I've never been one to stay organized or even write down my thoughts as much as I have been lately. But, I feel that its one of the most awesome things I have come to do.
I have three journals in which I write in regularly, one in which I write in almost every day and the other two at least once a week -- depending on my thoughts for our Homeschooling or the dreams I have had the night before.
Dream journal - O.M.G. if you don't have one of these and have weird dreams that you feel have an underlying meaning to you, this is one of the best things to record and decipher your dreams. Dreams are our subconscious' way of telling us things we don't realize or don't want to realize in our waking moments, so recording them and then thinking back on them later could be helpful to figure out any personal problems or any memories in which you don't want to remember. I have realized many things about my own self by recording my dreams and meditating on them later, or even talking with my husband about them. There are plenty of places online to also look up meaning to certain things in your dreams such as animals and things they do, although I don't suggest any one website in which all of their possible meanings are true, I usually just go through and read a few before I decided what exactly was the reason for one thing in my dream and even then I still meditate on it, later on, to see if it's truly the meaning that was represented in my own dream. I also have my children doing this as well, especially if its a dream they feel weird about or remember very well.
School journal - This is something I use to keep up with my thoughts and various resources I may have found online to enhance our school days. I use it to really just keep organized even through keeping up with their work finished and to-do. I write down my thoughts about the kids learning as well and what I feel we could change to help understand different lessons. This helps to me to make sure that the kids are on track with what I have planned and that I know they're keeping up with the things I am trying to teach them. It has helped so much now -- I was using Easy Peasy and I still love it and still refer to it with some things, but I wanted to do homeschool to spend more time with each other and to not stare at a screen all day for "school" and this is only a personal preference. I do very much still love Easy Peasy and do use her resources as well in our "new" schooling but I prefer to have us away from screens more than EP usually does. So, having this journal has helped me keep my head on straight while still keeping up with three children and all their different grades and lessons and work to complete.
Bullet Journal - This thing. This. If you haven't heard of these please, I urge you to either search on google or Pinterest. These things are just... It's a blank book with dots spread on the pages for you to personalize it COMPLETELY to your own liking. This was the biggest reason I started on and I will not go back to a store-bought planner that's already laid out for me. I can keep up with my meals, weight loss, bill paying, and everyday activities while having a space to go in depth if need be or to just keep it simple. and I can change the layout whenever I want, add any pages I want, and add all the colors I want. It's the perfect planner for someone who likes to change things up or to be as personalized as possible. I use Northbooks journals simply because, its simple and made in the U.S. and honestly - cheaper than Moleskin and Leuchtturm1917 books. They have been fantastic so far so I haven't felt any need to try out the more expensive brands. I highly recommend trying one out even if you don't think you would use it enough, I didn't think I would and I'm already on my second one. I used to buy planners and write down various things in which I thought I would need to keep up with, hours I would have worked, anything weird that happened with my children, places we would go to for vacation and now I still write these down but I also go in depth with it as well almost like a planner and diary mixed together and the best part is that I get to personalize it exactly to how I want it to look without worrying about anything already being on the paper. I didn't think I would use it because of the time consumption in making out the weekly/monthly/daily layouts but its one of the best parts I get to be a bit creative and it's soothing to draw the boxes and write elegantly, since that's something I'm lacking lately by being a SAHM. It's one of the things that I just feel I couldn't live without now.
So, there you go three things you can start doing today (well two if you don't homeschool) to help keep your thoughts separated yet together and to personalize a planner and actually use it.
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