Things Saving My Life: Journalling Edition.
Habits, prompts, and items making my journalling practice into something wonderful that I love doing.
You ever see something in the wild and think, “Yes. That’s exactly what I need to do!”
That was me this week with this What’s Saving My Gift-Wrapping Life episode from The Lazy Genius.
I love a Things Saving My Life post, and I was so inspired by this podcast episode! It was a mix of habits and rhythms she uses, as well as items that make gift wrapping easier. As soon as I realized the format, I was like, “Oh buddy, this is for me. This is my Substack topic this week...but for journalling.” I’ve been wanting to round up some of my favourite journalling products & what I’m loving in my journal. So, here we go!
As a heads up: if you use these links (at no extra cost to you!), I may earn a little affiliate cents if you’re in Canada.1 A storefront felt like a good place to store all that’s mentioned here (and a few surprises). Just trying it out! If you really hate it, just open up Amazon in a fresh browser and type in the item in the search bar, what do I care.
Let’s get into it!
Collaging a page once a month. I watched friends play with paper in their journals for so long before I did it myself. And then last November, I started a little journal collage page, and I loved the way it made me feel. Ever since then, a favourite rhythm of my month is taking a bit of time to collage. The best part is, you don’t need anything except your imagination and some paper scraps to start, buddies!
Fancy paper clips. They just look nice! They act as a pseudo bookmark to show me what page I’m on, and I dunno - sometimes it’s nice to have a little something special in the mundane journalling.
That glue tape stuff. I don’t always like the way glue makes things lay on paper, and I don’t love the way double sided tape works. Enter: this glue tape stuff, that comes in a dispenser like WhiteOut. It’s perfect for my collaging.
Buying old planners in February. Every year in February, I go to a nearby Indigo. I search for planners that preferably have artwork at the beginning of every month and stickers. And then, I buy them. Not to use as a planner during the year, but to get one big investment into my collage scraps for the year. It’s often stunning art, gorgeous typography, and three pages of really fun stickers for a price that’s worth it to me.
A container for all of my journalling pieces. I have one of these containers / document holders that contains all my big pages of journalling scraps. It holds everything I deem worthy of collage inspiration, and makes it really easy for me to store it gathered and flat, and grab and go to collage at a coffee shop with a buddy. I have a friend who organizes some of her collage pieces out by words - you could use something like this for that too.
Fresh pens that I love. I’m not going to apologize to anyone2 for being a giant pen nerd. I’ve sat beside someone using a 0.38 Muji pen before and bonded with them over it. (I’ve pivoted topics on a virtual call because I saw someone using a Muji pen!)
At the joyful recommendation of Lauren H & Claire, I joined the Pentel Energel Clena clan this spring, and I’ll never go back. The 0.3 is my favourite!
… and at the joyful recommendation of Claire last summer, I tried the Uniball Signo 0.28 and I also loved!
And at the joyful recommendation of Julies_Plans, I checked out the Uniball F-One Gel Pens, but I cannot find them again on Amazon Canada, so you’ll just have to take my word that they are pens worth loving.
Basically, if you have joyful pen recommendations, I’m all ears - but you’ve got a lot of work to do to separate me from my beloved Pentel Energel Clena 0.3!Journalling about music. The more I do it, the more I love. Whether I’m writing out lyrics, thinking about what a song means to me, or writing down a playlist - I want it all.
Leaving my journal open. If you’re looking for a way to write more… I’m going to make a silly suggestion. Have you tried leaving your journal open in the room where you spend the most time? For me, I’m way more likely to write if my journal is open on my desk or open beside me. Even if it’s just me copying a silly little quote, or getting it out of my brain that I’d like to wear my hair in braids this week - it’s worth it.
The switch to a Stalogy brand journal. For much of my bullet journalling years, I’ve been Leuchtturm girlie3 through and through. In 2022, I dabbled with a Hobonichi but quickly learned that I feel guilty if I leaved dated pages unfinished and unfilled. Plus, Canada - so the shipping is always… intense. But I loved the thin paper and the overall feel of it. Enter: the Stalogy. The Stalogy gives me the perfect light paper feel I loved about the Hobonichi, and gets beautiful crinkly when I write on it. Plus, I love the soft cover book in my Galen Leather cover.
Stickers! Why have I not been putting stickers everywhere I can? I get a lot of stickers from the backs of planners, but at a little bookstore in Canmore, I also picked up this Pipsticks book of stickers - the So. Many. Feelings. specifically. I’ve loved being able to peruse and find a little something extra to make a page or collage stand out.
Day in the life journalling. About once a quarter, I document a day in my journal. I love this practice of documenting the joy and the mundane. This link is a colourful example, but other times, I’ve just picked a time of day and journalled a line or two about what’s happening about the time.
Writing just one page. This is one of my tried and true practices — when I feel stuck, when I feel overwhelmed, when I just need to get thoughts out… I tell myself to just write a page. I have yet to experience a scenario where it doesn’t help me.
The concept of “inside treats4”. I talked about this concept in this post, but you can read the footnotes for a refresher on inside treats. I have a little list of what pages of my journal I will share on the Internet, and what in my journal pages stay just for me. This little framing reminds me that there are some things that are just for me - not everything is for sharing, even if I like it.
Semi-beginning my no/low buy journalling year & thus, using what I have. 5 I saw a reel recently about using stuff up in your journalling supplies. I knew when I saw those empty sticker sheets fall to the table, I wanted to prioritize using what I had in the next year. The truth of right now is that I’m buying washi tape because I know I won’t be able to & some supplies from a local shop because I know I can’t next year, and I’m currently trying to use up one of my favourite washi tape rolls because I can see it’s close to the end. And I love chasing the feeling of finishing!
Honourable mentions: spreads I love filling in, like my reading log, cooking log, and yoga class log. New favourite brush markers that have brought me such joy this year. Any time I’m using my white Jelly Roll pen on top of my black Tombow Fudenosuke. Journalling with friends in coffee shops. My little photo printer (wait for a sale). My timer cube, for when I need to get things started. My Delfonics, which was a gift from a buddy and makes it even more meaningful.
I’d love to know about: a journalling supply you’re loving, a prompt that’s helping you, a rhythm for your journalling, where you love journalling. Truly, I want to really hear it all as you reflect on what sorts of things make your journalling life even better!
Largely, I wanted a place where I would be able to link everything in one spot, like an Amazon storefront. I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m confident I’m doing it. But also, like linking stuff is hard. Kudos to people doing it on the regular.
Except maybe my husband, and even then I might not apologize for being a giant pen nerd!
despite never being able to spell it.
I continue to try to attribute this to the podcast episode (KAITLYN BRISTOWE OF ALL PEOPLE) where I heard it but I will give you a summary: ATTRIBUTE INSIDE TREATS TO JENNY WISE BLACK! Inside Treats are things you have just for you, that don't get posted for social media consumption. The moment you take an inside treat and post it - it becomes for everyone else's consumption, so it's not yours anymore! It's everybody who decides it's theirs on social media. SO YOU GOTTA KEEP THOSE LITTLE JOURNAL TREATS JUST FOR YOU. ooh, another journal idea: a list of inside treats.
Isn’t this an ironic one to end on in a Substack full of links? I KNOW! It is what it is.
WHAT a list! Your storefront will be what's saving my life next time I need some journalling supplies!
Buying old planners in February?? GENIUS. Filing that idea away for later.