Hey Reader

Getting into our new journals for the new year is always an exciting time.

We're excited to tackle our projects and intentions for the year ahead, and we've got a fresh journal (or journals) to help us do that.

But...

This often comes with the worry that we're not going to stay consistent.

What if I spent all this time and energy setting up my planners, only to not follow through?

If this is you, you're certainly not alone! 😅

I've been feeling very similarly about my life admin gamification system.

While it's going well at the moment, what's going to happen when life gets more hectic? Will I still be able to keep up?

Points of heightened busyness and lower motivation are often when our best plans get derailed, so how can we safeguard ourselves against them and make sure we keep up with the new planners and journals we have for this year?

Let's have a look at some of the strategies that can help 👏

The idea - How to stay consistent with our journals and planners in 2025

This newsletter is going to be a collection of ideas for how you can make it more likely that your journals will have staying power.

Likely not every tip will work for your unique situation, so take this as a pick-and-choose system 💪

KISS

The "Keep It Simple, Silly" method can certainly help us keep up with our journaling.

Not only is this beneficial for when life gets busy, but it can also help ease us into any new systems we're trying to establish.

Journal simplification can take a lot of forms, some more extreme than others. These include:

• Having less journals in our lineup
• Making less pages in each setup (less time to set up, less time to fill in)
• Using intuitive systems for recording information (like the simple bullets and signifiers in bullet journaling)
• Using easy-to-use supplies (like not using watercolour paint to fill in a daily tracker)
• Using fewer supplies (if you use the same pen to fill in everything, it's easier to keep up)
• Making the same layouts with each setup (it's impressive how much faster a setup goes when you're familiar with it)

Some simplifications will help us take less time to set up and fill in our journals, while others just make the process easier to do.

My favourite simplification is using the same styling or theme for all of the layouts that fall within a specific month.

This gives me defaults to rely on in terms of decoration, pens, colours, and other elements, meaning I don't have to spend time each week figuring out what to use.

Reduce friction

Journal-related friction can pop up in a lot of ways, but all of it holds us back from using our journals.

One type of friction is not having your journal readily available.

I am way more likely to check-in with and use my journals if they are visible and easily accessible.

As I have a decent amount of desk space, keeping my journal front and center isn't a problem.

If your workspace is a bit smaller (or inconsistent...or non-existent), consider how you can make your journal more visible and accessible in your daily life.

Another friction point is a closed journal.

While this might seem strange, it's actually impressive how simple things like "open elastic closure to open journal" are seen as huge friction points by our brains 🧠

For that reason, I normally leave the elastic closure of my journal secured on one of the pages at the back.

An extreme option is cutting off the elastic closure...👀 but I don't trust myself with that kind of journal surgery (that and I also like having the closure for journal storage and transportation)

As said though, journal friction comes in many forms. A question to ask yourself for identifying friction is:

Following this, it's also helpful to ask:

Check-in points

Setting specific times or occurrences to check-in with your journal is a great way to make sure we're keeping on top of it.

I like to make sure I start and end my day with a journal check-in at the minimum (specifically my everyday journal where I keep track of all my tasks and appointments).

A good way to approach this tip is consider what regular occurrences happen in your day or week that you can pair with journaling.

This idea is called "habit stacking" or essentially pairing a new habit we want to build with an already established one.

The "formula" for habit stacking is:

For us, that would be something like "After sitting down at my desk to start work, I will check in with my planner"

Make it fun

It typically takes a lot less convincing to get ourselves to do fun and enjoyable things compared to not-fun-but-necessary things 😛

How can we apply this idea to our journals?

Some of the ways I make my journaling fun are:

• Using decoration (if I like the way the journal looks, I'm more inclined to use it)
• Using supplies I love
• Trying new layouts
• Journaling with friends

By making the process of journaling more fun and enjoyable, keeping up with it becomes easier.

Redefine consistency

You don't have to use every journal in your lineup every 👏 single 👏 day 👏 to be considered consistent.

Some of the journals I have in my lineup aren't supposed to be used daily.

For instance, my swatching journal only gets used when I'm planning out a new setup, and my goal planning only gets used twice a month to check in with my action taking and pull across information into my everyday journal.

If I set my metric of success for being consistent with them as those notebooks needed use every day, then I'd spend a lot of time feeling bad about myself 😝

Ask yourself:

You're allowed to have different answers for different notebooks. I certainly do!

If a journal doesn't actually need to be used every day for it to work effectively, then berating ourselves for not using it daily is a little bit silly 😅

Let's take action

Considering the tips in this newsletter, pick one to actively apply to your journaling system this week. Will you be:

• Aiming to keep things simple, making them easier to keep up with
• Identifying your journaling friction points, and brainstorming how to lessen them
• Setting check-in points with your journal by tying journaling to pre-established routines
• Making journaling fun for yourself, making keeping up enjoyable
• Redefining consistency to align better with how often you actually need to journal

I'd love to hear any tips you have for keeping up with your journals though, so send me a reply!

If you want more tips for how to turn journaling into a habit though, we have an easy printable reference in our resource library. That file is called "Building a habit of journaling" 👌

Hope our tips today were helpful for keeping up with your journals in the year ahead 😊

Until next time!

- Jess

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