I'm Setting Up a New Notebook This Morning

I’m terrible at consistently journaling. As with a lot of things, I ebb and flow with them. I start a habit, feel good about the habit, then I wean off the habit, only to come back to the habit again because I knew I felt better when doing the habit. I’m going through this with my diet right now. A few days in a row of eating out because I’m feeling lazy have cost me, and I got sick again last night. When I cook at home, I don’t have this issue, even when making mock recipes of the takeout food I like. I’m back to cooking at home now.

So, today, I’m heading to the bookstore that I know sells the official Bullet Journal notebooks I prefer, and I’m setting one up for the new year. I haven’t finished my previous notebook. In fact, I’ve been using it for about two and a half years. But, I need a blank slate. I need a mental reset. I feel the need to leave behind what I didn’t complete and to work on something I can.

Understand, the goal isn’t about the notebook itself. My main mental focus is to continue to quiet down my surroundings. I find myself easily distracted by screens, and I need to learn to handle my own boredom. I’ve been doing some of this already. The fact that I’m writing now is me dealing with my boredom. I’m writing this shortly before 8 a.m., when my world is still quiet, my friends are either still asleep or at work and therefore unavailable, and stores are still closed. I talked with a friend last night about building my reading habit, and they mentioned they read when they get the itch to doom-scroll. What I’m doing now is also better than that.

So, what’s going to make 2026 different for me? I’m setting an intention, or more likely, intentions. I’m answering the question of “why am I doing this?”. Why am I journaling in the first place? What am I looking to get out of it? And why is that intention important to me at all? I have a few reasons or intentions for this.

1. Mental Clarity

Achieving mental clarity: The simple act of me writing things down slows my brain down to the point where I can retain and make sense of what’s going on around me. I write down how I’m feeling, what I need to do, what’s going on in my life, and so on. This includes both work and personal. This helps me see patterns and keeps me on track with my life.

Take work for example. You know when I’m writing things down by how well I can recite what I need to do, what vendors I’m dealing with in a space, who I’ve talked to, who’s working with me today and what I have them doing, if I did my audits or not, and so on. When I’m not writing this shit down, I’m a clusterfuck. I remember and retain nothing. The simple act of writing makes me a better worker and human overall, which is good for the people around me.

2. Habit Tracking

I was doing really good here, then I fell off. I want to track my workouts and walks because I need to be good about my health, both mentally and physically. This gives me another avenue to deal with my boredom. I used to walk because I was bored all the time, sometimes putting in up to five miles just because. This was way better than stewing around at home and not doing something healthy.

I also tracked my meditation routine, which I think I’ll turn more into a mindfulness routine that involves long-form journaling (what I’m essentially doing here). This is all about clearing my mental cache or at least easing it. Sometimes I need to think my mental crap through, which is where I journal digitally. Other times I just want to think about nothing at all, which is when I meditate.

Then there’s just cleaning the cat’s litter box, which keeps him happy and healthy and makes my home smell better. I don’t get many visitors, but I’m not trying to chase away the few I do get.

Optimization

The easiest way to start a habit is to leave things in the open in places where you can partake in that habit. For me, this means leaving the main notebook on my desk, out in the open where it stares back at me until I use it. I do like having a clean, organized desk, so I’m going to have to fight the habit to put the notebook on the bookshelf or in a drawer. It stays readily available always.

I’m also making a point of doing this as soon as I wake up in the morning, after I feed the cat, of course. I had a strong habit for a while of journaling as soon as I had a cup of coffee made. This is what I’m going back to as it’s just an extra level of comfort for me while I use the notebook.

Once I have my notes jotted down in my big notebook, I’ll then transfer the needed ones to my pocket notebook. I’ll then add to the pocket notebook as needed (I was doing this in reverse). In the evening, probably around 9 p.m., I’ll take the time to transfer the day’s events from the pocket notebook to the big notebook. This is a good way of reviewing and seeing what I need to push to the next day as well as clearing and organizing any thoughts out.

I’m curious to see how I change over time with this. Am I calmer? Am I more aware? Am I healthier? These are things I hope for. Hope only gets you so far, so I’m setting myself up to take action. I don’t usually do New Year’s things like this. But, I figure in this case, while it’s cold outside and the world is quieting down after Christmas, there isn’t really a better time for me to do this for myself. We’ll see where I’m at in a year.