Take Note: Journaling Notebooks

There are oodles of scrapbooking supplies on the market these days, but perhaps one of the best tools you could ever buy costs only one dollar and can be bought at any discount store. If you’re one of the many people who struggle with journaling, you need a journaling notebook. Take your choice: composition style or spiral bound.

As a writer, I never leave home without a notebook tucked in my purse. I also keep one on the kitchen counter and one on my bedside table. That’s because the best ideas always seem come to me when I’m standing in line at the post office, putting away the dishes, or just about to fall asleep, but never when I’m in my office trying to come up with them. I’ve found if I don’t write down my thoughts as they come to me, they often disappear before I get a chance to sit down at the computer.

The same holds true for scrapbooking. I often find myself writing down ideas for layout themes and titles in my notebook. I also record random tidbits of information that I can’t trust myself to remember, like my son’s height and weight at his doctor’s visit or the funny thing my daughter said on the way to the mall. It’s great to be able to refer back to my notes when I’m drawing a blank on my journaling or when I simply need to find some inspiration.

Here are some ideas of things to include in your journaling notebook:

• The who, what, where, when, why and how of the event or place you are photographing (after all, it may be months before you scrap them)
• Your thoughts and feelings about the people and events in the photographs
• Details you won’t remember tomorrow (like the names of those flowers you loved at the public garden)
• Observations about everyday life
• Descriptions of things that can’t be captured in photos, like the smell of your grandmother’s house or the annoying sound of that toy your child always plays with
• Sayings and quotations that you like
• Sketches of layouts
• Drafts of journaling passages

I also use my notebook for journaling exercises like free writing and mind mapping, as well as to record my responses to journaling prompts.

One of the biggest obstacles to journaling is the pressure we feel to find the perfect words. Think of your notebook as a sieve. You can pour everything and anything into it and, in the end, only keep the stuff you really want for your scrapbook.

You may surprise yourself when you find you’ve filled that first notebook, then another, and another. Like scrapbooking, a journaling notebook can be quite addictive … and, remember, it only costs one dollar.