15 Ways to use Empty Notebooks

I love paper and that includes journals, notebooks, planners, scrapbook paper, stickers…you name it. I buy more notebooks than I need, and I also receive them as gifts, but I know at some point I’ll use them for one reason or another.  I thought I’d use this post to share some of the ways I use or have used notebooks. If it gives you even a spark of an idea that will help you with your creativity or organization skills, then I say that’s a bonus.

So here is my list of 15 ways to use empty notebooks:

Bullet Journal

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of a bullet journal, you choose a journal and essentially create and decorate every daily, weekly and monthly view (whatever you decide to use) along with other pages for tasks and topics you wish to keep track of throughout the year. Now, I’ll admit I don’t bullet journal any longer. I used a bullet journal from 2018 through 2020 but by the end of 2020, when I wasn’t even using the calendar portion of the planner that I’d spent so much time decorating (because we weren’t doing anything), I didn’t have any interest in creating another bullet journal from scratch. They take a lot of work to put together and I made the decision to go back to a dated planner for my appointments and daily to-do lists so that my journal could be used for more personal topics. Another reason I made the change is because I like to take my daily planner with me when I leave the house, but when it also included my habit tracker, personal journal entries and other topics I liked to keep track of, I was seriously anxious about the idea of losing it.

Habit Tracker

A habit tracker was something I added to my bullet journal when I used one but now I add my weekly habit tracker to my daily journal. I prefer it this way because like my daily journaling, tracking my habits is personal. And you can track whatever you want: exercise, steps, water intake, daily reading, morning habits, and nighttime habits…whatever you want to do on a daily or weekly basis. Seeing all your habits in one place, with a check mark on the days you complete them is a satisfying way to view your progress throughout the week.

Personal Journal

Journaling is a habit I began when I received my very first journal as a pre-teen. Some years I journal more than others, and this year I’ve been able to keep up with daily journaling on a regular basis because I found a way that works best for me. I think it’s good to write down what you might want to remember or jot down your thoughts so you can release your feelings rather than hold them in.

Story Ideas

This is something I do as an author. I have a notebook where I write any new story or character ideas and I’ve been adding to it for years. For anyone who isn’t an author, but might be a creative type in another way, a notebook is useful to keep track of all your thoughts and project ideas in one place. Whenever you’re ready to begin a new project, you have something to go back to if you aren’t quite sure what you want to work on.

Travel Journal

I take a notebook with me when we travel because I like to track the days, each place we visit, the mileage if we’re driving, what we spend our money on and how much everything costs. I use them later as a timeline to put together a travel scrapbook with photos and I also transfer the main details about the trips to a larger travel notebook. The larger notebook is where I can easily compare trips if I’m trying to figure out where to stay or how much to put aside for expenses.

Morning Pages

This is more for writers or other creatives, but honestly anyone can use this concept if they are trying to rid their mind of clutter, aka a brain dump. It’s a process taught by Julie Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way. Morning pages is a habit of writing three pages of whatever gushes from your thoughts first thing in the morning, to make room for creativity. I tried morning pages from that perspective, but it morphed into something else for me. Instead, I use morning pages as a way to purge all the thoughts in my head about writing, issues I’m having with writing, character or story concepts and concerns, plotting problems, marketing and author tasks I’m working on and so on. I’m not great at doing them every day, but I’ve enjoyed using morning pages in this way and each time I’ve worked through an issue, it resulted in the best dopamine hit!

Fitness & Food Journal

I have a habit tracker in my journal where I track days I exercise, as well as my steps, but I turned to an empty notebook for my yoga and fitness journey. I enjoy using stickers so I bought some yoga and fitness stickers to make tracking my journey even more fun. Having my notes all in one place works best for me so that I can easily compare how I’m doing throughout the year.

I don’t usually use a notebook just for food intake but there are exceptions. The first was when I tried the Keto diet. I kept track of my food intake, which recipes I enjoyed and my overall journey on the diet while I was on it. But I learned that a full Keto was not for me…instead, whole foods, some of the Keto snacks I still enjoy making and what feeds me better in my current season is what I now focus on. I’ve had fun using a notebook to put together a collection of breakfast, lunch, snack and smoothie recipes I can enjoy every week.

Art Journal

I collage and doodle in my personal journal, at the beginning of each month or when the mood strikes, but when I really want to spend time with my paper and sticker stacks and other art supplies, or want to focus on a major theme, or if I just need a time out, I like to spend time with my art journal. It’s a great creative outlet and also a terrific form of meditation for me.

Reading List

I use pages in my journal to track my reading list but you can easily use a whole notebook for your reading habits, especially if you want to keep a running list of books read and to be read throughout the year, along with your thoughts and ratings. I decided to commit to reading at least 50 books this year (I made the pledge on Goodreads), and this year I’ve enjoyed reading more than I have in a long time. I’m 20 books in, so I’m ahead of schedule (doesn’t count the nonfiction books I’ve read) and I also enjoy keeping track of the books I’ve read.

Garden Journal

Years ago I started a garden journal because I had a huge dahlia garden and I had to keep track of all the different types of dahlias as well as how they did year to year. Then, when we decided to build our house and the best location was literally right over the top of my dahlia garden, we dug up every last one and stored them while the house was under construction. Unfortunately, and you can probably guess where this is going, we didn’t store them well enough and we lost most of them before we were able to establish a new garden location.

I put that garden journal away until a few years later when I was gifted around 25 rose bushes, most hybrids. I continued to use my journal as I cared for the roses and again when I decided to add an herb garden. It’s a great way to track the location of plants, how they do each season and any other details you might want to add throughout the years that you can later look back on.

Home Projects

Whenever we’ve had a huge house project, I whip out an empty notebook. When we built the house, the notebook turned into a binder filled with notebooks for each phase. And last year, I had to pull out another notebook to track all the tasks, bids and details when we discovered we had to replace our drain field. *heavy sigh* If a project is going to take weeks or months and cost a lot of money, I like to keep all those details all in one place.

Blog Post Ideas and Editorial Calendar

If you are a blogger, it’s nice to have all your post ideas and the makings of an editorial calendar all in one place. My notebook has pages for various themes and it’s a bit messy, but always a WIP since I take and add to it regularly. I then move topics and details from my notebook to my Trello board where my easy-to-read editorial calendar is located.

Places to Visit

We take our pup on regular hikes so I’m always on the lookout for new ideas. I keep a running list of places to visit or trails to hike in my journal so that any weekend we feel the need to break away, I can check my list and choose a spot near whatever direction we decide we’re heading.

Character Profiles and Chapter Outlines

Again, this is something I do, as a writer. I have notebooks for each of my books or for my series that capture all my character profiles, as well as a separate notebook so that I can create a reverse outline of my book, per chapter, as I’m writing the first draft. I also write notes to myself as I go along, to-do items, topics to revisit and anything else that I can “brain dump” to look at later so I can just continue on with writing.

Mind Mapping

I didn’t start mind mapping until 2019 and I even shared a post about it once I decided to give it a go. Now I have a huge piece of paper on the wall with my main mind map and since then I’ve used a notebook where I can brain dump mind maps whenever I need to work through something. I love mind mapping and it’s great for someone who loves putting pen to paper to come up with a visual that can help the brain work an issue out.

So there you go. That’s my list of 15 ways to use an empty notebook. I really could go on because there are so many more ideas but this post is long enough as it is. I hope what I’ve shared gave you some useful ideas, and that you enjoyed learning a little more about me in the process.

Thanks for reading and have a great day!