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Journaling: An easy introduction

Organize, structure, track and plan your year with your customized notebook.

What is a Journal?

Individual, creative, personal: A simple notebook becomes a life planner. A journal is a mixture of calendar, diary and notebook that you can design uniquely according to your ideas. There are no rules and no predefined structure. It is suitable for all areas of life from school to work to leisure. A journal always helps you to structure and organize all areas of your life and it is based on your personal needs. It is as individual as you are - with to-do lists, trackers, notes, lists, overviews and much more.

Why should I create a journal?

With a journal you have everything in one place and sort the chaos. You don't need individual notes, a rigid calendar or loose sheets of paper with lists anymore, because all of that can be found on the pages of your journal. It helps you organize your appointments and thoughts so you never forget anything again. If you have trouble breaking old habits or routines and developing new ones, you can visualize your goals and check them regularly, as they are always in front of your eyes. This motivates and encourages self-reflection. It also helps you live more productively and put down your smartphone more often. 

What do I need for my Journal?

For your journal, obviously you need a notebook. The A5 size is ideal for traveling. If you use it primarily at home, it can of course also be larger. Make sure that the pages are not too thin, so that no ink will bleed through. You also have to decide whether you want to use a dotted, lined, squared or blank book. Dotted notebooks are popular because they offer a lot of freedom, but still have a basic structure.

Besides the notebook itself, a ruler, scissors, glue stick, and of course lots of pens will help you get started. We've put together a selection that you can start with right away and give free rein to your creativity when designing your individual journal:

How to structure a Journal?

An index, the key and overviews (year, month, week, day) are useful as a basic framework for your journal. This basis can be extended by trackers, logs or lists.

How to customize a Journal?

The easiest way is to simply let your creativity run wild, just try it out and keep reinventing yourself and getting inspired. Customize your journal with banners and embellishments, hand and brush lettering, sketch notes, doodles, mandalas, or different folded and cut pages. If you are looking for more ideas, then click through our creative area and get inspired.

Our world of creativity

Discover many great ideas and projects in our creative area, which you can immediately copy with your STABILO pens. There you'll find templates to download and color, decoration and DIY ideas, various artworks and letterings for inspiration, and video tutorials to guide you step by step.