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A dot journal is a system for writing down all the things that you want to remember in a single notebook: things that you want or need to do, things you’ve already done, and your thoughts/observations—from every aspect of your life (work, home, relationships, hobbies, etc.).
But there are far, far more people who take a simple/minimalist/messy approach, and that’s fine, too. (Seriously, at least once a week, someone starts a “Shout out to everyone with awful handwriting whose journal doesn’t look Pinterest-perfect!” thread in the journaling Facebook group I’m in, and it always gets tons of positive responses.)
The items you’ll jot down in your dot journal mostly fall into three categories: tasks, events, and notes. Tasks: things you need to do or have already done Events: things that are going to happen, and things that already have Notes: thoughts, observations, and basically everything that is neither a task nor an event
You don’t have to put everything in your index, but it’s worthwhile to add lists, events, spreads, and ideas you know you will probably want to reference later.
I recently started adding an entry for each week to my index, and have found that to be helpful.
those extras never need to interfere with our core reasons for dot journaling: organization, self-reflection, self-improvement, and getting stuff done.
The commonplace book originated in the fourteenth century, when it was known as a zibaldone, which is Italian for “a heap of things.”
As you may recall, 2016 was a garbage year (although calling it that honestly feels a bit unfair to garbage), so I didn’t expect to find much.
You could also use this layout for just one category (like food or shopping).
Research what your letters should actually look like. Yes, there is a correct way to form each letter—and it may not be the way you learned in grade school. If you want inspiration, check out the Spencerian script, the Palmer method,
and the Zaner-Bloser method. While all these penmanship systems are beautiful (and can be very intimidating at first glance), they weren’t actually created with the goal of looking pretty—they were designed to make writing faster, easier, and less painful. Following these methods can make your handwriting look better and also make it possible to write comfortably for long periods of time.
I wrote pretty much all the black text in the layouts throughout this book with a Pilot Juice 0.38 gel pen, which is my go-to everyday pen. My runners-up are the Pilot G2 0.5 black gel pen (which I used faithfully for years, and is also the easiest of these pens to find in stores) and Muji 0.5 gel ink pens.
And if you’re looking for something extra fine that won’t drag across the page, the Uni-ball Signo 0.28 is great.
While several brands now make washi tape, and you can buy it at pretty much any craft store, I’m a huge fan of MT brand tape.
