If you had asked me about journaling two years ago, I would have said I hated writing things by hand. I had one or two journals, which I rarely used, and only for short bursts of writing, never long form.
Now, I have 11 different journals.
They range from pocket-sized to a thick traveler’s notebook, and I’ve collected them from all over the world. I can’t go anywhere without at least one of my smaller notebooks, so I have a place to jot down notes if they appear to me.
Here’s what changed for me, what I’ve learned from becoming a journaler, and why you should become one too!
I realized, first and foremost, that I was spending too much time on digital devices. Further, I had hit a wall when it came to my writing, and I needed a way to reset my mind to reassess my flow of creativity. Paper is a different medium from typing, and allowed me to resist the temptation to see my work as finished because it was on a computer screen.
When I wrote on paper, my writing was messy, incomplete, in need of revision—and that was the point. Revision seemed natural rather than a slog, tearing apart work that already looked completed because it was in a polished document.
I interacted with a large amount of journaling content online as well, and it was inspiring to see how different creators structured their journaling practice to fit their individual needs. I read articles and essays on what physical writing does to the brain and how it creates a different kind of conversation between the writer and the subject they’re writing about, a closer connection.
In wider culture, the habit of collecting physical media is resurging. It’s not just limited to literary items either. Records, DVDs, CDs, art prints, magazines—more and more people are collecting physical things instead of having online versions. They are sharing those items online, sure, but as a way to disseminate information on physical media and encourage people to start creating collections of their own.
On the topic of journaling, study/academic YouTubers like Ruby Granger and Aleks Raz have posted videos walking viewers through their collections, which they have dubbed their “journal ecosystems.” That term refers to the series of journals and notebooks that each has its own use, which together make up a planning and creative system for each creator.
I’ve developed my own version of the journal ecosystem over the last year. I have smaller journals I use daily and bigger ones I use perhaps once a week, but each one has a designated purpose and plays a part in stimulating my creativity and self-reflection.
For example, I have a small journal I dubbed my “poem journal,” in which I write a short prose poem each night, dating them so they can act as a short-form diary as well as a way for me to practice writing poetry. Another journal I have is my larger traveler’s notebook, which I have designated for creative writing only. I assign a project to each of the smaller notebooks within the larger journal.
I have recently started a media journal after seeing a video about it by Ruby Granger, whom I mentioned above. This is where I record media that I have consumed that I enjoyed, divided by category—sort of like a letterbox account, but physical, and including music and TV shows as well. I don’t use that journal too often, and when I do, I dedicate about half an hour to recording multiple types of media I have enjoyed in the recent month or so.
A journal ecosystem is endlessly customizable, and really has no rules or barriers to its use. Any notebook will work, as long as you have a purpose in mind for it. All that is left is to get to writing.
In the age of AI-generated content and the threat of everything turning digital, physical media and collecting physical media has become even more crucial. Writing longhand is almost a way to combat artificial intelligence content, by producing knowledge yourself without the help of the internet or technology. It’s a return to the roots of writing that has served the discipline for centuries.