“A notebook can be where perfect goes to die—if you let it.” Fantastic write up and very inspiring to see your story in this way. I wonder if this very article should be printed and logged in your notebook.
How do you navigate having your published writing online (outside of your notebook) but still wanting to have some record of it in your actual notebook?
Thanks Alicia! You know, I actually did think about doing just that.
This writing online business is pretty new to me, so I’m still figuring that out. Many of these newsletters start their lives as rough, unfinished versions in my notebook so there is some record. I’m trying decide if that is record enough, or if the recovering perfectionist in me wants to put the finished piece somewhere near the early draft.
Gotcha. You will have to let us know how that goes as you try things out!
I’ve been wondering if I should start a binder for newsletters specifically. I lost a lot of blog articles from the past when I let my domain expire and I now regret not printing them or at least quickly copy/paste dropping them into a Google doc for later reference if I ever want it. Hmmm.
Thanks for sharing this - such a gorgeously written description of keeping a notebook as a practice for living! I love the idea of nodding hello to a past self. I feel the same way about reading through my own journals from years past. In a way it’s good, though maybe a little uncomfortable, when the person in the journal feels like a stranger, because it means I’ve changed.
Have you always been a one notebook for everything person, or was that something you arrived at over time after keeping separate notebooks?
Oh thank you so much! I agree—it’s good to be a little uncomfortable reading the old stuff.
I started keeping one notebook for everything in 2019. Before that things were mostly separate. But “everything” has continued to expand! At that time I started numbering them—I just finished book 14 today.
Brilliant! I’m glad that you addressed the stigma with bullet journaling. If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, I know that even from a masculinity perspective, there’s been plenty of stigma about journaling period. Last year I set a goal of journaling daily and disciplining myself to start off each morning with it. It was a game changer. It’s a major time investment, but worth it.
(I’d like to think that someday my great grandchildren will find my journals and be intrigued… or think that I was a psychopath- but hopefully it’s the former😂)
Oh yes! The word “diary” used to feel so gendered to me and had a lot of stigma. But now I use it intentionally, because that’s just what it is. Lots of men kept them throughout history and so I like to think I am just a part of that tradition.
I figure that for mine there’s a 50/50 chance between intrigue and thinking I’m a psychopath. Probably both; it just depends on the page 😁
Excellent read. And thank you for the peek into your notebooks. They look great!
Thank you Susanne! There was only so much space, so I decided not to show some of the uglier pages 😁
Fair enough!
“A notebook can be where perfect goes to die—if you let it.” Fantastic write up and very inspiring to see your story in this way. I wonder if this very article should be printed and logged in your notebook.
How do you navigate having your published writing online (outside of your notebook) but still wanting to have some record of it in your actual notebook?
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Alicia! You know, I actually did think about doing just that.
This writing online business is pretty new to me, so I’m still figuring that out. Many of these newsletters start their lives as rough, unfinished versions in my notebook so there is some record. I’m trying decide if that is record enough, or if the recovering perfectionist in me wants to put the finished piece somewhere near the early draft.
Gotcha. You will have to let us know how that goes as you try things out!
I’ve been wondering if I should start a binder for newsletters specifically. I lost a lot of blog articles from the past when I let my domain expire and I now regret not printing them or at least quickly copy/paste dropping them into a Google doc for later reference if I ever want it. Hmmm.
Thanks for sharing this - such a gorgeously written description of keeping a notebook as a practice for living! I love the idea of nodding hello to a past self. I feel the same way about reading through my own journals from years past. In a way it’s good, though maybe a little uncomfortable, when the person in the journal feels like a stranger, because it means I’ve changed.
Have you always been a one notebook for everything person, or was that something you arrived at over time after keeping separate notebooks?
Oh thank you so much! I agree—it’s good to be a little uncomfortable reading the old stuff.
I started keeping one notebook for everything in 2019. Before that things were mostly separate. But “everything” has continued to expand! At that time I started numbering them—I just finished book 14 today.
Brilliant! I’m glad that you addressed the stigma with bullet journaling. If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, I know that even from a masculinity perspective, there’s been plenty of stigma about journaling period. Last year I set a goal of journaling daily and disciplining myself to start off each morning with it. It was a game changer. It’s a major time investment, but worth it.
(I’d like to think that someday my great grandchildren will find my journals and be intrigued… or think that I was a psychopath- but hopefully it’s the former😂)
Oh yes! The word “diary” used to feel so gendered to me and had a lot of stigma. But now I use it intentionally, because that’s just what it is. Lots of men kept them throughout history and so I like to think I am just a part of that tradition.
I figure that for mine there’s a 50/50 chance between intrigue and thinking I’m a psychopath. Probably both; it just depends on the page 😁
These notebooks are just gorgeous!
Thank you! And thanks for reading ❤️