Journaling: An end of the Month Practice

Do you ever feel like time is going by too fast? Like you spend your days catching up with yourself?  If only time would slow down! Slow down, slow down — but how do we make time slow down?

By just slowing down.

Here’s something I do for myself at the end of every month: I pull out a piece of paper and take a quick inventory of how the month went for me.  

I do this by flipping through my weekly planner and my daily notebook to pull out information. Evidence of this life I am living.

Examples of what I look for:

Highlights & anything memorable

What worked throughout the month 

Things I’m proud of and want to celebrate

What I’d like to change or refine

What I’m grateful for

Anything I’m tracking (projects, exercise, reading)

Looking back at a month helps me plan ahead for the next. It’s both a practical exercise - getting organized! - but it also counts as self-care. Even though I am reviewing what happened and envisioning what is to come, this simple exercise helps me stay in the present. I set myself up to spend time in analog mode, hanging out with pen and paper. It is sensory and quiet. Pages rustle, ink flows across lines, steam rises from a cup of tea balanced on top of notebooks. 

Just taking some time to write out a few moments from the month is calming. And it helps me get organized for the next month. Do you have a similar practice?

pen and papery things I’m enjoying this month:

Pilot Vball 0.5, Pure Liquid Ink, writes like a fountain pen

Hobonichi weekly planner, thinest paper that takes ink so well