Rolling blank pages, washi tape to brighten everything up and bursts of creativity on every page: this was how I rediscovered the joys of journaling.
I first heard about BuJo on Pinterest around 10 years ago where I was instantly entranced. For anyone who hasn’t heard of it already, BuJo is an abbreviation of Bullet journalling. It was developed by Ryder Carroll and is used as a method to track productivity as well as increasing self awareness. It can be separated into a handful of distinctive styles: doodles, minimalism and supremely organised. He initially proposed it as a means to tackle attention deficit disorders and as expected pinterest took it to a whole new level. If you check it out on Pinterest you can immediately see the clean lines, expressive but self contained doodles and insane goals that users set for themselves.
“No more carbs! Travel the world! Save $6K!”
Although it’s important to challenge yourself to be better: I was sat sort of wondering how good this actually was for promoting wellbeing. My first time trying bullet journaling I remember being really, really into it for like a week and then abandoning it all together when I couldn’t make it perfect. I sat at my desk and set myself a few insane goals that inevitably I couldn’t fulfill.
I think when we look at goal setting, it’s sort of self explanatory why a lot of people give up or fail. If we take smoking cigarettes as an example, if a person were to say “I’m going cold Turkey! No more cigarettes ever again!”, unless they have exceptionally strong willpower then I don’t believe it’s likely to work for them. When we’re unrealistic about the goals we set for ourselves, we’re more likely to not achieve them and then furthermore, feel ashamed of the fact we failed. Maybe it doesn’t work the same for everyone but I would’ve thought that approaching goal setting with a little more kindness and flexibility would yield far better results. So when we look back at the example, perhaps saying “I’ll try to cut down on it a bit.” is more productive? When we set loy, rigid goals without considering the smaller steps, it’s easy to set ourselves up for failure. The key, I’ve come to realize, isn’t about trying to check off every box on a list. It’s about creating a process that feels authentic and sustainable.
So getting back on track, let’s talk about an Evelyn friend. I think everyone will have this friend in some sort of form, someone who makes you continuously want to be a better person. When I first met Evelyn, I couldn’t help but be in awe of her. She always had ideas to make the space around her better like little projects or really amazing friend dates. I experience so much joy and pride anytime I’m around her so when she suggested we try journaling together I hopped right on board.
I still had all my old pens and washi tape waiting to be used again in my bedroom. Although I had several unused notebooks waiting for me at home (yes I’m one of those people, sorry), Evelyn convinced me to invest in something new. I got a dinky pastel blue notebook to suit my new style and I set forth with lots of ideas of what I wanted to write and colour in. My favourite books, goals for the year and my favourite things that happened that day.
After a few days of journaling joy, I began to get irritated with myself anytime I made a small mistake. I mixed up March and May when writing in how many books I read each month, the wrong shade of red was used and I just wanted to give up on it altogether. Did I really have time for the precision and dedication this hobby apparently needed?
It was frustrating, to say the least. The pressure I was putting on myself felt completely counterproductive. The joy I had anticipated was quickly becoming overshadowed by the pursuit of perfection. Every small mistake felt like a personal failure but then, I took a step back. I realised that I was so caught up in trying to make everything perfect, so focused on achieving some idealized version of journaling that I was missing the point entirely. The whole reason I’d gotten into journaling in the first place was to reconnect with myself, not to create some flawless, Instagram-worthy spread. It was a place to lay out my achievements and give myself a little push to keep doing amazing things I was proud of.
I’m happy to share that now when I open my journal, I’m filled with joy about the opportunity to create a new page. The lovely feeling of taking an evening to watch some serotonin filled youtube videos and pick out some pretty colours to doodle with. There’s no pressure to perfect everything or make it all cohesive. Some pages are full of messy thoughts and others are filled with colorful bursts of inspiration, but all of them are mine.
To anyone thinking about picking up a journal (or revisiting an old one), I say go for it. Let go of the notion that it needs to be perfect. It doesn’t matter if your handwriting isn’t tidy or if your goals seem small. What matters is that your journal becomes a space where you can slow down, reflect and create for the sake of joy, not just aesthetics. Rediscovering the joy of journaling has allowed me to reclaim that quiet space to pause, reflect and reset. Maybe the joy isn’t in the end result, but in the simple act of giving yourself permission to start, continue and be messy along the way.