The times it actually worked for me were the times I stopped caring about what went into it. My notebook is full of rubbish. Meeting notes, food orders, half-thoughts that trail off mid-sentence. It’s a mess, and that mess is exactly what makes it mine.
This. I’ve been through many notebooks and journaling phases over the years, but the last year or so have been the most consistent journaling I’ve done. It’s for the very same reason Greg says here. I stopped caring what went in it. My notebook became my everything place. No delineation between work and not work, they’re both life. Everything goes in it, my notebook is messy for the simple reason that life is messy. It’s not organised neatly into boxes, it’s not a performance, it’s the every day written down.