Zack FurnessJan 4, 2023
Dan Sinker

With the start of a new year, I thought I'd share my journaling method and how using it to reflect on days, months, and years has helped me to (kinda sorta) get my shit together.

Read "I See Reflections of You and Me" on my site: https://dansinker.com/posts/reflections/

I See Reflections of You and Me | dansinker.com

Jan 4, 2023 at 3:15amWeb
Show threadJacob HarrisJan 4, 2023
@dansinker awesome, nice to have something real instead of photogenic spreads on Pinterest
Show threadDan SinkerJan 4, 2023
@harrisj every page looks like full ass and helps me so much
Show threadJacob HarrisJan 4, 2023
@dansinker mine too! Just endless pages of chickenscratch
Show threadvincentJan 4, 2023
@dansinker this is great stuff. i think the reflections part is what i've been missing from my own.
Show threadDan SinkerJan 4, 2023
@papayaga reflections are clutch, otherwise it's just a to-do list
Show threadSara GaiserJan 4, 2023
@dansinker Appreciate this. I do a lot of haphazard journaling and filling of notebooks, but I like the reflections concept!
Show threadDan SinkerJan 4, 2023
@Akrazia I used to have like 3-4 random notebooks going at any time and I found centralizing on one and just putting everything into it to be remarkably helpful (I keep a TOC at the front for the non-daily pages so I can find it again)
Show threadSara GaiserJan 4, 2023
@dansinker Yes, I'm afraid I'm not very good at keeping it very structured, and any toc is usually added after the fact when I'm hunting for things later. But I'm definitely down with the one notebook approach-- there's no way I can keep track of more!
Show threadKim Z DaleJan 4, 2023

@dansinker Thanks for sharing. This is similar to my journaling approach minus the monthly reflections, which I plan to start this year.

My approach has evolved over time but was originally based on this article by Captain Awkward, which helped me realize I didn't have to have Pinterest-worthy handwriting to make a bullet journal: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-content-28051858

Bonus Content: Bullet Journal Process/Template | Captain Awkward on Patreon

Official Post from Captain Awkward: (organizational strategies for the extremely disorganized)Hi! In this week's short-answer post, a commenter asked about my process for checking in with feelings around tasks & obligations (which came up in both Q4 and Q10) and here it sort of is in the form of self-designed bullet journal modules. I

Show threadDan SinkerJan 4, 2023
@observacious yeah I feel like I should have mentioned that in the piece, but I'm so removed from Pinterest/Insta planning culture that I forget that other people's pages don't just look like complete ass like mine
Show threadEric DomondJan 4, 2023

@dansinker I have on-again/off-again relationships with my journaling habit, but I respect the fuck out of those who keep it going for long periods of time. The most-documented chapters in my life are when significant events occur. I write through them. But then when “life’s good,” I just lose the motivation.

So cheers for this post.

Show threadDan SinkerJan 4, 2023
@ericdomond I find that the reflecting (even very briefly) on the "life's good" moments help understand the times where it's not, and also help me to see that the harder times also come to an end
Show threadKristin KellyJan 4, 2023
@dansinker Really helpful piece. It made me think about how I’m using my planner (you know a little about planners from this year, right? 😂) and how at the best of my usage I treat them similarly. A place to plan and to reflect. On day 4 of the year, I have to hold myself back from, “maybe this system will work better” thoughts.
Show threadDan SinkerJan 4, 2023
@kristinkelly you definitely don't need to adopt a whole new system! But maybe folding some reflection into the system you're using might be helpful
Show thread👨🏻‍💻☕Jan 4, 2023
@dansinker i love notebooks
Show threadDan SinkerJan 4, 2023
@hunterwalk that's because they are the best
Show threadAlex RainertJan 4, 2023
@dansinker awesome post. Thank you for sharing. So am I right in reading that you use the journal to track everything - work and personal? Curiously - do you also use any digital to do apps or is that all in the journal? (I ask because I’ve honed a pretty great - for me - system in Things for mostly work stuff but I’m drawn to the way an analog approach seems to foster more reflection vs. transacting with all your todos)
Show threadDan SinkerJan 4, 2023
@arainert yeah, most everthing is in the journal, but also I work in a way that's a pretty blurry line between work & personal. Fully job-job stuff, like meetings and calls and things like that, I absolutely rely on Google Calendar for. That's really my only digital GTD tool, which I use pretty & vigorously. But I will include job stuff in my notebook to-do as well.
Show threadtakeoJan 4, 2023
@arainert you should write up your Things system!
Show threadSDSkuldJan 4, 2023
@dansinker Read this after midnight and suddenly had to find a notebook and put this into effect immediately, so.... thanks?
Show threadDan SinkerJan 4, 2023
@sdskuld awesome!
Show threadAmanda FrenchJan 5, 2023
@sdskuld @dansinker I’m finding this very compelling too — I started tracking my time in Toggl just to see where the heck it goes every day, but I think I need the reflective part built in as well
Show threadSusan A. KitchensJan 4, 2023

@dansinker this is nice. I’ve been a morning page writer off and on for the last coupla decades.

Some days tho it doesn’t happen and I like the short listy-ness of yours. Also, in one area of my life I did do some “insights/reflections” in a calendar that has days of week on left and a lined page on right. Was reviewing earlier weeks of 2022 where I had written insights and I’d like to revive that this year.

So thanks for this essay.
💡✍🏻🖋📓 ⚡️

Show threadDan SinkerJan 4, 2023
@susankitchens ♥️♥️♥️♥️
Show threadtakeoJan 4, 2023
@dansinker thank you for this, it was great
Show threadTravis SwicegoodJan 13, 2023
@dansinker this is great. I started doing #bujo in December last year and almost asked you for exactly this blog post. Minus the monthly reflection, I think we both landed on something similar.