One Line A Day

A nice lined, refillable journal with a faux leather cover & tree of life

Did you have a resolution for the new year to write more often? Try to produce a poem every day? (I did that back in 2014.) Finish that manuscript and get it published? Good ideas, but not that easy to accomplish.

Keeping a journal is one less threatening way to keep writing regularly, even on a daily basis, and a way to make that even easier is to commit to just one line a day.

A friend told me that she received a "One Line A Day" journal book as a holiday gift. Interestingly, the particular edition she received has on each page of the journal an entry space for five successive years. This allows you to look back at your thoughts on a specific day of the year over the span of five years. That's an interesting way to note change, progress, or lack thereof.

I keep journals and I do sometimes look back to an earlier volume to see what I was doing on an earlier day, week, or month.

You might find that holidays, anniversaries, birthdays, solstices, equinoxes, and other calendar events or simply a particular day have interesting coincidences or synchronicities. 

I have also seen the suggestion to do a 5-minute daily journal format. People sometimes will make it a ritual - the first or last thing they do in a day or a lunchtime activity.

 

What would you write in your daily journal? I know people also keep Gratitude Journals trying to record something each day. I tried that but - sadly - found it hard to come up with something every day without repeating rather obvious things. 

You don't really need a special book to do this, but the structure will probably help some procrastinators and be a reminder to establish this as a practice.

Sure, you can use a spiral notebook like you used in school, but they don't encourage creativity and remind me too much of school writing and "notes."

A step up is a bound blank book that will look like a book on your shelf. I am convinced that writing in something that looks like a "real book" helps. They also last a lot longer. I have journals that are more than 50 years old and are in great shape.  

If you want to add some structure to your journaling, here are a few links to specialty journal blank books.

There is even an assortment of One Line A Day journals. This is the journal my friend got as a gift and that I reviewed. She has been keeping it up so far this year. I like the look of the celestial version shown to the left that has watercolor artwork from artist and designer Yao Cheng with shimmering gold foil stars and gilded page edges.

There are also many versions of the beloved Moleskine journals, notebooks, sketchbooks and specialized books. 

Another structured thematic journal is A Year of Zen: A 52-Week Guided Journal (A Year of Reflections Journal).

I mentioned the 5-Minute and gratitude journal. Maybe you'll find that giving thanks and practicing positivity will help you find joy. 

 

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