Journaling – Your Newest Addiction

Part 1 – What Is Journaling?

You may have heard your friends talking about it, or seen pictures all over your social media feed, or even been told to “go analogue” to help manage your emotions in these challenging times. Whatever the trigger, you are here and ultimately asking the question: What IS journaling?

If you were to ask fifty people what journaling, or planning, meant to them you would get fifty different answers. Yet at its most simple, the concept is the same: using paper and pen to organise your thoughts. I’ve been journaling in a consistent capacity for four years now but I’m a life-long list maker and general scribbler. During this time, I have spoken to a *lot* of different journalers. Many on the Citrus Book Bindery family Facebook group. I say family because that is the closest description for the unique blend of individuals that contribute to the group.

You can join the Citrus family on Facebook here – No Wi-Fi Required

Between them, the Citrus planners and journals are used for the diverse range of analogue activity set out below:

How Many of These Would Help Your Day-to-Day Life?

• School / College / University notebooks
• Work planners
• Diaries
• Photo Albums
• Bible Study
• Sketchbooks
• Novel planning and writing
• Dungeons and Dragons story arc planning
• Creating Legacy Cookbooks for the next generation
• Poetry writing
• Grief journaling
• Mental Health Journaling
• Addiction Journaling
• Language learning
• Sport / Exercise Tracking
• Health Tracking and Journaling
• Book of Shadows
• Dream Tracking
• Bookkeeping
• Travel planning / Journaling
• Animal Crossing layouts
• Bullet Journaling – aka BuJo. Which is largely a combination of many of the above into a ‘system’ pioneered by Ryder Carroll. Check out his website for more specifics – Ryder Carroll website.

Basically, if you can put it onto paper, then it has a home in the Planning and Journaling community.

I’d imagine this hasn’t really helped you with the initial question, has it? OK, being real I can’t tell you what Journaling/Planning is to YOU, because in essence, it’s a form of self-exploration. I imagine you probably have an idea of what you want initially – which of the above ticks the boxes for you and your life and why you are looking to Journal/Plan. So, what I CAN do is make recommendations, from experience – both mine and shared by friends and the wider community – about what type of Journal/Planner you may want or need.