Using Your Journal to Bring Your Days and Intentions into Focus

A few weeks ago, while brainstorming the good stuff of journaling, I jotted down a quick list:

  • noticing the rarely noticed

  • celebrating the rarely celebrated

  • remembering the rarely remembered

  • defining the rarely defined

I came across my entry again while writing this note and realized it captures much of my thinking around the title of my new series And Other Things.

What are the Other Things?

They're the sights, sounds, thoughts, and feelings we capture in our journals that we might not have noticed if we weren't paying attention.

They're the little joys – the tiny things that go exactly as planned, the parts we get right and do well, the good stuff happening around us – that are easy to overlook in the rush of a day but wonderful to savour with a few lines in our notebooks.

They're the meaningful details of the moments that matter that are easily lost to time and distraction when they're not documented.

They're in our understanding of the words we use every day – like purpose and friendship and success and love – that we can thoughtfully explore so we know what we mean when we use them.

The Other Things are important parts of our everyday lives, but sometimes they're slightly out of focus or pushed to the sidelines of our attention.

Why journal the Other Things?

Because in your journal, they help to bring your days and your intentions into focus. They complete the picture.

And with the focus your journaling brings, you can make a practice of:

  • noticing wonderfully new details in familiar scenes,

  • finding joy right there in your everyday life on a regular basis,

  • recognizing how much you do every day and how very well you do it,

  • remembering the moments filled with love or deep meaning,

  • being able to say precisely what you mean exactly when you mean it.

Oodles of aha moments and insights are waiting for you in your journal!

That's what fires me up every time I sit down to write: the surprises, the discoveries, the pure awe in seeing my regular, everyday life in a kaleidoscope of colours and perspectives. That's what I hope to share with you in my journal pages. :)

Today, I'm thrilled to share the second page in the series. It's just bursting with colourful details!

Full page view of the second journal page in my new series And Other Things -- bursting with colourful prompts and puzzles!

If you'd like to play with this page, click here to download it now.*

And if you're keen to share your thoughts, I'd love to hear them! Let me know what you think about the page, or share one of the colourful details of your day in the comments!

* The pdf file includes two versions of this page (colourful and greyscale) and two page sizes (letter and A4). For instructions on printing one or more pages, visit my shop welcome page and scroll to the bottom.