Keeping it creative

intentional living, journalling, lifestyle, mindset, Planning and journaling, reflective journalling, self care, Setting goals and intentions

Why I’m ditching The Five Minute Journal and what I’m trying now

Posted on Jun 26, 2025Jun 26, 2025 by Laura

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

For the past couple of years now, I’ve been using The Five Minute Journal consistently as a way of recording what I’m grateful for, thinking about how to make my day as good as possible, selecting a positive affirmation and making a note of the main highlights each evening. There are so many positives about this journalling system, which, as the name suggests, can be filled in very quickly using the prompts given. So, you might wonder why I’ve made the decision to stop using it? Today, I’m going to be sharing my main reasons and also talking about what I’ve started using instead.

Why I’m no longer using The Five Minute Journal

As you can see in the photo above, I’ve worked my way through four of The Five Minute Journals lasting six months each. I’ve mainly enjoyed using this guided journal with daily prompts, but a few months ago, I started to think about trying something else. This was mainly because I felt like my practise was getting a bit stale and repetitive and wanted something that I would really look forward to filling in twice a day. Here’s some of the things which have made me fall out of love with it:

The Gratitude section – I found this first bit really difficult to fill in when half asleep in the early morning. I would have preferred to list what I was thankful for in the evening so I could draw from things which had happened during my day.

The ‘What would make today great?’ section – I liked coming up with things that would make a difference to my day but I also felt like I wanted to explain why and the journal did not allow enough space for this. I think I would have preferred it if the section was a little more flexible so that you could maybe write one thing and provide an explanation or 2 or 3 things without going into detail.

The Daily Affirmation section – I liked choosing an affirmation for the day but I did sometimes struggle with coming up with one and had to resort to looking on the Internet for ideas which kind of made the process take a lot longer than five minutes.

Highlights Of The Day section – I continued to enjoy writing my highlights and often found myself writing a fourth one. I would have liked a bit more room to write in more detail for this part but, this would have taken longer than five minutes to complete if it was longer.

What did I learn today? section – For this part, the idea was to write something that the day had taught you about yourself or your situation, so, for example you could write ‘scrolling the news on my phone makes me feel sad’ or ‘sometimes when I feel hungry, I’m actually thirsty and should try drinking water before turning to a snack’. Often, I found this difficult and would end up writing something general that I’d learnt that day such as a new piece of knowledge or some advice that I’d come across. However, I felt that these ‘learnings’ were not really what the section was getting at. I felt like this became a drag and something I dreaded trying to fill in which isn’t how I wanted to feel as filling in the journal is meant to be a positive experience.

Weekly Challenges – these were something I looked forward to, but, I didn’t always have time on the particular day it was presented on and I often ended up forgetting about it when really, it would have been better to do it on an alternative date. Also, I think I would have preferred it if there was a menu of options at the back of the book and you could choose one which suited you at that time.

Despite me not wanting to purchase another ‘The Five Minute Journal’, what I didn’t want to do was abandon journalling altogether. And, luckily, I found an alternative journal in a garden centre whilst I was visiting family. My new journal is beautiful to look at, great to write in (much better quality paper) and allows more flexibility with what you can write about. I create a morning and evening entry and I would say it takes me no longer than ten minutes in the morning and no longer than fifteen in the evening. It’s helped me to fall in love with journalling again and I’m really enjoying filling it in. It also has an extra little prompt each day which changes regularly and, every now and then, it has something different on the next page which you can choose to fill in at some point during your day.

My New Journal

Below, is the journal that I’ve just started using partway through this month. I picked it up at Easter time and was really looking forward to getting going with it. I’ve also photographed some pages to give you an idea about the morning and evening prompts and also some of the extra challenges that are dotted throughout the book. You’ll also see that it has some gorgeous illustrations too which definitely adds to the appeal!

Final words…

Any regular practice in life can sometimes get a little boring and become hard to maintain interest in, so it can really help to shake things up every now and then. I’m interested to know if other journallers have ditched a particular form of journalling and tried something new. Sometimes change can be scary but often, it can also be invigorating too. I would love to hear what you think of my new journal and if it appeals to you too so let me know in the comments.

creativity, journalling, lifestyle, memory keeping, Planning and journaling, reflective journalling, TN journaling, Traveler's Notebook, Traveler's Notebook Spreads

How I journal about my holidays: creative ways to record travel adventures

Posted on Jun 13, 2025Jun 20, 2025 by Laura

(N.B. image heavy post this time)

Last month, we spent a lovely week in Faro, the capital of the Algarve region of Portugal. Whilst I usually do a double page traveler’s notebook spread each month, documenting the main highlights, when we go on holiday somewhere new, I will dedicate a whole notebook to the trip which includes journalling, lots of photographs, ephemera and general momentoes which can be stuck in. Today, I’m sharing how I prepare for my journal before I go and whilst away and I’m also including examples of double page spreads showing the different creative ways I document my holiday.

What I do prior to and whilst I’m away

So, let’s start with my preparations so that working on and completing my journal is much easier when I get back home. These are key to ensuring I have all the information and need and key details that I might otherwise have forgotten.

Before I head off on my holiday

Before I go, I make the journal itself. I create a TN wide size insert choosing colours, patterns or images on the scrapbooking paper which suit my coming trip. So, for example, this time, I opted for a bright and cheerful flamingo, flower and leaf themed paper from the Paradise Crush collection of 12×12 papers (200gsm heavyweight cardstock even though referred to as paper). This was because I had read that there are flamingoes to be seen in the lagoon (Ria Formosa). I love selecting the cover paper myself and then hand-stitching blank white paper for the inside. I choose quite thin white paper so the journal doesn’t get so thick that it won’t close properly when I add to my pages.

Shortly before travel, I add a small notebook to my handbag and make sure I have a pen too. This is useful for writing details during my holiday so I don’t forget things when I return. Just a word of warning if you’re going on a flight though – be sure to select your pen carefully as the liquid ink in my V5 Pilot Hi-Tecpoint pen must have expanded whilst in the air and when I got it out to write with on arrival the pen came apart and I got covered in ink! Luckily, it was just my hands that got ink all over them, not my clothes.

The final thing I take with me is something to store ephemera (collectable bits and pieces) in. This time, I took a popper wallet and it came in very useful for keeping papers flat. I do wish I’d opted for a slightly bigger folder though as I had some bigger things that I had to fold up to ensure they fit.

During my holiday

Notetaking Throughout the holiday, I make notes and reflect on my day. This is easy to do in the little notebook I mentioned earlier which comes with me wherever I go. This could include the name of a place we visited, my menu choices in a restaurant or cafe, timings of events during the day, a funny anecdote or how I felt in a particular place.

Taking photographs I take lots and lots of photographs whilst we’re away – better to have too many than not enough, right? However, for me, it’s not just about taking photos of each other and things my husband and I see or do, it’s also very much an aide memoire of various elements of our trip too. For example, when in Faro and on our day trips, I took photos of menus from the various eateries we went to, a screenshot of the weather for the week, close up shots of cocktail descriptions, shop fronts where I made my souvenir purchases and screenshots of locations of places we planned to go later on in the week. Also, talking of photos, I took my selfie stick so that we could take shots of the pair of us together rather than having to ask other tourists to take them for us.

Collecting ephemera In the traditional sense of memory keeping journalling, ephemera usually refers to stickers and die cut paper and card images which can be glue or stuck into the journal pages. However, for me, it means anything and everything which could be stuck in as a memory of our holiday. On our trip to Portugal, I collected and saved business cards for cafes and restaurants, maps picked up at the Tourist Information places, leaflets such as the one advertising our boat trip so I could cut out letters for titles, small images or bits of information, receipts from shops and eateries, paper tickets (e.g. entry to the cathedral and for our train ride to Albufeira), samples from paper bags we were given to house our souvenirs in and even the cup cover for our glasses in our hotel room. Some of the things I didn’t end up using but at least I was well prepared with paper goodies I did want to add. I also only used parts of my items sometimes, so, for example, I trimmed a large map down to fit on a double page spread and I cut the logo from a business card of a place called Veganbox we ate in a few times.

Creating my travel journal

It’s up to you how you do your journalling and the elements you include within the pages but here’s some ideas:

travel information including modes of transport and tickets
the weather whilst you’re away
places of special interest you visited
photos of the accommodation you stayed in
maps of the place you stayed and other areas that you visited
meals, snacks and drinks enjoyed plus related ephemera
photos of scenes, selfies, family, food and drinks enjoyed etc
souvenirs and why you chose them
information about any traditions of the place / country you went to
an explanation of something new that you learned whilst you were there
activities you did and what you did to relax

Supplies that I find useful and you might too:

roller glue – I use tonnes of this stuff and have two rollers – permanent (to ensure things stick really well and removeable (for when I might want to reposition elements on a page)
stickers – from a variety of larger and small businesses online (purchased from Amazon or businesses such as Papermaze, or Etsy to support small UK sellers), or made myself in Cricut Design Space and printed and cut
We R Memory Keepers 1,2,3 punch board – for making the mini envelopes I included
Washi tapes – I have collected so many of these over the years and use them in my memory keeping as well as my bullet journal planner
Die cuts – I didn’t use any this time but small ones of these are useful as decor on pages
Pens – biros or gel ink and possibly coloured pens for writing straight into the journal

I’ll let the photos of my pages do the talking now but if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with me.

Final words…

Times are certainly changing with creative journalling and memory keeping. A few years ago (maybe a few more!), everything used to be paper based, but now, many things that I would usually stick in to my journal, such as flight information, boarding passes, entry tickets to places and for excursions and so on are often completely digital. To make sure I can still include at least some of these, my husband has to screenshot the e-tickets on his phone and then forward the images to me in WhatsApp so I can print them off. It’s not the same, but at least it provides some sort of record and adds to the memories stored within my travel journals.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my travel journalling process and seeing photos of my actual pages. There’s quite a lot of work involved in the journals I produce, but you could cut down the time involved by just adding photos and short captions. You could also choose to draw elements of what you see and do on your travels and this would be another lovely way to make the process both creative and therapeutic too.

Thanks for reading and I hope I’ve inspired you to create your own travel journal to document holidays (A.K.A. vacations),

art, bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, goal setting, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, productivity

Setting up my Bullet Journal for June 2025: Portuguese ceramic tiles theme (AKA azulejos)

Posted on Jun 1, 2025 by Laura

This June, I’ve gone for something completely different for my monthly BuJo decor. Usually, in the Summer months, I opt for bright colours and seasonal things such as fruits, butterflies, ice cream and beach holidays. However, this time, I took inspiration from our recent trip to The Algarve in Portugal and decided on a Portuguese ceramic tiles theme. Although a range of colours appear in these traditional items, the most popular by far is dark blue on a white background. The designs can be incredibly intricate but I opted for simple patterns as I really wanted to add cute swallows somewhere in my theme but at the same time, ensure I hadn’t set myself too much of a drawing challenge!

The Front Cover

I created my two tile designs on dotted paper from my Claire Fontaine pad and then traced them using pencil so I could create a repeating pattern and keep the images looking almost the same. They’re not exactly identical but this is in keeping with the hand-painted look which the traditional ceramic tiles would have. I then decide to outline the squares with a light sand colour Tombow. The June title was hand-lettered using my darkest blue Tombow and I went over it twice to intensify the colour. As I didn’t have a very dark blue Tombow, I had to make use of my Crayola Supertips which made it quite difficult to be precise with the colouring as the pens are quite thick and not super pointed. I think the tiles turned out okay but I’m not sure if the tile outline is impactful enough and I’ve been debating using a darker colour.

Monthly Calendar

I worked on a few more fairly simple tile designs for the spaces around my calendar, again using tracing paper to copy the images multiple times. I opted for a darker surround, but, as a dark yellow is quite often used in addition to the dark blue on azulegos, I thought it made them look more vibrant but still similar to the actual Portuguese tiles.

Finances – income and expenses

My usual financial information record with a Portuguese tile sticker I made using an image from Canva.

Monthly Goals

I’ve been setting monthly goals for a while now and like how they keep me focused on what I hope to achieve. I used both my vision board for 2025 and my seasonal bucket list to help me choose specific goals and I have some printables which I got from Etsy to help me map draw up action steps. I also use my monthly calendar and weekly spreads to record when I will work on each of the goals to ensure I meet with success.

I got some washi and PT tapes from The Washi Tape shop last month and decided to add a few motivational phrases on the pages. I love the different messages but I wish they were pre-cut like some of their other collections.

Final words…

I hope you enjoyed seeing my various spreads for this month. I don’t think I’ve ever done a theme with such a small range of colours before and I’m certain I’ve never used blue shades as the main focus of my palette at any time of year. I’m still not sure I’m happy with the front cover but I guess I’ll have to live with it as it’s done now! Let me know your thoughts or suggestions if you have any.

Wishing you a joyful June,

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, goal setting, intentional living, lifestyle, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, Setting goals and intentions

My Summer 2025 Bucket List is good to go…

Posted on Jun 1, 2025Jun 1, 2025 by Laura

This is my second year of making seasonal bucket lists and, so far, I’ve managed to make them all quite different. I’ve been looking back at Summer 2024’s spread in my bullet journal and quite a few elements of it were related to our holiday in Wales. This year, however, we’ve had our main trip last month and we haven’t decided where we might go for my birthday in August yet. Today, I’m sharing my finished Summer 2025 bucket list spread in my current BuJo. I’m starting to work on the items already as I follow the meteorological times, beginning on June 1st and finishing on August 31st rather than the astronomical calendar. And, although we had a bit of rain earlier, it’s bright sunshine and blue sky out there now so it certainly feels like the summertime has arrived.

Creating my bucket list and turning it into a bright and colourful spread in my BuJo

Last year, I went into detail about how I develop my list and then turn it into a double page board in my bullet journal and you can read all about my process here. This time, as I’ve noticed there tends to be quite a bit of ink transferal, if I use lots of black, I opted for a lovely, bright pink for the bucket list items. It’s still really easy to read and hopefully, I won’t spend the season erasing smudges!

A couple of items that I chose are common to most of my bucket lists, such as doing a seasonal jigsaw and reading a book set in the particular season but the rest are all something new and different.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my Summer Bucket List spread and it has inspired you to create your own. You don’t necessarily have to make it a creative exercise – just writing one on plain paper and putting it up somewhere prominent such as on a cupboard in your kitchen will be enough to help you make the most of the season. You could even turn it into a family activity where you each contribute some ideas of seasonal favourites or things you’ve always wanted to try. And if you get a bit stuck, you can always turn to AI to generate ‘Fun things to do this Summer’ or your own show me phrase.

I would love to see your finished lists if you would like to share, so feel free to upload it to Instagram and tag me in your post with @ljdesignsne

Hope your Summer is great fun and you create lots of happy memories!

art, Bullet journaling, coloured pencil, creativity, goal setting, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling

Setting up my bullet journal for May 2025: Primrose / primula theme

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by Laura

This month, I’ve again taken inspiration from our garden. A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to add more colour out the front of the house, so we went to the garden centre to look for a set of six bedding plants that should come back year after year. I opted for primroses (AKA primula) as there was already one out there which pops up each spring and was obviously set before we moved in over a decade ago. After the flowers had settled in – they went a bit floppy when we first installed them – I took some macro photos to use as inspiration for my spreads. It’s taken me ages to sketch out, draw and colour in all of the images but it was such a lovely, mindful activity that I found it really therapeutic. As I write this, it’s the 2nd May and I still haven’t finished all of the decor but I have drawn up my calendar, finances, goals and first weekly so I can actually fill in events and tasks. I hope you like my finished pages and they inspire you to give florals a go to practise your drawing, colouring or maybe painting skills.

Front cover

The calendar was the last page I finished and took me a long while to complete. I used a photograph of a plant pot of primroses for reference which I found on Google. I used mainly my Staedtler Ergosoft coloured pencils and blended a few shades together to get a nice peachy colour. I also used my blending pencil to mix up the colours and to create a smooth appearance. I also used my Sakura Gelly Roll pen in a size 10 to draw lines inside of the Pigma Micron as the actual primroses had a very thin white trim.

Monthly calendar

I added the decor to my calendar second, after I did the image for my finances record, and, as it had taken me such as long time to finish that one, I opted for a more sketchy appearance to the primroses you see here. I held my fineliner really lightly and tried to create a slightly wobbly appearance so the plants looked more natural. I’m really happy with how they turned out and the colours look so cheerful. I made good use of lots of my coloured pencils and also used my blending pencil to blend out any harsh lines.

Finances record

As well as the pack of six small primrose plants, we also purchased a much larger one for our back garden. The flowers are a lovely, pale pink but I didn’t have a coloured pencil which matched so I’ve gone for more of a peachy colour. I initially did just the flower in the centre but decided there were too many leaves and not enough floral bits so I added the other two and made them a little more washed out so the central one stood out.

Monthly goals

Last month I (yet again), picked far too many goals to be in with any chance of achieving them all. So, for May, I’ve really, really restricted myself and opted for just 5 (go me!). And, I’ve already achieved one of them as I made bread for the very first time yesterday!

Rather than adding some more primrose illustrations, I opted to add some stickers to make the set up much quicker. Some, I’ve made myself and others are from my ever increasing stash (you can never have too many stickers – right?). However, I have just started a new BuJo this month and a not to do goal of mine is to add plenty of my own illustrations straight into my notebook rather than overloading with stickers and making my journal super bulky (my orange one would barely close by the time I finished it!).

Weekly plan

I’ve been using this same style layout for quite a few weeks now and it really works for me. It gives me enough room to write events and add a few to dos underneath each day. I can then add a small illustration at the bottom if I want to, or use the full space for recording. This week, I’ve done some small primrose illustrations but I may not do any next week as I have lots of sessions at the university so I’ll be super busy.

Final words…

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today. I hope you like my finished spreads. I think they look really colourful and provide a great reminder of our new plants and all of the other bright colours of primrose which you can get. The flowers seem to be thriving at the moment but as we haven’t had any rain for weeks, they require daily watering as the soil is getting so dry. I’m hoping they’re going to stay looking good for a least another month and continue to make me smile each time I get in and out of my car!

Wishing you a marvellous May,

Much love,