How I Built a Journaling Practice I Actually Enjoy
Over the years, I've tried countless notebooks, planners, and journaling methods. Some stuck. Most didn't.
What finally worked was creating a simple journaling ecosystem where each notebook has a clear purpose. Instead of forcing one notebook to do everything, each one serves a different role in my life.
Together, they help me stay organized, capture curiosity, nurture creativity, and spend a little less time on my phone.
If you're interested in starting a journaling practice for your own pleasure, here's the system that works for me.
Why Most Journaling Advice Didn't Work for Me
Many journaling systems ask a single notebook to do everything: a planner, a diary, a sketchbook, a goal tracker, a gratitude journal, and a running list of random notes.
Eventually, that notebook becomes overwhelming. It's hard to navigate because there's simply too much happening in one place.
That happened to me time and time again. I'd start with good intentions, fill a few pages, get frustrated by the clutter, and eventually abandon the journal altogether.
The Five Notebooks I Keep
1. Hobonichi Weeks Planner: My Hobonichi planner helps me keep track of appointments, deadlines, weekly tasks, and daily life. This isn't where I process emotions or write long reflections. Its job is simply to help me remember what needs to happen on a day, week, or month.
2. A5 My Diary: This is where I write about what I'm thinking, feeling, noticing, and learning. Most entries are a page or two long and give me space to wax poetic about life. It's where I reflect, process experiences, and unload whatever is taking up space in my mind.
3. A5 Sketchbook: This notebook is dedicated to botanical drawings, pen techniques, composition studies, and creative exploration. Some pages become finished pieces. Others are simply experiments. It's a place to practice, make mistakes, and follow ideas without worrying about the outcome.
4. My A6 Pocket Journal: This is my everyday catch-all notebook. My physical version of the Notes app. Instead of reaching for my phone, I use this notebook to collect ideas, recommendations, sketches, quotes, Dodgers game notes, and bits of inspiration.
It's messy by design. Perfectly imperfect.
I think of it as an aesthetic brain-dump zone. Some pages contain drawings. Others contain project ideas that may never become anything.
The leather cover I use is a DIY I made for this journal, and I’ve shared the template for free here if you’d like to make your own: A6 leather cover template →
5. My Commonplace Journal: This is where I keep the things I want to return to. Books I'm reading, ideas worth exploring, quotes that stop me in my tracks, interesting facts, creative inspiration, and lessons I don't want to forget all end up here.
Unlike my diary, this notebook isn't about how I feel. It's about what I'm learning and noticing. It's a collection of thoughts gathered over time—a personal reference library that grows alongside me.
Give Each Notebook One Main Job
The biggest lesson I've learned is that every notebook works better when it has a clear purpose. When a notebook tries to do everything, it often ends up doing nothing.
Giving each notebook one primary job removes pressure and makes it easier to know where things belong.
A Place to Be Yourself
A journaling practice doesn't need to be productive to be valuable. Sometimes the greatest benefit is simply having a place to collect your thoughts, document your days, and pay attention to a life that's unfolding one page at a time.
For me, the real benefit of a journaling ecosystem is creating dedicated spaces to be different versions of myself.
A place for planning.
A place for emotions.
A place for creativity.
A place for curiosity.
That's what keeps me returning to my notebooks, time and time again.
My everyday creative tools
If you’re curious, here’s a list of the creative tools I actually use and come back to again and again.
Pens, notebooks, and little everyday things that make my analog + digital setup feel easy and sustainable.
