Unpopular opinion: I gave up on fancy weekly spreads and my journal actually works now

For two years, I spent hours every Sunday drawing out detailed weekly layouts with color themes and trackers. I saw all the pretty ones online and thought that was the only right way. About six months ago, I got sick and skipped a week, and I never went back. Now I just do a simple running daily log with rapid logging. My productivity went up because I'm not avoiding my journal to skip the setup work. I think the pressure to make it perfect stops a lot of people from using it at all. Has anyone else ditched the artsy part and found it helped?

2 comments

2 Comments

abbyd361d ago

Saw a blog post that basically said what @bethwhite did, that systems fail when they feel like work.

bethwhite1d ago

How did you finally break the habit of feeling like you had to make it perfect? I totally get that pressure, and it kept me from writing for ages too. I switched to just a plain notebook where I scribble tasks and thoughts as they come. The fancy stuff was fun but it felt like homework. Now my journal is actually useful instead of being another chore. Letting go of the idea that it has to look a certain way was the best thing I ever did for my system.