Digital Journal | My 2023 Reading Journal

Since I started digital journaling in 2021, it’s been a lot of trial and error, and figuring out what I prefer when it comes to my journal. This year, I decided to keep things a little simple when it comes to my spreads and use the same sets of stickers to create them.

Instead of buying a new journal, I ventured off and decided to create my own. After seeing how it turned out, I don’t think I’ll be buying another one ever again. I think I’ll share my process of how I went about doing this, but a simple search on your Youtube will bring up many to get you started.

What I Wanted in My Journal

• simple layouts
• Tabs
• Hyperlinks (for each tab, months, blank pages
• Monthly Calendar
• Galleries
• Trackers
• Spreadsheets
• Various journal pages

Tabs

I knew that I wanted 6 different tabs for:

• reading and blogging goals for the year
• reading for:
  • stats
  • new to me authors
  • trackers
  • series trackers
• blog and instagram content (a space to jot down ideas and journal prompts)
• netgalley & edelweiss (my biggest focus for the year since I have a very long list of backlisted ARCs
• challenges (a space for various reading challenges throughout the year)
• recommendations (recommendations from friends and #BooktokMadeMeDoIt
• monthly tabs, each month has:
  • a calendar for personal stuff and book releases I have ARCs for
  • reading tracker
  • audiobook tracker
  • monthly favorites
  • fanfic/wattpad tracker
  • monthly recap spread that can be screenshotted and ready to share in my Instagram stories
  • netgalley tracker
  • book purchases spreadsheet

Trackers

I’m tracking a bunch of different things this year:

• the books I’ve read
• reading stats
• new to me authors, I have a goal of 100and
• book formats
• physical copies from my TBR cart
• “clear out my kindle” = 1,072…
• series
• netgalley tbr, my goal is to have an 80% feedback ratio
• reading challenges

I don’t write book reviews in my journal instead just share my star rating for each one. I read very quickly and many, so my journal would have 100s of reviews … And my iPad storage would not be able to handle that.

Digital journaling has quickly become a hobby for me. I refer to it and update it almost daily and I love that you have complete creative freedom. And if you don’t like it, it’s easy to try something new and not waste a thing.

Next up I’ll share my journal spread process. Do you have a digital journal?

2025 | Reading Challenges & Goals

2024 | My Digital Reading Journal

2023 | Digital Journal Stuff 2.0