Journaling--10 Reasons Why Do People Do It
"I don't get it,' observes my (male, somewhat high-flying) friend. 'All these obnoxiously feminine planners with pink sparkly...things...hanging off them. And do these girls really have anything to plan? I mean, "lunch with mom, laundry on Monday." It's not like you're going to have difficulty remembering that, is it?' If he forgets where he is supposed to be on Monday, of course, it's probably because he's so jetlagged he has no idea if he's in Namibia or Narnia anyway, especially if the battery on his iPhone is flat. For the rest of us, though, it is an interesting question. Why do people journal? What are planners actually for?
1: PLANNING
Yup, surprising enough, planners are used to plan. Even if your layout gives you only two square inches to write down that on Monday, you are washing your smalls and seeing your Mom. Why? If you've written it down, you are more likely to get round to it. Plus, lots of us do actually forget stuff unless we write it down. And don't underestimate how much writing things down gets them straight in your head and encourages you to focus on what you need to do. Even the quietest and least stressed life can benefit from planning, even if it's just a list of stuff to do this week.
2. MEMORIES.
If you are lucky enough to grow old and have younger family members, your journals really will be something that you will all treasure in years to come. Hopefully. This could admittedly also be Rather Awkward, so you might want to keep the real skeletons in the closet in books that will never go public, of course (I suggest keeping an easily burned Dark Journal in your TN where you can make as many spelling errors and be as bad tempered and sorry for yourself as you like, it gets it out of your system and your family will never suspect a thing). In general though, journals are nice to look back on because they will remember details you have long forgotten. Paste in souvenirs, photographs, ticket stubs, leaves, sweet wrappers, fingerprints, anything that will capture the moment.
3. MINDFULNESS.
Mindfulness is a bit of a wishy-washy trendy idea and kind of gets on my nerves, but the truth is that journalling in any form does encourage all sorts of useful mental states. Focus, for one (see Planning, above), and also discipline, if you can get mostly into the habit of doing a list, or a layout, or a drawing, at regular-ish intervals. Journaling in any form can be good for your mental health--it encourages you to look at yourself, and what you are doing or need to do, and it is also a little bit of time for yourself. These are all good and useful things, and while there is absolutely no reason why you can't keep a journal on your phone or iPad or laptop, most people are far more comfortable with pen and paper. It's probably quicker for a start, and it's also comforting and far more satisfying to be able to write, and draw, and collage, and have to find ways of covering up mistakes. Plus, having a really nice favourite pen and a special book that you are fond of is a real identity thing: it is who you are. 
4. ART CONFIDENCE.
Some people are minimalist bujo-ers and list freaks, but most of you like to dabble with watercolours and markers, a bit of calligraphy, handwriting practice, some drawing and stamping, a bit of layout design, a bit of poetry, maybe some character sketches or writing for the novel you secretly want to publish. This is all a fabulous way of building creative confidence. Nobody needs to see it (yet), you can look back and see how you have progressed over time, and if you have a singularly rubbish day when everything you write sounds dull, or the cat you drew on your layout looked more like a turtle, well, turn over the page and get on with tomorrow. Maybe you were tired, you certainly know know that you are good at turtles but need to work on cats, and you can begin again on a nice clean page with the confidence that 15 out of the 17 pages you have done so far were great, and that Monday was just a bad day. Also, journals make you keep at it. If you do a tiddly watercolour every couple of days, you WILL become extremely good at watercolours, even if you didn't know one end of the brush from the other on page one. Moreover, you don't have the problem of what to do with all the stuff you have made when you have finished it--unlike painting on paper, or crochet, or woodwork, your finished works stay in your notebook and you will never have to try to rehome a sketch with your mom ever again.
5. THERE ARE NO RULES.
You can do what you want. Lists? Bullet journals? Art journal? Junk journal? Multi-Media? Scrawled shopping list or elaborate layout? The entire lot, depending on what you feel like? It's entirely up to you, your journal is the one place you'll go where there literally are no rules, it is entirely up to you what you do, or don't do, and when you choose to do it. Given that people spend their lives being told how to behave, what to wear, what they can say or can't say, what is appropriate and what isn't, you can see why analogue journalling is as popular as it is.
6. COMMUNITY.
There are a lot of journalers out there. They are on YouTube, they are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, they are everywhere. Go hang out with other folks who keep journals like yours, and indeed, not like yours. They are an endless source of ideas and it's always good to be around other people who get it. And when they all look like they are better at everything than you are and you start feeling that you might be a bit rubbish because your cats STILL look like turtles, remember 5 and 4 above, and crack on :)
(These are Nita's cats Gary and Henry. I confess I am dreadful at drawing cats, and I am rather proud of these because I FINALLY did manage to carve cats that not only looked like cats, but particular cats at that. Phew).
7. SHOPPING.
Because however much you feel you should limit consumption and not buy stuff you don't need, unfortunately one of life's very great guilty pleasures is blowing a fiver on on washi tape, stencils, and stamps on aliexpress. The journalling world is full of Stuff You Want. Fountain pens, art supplies, huge boxes of watercolour pencils, unicorn stamps, mermaid washi tape, a million sorts of paper as yet unwritten on, incredibly sparkly fabulous inks in more shades you knew existed, planner charms, and traveler's notebook covers and notebooks that you really ARE going to spend all your birthday money on.
I'll leave this one here, shall I? :D
Washi tape. I can give it up anytime.
8. TRACKING.
Tracking is useful. Whether you are keeping watch on finances, logging running miles, medication, water consumption, or calories, an insert in a TN or a page or two in a notebook can keep you motivated and reveal behaviour patterns you wouldn't see otherwise.
9. COLLECTIONS AND REMEMBERING.
A permanent collections notebook is a seriously useful thing. Favourite quotations, people's birthdays, recipes, addresses, literally anything you might need to remember long-term, put it in your Collections book, ideally with an index so you can find everything again.
10. GOAL SETTING AND PROGRESS ASSESSMENT.
That sounds like a mouthful, but it is actually one of the most kindest things you can do for yourself. Write down what you need to do in a day, or a week, however small these things are. Then tick them off as you do them. It is very cheering to look at a list and see that you have done most of the things on it, and it reminds you of exactly how much you HAVE achieved. It is a shortcut to seeing yourself in a positive light as a successful person who Does Stuff and Achieves Things. Of course if you have had a terrible week and done absolutely NOTHING on your list, then you probably need to sit down and write a different list of all the things you DID do that worked out ok. There will be more of them than you think and the world will instantly look like a better place :)
...AND BY WAY OF EPILOGUE....
Mr Horse fills out his diary every day :D
Obviously when we aren't working all of us here mainly spend our time with horses, which is why my personal journals are full of them and also why anything personal I ever post will probably have a horse in it, on it, or trying to eat it. One of the things I have found really useful though, is to keep a riding and training journal. Apart from being a lovely keepsake for when we are both too old and frail to gallop round the forest any more, I've found that recording each session made it very easy to flag up training and indeed health issues, which we managed to sort before they became a serious problem. My obsession with horse washi tape though, that's another matter....
