Here we are My Friends, my favorite time of the week. I’ve snuck out of bed and tiptoed downstairs as quietly as possible. I like this time to myself & I try to savor it as long as I can.

The morning coffee is brewing and wishing me a good morning in its sweet aromatic way. And a fine morning to you too….did I just tip my invisible hat to my coffee maker? Aw yeah, this is going to be a beautiful day.

I grab everything and head on over to my favorite spot at the kitchen table. I need my calendar, my laptop, my stickies, my coffee, my favorite pen and my beautiful daily log.

I’m working on finding an electronic calendar that fits our needs & I’m still pretty frightened by them. I’ve just started defining what I’m looking for and researching online calendars that fit the bill, so for now the paper version stays. But I do see the possibility of this being the last year.

What I really want to talk to you about is my log. This bad boy has saved me on many occasions and I don’t know where I would be without it.

I remember a time in my life when I just kept everything in my head. I would be working on task A and something would trigger a reminder that I also needed to accomplish task B. Instead of writing it down, I would continue with task A and stress about task B – or, stop task A to go start task B and stress that I never finished task A. For the love of Pete. That’s it. I’m out! < I found that when I get like this, I get quite overwhelmed.

Darren will be the first to tell you that when I am overwhelmed, I just shut down and there might be twitching in a corner.

I heard the phrase ‘Brain Dump’ a few years ago when I was trying to bullet journal. It is quite an amazing, freeing concept. GET IT OUT OF YOUR HEAD. I was surprised the first time I tried it and it worked. All the things I was trying to keep straight in my head. It helps me organize my thoughts, tasks, responsibilities and prioritize everything.

Now we aren’t talking jotting a note on a stickie. Well, we kinda are – but this is the next level. No disrespect to my beloved stickies. I use them every day & this is how Darren and I communicate his treasured ‘Honey-Do’ list (I don’t think I’m ready to admit that slapping a sticky note on Darren’s forehead has a cathartic property to two).

In my world, my log is like stickies on steroids.

When I first started and was bullet journaling, I was quick to give up. I perceived bullet journals to be a beautiful, artistic, ‘bullet point’ concept that I just wasn’t feeling. I kept feeling I needed to be mindful, organized and productive BEFORE I started journaling… I needed something different.

Off I went to find comfort in the arms of my darling internet. I found ‘to-do’ lists and ‘chore lists’ and ‘inspiration lists’ and calendars and meal plans and…. *ugh*

I decided to sit down and make my own.

Whoa, did I just find a way to bring together my love of organization and a hint of creativity? Be still my heart.

I have a section for my water consumption, a section for an act of kindness, a spot to note the day’s weather, a box to put the day’s meal plan, a spot for a to-do list and the rest is dedicated to today’s schedule. I used to print one on each side of paper, but I found that I liked having the back blank so I could jot down anything else I needed to get out of my head. I also added a section for my ‘thankful thought’, the days quote and make myself write down in the section titled ‘what I want to feel today’. Sometimes I write ‘blessed’ other days it might be ‘peaceful’. But today its ‘gratitude’ and I found a quote to coincide with my desire to feel grateful today. I used to have a section for ‘what I like about myself today’ but HOLY SMOKES that is hard & still feels too pretentious for me to write anything in that box, so it’s out. I’m also thinking about dropping the ‘counting high score’ section. I guess you are supposed to see how high you can count before your next thought. Pfft. I can’t get past 1. Fine, I can’t even finish saying the word one.

As you can see in the picture, it’s nothing fancy. Just a simple little piece of paper. But I like to believe it helps me prioritize and accomplish all these thoughts I have running around in my head. This simple piece of paper makes me feel, well….great…empowered AND peaceful. With my day all organized and laid out I feel motivated to get things done. My mind doesn’t wonder as much to the things I don’t want to forget since I have it all written down. Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves…I see something shiny and I’m out, it’s over.

So here I am, enjoying my coffee and writing it all down. Ah…. Let’s meet back here tomorrow?