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Your Visual Journal

Journaling + Sketchnotes + Bullet Journal Ideas

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Want to learn to journal visually? This blog will teach you how.

How to Start a Visual Journal

Want to know how to start a visual journal? While it’s easy to get overwhelmed when looking at what others are doing, the process is actually crazy simple.

As you try things, you will morph the process over time so that it exactly fits your unique life and style. But, if you are new to visual journaling, here are some basic rules for beginners:

5 Simple Steps on How to Start a Visual Journal

5 Simple Steps to Start a Visual Journaling Practice. We've broken this down to make it easy and simple!

1. Use a notebook you can keep with you all the time. 

For some people that is 8.5 x 11, for others it is the size of a passport or something in between. 

Try a few different things in cheap versions until you find what works for you. The magic of visual journaling is in what you capture. Having an easy-to-carry notebook helps you capture more.

2. Capture whatever interests you.

Write down memories from the day, tasks to be completed tomorrow, mindmap a project, scribble that fragment of an idea you had, track a habit you want to add into your life… It doesn’t matter if it feels disjointed. Our thoughts are disjointed. Put them on paper so you can engage your eyes in processing them.

3. Write most of your words in black ink, and save color for the embellishments.

We’ve been trained to see text in black ink by years of reading books and blog posts. Our brain recognizes black text as information to process. Also, the contrast between black ink on white paper helps our eyes. So, make it a practice to write most of your words in black ink and save color for headings, borders, drawings and callout boxes.

The color piece is important. Color engages our emotions. So add color to your pages, even if you do it later when you are reviewing them.

4. Put a header on each page of your journal.

Give each of your pages a headline–even if it is just one word. Just like in a magazine, make it bigger than the other information on the page. Not only will this help you navigate as you review your journal later, it also makes the information more “sticky” to your brain.

5. Give yourself permission to create bad drawings.

Scribble lame stick figures, draw a flower, doodle something random, throw in some arrows, clouds, borders and things. Making your visual journal visual helps your eyes process the information and makes it more memorable. These small doodles and drawings are important (so stop judging your skill.) This isn’t about art, it’s about thinking on paper.

And that’s it! Do this for a few weeks and you’ll start to notice a few things:

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  • You become clearer on what you want (and what you don’t want).
  • You get a better sense of where you are spending your resources of time and energy.
  • You plan steps to get to where you most want to go.
  • You start to feel more organized and in control of your life because you can “see” it.

Want to get even more ideas?

Here’s a list of posts by category so you can dive deeper into what interests you.

  • Bullet Journaling
  • Gratitude Journaling
  • How to Journal
  • Journals and Supplies
  • Motivation and Inspiration
  • Peek inside a Journal
  • Reach Your Goals
  • Sketchnoting

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Disclosures

Some links on this site are affiliate links where the author receives a small (really small) commission for any purchases. Links on this site are for products I believe in. Funds are used to support journal supplies, a Toyota Yaris, & four crazy sweet Aussies who bark for treats every time I come in the door. (To be fair, I have a pattern of giving in to them.) I write about all kinds of journaling, and if Bullet Journaling is your thing, I’m here to support you. But if you want to go deep, go to the original source–Ryder Carroll, who created the system, and started it all at bulletjournal.com. I use the system daily which is why I started writing about it here.
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