13 Creative Journal Ideas To Give Notebooks A Makeover!

Journal writing is an efficient approach to dealing with mental, physical, and spiritual health. It certainly is a go-to therapy when you cannot seem to make amends with our rusty and busy lifestyle. 

If you have ever dug out empty notebooks while decluttering, then you must’ve had to pass through the ‘what-should-I-do-with-them’ dilemma. Be it about blank notebooks or the idea of organizing your scattered life into lists and plans: this article is for you. Check out these 13 journal ideas to bring your life back on track!

13 Creative Journal Ideas To Give Notebooks A Makeover 

1. Art

This therapeutic kind of a journal is more or less a best friend to those who, out of randomness, can make art anytime, anywhere. Since you’re a creative funk, we need not mention that you can make it as fancy as you wish. 

2. Health

This journal can also be listed in the essentials since its utility is to track your diet, weight management, and workout plans. You can write about weight loss/weight gain, foods, exercises, and track the inches on the waist. This journal will surely aid your productivity and help you gain insights into your health. 

3. Gratitude

The gratitude journal is for everyone. You can also call it a ‘Happy’ journal. Once you welcome the new day or hop into bedtime, use your 10-15 minutes to reminisce about the things, people, or moments that made you thank the god, this universe, and make them a journal entry. Every day, write down what was good about today. People who count on the things they are grateful for are more likely to be repellent of any mental illness than those who don’t. Gratitude teaches you to appreciate the present, and you will be surprised to acknowledge the wonders a sense of gratitude can bring to your life. 

4. Lists

And just lists. In this type of journal, you do not need to express your thoughts and feelings. This journal is a journal to lodge your brainstorming into. Examples of lists: Go-to cafes, favorite movies, favorite foods, activities to kill boredom, places to visit. They can help organize your workload and help you keep on track with your schedule. They can also serve as reminders of what you want out of life and create a bucket list of your desires.

5. Letters

In this type of journal, you can write letters to yourself or any person with whom you have unfinished business. From creative letters to the moon or the refrigerator; to sentimental ones to self. Yes. A muffled heart with a dictionary enclosed inside with no intention to leak a single world. All the things you ever wished to vent out on someone or things you could not say, get this journal and compose as many letters as required to empty your bottle. Who knows, years later, you open them and wonder the places you have been? And discover how you wanted to say something that you no longer feel is true.

6. Goals 

A goal journal is your perfect companion for framing and evaluating goal planning. The goal planning comprises tiny steps to map daily, weekly, and monthly progress. This type of journal covers the layouts for different genres of your goals. You may want to list down your 5-year goals or the goals for the next three months. This journal is sure to track your progress and provide you with a steady view. 

7. Quotes 

Admit it; you struggle to remember all the words that have ever scintillated along your nerves and beckoned your bones to foster the life you wish for yourself. Well, you may want to do that now. Fancy some words? Take that notebook and spoil it with your favorite quote from The Titanic, the dreamy words of E.E. Cummings, and all the dialogues/song lyrics that you just fell head over heels for or that made you take on the world. 

8. Scrapbook 

Fine! You are not a 12 year old to paste pictures and design them with your pinkish flowery borders. But you have an album on your phone loaded with milestones, and losing them is such a nightmare. Better collect the photos and start supplying them to a scrapbook. This journal makes sure to preserve the sparkles in your eyes after ten years when you go down memory lane. 

9. Recipe  

If you are among the ones scrolling down YouTube videos in the quest for recipes and the one who cannot just get away with a mere Mayo dip, then you must have a place to lodge all your inner chef ideas and recipes. What a traditional way it is to write down the recipes in a journal!

10. Travel 

This one is for the traveler at heart. Travelling can be the most eye-opening adventure in life. It knocks sense into us about the world and the vistas that seem way too big to cover before we disappear. That is why you need a travel journal. You can record your trip to Sydney or the first Italian restaurant where you ate pasta. Do not let it be dry, and bring the souvenirs and photographs on the page so that you can forever cherish those joys. 

11. Regular  

Dear diary,

We all need this one. For a change, for the magic to happen, and even for a mishap. Besides, you do not have a therapist lingering around you all the time as your wingman. This journal is your best friend through thick and thin. The best thing about this journal is that it does not have to make sense. Got hit by another anxiety attack today? Spanish lessons are slipping away from your head, and you feel like giving up? From heartaches to heartthrobs, write down everything you experience. It is for you to be you. 

12. Learning 

To track your progress in French/German. Or how far along in learning to code are you? If you’re a compulsive learner, then this type of journal is a perfect suitor to walk you through your growth. Jot down the plans that you’ve broken your subject into, and start checking the boxes that you believe you have reached an apex. If you are learning a language, you can track your progress by starting with the basics such as numbers or greeting and assess your achievement. You can also jot down the words that you learn daily in that language. 

13. Specific time-frame  

We evolve with time. To treasure memories of a period like some time machine, you may want to get your hands on a notebook and build a journal to compose every moment of that phase in words. Some chronicles of life own a sublime part inside us. Whether it’s your wedding preparations or your pregnancy, journaling about them helps us reflect and wonder about the transitions. 

Try these fun ideas and fill your blank notebooks with life and memories!

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