Morning pages are good for getting in the habit of journaling:

http://www.theartistsway.com/pdfs/basictools.pdf

But I moved on from them when I got so I wanted to reread what I'd written and wished I knew dates/days of the week, etc. for using in therapy. Was great for keeping track of dreams since it's usually first thing in the morning

I think of what I want to keep track of and sometimes have mini-journals (like my med journal that helped me with my constantly shifting meds all summer with my arm pain/problems). I'm kind of getting into checking out moods and such for my thyroid medicine (as well as weight) and/or eating. For eating I bought "Chef Kathleen's" Cooking Thin Daybook (goes with her Cooking Thin cookbook I think. She was heavy herself, lost I think something like 80 lbs. http://www.kathleendaelemans.com/

But I'm like you EJ, I keep a huge "artist's" hardback sketch book next to my computer on the table (only now I've moved to an easy chair so there's nowhere to "put" it so I can write in it) and I copy down everything from online as I do it; make lists, plan papers, organize, start accounts (and write my password so I can find it later) etc. :-) But I love that book and get satisfaction from having to turn the page. However, it has all sorts of "necessary" stuff like passwords, genealogy charts/dates, phone numbers or addresses or dates I did things, etc. as well as pure trash only it's all mixed up together and I'm near the end of the book! I'll have to buy another and spend a day transcribing the good stuff to the new book but then I won't have a "sight memory" of where things were written (how far into the book, left/right of the page, etc.) for awhile. I did start a smaller book recently of online, Web accounts, sites, etc. so I'm "planning" a wholly computer one :-)

But I also have a leather journal a friend bought me many years ago that I started a couple years ago. I'm not very far because I now come down and get on the computer and sit here all day instead of writing :-(