Non Traditional Journaling Ideas

Depending on the outcome you desire from journaling, you can design a journal practice that accommodates your needs. You can keep track of a goal, work through difficult times, express yourself creatively, engage in self-care, begin penning your memoir, write short stories, or catalog your dreams. Whatever your need, there is a way to journal it. 

Let’s look at some traditional journal ideas. 

• Blank notebooks

• Electronic notebooks

• A writer’s pad 

• Fill-in-the-blank prompting journals

• Gratitude journals

Traditional journals are great for people who love to write and spend time laying out their thoughts and ideas with minimal prompting or influence from the outside. For those more comfortable with the keyboard, an electronic journal may be ideal. 

Here are some unconventional journal ideas

• Bullet journals

• Video journals

• Art journals

• Vision boards or boxes

• Mind maps

• Food journals

These unique journal styles usually appeal to men and women who prefer alternatives to longhand or traditional journaling. Busy people who don’t have spare time may find bullet journaling an effective way to stay on track with their creativity without sacrificing too much energy. Artists may love expressing their thoughts, ideas, and dreams in a doodle journal or through a series of painted pieces in a collection. Sometimes the mere activity of making art opens the mind to new thoughts while distracted by the art activity.

A mind map may be just the ticket for those who prefer no-nonsense and practical journaling methods. Mind mapping takes ideas and thoughts and creates compartmentalized areas for each view. Then the pictures that match that thought are neatly assigned to the thought. This is a unique way to organize anything from starting a new business to writing a book. 

The takeaway about journaling is that there are as many ways to express ourselves as there are ideas in our heads. You may love to write longhand about how grateful you are each night before you go to be, but you also have an electronic notepad on your smartphone to jot down bullet points on business ideas that pop into your head at work. Having more than one journal is as common as journaling itself.  

My favorite go-to is to pen my thoughts in the Happy Planner disc-bound blank page notebooks.  I like that I can add pages and take them out.  I can creatively add stickers, make my journal super personal, and represent my emotions and creativity.  Here are my go-to essential oils when decorating my journals.  If a flickering flame is more your thing when you are writing, may I suggest Salt Water Taffy Soy Wax Candle?