Journaling and planning: July 2017 update

I think I finally converged to my ultimate journal!

My planning journey is like my quilting journey: from the first weeks I immediately know what I like and what my overall style is. However the more I plan, the more tools I want to buy and the more experiments I want to run! This month, off again to a new journal!

For disclaimers about how I personally use this Journal/Planner system, please refer to these previous posts: Mid-year review, May review, April review, March review, December review (evolution of a Quilter's Planner), November review, October review, September review.

As mentioned in my May review, while I liked the blank pages in my pink journal (and the thick paper that allowed me to color in without ruining the back of the page), I needed some kind of structure, and the dot grid of the Emerald Leuchtturm 1917 provides the right amount of space and structure.

Before jumping into the monthly and weekly pages, since this is a new book I needed some general project and event trackers

(click on each picture if you want to see them in more details)

So I created a tracker for my packages and cards (to send and receive) so that I can know in a glance what is missing and what's coming up.
I created a "Rubity, Scrubity, Sweepity" tracker to record things that I need to do regularly but not too often (like washing quilts, color my hair, change the air filters).
I created a "Brain dump" where I pencil in things that I should not forget but they don't have a space or a time just yet. Then I started a reading list, to keep track of the books I read.
And finally I creatd a page where I record the blocks I make for the 70273 project.

I kept on with the practice of selecting an artist each month and using her art to decorate my planning. Since this book has many pages, I decided to start making "month cover pages" and this is my July page, inspired by the work of Agnes Martin.



Each week now is on two pages, and this gives me space to be creative (by integrating the artist style into the decoration of the days) but also to be practical (by listing daily taks, ideas for meals, exercise practice and even some new recipes or plans for quilting projects!)

Below you can see the daily tracker, with my weight tracker and my steps/water mandala. I stopped tracking my water intake, so I will change it up for next month! :)

These trackers/collections are also great to keep big project under control: for example I am running a short Quilt and Stitch along on Fandom in Stitches (Long live the King, Stephen) and I need to understand which patterns have been tested, which ones are in PDF format, if they have been added to the blog post, etc. A simple table on a single journal page is all I need to have a clear idea of what's coming next!! :)

I kept it up with the Free Motion Daily Doodle spread: each day is a different design from Leah Day's blog... it is very interesting to practise all these designs in small spaces and see if I like making them or not: no thread or fabric wasted :)  I also added a coloring legend to remember which designs I love, like or don't like: that's essential for times when I want to pick a quilting designs and I don't remember which one I enjoyed and which was frustrating to draw!!

Last but not least...

Few words about the Leuchtturm1917 dotted journal

• it may look like an "expensive" journal, however consider that it has 250 pages and for the first month I used about 20... which means that the journal will last me about a year! If you divide the price for this amount of use, I think it's totally worth it.
• the quality of the page is kind of "weird" for me: it's smooth, off-white and I love writing on it! and I think that the dotted grid is the perfect balance of structure and freedom. However pens ghost (which means that you can kind of see what it is on the back of the page. The weird thing is that the ghosting does not bother me at all!! Actually it's very nice because it helps when I need to reproduce the same spread (like every week) and it's a metaphor of life (as everything we do is affected by what happened before and it will affect what happens next :) ).
• Ghosting is different than bleeding... and I didn't have any ink bleeding in those pages! Even if my August cover page is heavily colored with black markers, no ink is visible on the other side (just the shadow of the coloring itself)
• The rigid cover is so fantastic to take the journal on the go and use it anywhere! I made full spreads and collections on a chair waiting for a doctor appointment and I didn't have any problem at all!!

I am all set up for August: I changed up few things that I want to track, dropped some, added others: this is the beauty of this planning style, you can change it up to suit your mood and style!

If you have any question about my planner, my spreads, my comments, etc, don't hesitate to comment below. Also please share planning, tracking and productivity tips, as those are always welcome!!!!