What Is Ugly Journaling?
Have you ever heard the term Ugly Journaling? Probably not, because I made it up. Ugly Journaling is when you write so you can get it all out, ignoring the fact that your handwriting isn’t perfectly coiffed, your letters straight and even like you’ve seen or practiced.
The words flow out of your fingertips, even though you’re writing as fast as you can, you miss some thoughts. Rapidly logging all the things that come to your mind, inhibitions of a beautiful journal don’t matter anymore, all that does matter is getting all the thoughts out.
When your pen lifts from the page, and you realize what you’ve done to your perfectly curated journal, you realize for the first time that this journal now belongs to you.
That’s what ugly journaling is – at least how I see it.
Why Ugly Journal?
I don’t ‘ugly journal’ very often. Maybe I should do it a little more, though. Back in March, when I separated my journals from long-term collections to current plans and had a goal to keep the planner for 12 months, I wasn’t stingy with the allotment of pages for each month, but I didn’t add anything extra or fun. When one month ended, the next one began.
Slowly, I felt constricted in my own doing! I still like and use my long-term collections notebook, but I don’t think my red planner will last for a year because I need to do a whole lot more ugly journaling, where I write down thoughts without restriction.
Why Is Ugly Journaling Important?
Just google “Why keep a journal” and you will find many compelling reasons why journaling is beneficial for your mental state. Psychologies.co.uk has an excellent article and five great reasons to keep a journal. I know that I solve more of my own problems and gain more confidence in myself when I journal. I wish I would have journaled more as a kid and now as an adult. Letting go of needing everything perfect, my writing, my life, myself, and just writing frees my mind and my soul.
You don’t have to ‘ugly journal,’ but I find it completely freeing to let go and just write with no restriction.
My Process
Sometimes I ‘Ugly Journal’ everything that comes to my mind. This is kind of like a brain dump where the ideas are disconnected and don’t have a rhyme or reason. I also ugly journal on a theme or a topic. For instance, I expected myself this year to create products and videos left and right. But instead, I’ve been in a rut for longer than I realized, and found myself in the middle of June with nothing to show.
So I sat down and wrote a list of things I feel like I’m lacking. I wrote to myself without inhibition. That writing opened up into more free-form writing consuming 6+ pages in my bullet journal. Finally, I had some ideas of what I was really struggling with.
Finding Solutions
So then I created a grid – Struggles vs. Solution and wrote answers to my struggles. Believe it or not, I found that the root of my problem was that my files on my computer were disorganized, and I get distracted by the mess in my house. I felt stuck.
Seems like a silly thing, right? But the fact that I have a backup drive, my computer, and a google drive which all contained snippets of current projects, I felt lost and completely unorganized. I also don’t have a nightly routine. When I sit down for a few minutes in the morning, I literally have a few minutes. I find myself looking at all the open browser windows I left from the night before instead of finishing editing the pictures or proofing a post as I intended.
After getting to the root problems, I made a checklist and a process of when I would back up my files to the drive, what I would keep on my google drive, and a complimentary file structure for each location. I also gave myself a nightly routine to help with night-time and morning-time distractions.
Both of these are trivial things, but they’re keeping me from moving forward. Until I sat down and wrote my frustrations out, I couldn’t figure out what to do. None of this was pretty, though I tried to make some nice-looking headers and promptly abandoned that endeavor. Sometimes the content is more important than the look.
How does this apply to you?
Sometimes we get so caught up in the beauty or the form of our journals that we forget the function. Form should never take precedence over function. Something beautiful will stay beautifully unused in most cases. So while you’re creating your journals and looking up the most beautiful layouts, please make sure that it works for you.
I’m telling you that it’s ok to have non-Instagram or Pinterest-worthy pages in your journal. It’s ok that your journal has pages that are not aesthetically pleasing contains personal thoughts. This journal is for you, make it what you need it to be.
I’ve included the best journaling quotes I could find below feel free to pin them as quotes to add to your journal later. I’d love to know which of these or if you have other quotes that inspire you. I’d also like to know if you ugly journal.
~Tricia
Journaling quotes
Here are some quotes about journaling for your journal, I think many of these authors use ugly journaling. Surprisingly, I found many of these quotes separately, but Buzz Feed compiled a majority of them a while ago in an article.
“Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter. And lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.” – Jack London
“…The habit of writing thus for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments… What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something loose knit and yet not slovenly, so elastic that it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind.” – Virginia Woolf
“There’s the you that you present to the world, and then there’s… the real one, and if you’re lucky, there’s not a huge difference between those two people. And I guess in my diary I’m not afraid to be boring. It’s not my job to entertain anyone in my diary.” – David Sedaris
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart” – William Worsworth
The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it – Joan Didion
It is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time – Mina Murray in her journal in Dracula by Brahm Stoker
I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart – Anne Frank
Write it down, let it go.
![This month’s creative challenge is all about flower names! Use these everyday floral names to expand your creativity throughout this month. Check out the challenge list below, and if you’re having trouble with creative ideas, keep reading. I have lots of ideas to share. Handlettering these words is fun if that’s what you always do. […] The post Creative Challenge: Flower Names appeared first on Chocolate Musings.](https://i0.wp.com/i.pinimg.com/564x/12/65/81/1265815e2ef10a0fd4505524fb3f0eeb.jpg?ssl=1)
So far I guess I have some collection of my young aged journals. I was so bad at writing I did not dare to touch them. Hope now I can reach them for investigation. Ugly journaling seems quite interesting.
I have journals from when I was younger too. Ugly journaling this month helped me figure out where I was expecting too much from myself and what I needed to change. I decided that I needed ugly journaling in my life!
So, is it just me or does your ‘ugly’ journal still look beautiful?! But I get the message here, I have gotten caught up with how things look so much so that I totally lose myself and my train of thought. And then it’s like, what is the point? I’ve found that digital planning really helped me not get so caught up on how things looks because I am way better with the digital then I am with pen and paper.
I love the quotes!
Ani Kay recently posted…A Few of My Favorite Things – Like the Song, Try Getting That Out of Your Head
Haha! Thanks, Ani! I started out trying to make it look pretty with headers, but I just wanted to write! So I did. And props do a lot for making something look fancy when it’s not. Maybe I should wear pearls more often so I look more fancy…. hmmmm food for thought.
I love these quotes and the idea of ugly journaling. I need to remember that not all of my writing needs to be shown to others. I can just write for myself. It’s not necessary to always be interesting. I can just write it out!
It’s hard to remember! Ugly journal pages are some of the best in my journal! And I love these quotes too! So many good ones.