Notebook Therapy Haul

For a while now I’ve been wanting to get some of the beautiful Notebook Therapy books and finally after deciding that I wanted to start the new year with a new journal I took the plunge and bought a notebook...or 2...errm okay 3.

          My current journal is good but the pages ghost and sometimes the ink from the fountain pen seep into the pages (depends on the ink) and feathers. I heard good things about the notebooks from Notebook Therapy and that made up my mind. 

          I must confess I wanted to buy all the notebooks on the site. They all looked so amazingly beautiful even the ones with black pages but in the end I settled on these three. 

Tsuki “Dreamy Nights” Limited Edition Bullet Journal

Tsuki “Torii” Limited Edition Bullet Journal

          

Tsuki “Falling Star” Limited Edition Bullet Journal

The first two I have interesting cover textures and the last one is a normal hard cover. But all are beautiful in my eyes. With the red one I even got the spiral paperclip. All the pages are very thick (160 gms), dotted and white in color. Each one has 176 pages and is A5 in size which after using the travel journal size and the square size journals I realized I like the best. Each one has 2 book marks. I’ve decided to start the year with the Tsuki “Falling Star” journal. 

I also love that it lays flat on the surface. Makes things very convenient.

          Finally, I also bought the Tsuki Bullet Journal Tracking Stamp Set. 

In total it has 25 stamps that include boxes, to do lists calendars, trackers and even the weather just to name a few. I don’t know if I am going to use all of it but it is certainly handy to have. 

Next week I will be showing you my adventures in setting up my new bullet journal.

Journal Update

          This blog was supposed to be up at the beginning of the month, but because I was so excited about my Suho Album and the Kpop news that came out it was delayed. So let's get into it. 

          For this month I decided to move into a new journal because the one I've been using only has about 10 pages left and I did not want to split May into two journals. 

So I went from this

to this.

I've been using it for a while now and I like its size and the way it feels.

          The only thing I migrated from my previous journal was my budget page. Then I added a cover page for May, a blog ideas page and on the same page Books Read. I also have a tracker page that I love using to keep track of things. 

Budget page. 

Cover page


Blog ideas and Books Read page


Tracker page. 

From my previous journal here are my tracker and books read pages. 

Blog Ideas and Books Read page April 2020


Tracker page April 2020

My Cultivate What Matters journal also had some changes. One of my goals has been put on hold for now. Another one of my goals has more tangible steps which will help me see progress. And around the 9th of this month, one goal was added to my list because of work. I’m going to try for baby steps with this goal just like the previous one. 

My Cultivate What Matters journal

April tracker page. The yellow is times I took the day off from a certain goal.

April assessment.

May calendar


May tracker. 

And this is my journal update for this month...late as it is.

 

Journal Update.

    If you remember in a previous post I told you about my journey with journalling and keeping a bullet journal. And how I planned on doing things this year. I also talked about my Cultivate What Matters Powersheets and how I planned on using them. Well now I've been using these 4 notebooks for 3 months now and I'm ready to give you a new update on them.

1. The Four Notebook System.

I am no longer using 4 notebooks. That system just was not working for me. I no longer use the notebook reserved for the study programs. It was not something I looked at because due to first getting sick in January and February, then the Corona Virus situation that escalated big time in March, those programs are on hold or canceled and now I just do as I can. The second notebook that I got rid of was the notebook that I was using to add my weekly and monthly tasks too. I kept forgetting to look at it and things started to slip past me. It was a total mess. So now I only use my daily journal which also has my daily tasks in it. And my Powersheets which have the month in view of my tasks and any future tasks get added to it.

2. Daily Journal

    The daily journal which I use both as a bullet journal now for my daily tasks and also as a way to keep record of my day, is still the one I got from Ferris Wheel and which I have reviewed here. I'm still using the one which looks like the Traveller's notebook. Although the notebook itself is of good quality I have to admit I'm not a Traveller's Notebook type of person. I won't be getting that size again.

    The first thing I did this month was figure out the kind of colors I wanted to use so I picked out some stickers and a washi tape that I will be using through out the month of April. You can see both below.

    I also decided that my tracker for last month was perfect so I will be keeping that as well as my Blog idea page, however, I will be adding a section on Books Read on the Blog Idea Page.

March 2020 Blog Idea Page and the Tracker

    This is what my cover page looks like for April. I postcard that I liked on one side and some stickers and washi tape on the other with April 2020 written down. I also added a tab sticker which has a tiny calendar on it but it is not shown in this picture.

April 2020

This is what my Tracker, Blog Idea and Books Read pages look like.

April 1, 2020 Daily Page

Finally this is what my daily pages look like. The date on top, tasks underneath, and then my daily activities that I want to write about.

3. PowerSheets

    One of the main things I love about Powersheets is that every 3 months you get a few pages that make you look at the previous three months and assess where you are at with respect to your goals. This is the time to change your mind or adjust things where they need adjusting.

    This is what I took the time to do during a lull at work at the beginning of April. I looked at my goals, re-evaluated myself and what I can realistically do. My goals stayed the same but they are a little more realistic now.

    These previous pages were all the work I put into re-assessing myself and my goals and I really enjoyed working on them. Next is what needed to be focused on in April and how to work on them.

April Monthly Task list

April's Monthly, Weekly, and Daily Tending list.

For now this is my journalling setup, whether it will be streamlined more in the coming months is yet to be seen. 

Cultivate What Matters Power Sheets

          The end of 2019 brought with it a lot of thinking and a lot of decisions that had to be made and goals that had to be set. Being the planner girl that I am I was surfing YouTube to look for ideas on spreads or sections that would help me set goals and track them. While I was searching I found a video by Cindy Guentert-Baldo starting her prep work for the Cultivate What Matter planner.

It made me go looking for the Cultivate What Matters website. I read a few of their blogs and viewed a few of their videos. Some of their posts are a little Christian Centric but that is a minor issue and can be ignored if that is not your cup of tea. After some thought, I finally took the plunge and bought the planner (as I already mentioned in a previous post). While I waited for it to arrive and knowing that it was going to take a while to get it thanks to our postal system in Kuwait, I worked on the preparation work by working through the videos on their website. It is a 5 part series that walks you through the material in the beginning of every Power Sheets planner.

          My planner arrived on January 4 and I spent the whole day and part of the next getting used to the planner and transferring the preparation work I did before into the planner.

So let's take a look at what the planner looks like. Apparently, I actually bought the planner and a sticker book as well...I had forgotten about that.

I got the flower cover, the cover itself is hard and the edges have the metal bits that protect the corners.

The sticker book has interesting stickers in it. I don’t know if I am going to use all of it this year but I can always use it with my other planners.

The front inside cover has a pocket and I put the cards that came with the planner in it. The cards can be used as post cards and to put your word of the year on so that you can keep it with you at all times without flipping to the relevant page in the planner.

It has a title page and a sticker page as well. 

These pages are the pages of the preparation work. They make you look into yourself, and think about how to look at your goals and how to realistically break down your goals into manageable chunks. 

Then comes the monthly pages, a prep page, the calendar pages, a goal focusing page, and tending list. The tending list is your actions for that month. Finally, a month review page.

Then every three months there is a review of the last three months and reevaluation of your goals.

I have been using the Power Sheets for almost a month now and I am loving it even though falling sick made me fall behind on my goals. I am using the monthly calendar to record my daily wins and it is working well for me. It also helped me realize that one of my goals needs more work than I actually thought and the first step is actually research this goal. 

I'll be doing the end of month review of my planning system and re-evaluate some stuff.