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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?
this looks so pretty, Malia! I really want to go full-on digital but I just didn’t have the time. I’m using a generic digital journal for now but I haven’t even started any spreads for 2023! haha