Editing The Pen Addict 393/transcript (section)

== Journaling ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Let's talk about journaling. We are into mid-January now, so I'm expecting Brad has dropped two journals and picked up another four since our last episode. Adina sent me a text message yesterday and was like, Brad's using three journals right now?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I said, yeah, Brad's using three journals right now. I am so content right now. Yeah, you're a big happy boy? Yeah. Okay. Totally. That's good.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, we don't need to rehash your wonderful system. So, Adina, I want to get a sense from you. In 2019, you picked up journaling as a habit, right? Yes. Okay. And what products did you use throughout 2019 to try and, like, in your dalliance with this?

'''Adina Hurley:''' Just paper products or any products?

'''Myke Hurley:''' Just paper products, really. I think that's the key because that's the journal itself, right?

'''Adina Hurley:''' Yeah, yeah, yeah.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Unless you had some other journal that you want to talk about, like, I don't know, like digital or whatever.

'''Adina Hurley:''' Sure. Well, first of all, I've been getting more and more excited about you two talking about journaling on this show, even from starting with the bullet journal because that was something I've become more interested in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You wait. Me and Brad are going to become those, like, Instagram journalists now. Like, did I tell you, Brad, I have 17 types of washi tape now to denote my mood? I feel like it's like a mood ring type washi tape. No, he doesn't. Stick that out the side. And, like, there was that article that I think you tweeted about where, like, that lady had, like, a little plastic wreath that she put in. It's like, what is happening? Like, these journals are the best journalists. Like, oh, God.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' That's a whole mood. That article was a whole mood. I was very unhappy with the presentation of that article. Yeah. But anyway.

'''Adina Hurley:''' But because I've become a bit more interested in that and personal growth and staying to a goal, all of that, I have, 2019 has been a year of exploration for me in journaling because I think I've had the same problem as you did before, Brad, in that all of these journals that have pre-printed prompts didn't bring me any value and they were difficult or weren't relevant for me to stick with them, whereas the other ones, their diary, the old school type wasn't appealing either. And in that process, I had also tried the bullet journal, but I found out that that doesn't... It's not a... I realized that I need more reflective type of journaling than a planning journal. So bullet journal didn't work for me as a system because I'm such an unrealistic person in terms of how many things I can achieve in a day. And the whole system became about moving a lot of tasks from one day to another. So that's what I've learned about myself. But the one... I guess the products that I've used most last year were the Toadbook from Studio Neat that I mostly used for reflective, long-form journaling. And I tested some prompts in there. But I also used an online app for just like journaling throughout the day in a way called the Grid Diary app where it's exactly that you set your own prompts and it prompts you every day to write in them. And I started realizing with that that the value in the journals lies in the prompts you use and the better they are suited for you and what you want to get out of your journal or your day, the most likely you are to stick with them. So I used that app mostly throughout the year to test various prompts.