home / Tips & Tricks / #
Journaling for Times like These - 5 Fun Ways!
As many of us are entering our umpteenth week of quarantine, we wanted to share with you some simple ideas on how to reduce emotional stress and anxiety. Here’s five fun and unexpected ways to keep a record of our strange existence in these weird times.
#Bullet Journaling #Inspiration
Its a mantra we keep hearing from everyone: These are unprecedented times, unchartered waters, times our grandkids will be reading about in the history books, and so on and on...
But right now, cooped up in our homes, were not thinking about grandkids and history books. Were probably just trying to find a way to navigate this weird, new normal.
There are so many ways and tricks we can use to get on top of our frazzled emotions in a situation we cant control, and theres lots of really helpful resources out there.
One very simple and very effective strategy is journaling. And while writing long diary entries might not be everyones cup of tea, well show you other fun and simple ways of documenting your existence during these, ahem, most unprecedented times. Because, dear friend, we daresay that one day youll really want to remember what these strange times were like - for you, and for your friends and family.
Another way of doing this would be snapping one picture a day. You could either keep these pics completely digital, date-stamping them and maybe adding one or two words via an app. But you could also go all-out analog, by printing out your photos and pasting them in your very own COVID-19 Quarantine Book. Perhaps this is just the perfect excuse to finally get that lovely Polaroid camera youve been looking at? :)
Create a customised doodle book here.
Does it still feel overwhelming? Try limiting your writing time to 15 minutes only. Or five - whatever works for you right now!
Create a customised notebook for journaling here.
We feel you.
But you know, journaling doesnt have to be writing an entire diary entry, every day. It can be something as simple as writing only one sentence a day. Journaling light, if you will. And the perfect place to do this is obviously your Personal Planner. Save a couple of lines in each of the day boxes so that, at the end of the day, you can write a short something about that day. It doesnt have to sound nice or clever - its not meant to be poetry - just write honestly.
Create a customised Personal Planner here.
Some people use the month overview in their Personal Planner for this, but you could also download our Gratitude Log below. Feel free to print one for every month if you need!
Download our free Gratitude Log here.
With all these new restrictions limiting the way we lead our lives, many of us are longing for normal things again. A coffee with your bestie, a walk in the woods to admire the spring blossoms, a good rummage through the discount section of your favourite clothing store. But we also find ourselves dreaming of things that now seem utterly unattainable, like that backpacking trip around Australia, or an exotic beach holiday in the summer, or perhaps just attending a friends wedding.
Our Julia misses traveling very much, so shes using her travel pages at the back of her Personal Planner to keep her travel dreams alive. Isnt that just the best idea?
How will you keep your dreams alive in the days and weeks ahead? Make sure to write down your hopes and dreams and longings, so that when all this is over youll know exactly what to do. And imagine if, when all this is over, we discover weve become gentler, more compassionate human beings - because we know what it is to have so very many sweet details of life stripped away from us.
We hope youre holding up ok. Dont forget to connect with our wider community of PP pals to share ideas on all things planning and organisation on all our socials, under hashtag #itsprettypersonal.
Much love from the Personal Planner team
Our blog: Tips & Tricks
Plan with me - October 2024
Trick or treat? Or can we just pick pimping our planner instead? For sure! Join us in planning October!