Thoughts on paper
Trying to keep a regular journaling habit is something I really struggle with at times. I'd try not to beat myself up about it but more often than not, if I missed a few days or felt that I wasn't using the notebook enough, I'd feel guilty and end up buying a new one to clean the slate and start afresh... which just added to the guilt pile the next time it happened.
I used to use Leuchtturm A5 hardcover notebooks which are lovely, though the paper isn't the greatest if you use fountain pens. The last few I owned had issues with the binding too, so some pages would be stuck together. Still, they're readily available and come in a variety of lovely colours. However, they're really quite expensive (~£25 each) and even more so if you're discarding and repurchasing them as often as I was.
(All discards were used as scrap paper, do not come for me 😂)
I've tried a number of journaling systems and I always found them either too restrictive, too overwhelming or both. I wanted something where I could write longform nonsense to clear my head but also keep records of the things I wanted to keep records of (sometimes fun stuff but mostly, symptoms #chronicillnesslife 🥳) and not have it be a cluttered mess.
So, when I discovered the Traveler's Notebook system, I fell in love with it immediately. I could have one notebook for daily ramblings, one for keeping track of what weird thing my body was doing that day, another for random thoughts or well, anything really. All housed in one cover, perfect.
It's the only system that I've managed to keep up with for over a year (nearly two, now that I think about it) and while I'd like to get more into the journal customisation side of things (more on that later) I'm very happy where I've landed. I'm also more than a little grateful that I've always been an A5 paper fan, so I'm not chasing after those FOMO drops of the official TN covers!