🗃️this is sort of like an index card box 😂… I love getting to peek inside your journals! I love the way you fully live in your journals (if that makes sense). I’m so precious with mine, especially with a new planner. But I want my notebooks to be true creative spaces alongside whatever purpose they have. Thank you for sharing!! ❤
Thank you! That's a perfect emoji! I get too precious with mine too sometimes, and I just have to reset myself somehow. It's its own kind of work. 😊 I think I"ve gotten better at it over time.
Adding Zettelkasten to my rabbit hole list 🐰🗒 Your rambles are relatable. I have one planner that is working, but it does not hold EVERYTHING. And so I have a notebook for this. A binder for that. And then when I want to recall something from a certain brainstorm I'm left searching and getting distracted as I flip through the various places that my ideas and thoughts live. All this to say - I can relate. 😊
I can totally relate to all the different notebooks for different categories lol. And where to write what ha the struggle is real. I'm working on it myself 🙏 I'm so intrigued about that zettlekasten system
This is like a video about the state of my brain! Though I haven’t even ordered a single new planner for next year because I can’t stop bouncing between options. This is really rapidly becoming a more tangible problem since I only have a few weeks left. Argh! I also adore index cards! I haven’t used them since college in any big way, but every time I run across my (now yellowed) stacks of blank ones I start trying to come up with excuses to use them. So I’d be very into seeing your system as you develop it.
I will definitely be sharing the notecard system once I get it set up. They are magical little things. :) And yes---you need to order a planner! 😂 Get on that!❤️😆
My mind can easily go to exactly where yours is. I feel like I have a tendency to want to over-categorize things, and then I get all hung up in my shorts. I don't know if it's any help - but this year I've decided that I'm going to use one A5 planner (Sterling Ink Commonplace), where the monthly section is for keeping track of appointments, the weekly pages are devoted to light memory keeping + drawing/stickers, and the blank pages are kind of a blend between bullet journaling and daily pages that contain a daily to do list, my "stats" for the day (move/exercise/stand/sleep/steps and H2O goals), and then what I call visual journaling. So it may be drawings or stickers or things that get pasted in from magazines or ephemera... but whatever it is, I am giving myself permission to let go of judging myself, and just going with it. There is a section in the back of the planner that I've set aside for medical notes and reference, but otherwise, that's it. If I run out of daily pages (hard to imagine), I'll simply order another sterling ink blank notebook to continue on with. Hope that makes sense - and is maybe a bit helpful. Mostly I'm just trying to allow myself the freedom to have one book that contains multitudes, instead of stifling myself by having too many notebooks and then not using them.
That sounds so nice. Unfortunately for my brain, the one book system just won't work. I've tried! (I've had Hobonichi Cousins and Sterling Ink Common Planners.) I get lost in them--too much room to lose stuff. Good luck with yours! I've always imagined that that would be nice. :)
LOL I feel your pain! Trying to decide which planner(s) to use and falling behind already despite my determination to make a December jump start! I definitely have at least one for every function, if not occasion… commonplace, travel, books/other media, memory keeping, journaling, collaging, tracking, planning, everyday carry, calendar, wish list, gift list, todo list… oh, and I know I’m late to the party but first exploring the benefit of morning pages.😅
will always watch all the way through on any erin video 🗂🗂🗂 that index box emoji looks like a taco?? anyways haha i am the same. i have been going back and forth and back and forth with my 2025 lineup with no end in sight. alas such is the mind of creatives i guess 😭 also i found out about the zettlekasten system a couple months ago and it just blew my mind wide open cause it also felt like a coming home of ways that my mind naturally wants to collect information!!
🥰 Yes! That’s how I felt too. In so many ways I’d already been doing it, but I just didn’t know it was a thing. Now I’m reading a book to figure out how to index everything. 🤓
Just lined up a bunch of zettelkasten videos on my watch later list 😅 Would love to see how you use the method at some point if you settle into it well. Understand the chaos. I have more planners than I want need, and need to make decisions about selling/keeping but right now I am simply procrastinating hard 😂
Hi, Emily! Enjoy the deep dive!😆 I think the most important thing to note is that a lot of people use digital systems and i am going full analog/mad scientist/crazy old professor style. 😂 These are nice problems to have, aren’t they?
📔 so similar to you - try so hard to have a one notebook to rule them all - but my brain just cannot get around doing that - then I end up with 10 notebooks for different things and am so overwhelmed with the upkeep that I leave everything to the wayside. That's when I get it in my head that I have to have a certain notebook and I get all obsessive until I have the notebook and then I'm too scared to mess it up! Such a crazy spiral :-) but I would NOT give up my notebooks and planners for anything. Thanks so much for sharing this video!
I can totally relate!! 📚📖 I have journals for different styles/things…but sometimes I then lose track of where I’ve put things. Annnnd even worse for me, is that I get ‘analysis paralysis’ and don’t know *where* to put something, so I get super anxious and don’t put it anywhere! 😬 This can shut down my own creativity. Gah. Working on that for sure. And on the perfectionism piece that is allllll tied up in there for me. 😅🫠 TLDR below: idk what I’m doing except for my Cousin. 😂 I love love love my Hobonichi Cousin - daily pages for ‘dear diary’ & gratitude, with some light deco, weekly pages for jotting down what happened that day (point form reference), and monthly pages at the end of each month as ‘a sticker/doodle per day’. It’s working SO well for me & is fun! The hard part is figuring out where/how to combine my messy inner-child ‘get it out’ journal, ‘nice’ collage/ephemera journals (2 very different styles), tarot/oracle journal, creative writing journal…orrrr keep these all separate and figure out how to not be overwhelmed by the stack. 🫣 Leaning towards that atm. 😅
I understand the struggle! Especially the not knowing where to put something. I think that’s what causes me the most stress anxiety. I think I solve that problem by creating a place to put anything and the. It inevitably becomes something “more” and I have to solve it all over again. I think I’m ok with that though. It’s a constant cycle of allowing things to grow and then pruning. 😊
I’ve kind of done something similar already, but I didn’t know there was a name for it and I didn’t want to appear crazy. 😆 I’m happy to be free to go all in.
We could be twins. I am struggling with the EXACT SAME THING. I have 5 planners (do I use them quarterly since I APPARENTLY get bored easily) 3 CommonPlace books (WT LITERAL F) 2 junk journals going at the same time, different sizes…again, WTF and 1 Morning pages journal and 2 regular journals. And oh..a Tarot card journal. What to do what to do? So I hear ya sistah!
Erin really hit the nail on the head when she said she gets too “rigid” about how things should be used and then gives up on it. That’s such an appropriate observation and exactly what happens to me but I never could put my finger on other than to make light of my OCD tendencies.
I enjoy any video you make Erin so I am always here ❤❤ I did my line up video twice now and may need an updated one soon 😂😂 I keep changing my mind!! Why is it so hard? 😂😂
The whole video I was thinking you need a master index system, but it seems you already realise that. You have a lot of creative ideas and you should be free to explore them all!
Girl, I can SO relate to all of it. Everything! Add me too the users of the index cards in school! Interested in that system. Oh, inserting index card box…🗂! Great video!
I’m a multiple book girlie. The first thing for me is allowing me to be okay with that. I’m also okay with repeating information. I’d rather have the information in multiple places than ever miss anything. However, if I’m ever overwhelmed I figure out what’s most important for me and scale back the extra. I mean the journals aren’t going anywhere for when I want them back. I wish I could share my journals. Maybe I’ll share on my IG. As for next year I’m going to do the same thing; buy what I used a lot this year to use for 2025 since it’s working. 📓📒 I’ve used index cards too for certain information. It worked well and I love flipping through.
I’m very similar re: multiple books and repeated info. I don’t mind it at all if I’m having fun, and at this point I just expect to need to switch in and out of things sometimes. ☺️
Oh, and love putting clear plastic covers on my covers! To say nothing of your now having given me a new purpose for my &Liebe fold- over Mega Weeks leather cover that very much resembles your set up for your reading notes….😅
I’m running into a similar problem. I bought a Hobonichi cousin, and the weeks. Too much room in the cousin, not enough in the weeks. Scared I’m going to run out of pages…so what did I do? I bought a Sterling ink N2 520 pg notebook, and a hobonichi weeks (a new one, because I found a better system that’s working for me, and now the original weeks is confusing and I’m getting “lost” in it), wish me luck. 😂 Oh! In case that doesn’t work, I bought the Standard size sterling ink common planner, and two of those grid notebooks - the 272 page ones…send help.
![Farewell, Personal Space Journal! [Sterling Ink B6 Common Planner Reading Hobby Journal]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FVnoyaLL4gw/mqdefault.jpg)
I love the amount of thought and care you put into each aspect of your system and how everything serves in a little niche 💛 here’s my emoji: 🍁
Thank you! What a kind thing to say. ☺️
🗃️this is sort of like an index card box 😂… I love getting to peek inside your journals! I love the way you fully live in your journals (if that makes sense). I’m so precious with mine, especially with a new planner. But I want my notebooks to be true creative spaces alongside whatever purpose they have. Thank you for sharing!! ❤
Thank you! That's a perfect emoji! I get too precious with mine too sometimes, and I just have to reset myself somehow. It's its own kind of work. 😊 I think I"ve gotten better at it over time.
Adding Zettelkasten to my rabbit hole list 🐰🗒 Your rambles are relatable. I have one planner that is working, but it does not hold EVERYTHING. And so I have a notebook for this. A binder for that. And then when I want to recall something from a certain brainstorm I'm left searching and getting distracted as I flip through the various places that my ideas and thoughts live. All this to say - I can relate. 😊
Yes. I feel this.
I can totally relate to all the different notebooks for different categories lol. And where to write what ha the struggle is real. I'm working on it myself 🙏 I'm so intrigued about that zettlekasten system
I'll definitely be sharing more about it once I get my system set up! 😊
insert notebook emoji here! I need to find a path forward with these journals. Thanks for pontificating with us!
Always happy to. 😆
This is like a video about the state of my brain! Though I haven’t even ordered a single new planner for next year because I can’t stop bouncing between options. This is really rapidly becoming a more tangible problem since I only have a few weeks left. Argh!
I also adore index cards! I haven’t used them since college in any big way, but every time I run across my (now yellowed) stacks of blank ones I start trying to come up with excuses to use them. So I’d be very into seeing your system as you develop it.
I will definitely be sharing the notecard system once I get it set up. They are magical little things. :) And yes---you need to order a planner! 😂 Get on that!❤️😆
I enjoy hearing your thoughts behind everything!
Thanks! I do enjoy talking about it! It's nice that there are people to listen. 😊
My mind can easily go to exactly where yours is. I feel like I have a tendency to want to over-categorize things, and then I get all hung up in my shorts. I don't know if it's any help - but this year I've decided that I'm going to use one A5 planner (Sterling Ink Commonplace), where the monthly section is for keeping track of appointments, the weekly pages are devoted to light memory keeping + drawing/stickers, and the blank pages are kind of a blend between bullet journaling and daily pages that contain a daily to do list, my "stats" for the day (move/exercise/stand/sleep/steps and H2O goals), and then what I call visual journaling. So it may be drawings or stickers or things that get pasted in from magazines or ephemera... but whatever it is, I am giving myself permission to let go of judging myself, and just going with it. There is a section in the back of the planner that I've set aside for medical notes and reference, but otherwise, that's it. If I run out of daily pages (hard to imagine), I'll simply order another sterling ink blank notebook to continue on with. Hope that makes sense - and is maybe a bit helpful. Mostly I'm just trying to allow myself the freedom to have one book that contains multitudes, instead of stifling myself by having too many notebooks and then not using them.
That sounds so nice. Unfortunately for my brain, the one book system just won't work. I've tried! (I've had Hobonichi Cousins and Sterling Ink Common Planners.) I get lost in them--too much room to lose stuff. Good luck with yours! I've always imagined that that would be nice. :)
LOL I feel your pain! Trying to decide which planner(s) to use and falling behind already despite my determination to make a December jump start! I definitely have at least one for every function, if not occasion… commonplace, travel, books/other media, memory keeping, journaling, collaging, tracking, planning, everyday carry, calendar, wish list, gift list, todo list… oh, and I know I’m late to the party but first exploring the benefit of morning pages.😅
You’re not falling behind! What glorious problems to have! 😂❤️
I think I saw something about book titles in your leuchtturm. I’d love to hear more!
hmmm. Not sure what that was!
will always watch all the way through on any erin video 🗂🗂🗂 that index box emoji looks like a taco?? anyways haha i am the same. i have been going back and forth and back and forth with my 2025 lineup with no end in sight. alas such is the mind of creatives i guess 😭 also i found out about the zettlekasten system a couple months ago and it just blew my mind wide open cause it also felt like a coming home of ways that my mind naturally wants to collect information!!
🥰 Yes! That’s how I felt too. In so many ways I’d already been doing it, but I just didn’t know it was a thing. Now I’m reading a book to figure out how to index everything. 🤓
Just lined up a bunch of zettelkasten videos on my watch later list 😅 Would love to see how you use the method at some point if you settle into it well. Understand the chaos. I have more planners than I want need, and need to make decisions about selling/keeping but right now I am simply procrastinating hard 😂
Hi, Emily! Enjoy the deep dive!😆 I think the most important thing to note is that a lot of people use digital systems and i am going full analog/mad scientist/crazy old professor style. 😂 These are nice problems to have, aren’t they?
@erin_ware_art Enjoyable paper-based analogue organisation problems? Yes please I will take those 😄
📔 so similar to you - try so hard to have a one notebook to rule them all - but my brain just cannot get around doing that - then I end up with 10 notebooks for different things and am so overwhelmed with the upkeep that I leave everything to the wayside. That's when I get it in my head that I have to have a certain notebook and I get all obsessive until I have the notebook and then I'm too scared to mess it up! Such a crazy spiral :-) but I would NOT give up my notebooks and planners for anything.
Thanks so much for sharing this video!
Yes, yes, yes. I feel all of this!
I can totally relate!! 📚📖 I have journals for different styles/things…but sometimes I then lose track of where I’ve put things. Annnnd even worse for me, is that I get ‘analysis paralysis’ and don’t know *where* to put something, so I get super anxious and don’t put it anywhere! 😬 This can shut down my own creativity. Gah. Working on that for sure. And on the perfectionism piece that is allllll tied up in there for me. 😅🫠
TLDR below: idk what I’m doing except for my Cousin. 😂
I love love love my Hobonichi Cousin - daily pages for ‘dear diary’ & gratitude, with some light deco, weekly pages for jotting down what happened that day (point form reference), and monthly pages at the end of each month as ‘a sticker/doodle per day’. It’s working SO well for me & is fun!
The hard part is figuring out where/how to combine my messy inner-child ‘get it out’ journal, ‘nice’ collage/ephemera journals (2 very different styles), tarot/oracle journal, creative writing journal…orrrr keep these all separate and figure out how to not be overwhelmed by the stack. 🫣 Leaning towards that atm. 😅
(Oh, and I also have a health tracking journal which is okay. And a messy list journal. 😂)
I understand the struggle! Especially the not knowing where to put something. I think that’s what causes me the most stress anxiety. I think I solve that problem by creating a place to put anything and the. It inevitably becomes something “more” and I have to solve it all over again. I think I’m ok with that though. It’s a constant cycle of allowing things to grow and then pruning. 😊
📓 I think the index zettlekastan (?) thing will be amazing for you! You can also be creative and decorate the cards if/when you want ro
I’ve kind of done something similar already, but I didn’t know there was a name for it and I didn’t want to appear crazy. 😆 I’m happy to be free to go all in.
I love my index card system 👻♥️ this made me so happy!! Yessss!!!!
So excited to watch this yay!!🥹💖
We could be twins. I am struggling with the EXACT SAME THING. I have 5 planners (do I use them quarterly since I APPARENTLY get bored easily) 3 CommonPlace books (WT LITERAL F) 2 junk journals going at the same time, different sizes…again, WTF and 1 Morning pages journal and 2 regular journals. And oh..a Tarot card journal. What to do what to do? So I hear ya sistah!
Erin really hit the nail on the head when she said she gets too “rigid” about how things should be used and then gives up on it. That’s such an appropriate observation and exactly what happens to me but I never could put my finger on other than to make light of my OCD tendencies.
Haha! There’s nothing wrong with trying different systems though-you totally could try a new planner every season! That might be a cool experiment.
I enjoy any video you make Erin so I am always here ❤❤ I did my line up video twice now and may need an updated one soon 😂😂 I keep changing my mind!! Why is it so hard? 😂😂
😆It’s so hard and it’s also so fun. I think these are the problems I actually enjoy solving. 😊
The whole video I was thinking you need a master index system, but it seems you already realise that. You have a lot of creative ideas and you should be free to explore them all!
You really see me. ☺️❤️🤓
🗃️ I kind of want to use that hobonichi commonplacing idea!
Go for it!
📓 I also come from the days of index cards! What a cool old-is-new way to think about categorizing ideas!
Right?! I’m so excited to dive in to it!
Girl, I can SO relate to all of it. Everything! Add me too the users of the index cards in school! Interested in that system. Oh, inserting index card box…🗂! Great video!
Thank you! I'll definitely be sharing more about that system in the new year. 😊
I’m a multiple book girlie. The first thing for me is allowing me to be okay with that. I’m also okay with repeating information. I’d rather have the information in multiple places than ever miss anything. However, if I’m ever overwhelmed I figure out what’s most important for me and scale back the extra. I mean the journals aren’t going anywhere for when I want them back. I wish I could share my journals. Maybe I’ll share on my IG.
As for next year I’m going to do the same thing; buy what I used a lot this year to use for 2025 since it’s working.
📓📒 I’ve used index cards too for certain information. It worked well and I love flipping through.
I’m very similar re: multiple books and repeated info. I don’t mind it at all if I’m having fun, and at this point I just expect to need to switch in and out of things sometimes. ☺️
Oh, and love putting clear plastic covers on my covers! To say nothing of your now having given me a new purpose for my &Liebe fold- over Mega Weeks leather cover that very much resembles your set up for your reading notes….😅
I highly recommend it! It comes in so handy. ☺️
😁📓📝
⚖️
😂
OMG it’s like you are in my brain! I’m exactly where you are, so if you happen to figure it out please share because I need the same thing!!!!
Haha! OK! I'll let you know....
❤
Oh and let’s not discuss my 88 fountain pens and 55 bottles of ink.
I love knowing I’m not the only one whose brain works this way. 😅😂
You are not alone!! 😆
I’m running into a similar problem. I bought a Hobonichi cousin, and the weeks. Too much room in the cousin, not enough in the weeks. Scared I’m going to run out of pages…so what did I do? I bought a Sterling ink N2 520 pg notebook, and a hobonichi weeks (a new one, because I found a better system that’s working for me, and now the original weeks is confusing and I’m getting “lost” in it), wish me luck. 😂 Oh! In case that doesn’t work, I bought the Standard size sterling ink common planner, and two of those grid notebooks - the 272 page ones…send help.
Ha! Good luck!
📔
Ooops! Wrong video! But yes, the planner struggle is real. I still can’t decide on 2025!
Hmm? 🤔 I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
@ ooops! Wrong video!
lol - this was a bit of a rambling video...maybe you're overthinking things?
If I wasn’t, then I wouldn’t be me. 😆
📔📙🖋🖌🖍
🗂️🫶🏻