PSA: My 'perfect' weekly spread actually made me dread journaling last month

I spent a whole Sunday setting up this elaborate weekly layout with color coded sections and washi tape borders for each day. By Tuesday I was already falling behind on filling it in because the boxes were too small for my handwriting. Wednesday I just stopped writing altogether because I felt like I was failing at keeping it neat. Thursday I scribbled a note in the margin and it ruined the whole aesthetic I was going for. By Friday I realized I was spending more time making the page look good than actually tracking what I needed to remember. I ended up ripping out the whole spread and going back to my old messy daily logs with just bullet points. Has anyone else had a fancy layout completely backfire on them?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan_ellis26d ago

The Sunday before last I had the same setup with 5 color coded sections and by Wednesday I had abandoned it completely. I realized those fancy layouts work great for people with tiny handwriting but for folks like us who write big and messy, its like trying to fit a size 10 foot into a size 6 shoe. The real kicker though is that you mentioned washi tape - I did too and the tape snagged on my sleeve every time I turned the page, which drove me crazy. I think the whole "perfect spread" thing is a trap because it turns journaling into a chore instead of something thats actually useful. Now I just use a plain notebook with a single line drawn down the middle for tasks and notes, no tape, no colors, no guilt.

sarah_patel2526d ago

That's basically the only setup that actually sticks long term lol. The fancy spreads look great on Pinterest but they die by Wednesday for sure. Plain and simple wins every time, no drama.

jasonf1726d agoMost Upvoted

@logan_ellis did the tape actually rip your pages when you pulled it off?