My notepad makes me happy (and somewhat more organised)
Earlier this year I bought this little Rhodia notepad. It is tiny, 12 x 10 cm or something, and it's absolutely perfect for my needs.
I take a lot of notes in it. Some of them are pages that stay in, like notes on my novel and blog ideas and notes on the game I play. Other pages disappear in the trash at the end of the day.
The front has a list of things that I want to do every day to make myself feel better, and a quote I love.
In case you can't read my chicken scratches, my daily list is as follows:
- 3GT (3 good things, a list I write every morning on my mastodon (https://social.lol/@sylvia) of 3 good things about the day before)
- tracks (crucial tracks, the music journal app), searching for music that fits their daily prompts is so joyful, every time
- blog ie write a blog post, each day, no matter what about, no matter where
- journal (think that's self explanatory)
- geekery tinker with the website, make new buttons or futz around with an app on my iPad. Anything goes.
Not on the list in the picture, but adding it now, doodle, as f ive minute doodles are such a joy to make!
The quote is by Oscar Wilde: A flower blossoms for its own joy.
My one page a day
I write down what I think I have to do each day, the most important thing as the first, the frog if you will (from the book Eat The Frog or something like that, too lazy to check it out and this blog is all about the freedom of writing an email and not worrying about pesky things like pasting links.
Aaanyway. I keep distracting myself. Oops.
The reason why I don't keep long to do lists in my notepad, and why I don't write down most tasks, is that I get so easily overwhelmed. If I see a page with ten things that aren't checked off, anxiety kicks in.
This is why all the bullet journals I've started, except the ones that contain loads of doodles as well, ended up in recycling, torn into minute pieces.
Back to my notepad
Sometimes a little poem ends up in it, or a doodle. I tear out those pages too, and paste them into my journal, also a tiny one, a passport traveler's notebook. The booklet in it is at least twice the size it started out as.
And when my notepad no longer has empty pages left for daily lists, I will probably take out the pages that are still in my notepad, and either paste them in my new one, or tape them together and slot them behind the elastic in the centre of my journal booklet in my journal.