Last year I successfully kept a little journal. I’d write for about half a page, and share three little gratitudes. Kept it simple. Super do-able.

Fast forward to this year. At the first of the year, I started working through a book that has the reader keep three pages of handwritten journaling. Since I was already doing this daily handwritten thing, I figured it would be no big deal to add a couple more pages.

Then I started reading a little inspirational book by a poet and I was really liking the book, so I decided to take his advice to heart: keep a daily logbook of your daily activities and a monthly calendar of writing activities.

Suddenly I found myself hitting Journal Overload. I went from doing my happy little daily journal to trying to juggle about seven different journaling techniques. Probably don’t need to tell you it all came crashing down in no time flat.

I took a deep breath and told myself to keep it simple. So I’m going back to my original journaling method on days when I work full-time, and on my days off I’ll do the three-page method since I’ll have more time. All the other calendars and logbooks and diet journals and whatever else tried to invade my life will just need to wait for another day (or never).

As in so many areas of life, keep it simple.