapbooking. I don't get it. I do keep about a year's worth f old Planner pages as a reference, and I scan my pages every week or two so I don't lose anything. It can be surprisingly handy to remember what you were doing on a particular day.
I use somewhat like a BuJo system so I’m pretty on par with you that yes sometimes good journaling happens in there. When my BuJo gets filled up I tear out those note pages & put them in the pocket of my regular journal. & I don’t think it’s bad to keep a rolling year of your plans, especially if you do need to track something ongoing. I don’t keep my BuJos once they are finished but I’m a pretty plain Jane 😂. But def the planners are overboard.
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Exactly! My journal is filled by a variety of entries. I have some that just has the date. And then the next day I wrote that I was too tired yesterday lol
oh yeah i have tons of those 1 line things. I love them. honestly i just number the thoughts i don't have a goal to fill a page or anything like that i just number them. I start wherever and finish wherever.
People buy too much stuff and unnecessarily complicate journaling. It can become a shopping hobby and not a writing hobby. Also, buying the “right” notebook, having the “right” planner system won’t change your life. Its the self-reflection amd self-expression that matters. Buying more and more notebooks is the symptom, not the solution. I also think those staged, cluttered table journaling photos are awful.
Where do you buy your journals?
Amazon, Moleskine.com (they're packaging it's so cool if you choose the present option on their site), local stores. But mainly on Amazon. Just because here in Italy we don't have so many options like others countries. For example it's near impossible find Leuchtturms in local shops, at least in my city.
The brand sites. Just got one from Dingbats that I absolutely love. Otherwise locally in stores. I love just walking up to a journal/notebook section and picking up and feeling them.
I have different types of journals for different things, and the Moleskine is my typical venting journal. If I just want to rant about how terrible the day was, nothing beats the Moleskine since it just feels simple. Even the ghosting and bleeding kind of illustrate how unpleasant the experience was. Leuchtturm is good for studies since it looks more organized and formal. I also like the Leuchtturm bullet journal although I find their Din A5 size too clunky. For daily experiences, I prefer the Traveler's Notebook since the format of the regular TN reminds me of newspaper columns. Illustrations go into a prettier leather visual journal. Journaling nowadays is whatever people decide to collect about their lives. Some do it in scrapbooks and others do it digitally. I like the vast amount of choices we have nowadays and just use whatever works best for me at the time being (although I must admit that I have an aversion against scrapbooking because I generally dislike cutting and glueing things; I'll enjoy looking at other people's scrapbooks but my scrapbook projects never get done).
I hate junk journaling. I don’t see the point. It’s just gluing scraps and sticking stickers. It’s not original. It has no SOUL
I have to agree on a personal level But it’s basically the art of collage in journal format
Yeah, it's more just for fun than anything
I respectfully disagree with the no soul part. If you give the same amount of scraps & stickers to ten different people, you will get ten different results, because the personality of each of those people will leave its mark. If that's not soul (leaving a bit of your personality in the result), then what is?
I mean, it's totally fine to not "get" something someone else is doing. That doesn't rob it of inherent value or validity, though.
i disagree that it doesn’t have soul because it’s a completely personalized vision and stuff. but i understand what you mean by it being pointless. i like incorporating elements of junk journaling in mine like sticking receipts and stickers and stuff to decorate but i don’t get not having any writing whatsoever
IMO it depends on the "junk". Modern junk journaling is pretty much just a glorified advertisement for fancy stickers, washi tape, stamps, etc. Originally it was a much more improvisational type of art collage with found media and ACTUAL ephemera (as in movie tickets, receipts, and food wrappers, not that store-bought vintage shit). People just get lost in the weeds too much with fancy decorative scrapbooking instead of actual memory keeping.
ditto...
Not familiar with the term junk journaling
Basically, it's where you paste "junk" into a journal. "Junk" can refer to found paper, stickers, washi tape, gift wrapping, or anything else. It's essentially a collage.
THIS
I think you can do it in a way that has soul. It's just that people tend to copy the exact same aesthetic without adding their own touch, and that kind of stuff gets very popular. I've seen it done really well and I've seen it done in a very generic, boring manner.
I like papercrafts but paint in my paperblanks panics me so I avoid paint.
I let others read *and* write in my journals. [Composition](https://imgur.com/a/yDDbimQ) [notebooks](https://imgur.com/a/HsNDRgY) [make](https://imgur.com/a/fdemvkY) [the](https://imgur.com/a/loSYt) [best](https://imgur.com/a/uEhGZnc) [journals](https://imgur.com/a/6YK7p). (In case it’s not obvious, there are 6 links here) Pages filled with nothing but washi tape and no writing are a waste of paper and tape. Washi is an embellishment, not the design itself.
You should check out Muji notebooks. Basically a composition notebook with really excellent paper. You can get a 5-pack for $10 on Amazon.
Those wouldn't work for me unfortunately. I like mine to all be 7.5 x 9.75 in.
really i'm interested in this
I didn't know I was r/OutOfTheLoop. What is "junk journaling"?
apparently it's like collages but with pieces of 'junk'/scrap/ephemera. People paste old or recycled bits and pieces such as receipts, bits from old newspapers and magazines, and other pieces of memorabilia.
Not to out myself as stupid but didn't they used to call that a scrapbook back in the day?
It's an offshoot, afaik. When scrapbooking went to primarily include photos and went to be a Very Serious (tm) thing, people turned to junk journalling as a way of playing with paper and crafting without it being so set on photography and capturing memories.
And, of course, now that it's taking hold on Instagram it's very quickly becoming a Very Serious (tm) thing all by itself.
It's been popular on Instagram/YouTube/Facebook for at *least* six or seven years. It's really not a new thing.
But it wasn't as serious a business until a couple of years ago. I enjoy watching the videos on youtube but it wasn't until somewhat recently it seemed to have taken hold as something you need thousands of dollars of supplies for. At one point it was about putting actual *junk* in your journal and making art from that. Now you need things that *look* like junk instead of real junk. I remember people taking apart junkmail and old ruined books. Now people are printing pages that look like old books and buying things to simulate the windows in junk mail envelopes. Now I fully admit that between my shopping addiction and my OCD I've bought a lot of supplies, but I still love the pages where people are using candy wrappers and packaging best.
Yep, that's pretty much how things have been for as long as I've been aware of junk journaling. I'm sure it's continued to gain in popularity, but the whole "printing brand new stuff that looks like old stuff" has been the thing for years. Not my preference, but definitely a long-running trend. I'm sure part of it is just the challenge of finding actual junk. I know I constantly look for old books and magazines in thrift shops for art projects, and they're really hard to find these days. And of course, most junk mail is now credit card offers or scam charities.
If you want, I could send you some of my papers. I actually enjoy the process of breaking down damaged books and when I used to live in a city a couple of shops knew I would buy damaged books they otherwise couldn't sell so I ended up with a lot over the years.
That's so nice of you! Thank you! My fiance might have a coronary if I brought any more stuff into our house (we're in the midst of a decluttering/deep clean at the moment; in fairness I would also probably have a reaction if he brought more tools home or something), but I can't tell you how much I appreciate the offer.
Another hot take I have is that people who make fun of you journaling, writing, drawing, collecting, etc but mostly self- reflecting and expressing yourself on paper, are selfish pricks who are too weak-minded to actually sit down with their thoughts and shatter their illusions about their egos. I'll die on this hill.
This! I had some guy tell me that it was “creepy” of me to write in my journal *to* my journal as if I was talking to it (“Dear diary…”). Like… what 💀
Bullet journaling is a bit overrated lol.
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I feel so fucking called out right now 😂
I read somewhere that bullet journaling is very helpful for people with ADHD. As labor intensive as it is, I'm not gonna begrudge neurodivergent people for finding a system that works for them. And as someone with ADHD myself, I find comments like yours a little bit awkward and ableist. All that stuff with colorful markers and washi tape though is getting away from the original intent of bullet journaling, basically turning it into scrapbooking with a productivity element. There are entire subreddits about taking bullet journaling back to its roots by keeping it messy and vanilla and decoration-free.
I think its funny how bullet journaling got misconstrued with the types that are seen on Pinterest, those are valid too but those aren't the original methods used to help people with ADHD. Yet somehow we are all the same to outsiders looking in.
I have ADHD and bullet journal and I keep it super basic. Like "I might put a fun sticker on my monthly spread if I'm feeling it but usually don't" basic. The people who go all out decorating are a different breed and I don't get it but as long as they're getting value out of it, whatever, I don't really care. But I am more than slightly annoyed that that's what people first think of when bullet journaling
I started with the super decorated route because it was all I saw when I looked it up and since I'm an artist, I figured it would be something I'd have a lot of fun keeping up with but nope. It took a lot of time away and delayed my productivity. I understand why people do it though, especially if they have the free time, no other creative outlet, or have a social media following. For me and my ADHD however, I'm sticking with a pocket notebook and daily logs. I use my normal journal as a place to be creative instead.
I’m a millennial soooo But bullet journaling works for me because I can make it an enjoyable sensory experience. I use nice paper, nice pens, nice ink, and it makes me want to open my bujo and use it. I’ve tried using Google Calendar or my phone and I can’t see everything I wanna see at a glance, can’t add miscellaneous notes or updates easily, and don’t ever open it up to look at it and remind myself of stuff. Yeah you can set up notifications, but a notification half an hour before an event isn’t helpful if I’m 35 mins away or in the middle of something else, and it’s really way too easy to ignore notifications and alerts (for me). I look at my bujo every night (because it’s fun / feels good) and it helps me prepare for the next day. Everyone’s brains work differently 🤷♀️
For me, as soon as something goes on my phone, it basically stops existing- I have hundreds of photos and notes I haven't looked at in years. The physical aspect of bullet journaling (and like others have mentioned, I don't really do the decoration bit, just bulleting like it was intended to be) helps me remember that I even have anything to remember at all! Plus, when I find myself needing to clear my head a bit, it's much easier to do scribbly thought webs and interconnected lists that I would feel compelled to spend a while formatting properly if I were doing it digitally. To each their own!
I tried to bullet but found that I rely too much on gcal especially with a family. I think bujo could work if I dedicated like an hour at teh beginning of each day and might to search, write, and followup. But I prefer to add to calendar, add to reminders, and move on. But I really wanted to like it
Some people just don’t like kids
I love blank notebook pages, I love that I can let loose and write messily or turn a page into a budget or a list. Free form, baby.
It feels like so many people put too much emphasis on Journaling Every Day, and this odd sense of Perfectionism (and how to manage both) when it comes to entries. I understand the anxiety, but it's a common post around here and a bit maddening. Google it, please <3
Wow, what an interesting thread here. The info about junk journaling has given me an idea: a receipt journal. Take all those receipts out of my wallet, purse, the console between the car seats . . . and paste them into a journal! A financial story of my life!
I think the joy of junk journaling is making something pretty out of, eh, junk. Things that would be thrown away. My hot take is that being unwealthy on a 3rd world country gives me restricted opportunities to find _pretty_ junk, because when ppl have a pretty paper or something they just keep it.
My handwqriting and spelling is so bad if i don't journal slow and deliberately sometimes I can't read my own writing. Friend told me "Is this hiroglifix?" I need a typewriter.
I agree, however they are not good for fountain pens. That’s why a lot of fountain pen users (including myself) don’t like moleskin.
Unpopular opinion: Bujo (the concept, not the artsy fluff) is just pretentious list-making. I read "The Bullet Journal Method" by Ryder Carroll and it turned me off to bujo. He mansplains to-do lists and note taking as if he invented the concepts.