Let's Go, Jane!

I started bullet journaling in late 2016. I don’t remember how I heard about the practice, but I had just left a full-time job to start my own business, and I needed a way to keep better track of my life. My bullet journals change from year to year, the format, the layout, and the amount of decoration. I’ve tried blank books and pre-printed planners. The two years I used a pre-printed planner (Ink & Volt), I got bored halfway through the year and started something new, only to circle back to the original at the end of the year. My journals have gotten more and more minimalist. This year I’m down to a series of little lined pocket notepads, prized for their portability.

For the last few years, I’ve included a weekly habit called “Reflect & Celebrate.” Every Sunday I take a moment to write down my thoughts about the week that just passed. It’s amazing how much we forget of the day-to-day details of our lives. If you don’t believe me, go into your own social media feed and look at a post or a comment from a year ago. Sure, they sound like something you would say, but do you actually remember saying it?

Around this time of the year, I like to go back and re-read my weekly reflections as a sort of written highlight reel. Unlike long-form journaling, these paragraphs are concise and focused. They include the kinds of events or interactions I would have mentioned if I were catching up with an old friend.

I used to write a lot more than I do now. I started long-form journaling in 2021 when I read a book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. Cameron prescribes a daily writing ritual called Morning Pages where you write three long-hand pages, stream of consciousness, every day. It’s the process that matters, not the product. You never go back and read those entries. Journals are in fact destroyed once they are full. What I loved about morning pages was the clarity they provided. They made space for thinking in a way that felt similar to my experience of hiking in the woods. It was always so interesting to see what thoughts bubbled up when given the opportunity to do so.

The writing I do today is all about the product, not the process. My Reflect & Celebrate entries are written in anticipation of my year-end review. These blog posts are written with you, Gentle Reader, in mind. I have no doubt it will also be great for me to look back years from now and have a weekly window into this time. My travels and my thoughts about the next chapter of life. Heck, maybe someday I’ll write a memoir and they’ll serve as fertile reminders. 

All I know is that writing has become a part of me. How I express myself, how I think, how I get clarity. And as the year comes to a close, I want to thank you for coming along for the ride.