I recently went on an overseas holiday. I always enjoy travel as it gives me an opportunity to evaluate what’s going on in my life and de-clutter the fog of everything at home. It also gives me a chance to reflect on myself and what areas I’d like to improve, all whilst getting some well needed vitamin D and removing myself from the white noises in my life.
That being said, life can sometimes be over consuming and my self-reflection moments get pushed aside for other priorities when I don’t dedicate time to self-care.
So it was really refreshing when I came across a happiness planner whilst shopping on my holiday. These cute little notebooks covered everything from mindfulness, gratitude, goal setting and self-reflection, all bound in various colours and layouts.
Googling further, I discovered they’re everywhere and have been designed for all facets of life. As a visual representation of your achievements and an opportunity to pen your experiences and goals during the day, these planners go a little further than your traditional Filofax. Below are just some of the planners available online:
The Happiness Planner (Source: The Happiness Planner)
Focusing on positivity as opposed to productivity, these journals are used to focus on the things you want to achieve, rate your energy levels, spend time reflecting on the positives in your life and discovering what it is that truly makes you happy. Available in 100 day planners (for starting a new habit) and yearly planners, their website also features a newly established app for tech friendly users, as well as print outs for those who are in between planners.
Conquering daily greatness (Source: Daily Greatness)
Starting your day with the intention of conquering goals can set you up for a successful schedule. The Daily Greatness offers journals for daily planning, as well as parenting, wellness and business.
Break down your day into 8 steps of meditation & visualisation, intentions, dream journaling, gratitude, evening self-awareness questions, exercise, inspired actions and inspiration. Designed for the inner guru in all of us, these journals work on goal setting from Monday to Saturday, with Sunday being your reflection and resetting day for the coming week.
Reflect and have fun offline (Source: Kikki K)
Take on the 30 day challenge of removing yourself from the online demands of social media and emails by living in reality. There are 120 different offline activity ideas found in Kikki K’s offline journal, helping you to remove yourself from digital distractions.
Mood tracking (Source: Hello Happiness Co.)
Hello Happiness Co. sells stickers to track your weekly mood. Simply tick the moods experienced during the day and you have a weekly reflection of the emotions you experienced during that week.
Get DIY (Source: Buzzfeed)
If you enjoy arts and crafts, why not make your own journal. Use a small journal to create a layout that suits you. You may wish to include a monthly log of your experiences such as tracking sleep, medications, any physical symptoms and mood. You can also keep rant pages, ‘done’ lists (rather than ‘to do’ lists) and even a journal prompts page for when you’re struggling to put things on paper.
Upon returning from my trip and back to the daily grind, I think I might have to invest in one for myself, and maybe some for Christmas presents this year 🙂
