Starting a New Notebook - The Pressure is Real!
Have you ever stared at your beautiful new notebook and felt fear creep in?
Me too. I received the most beautiful handmade, cloth-bound journal for Christmas and I've only just started using it. Not because I haven't want to, but because it's just too beautiful! I mean, it's blue (my favourite colour) and cloth-bound (it's giving luxury vibes) and it has beautiful white crescent moons printed on it. It is the prettiest book I ever owned. The pressure to do the notebook justice is real!
Starting a new notebook is like starting anything - sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and get on with it.
So here are my top tips for when the blank page fear creeps in.
1- Skip the First Few Pages
Sounds so obvious when you think about it! If the pressure of starting on page 1 is too much, don't start on page 1! I ALWAYS do this when I start a new notebook, sketchbook or journal and trust me when I say it really does help. Leave yourself space to come back to later, when the writer's block has faded and inspiration has truly hit.
And, spoiler alert... (lowers voice to a whisper and checks to see if anyone is looking) -you don't EVER have to fill that first page if you don't want to!
2- Write in Pencil First
That's the wonderful thing about pencil- you can erase it if you cock it up. If you know me in real life (or over on Instagram), you'll know I'm a pen fan girl. I adore pretty pens, fountain pens, all kinds of pens. But when it comes to new notebook crunch-time, pencil trumps pen. Even if you use a pencil to roughly plan it out before you go in with a more permanent ink, it can just really help remove the "what if I mess up my perfect notebook?" fear.
3- Make Your First Page Inspiring With a Motivational Quote
Copy out your favourite inspirational quote, saying, poem or words of wisdom. If you're feeling really fancy, print it out and stick it in instead! Canva is great for creating beautiful, printable graphics and they have loads of gorgeous fonts (honestly, I'm not on commission, I just love it!)
Another option for this is to print out a beautiful quote and use a lightbox to trace it onto your first page.
4- Start With a Table of Contents
This works great if your new notebook is for study or research. Use that first page to create a contents list and keep it updated as you fill your book. You could even add coloured tabs to each section of your book for easy access.
As I write this, I can feel our office manager's smile as she loves anything colour-coded, well organised and neatly presented. That, combined with a pretty notebook is literally her dream scenario.
5- Make It a Work-In-Progress Page
Who says you have to finish your first page first?!? You could make it an ongoing project- something of a living-art page. We're talking junk-journaling, scrapbooking and sketchbook style pages here. Just start by adding something to the page- a photograph that you love, a pretty length of ribbon, a scrap of beautiful wrapping paper -whatever floats your boat. You can build it up over time and turn it into something beautiful. And if that doesn't work out for you, you simply stick something over the top of it all.
6- Upgrade All of Your Stationery
If you get used to treating yourself to "The Good Stationery", then it starts to not feel quite so special. Ok, let me explain that better...
If you always use beautiful notebooks to journal in, then your brain will start to get used to it and accept it, like: "Oh, ok, so this is what we do now- we write in beautiful notebooks." thus removing the pressure, because it starts to feel like the norm.
Writing a shopping list? Ditch the scrappy bit of envelope you found in the bottom of your handbag and replace it with the finest notepad. Shopping stops feeling like such a chore when you have a beautiful list to follow (ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a smidge, I don't think anything will make a supermarket run fun, but it certainly helps).
Need to write a "Please excuse my child from PE today" note? Use a gorgeous pen and break out your poshest handwriting.
If every writing experience feels like a treat, firstly, life is more fun, and secondly, the "I can't possibly write in that beautiful book" fear starts to fade. I recently treated myself to a fountain pen and I can honestly say I've never loved writing more.
7- Release the Pressure
If you accept that you will inevitably make a mistake, have to scribble something out or write in anything other than your best handwriting, it can be a game-changing mindset shift. We are humans. We make mistakes, like, ALL THE TIME. It's a normal part of the human experience, and that's ok.
So what if you don't do the book justice?! Who is going to judge you- the notebook police?!?
As the late, great Bob Ross used to say, it's just a "happy little accident".
There will always be more notebooks in your life. Let the worry go and enjoy that fresh blank page. Notebooks want to be written in, it's their life's purpose.
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