The journal notebook is to serve YOU. Thus, own it as yours. Use it any way you like. Keep in mind: 

• Be creative. 

• Be patient when developing habits and identifying your efficiencies.

• Have fun and be productive at the same time. 

Download a complete example booklet that includes my uses of the templates (updated 2023.12.23. M1V1P2).

For quick reference later.

• Index each page with the page number, and 

• Index a major topic/subject on a particular day in addition to the date of that day. For example, a long-time friend John's daughter visited unexpectedly on 11/6. A Xmas party at work happened on 12/5. An important task started on 11/30 but needed to continue later.

The shaded areas are for decoration and writing down the months. You can write down items in various fashions such as one big column or 3 columns, or even more. 

Focus on what you want to have a glance view for the year. This is for high-level and long-term planning. It provides a space to write down some ideas you plan to do in the future so that you can reference back later. 

• Critical tasks to do, milestones to achieve, places to travel to, etc. 

• If you start the notebook in the middle of a year, say May, you could envision the next several months.

• You can use colors or highlights for individual projects over months to make them stand out.  

You can plan your life in more facets than just work and personal. The template allows up to 13 facets. If you have some empty facets left, decorate or draw in them.

• Work projects

• Business projects

• Hobbies

• Garden seasonal tasks

• Personal care events/activities

• Books to read or listen to

• Entertainment, such as concerts & movies

• Social, such as family gatherings or parties to go

• Writing tasks to accomplish, such as writer a few chapters of a book

• Classes or seminars to attend, etc. 

Like a regular calendar, you can use this for anything you want to have a quick glance for that month. For me, I use it for:

• Dance practice and progress in preparing a dance competition

• Milestones for a writing project

• Home-away seminars and classes

• Travel plans for a cross-country trip

• Deadlines for projects or writings

• Blocked out days for a particular project

Tracking can be effective in forming habits and routines or building accountability and awareness. Track only what you need or want to track. Each month may be different. It is okay if you miss a day or two or a few. The vertical lines are to help you group related items together. I have done the following trackers:

• # of eggs & date of cleaning the chicken run (a total of 2 or 4 columns)

• Physical activities in minutes (4 columns - hiking, tennis, gardening, yoga)

• # of words written during NaNoWriMo for each November or just daily as a writer. (3 columns since I write in thousands of words some of the days)

• Blood pressure for the month I had concerns about (7 columns)

• Celery juice intake for 3 months (2-3 columns)

• Bowl movement so that I could see if celery juice helped (4 columns)

• Weight loss progress (3 columns)

• Meal times and fasting hours for intermittent fasting (10 columns)

• Mood levels (1, 2, 3 for low, middle, and high)

• Physical energy levels (1, 2, 3)

• Mental sharpness levels (1, 2, 3)

Write two lines per day. This template can be used for:

• Gratitude Journal: I write down one to two things I am grateful for each day. 

• Wants, wishes, intentions: write them down to help visualize, clarify, and manifest.

• Kind gestures to self-love and love of others: what I say or do for myself and others.

• Progress: describe in detail the progress made each day. Great for health recovery or projects.

• Motivational or inspirational quotes from others or you.

This is my most used template to keep me grounded daily. 

The Left side:

• To-dos and Appointments planned beforehand and checked at the end of the day. You can develop your own key or use the one suggested at the top.

• Jotting space is for random or scribbling notes related to the day's tasks. They function as the loose papers or post-it memos we used to have during a task. They may provide a memory later for reflection or task continuation. The two hexagon shapes are for easily dividing the spaces for various topics.

The Right side:

• Note the weather if it is important to you. When is the first snow day of the year? Does your mood coincide with the weather?

• Diary of the day

• Reflections

• Main ideas of a project

Most dotted journals have this page only. Here you can be creative and do whatever you like to do with the blank pages.

• Class notes 

• Brain maps

• Novel plot planning

• Project brainstorming

• Prompted writing sprint

• Doodling, coloring

• "Container:" divide up the page into left and right sides by a vertical line, use bullet list to dump all ideas about one particular matter whenever they pop up. 

• Explore your own templates

If a project spans multiple months (so far each book is for one month due to printing constraints), and you want to connect early notes to the page in this current notebook, you can put a special link in the footer. 

For example, I started this Children's book series idea in November 2023 on page 75. If I continue this project on December's page 81, then the page footer looks like this: 81 - 202311P75. If I designate P92 in January 2024's book to this project, then the following will appear in the footer of page 92:

92 - 202311P75 - 202312P81

You can use the same idea to connect two pages within one book: add the page # to the footer of another page if they cover the same topic.

Have fun if you want to. I use colored pens to note various statuses of a task (to continue, to wait for something else, completed, etc.), or to note observations on tracking results. I paste cute stickers for an artistic touch here and there. Washi tapes can brighten up a page easily. I love to use anything that can make up for my lack of creativity in decorating my notebook or making me feel good.