How to get creative with your journal

Creative journaling is designed for people with fast-paced lives and hectic schedules. These days, people often keep track of their busy lives using smartphones and other electronic devices, but the enduring popularity of stationery products and adult colouring books indicates that many of us are still very attached to the humble pen and paper. Journals are a perfect combination of a diary, notebook and planner all in one neat and tidy design – allowing you to easily keep track of everything in one place.

Why should you keep a journal?

Notebooks offer a great way to keep life’s most important moments, appointments and thoughts all in one tidy and organised space.

There are many physical and emotional benefits of journal writing. It has the potential to be a therapist and friend who can listen to your thoughts without judging or interrupting. It can help you to understand your feelings and gain clarity. Journaling can help you solve problems and get creative.

Paul Smith, an English fashion designer and businessman, keeps his creativity alive by regularly writing in a notebook. Beatrix Potter was also an avid note keeper. She would write on topics such as politics and philosophy, and create sketches to help with her writings. Her notebooks have since been published and are available to the public. Perhaps you, too, could write yourself into history!

Creative ways to fill in your journal

Here at Euroffice, we have put together insights and ideas on how you can get creative when filling up your notebook pages.

• Create a daily or weekly log – assign your day-to-day tasks, thoughts and notes
• Dedicate a page to your future log – a quick glance of the full year. Holidays, anniversaries and year goals can be added here
• Track your goals – these can include lots of things from financial goals, health goals and work goals.
• List your hobbies – list the movies you want to see and the books you plan to read

Day-to-day use of your journal

So now you know why you should create a journal and how you can fill it in; how can you merge this into your daily routine? Start by doing it before you go to bed at night, so you can tick off all your tasks set for today, add new notes or migrate leftover items to tomorrow and update your monthly and yearly planners if necessary. Getting into the swing of using this every day can be a struggle to start with, but once you’re used to having it as part of your routine, it will feel weird to go a day without it.

Make sure to add a page number to each page so you can create and index and contents page and list items by topic. So, work items start on page 12, the year planner can be found on page 4, and so on. Our Sigel Conceptum Notebook is great for journaling as it comes with page numbers and a handy contents page so you can list your topics. You can create lists of your accomplishments, jot down exercise plans and recipe ideas, create goal plans and habit trackers and more. The options are endless!

Essential journaling accessories

Your journal can be as minimalist or elaborate as you like.

Keep things simple and sophisticated with black ink in bullet points or go wild with colour and decorative stickers and images – the choice is yours. Check out the range of gel pens, fineliners and highlighters to bring out your creative side. Our Paper Mate InkJoy 100 ballpoint pens are a great choice for delivering crisp, clean, colourful lines, every time. If you’re worried about making mistakes, check out Pilot FriXon Rollerball pens, which allow you to erase the ink using thermo-sensitive ink technology.

Keep your lines nice and straight with a small ruler, create inspirational quotes on coloured paper and use bulldog clips to hold your paper back while you’re writing.

Why we love it

Not only do we have endless ways to report and keep track of our lives with journaling, but we also get a keepsake for years to come. These little notes can take you back to endless memories that may have been lost or forgotten. The freedom to add what you want, where you want, opens up endless opportunities; we can’t wait to get stuck in!