Monday, October 28, 2013

Five Year Journal - The Easy Way

**I like to consolidate all my writing here. This originally appeared on my blog at The Papercraft Lab a few months ago.

I get lost in the Internet sometimes, clicking around to different blogs, reading papercrafting message boards, browsing Etsy shops.  A few weeks ago, I found a really neat DIY project - making a five year journal.  Each day of the year has a page, and you write 1-2 lines on it for each of 5 years.  After the first year, you can look back at what you did that same day the previous year. Very cool, right? As expected for women in my demographic, I pinned it to my "someday" list of projects.

Right now, I'm trying to get my business off the ground. I'm also home with 2 little kids all day, since preschool is not yet back in session. We're currently in the middle of a home addition project, which means we need to find space in our house to move things out of the construction zone - aka massive decluttering. I don't NEED another project right now, no matter how cool it is. 

As is the Way of the Internet, I got another nudge to do this by Laura Vanderkam, one of my favorite nonfiction authors. She talks about keeping a short file of "awesome things" as a sort of quick journal.

The final push was via email from a close friend. She sent me a DesignSponge post about making (guess what?) a five year journal. Hah. Clearly the universe is telling me I need to do this now.

It's something that appeals to me a lot. I have a daily planner where I've been jotting down daily memories to include in our family's Project Life scrapbook, which details our day-to-day lives.  (more on that in another post!)  But when the year is over, I'm not sure I want to keep this planner around.  

So I finally gave up the idea of *making* a five year journal, because I don't have time for that right now. I went to Amazon and ordered one.  I had several options, and chose the robins-egg-blue one from Chronicle books, thanks to its hardcover and elegant gold lettering and pages. 

I started writing in it back in August. Sometimes you just have to choose the solution that works best now and gets those memories on paper, instead of the pie-in-the-sky DIY project, no matter how cool it sounds.

8 comments:

  1. You and I are such kindred spirits sometimes. I totally want to do this. Here's the problem though...my entries would be things like, "Sat on the couch and watched tv tonight." And "sat on the couch and thought about going to the gym." = ) Plus not having kids there isn't a whole lot that goes on in my daily life, but I doooooo want to order that darn journal.

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    1. Like I told you in person, you do so much more than we do - all your charity work, dinners out, book clubs, etc. You would have SO much to write. You could also write about what you're thankful for on days where you feel like you don't have "enough". It's only one line a day...

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  2. Man, I can't even imagine *blogging* every day, let alone handwriting a page or making a scrapbook page per day. You are so inspiring! I have to say, looking back at the few things I DID write down (on the blog), I am so, so happy to have these memories of their early years captured. I know you'll find your five year journal to be so precious in the years to come.

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    1. Oh Lynn - it's not a page a day - it's just one line. And I admit, I often have to go back and "catch up" on a few days (or a week's) worth! But it's so easy - I can jog my memory by looking at my calendar, or the blog or Facebook. One sentence is easy to write. Blogging every day is WAY harder.

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  3. My husband actually made and gave me a five year journal for Christmas in 2009. It was such a great, thoughtful present. I love looking back and seeing what I was thinking and doing a few years ago; especially where I found out I was pregnant with Baby #3.

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    1. That *is* a thoughtful gift! I love that I'm capturing the mundane stuff I wouldn't think to save, normally.

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  4. It sounds really cool!!! but I don't know if I have time for other project... but is cool... not time... aaaggghhhh, maybe I will do it!!!
    thanks a lot for passing by our PL blog!! it's funny to do a blog for spanish PL lovers and found an english-spoken woman on it!! welcome!!
    cris
    lalchimisteartisane.blogspot.com
    projectlifeaqui.blogspot.com

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  5. One line a day is about all I can get through these days! Sometimes it's not even that. But it's good to have some sense of what happened.

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