Journaling: How to Capture it All

For the last five years I have kept a consistent weekly and monthly journal. Every year, for the last five years, I have also created a 50-80 page year summary that includes pictures, my monthly journals which logs everything from the books I have read to my Facebook posts. People ask me how I put these together and how I stay consistent in writing a journal. I am now writing a blog to share some insights on 'journaling'.

Why journals and year summaries?

The reasons for writing a journal are simple. First is the need to leave behind our story. By writing a journal you can document your life for your children or generations to come. Second is to simply help you remember things. Just by the act of writing something down you are more likely to remember it. Then you can go back, look and reminisce. Third: research shows that writing a journal can make you happier and lower stress.

My daughters love to look through my year summary journals. I am also surprised each time I put my year summary together with how awesome my year was. When I first start, I think, "we didn't do much this year" but then, every single year, I am blown away by how much I did when I actually go through my weekly and monthly journals. It is a great experience every December and January. You can check out my 2012 summary HERE.

How to make it easy and awesome

My journals and year summaries do take a lot of work. Most people would love to be able to have an 80 page yearbook/summary/magazine of their year but might find it difficult and not very motivating. That is why I am writing this blog. Each week I am going to go through some step by step pieces on how to structure and create a really awesome year summary and in short how to master the art of writing a journal. We will go through the weekly and monthly journals, and everything else to build a really good year summary. I am not a graphic designer or scrapbooker so there are probably those reading this who will be able to design and create a much better version than what I create each year. My hope is that you will find some inspiration in your journal writing endeavors.

With my instructions you will be able to better understand some of the best practices of writing journals and how they can enrich your life. You will also be able to impress friend and family with really awesome year summaries to put on the sitting-room coffee table. Stay tuned for next week when we cover: The Weekly Journal.