Reviewing my Word of the Year 2020 Journal

Last month Valerie Sjodin published an excellent post with a video on her blog.  Do go to her website to view it.

It got me thinking about 2021 even though it's 2 months away!   Valerie recommended a journal and I immediately bought it.  I know that she will have done her research so why not take advantage of that, saving me the time.  Mind you, I do have lots of time.  But that's not the point. I immediately ordered a Wordsworth & Black Journal with a turquoise cover.  To be honest it may well have been the availability of the turquoise cover that settled the matter.

In my last post I showed you how I have used this year's journal.  I'm not a bullet journal sort of person - it's somehow too rigid for my purposes.  I have begun to feel that even what I have been doing is slightly too rigid - quartering the page and recording what I do.  Most of the recording has been to prove to myself that I have done something each day during this very peculiar year!

As you read this, England is back in lockdown.  Not quite as severe as the one in April & May but not far off.  So plenty of time to consider how to record 2021.  And maybe try out some different page layouts in the rest of my 2020 journal.

Way back in 2011 and 2012 I was following Julie Fei Fan Balzer's Art Every Day and used a Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook to record my days.

Looking back at it now I am amazed I kept up.

I don't think this is what I'm looking for in terms of next year's journal.  It needs to be somewhere inbetween.  Not as free and easy as the AED journal but not as rigid as this year's.  I haven't been able to work out what that looks like yet.

I went through this year's journal and looked at what themed pages I had used and which worked well and which didn't.

Some pages I'm going to ditch like the 2022 calendar at a glance, and the list calendars which showed 6 months at a time.  In this year's journal I had 2020 at a glance and 2021 but hardly ever looked at them.  I think I've become too reliant on my phone.  At the beginning of 2020 I had bought a vertical planner so I could see easily what I was committed to.  I had done the same in 2019 and it was really useful even though it didn't ever make it onto a wall, which had been my intention!

Some of the pages like the gratitude log and descriptions of booked workshops I think I will incorporate into each month rather than have separate pages for them.  Always supposing I get to any workshops!

Looking back at this year's journal I was reminded that it took me the first 12 days of January to decide what I was going to do with my journal and had to play catch up.

So maybe it's just as well that I've already started thinking about next year!

What about you?  Are you going to keep a journal next year?  If so, what format works for you?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A walk along the canal

On Wednesday we went for a walk along the Stratford Canal from Bearley to Stratford upon Avon.  We were supposed to start at Wootton Wawen but we couldn't find a parking place.  I was pleased because it cut a bit off the length of the walk.  It was still 6 miles along the canal and a mile to get to the bus in Stratford and from the bus stop to the where we had left the car.

We had lunch in a pub.  Last one for a month as we're now in lockdown again.  It haad clouded over when we came out.  I took the next two photos into the sun so they are a bit different!

My promised post on reviewing my journal and what to include for 2021 has been postponed until Tuesday.  Walking got in the way of my reviewing!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Another Journal Update

I haven't posted about my journal for a couple of months.  Life has continued much as before, apart from our trip to Norfolk.  My calendar is mostly empty apart from zoom calls.  Each month I have drawn out the calendar on the page.  Previously I would have written in what was going to happen but in the last months I have filled in the calendar at the end of the month with what actually occurred.

August

I tried a new layout with a to-do list and a done box.

September
I went back to quartering the pages.

October

Well done if you've waded through all those photos.

Now, to have a go at answering Valerie's questions about how the journal has worked this year.

I hope to share my answers with you in my next post.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice