Reset your Journal, Reset your Life

Tanni for Danceof Chaos

Birds are chirping, sun is shining through the rain and occasional snow : Spring is here. With spring, come new and fresh creative ideas.

I am sure happy to see an end in the endless tunnel of sneeze, cough, cold and fever. The sunshine makes everything better.  Stray flowers start to bloom on roadside, birds start chirping. There is a certain cheerfulness around. You can also bring the cheerfulness in your journal and your Indoors by following these few ideas. Our Instagram and Pinterest are also full of such ideas.

Touch of Colour in Writing

There is no reason a journal cannot be functional while also visually pleasing. If you like to play with different colours, try using different coloured pens. Try a pink colored pen, or a green one to mark the days of the week and week number for example. It will refresh your mind and make you want to write in it. Even if you use a standard  black ink or blue ink pen for your daily use, a spot of pink and green around it will remind you of cherry blossoms and fresh green leaves and your creative ideas will start pouring in.

Doodles, sticker or washi

 You probably have been doodling ideas on side of your notebook since school. If you are artistically gifted, why not draw something at a corner of your notebook, or use lettering to write down a quote that inspire you.

If, like me, you are not good at drawing or you do not have time for it, here are some ideas for you: use stickers and washi to freshen up your bullet journal. Add some stickers of fresh flower, maybe some strawberry , some gardening sticker. Washi tapes with greenery like leaves, flowers or even bees, gives that reset feeling to your everyday notebook.  You will discover a whole new journal again.

Supply Ideas

Most of the products used in my journaling can also be found in our shop. Take a look at them if you want suggestions. If not, just scroll past to read more.

Layout Reset

If you have lost interest in bullet journaling or cannot find a way to make it work for you now, spring is the perfect time to test your ideas and to renew your interest. Have you tried to just find out what you need and start small, like one week at a time? Sometimes, we get lost in our layout, planning and designing our monthlies and weeklies and in doing so, we forget to use our journal. Take your time to ask yourself the question, how you want to use your journal and then implement it.

I needed to keep it simple in my journal, some space for todo and daily. Since I have a lot of calender appointments, I use digital tools like outlook and google calender to sync my calender events. So I do not need much space for dailies and I use short weekly layout. I write one line of gratitude or event per day.

That way my BuJo is not just a tracker or todo list but also a stamp of my life. I mostly carry my BuJo with me and this seems to me the best way to journal my life without getting into details. I have my personal diary/ journal for detailed outpouring of my feelings, thoughts and emotions when I need it. With a little touch of colour in my layout, I use my bullet-journal regularly now. It does feel beautiful to see the pages filled up so well. Check out my before and after pen video in this instagram.

Switch up or down your Layout

Another idea would be to stick to your need but still play around with layout options. New season, new layout. You never know what you will need. For a while after using one page for one week, I also have tried to use two pager weeklies. This is because some habits I was tracking monthly, I started to track on a weekly basis. It gave me the opportunity to expand my one line per day to a little more. So far, I like both the new layouts, both offer me different possibilities based on the need of the week.

Small Spring Garden in your Home

The spring reset does not only come in my journal, it also comes to my small balcony and indoors. Here are some ideas on how you can also bring some colour and beautiful scent in your house. Instead of buying flowers, bring some flower trees in your house. There are so many options to choose from: beautiful daffodils ( Narzissen in German) of different varieties start to bloom and so does tulip. Florist also have different design idea and combination of flowers and herbs. They make for pretty addition to your house or as a present for someone else.

Small flower plants make a space look colourful and bring the freshness and calmness only nature can bring. I also slowly bring out my jasmine and strawberries from storage. It takes around mid of April for the first bloom to appear on the strawberries and the onset of summer for the strawberries to ripen, but you can always line and make space for them to grow. In my experience, vines of peas also grow really well from spring time onwards.

It makes for a beautiful scene when green peas are hanging from their vines, surrounded by pollinating flowers and strawberries. Take a look at our gardening basics articles to get some ideas on how to start life as a plant parent.

Imagine starting your day or ending your day with a cup of beverage, you Bujo in your hand among your plants. Nothing could be more amazing than enjoying some quietness on all of your own.