Journaling & ORGANIZATION

I'm a big writer. Ever since I was a little kid I've always had a pen to paper and ideas running through my head. But I've only recently begun "emotional" journaling.

PROBLEM #1:
- I HAVE to be super organized. If my personal environment is chaotic - I'm internally chaotic. (This doesn't mean alphabetization or color chronology. Just an order.) I'm also ADHD so I have collections of notebooks that are unfinished. "Diary entries," poetry, musings, from several years. It's stressing me out what to do with these. Should I rip the pages out and tape them all into a book chronologically since they're dated and then just start a new book?

PROBLEM 2:
Because of the variety of things I write, I'm also thinking it might be more beneficial to have separate notebooks for things: poetry, musings, emotional writing, etc. That way if I want to find something specific later on I'll know where to look, instead of sifting through a book which includes all of those chronologically.

PROBLEM 3:
I've been waking up with terrible anxiety. So I've created a book where I write down my immediate emotions and thoughts to get it out of my system and acknowledge it and then hopefully start the day better. I've been doing that at night now too. This book is slowly becoming an emotional journal instead of a "get these stupid worries upon sleeping and waking out of my head" book. Maybe I should just keep a smaller book on the nightstand and try to keep it in a list format?

SUGGESTIONS/PROBLEM 4:
I read some therapy journaling sites for ideas. I'm thinking about buying a sectioned/divided off notebook and making sections for each one (i.e. emotional writing, poetry, musings, LETTERS I WON'T SEND PEOPLE, etc.) and then date it that way.
I'm curious as to ways you all write. Some ideas I got from the sites were to make pages for lists to go and fill in whenever it strikes you, like a prompt: I worry that, what if, I hate that, I love, I feel proud, If I knew I wouldn't fail, Before I die, etc.

i love journals and journaling so am enjoying reading this post. i don't know what would work best but i do date my journal entries. mixed in with my diary entries i write down my dreams sometimes that seem significant. what i do is inside the front cover of the journal i make a list of the dreams and the date i recorded them. that way when i want to refer to them i can find them easily. a friend recommended that to me and boy has it helped me keep track. really, you don't have to organize your unfinished journals unless you want to. it is okay to leave them unfinished but i do understand wanting to be able to access the info easily.

this sounds like a good idea. you might keep things that are more artistic (poetry, musings, quotes, etc) in one journal, or one for each category if you have lots of entries, and then another journal for the emotional writing.

if what you are currently doing is working i'd probably stick with that unless the book is too unwieldy. if it is then a smaller one might be easier. you can experiment with the list idea and see if that is better but if not just stick with the other.

that could work.

i really like these ideas. i am currently taking an art journaling class and they have some similar prompts. i haven't quite figured out what is the best way to organize my journals so sometimes i have a bunch of journals for different things and then other times i revert back to one main one. mostly, i do emotional journaling, write down dreams & interpret them, have a prayer journal, now an art journal, a book of sayings, etc. i also keep a file on my computer of different quotes i come across online that i like. it's a lot of stuff all over the place but i love keeping all these things.

I like the issue of journals and what to do with them. I have similar problems with what to do with old journals, but for now it is too much for me to figure out.

I do keep separate journals for poetry and creativity, then one for Buddhism, and one general ongoing one for just what I call self-analysis.

I tried a system using my computer for a while. It was very organized and color coded, with different areas for different concerns. That way it was both dated but also kept separate according to topic.

The only reason I stopped is that I like feeling the pen in my hand and that connection to the paper. In the past when more organized I would write with different colored inks so that different topics could easily be found.

So I journal alot and I have a personal journal to do my emotional moments like you do, I have a separate journal for things I find of interest/help to my therapy/mental well-being (Like notes on psych books i read, meditation practices etc, I research alot for my own interest). Then I write poetry so I have a separate journal for that.

Separate journals can be a good thing just make sure you don't lose them. Often times I bring my emotional journal with me everywhere's I go but when I forget I write an entry on a piece of paper and take the time later to copy into my journal.

wills,

I have the same problem as you. I am a perfectionist. I started journals many times over the years and ended up shredding them because they weren't "organized".

Then I went into psychosis and lost track of all my paperwork, bills, etc. I went totally nuts at the pile of stuff I had to straighten out, but I did eventually get it straightened out. I also started a journal again.

My humble advice is this - organize what you already have as best you can. They make wonderful office supplies for just this purpose. Then start a new journal. Record everything in it. Keep it with you as you can, but also have a small memo pad for quick notes.

Keep your journals and memo pads organized by date, for example, Journal #1: 11/28/13 - 01/01/14, then Journal #2: 01/01/14 - 05/01/14, and so on. This will make it easy to precisely organize them.

My strongest advice is do not destroy anything because it isn't organized. I'm so sad I did. I can never get back those thoughts and ideas.

The key is to organize as best you can, then start fresh. This worked very well for me.

You're in my thoughts as a fellow traveler. This will work if you allow it to. I know it's hard to get past that organizational wall, but you can do it.

Edited to add that I organize within my journal with highlighter pens. I use blue for significant ideas, yellow for another purpose, pink for dreams, green to highlight dates. I only highlight the first line in the margin so that the journal isn't one solid highlight. I also use those little colored Post-It tabs for the most important entries.

Sounds like my current situation. All the scatter is stressing me out. haha

I did a lot of writing on the computer earlier on. But I found myself writing like 8 pages needlessly. I would rather be typing but I force myself to use pen and paper to try and slow my thoughts down.

Different inks. That's genius.

Like you, I've destroyed or went on a massive trash spree of things quite a few times in my life. Sad to say.

So you're suggesting one notebook for all things and just date it. For example:
11/28/13 and write a thought/emotion entry and then poetry or dream like after skipping a couple spaces?

Date the notebook itself (on the inside cover, when you started it and when you finished it) and date the entries. You can use one date for each day's thoughts, poetry, etc. Yes, just skip a line or two. Use office supplies to denote random thoughts or poetry or whatever you write. That's what I do.

I got the idea of dating the journals themselves from work, where we had to fill out log books. It makes them easier to organize if you generate a lot of material as we did.

I currently have five journals organized by the dates I opened them. They're also numbered one to five in the order I've generated them. It's redundant, I know, but that's for quick reference.

It's so much easier to have one place for everything.