How We Use Our Daily Notebook

What is a daily notebook and more importantly - how do you use it? We wrote a little while ago about the need to organize and we mentioned a physical, daily notebook - so well, here’s all you’d like to know (plus a little more!) about how we use the daily notebook.

We’ve found that in all the things - Emmalee tends to be an all or nothing type of person. That means she’s all in and wants everything to look like a social media organization / restocking video (seriously? How are those SO addicting to watch?!?!?!), or a complete mismatch (like NOTHING matching….). Really if you think about it - those two things really truly go together though. It’s all matching - or it’s not. 🤷‍♀️ So when we started to look at how to keep things organized - the simple option was to have an all or nothing book. We tried other things such as - some binders, some legal pads, and even having a separate notebook for literally everything (think one in every room type situation), but what it came down to for us, was remembering where everything was…. “Did I put the meal plan in the green notebook in the bedroom?” or we ran into the struggle on how to add pages / or things without everything falling apart or being weird... Now don’t get us wrong - there will always be a time and place for a “only” notebook, such as Sophie’s baby notebook with pictures and “scrapbook” type things, but for 99% of our lives - it’s in the everything notebook. 

This is the one that seems to work best for us (Naturally BE everything notebook), but really - get something you’ll use. Emmalee tends to like to be able to add whatever to the front and inside without feeling like she’s covering up something important - but small, big, themed, plain - it’s not going to do you any good to get something you won’t use. This one will hold allllllll the things guys, like seriously, all the things. It’s large enough to be able to put in ½ sheets of paper (so if something gets printed we can put it in there - such as Maranatha’s Prayer Team sheet, which you can sign up to get HERE), or a program from an event. 

We also put allllll the stickers in there - all the name tags, all the check in visitor badges, all the stickers on coffee cups - seriously, all of them. This helps protect the family (who knows whos digging in those random trashes and what information you’ll give out), but also breaks up the everyday “things” and helps you see when and where you are spending your time and money. 

The rest of the things that we add in - depends on the day, which is part of the beauty of a Daily notebook. Typically….Emmalee starts with a day of the week and the date - and depending on the day and her mood, she might do it in pretty colors, whatever pen she was able to snag a hold of, or even with stencils and washi tape. Again, the beauty here is that you can add and make it look HOWEVER you want. 

Then we go through what we are going through…. Most of the time that means she will do her quiet time (see the BIBLE APP for most of them - you can totally friend us HERE to see what we are currently studying) by writing scripture, writing notes from the study, and then spending time in writing prayer and praise prompts. There’s also the UNREACHED of the Day APP to pray with people around the globe for those that don’t yet know the Lord as well as the PRAYERMATE APP to help with guided prayers. Sometimes this helps when Em’s brain is running 100 mph and she’s having trouble remembering all the things she should. 

Next up - the “TO DO” list for the day. Again - this can be simple or a little bit more “complicated” where Emmalee’s mind wonders and she writes what we call a “free for all” to do list. 

When things get done it’s easy to mark them off the list - but it also gives an easy way to look back and see what wasn’t done if the day gets away from us. 

Next comes the “goals” for the day - and before you ask, this is different then the “TO DO” list. This includes, most of the time, being able to checkmark stuff that you do alllll the time and just want to make sure you don’t have to devote a bunch of brain power - such as how many ounces of water you need to drink, marking off your vitamins (especially if you take them throughout the day), supplements, reading a chapter, etc. This can be as simple or as complicated as you’d like and honestly - it depends on the day on how pretty or simple it is for Emmalee. 

One of the BIG things that we’ve learned over the years of doing this - is that even though this can be a “free for all” type idea, its much easier to organize if you keep some notes in the front of the notebook as well as add page numbers (Emmalee’s found that adding in just the odd numbers is easy enough for her to find what’s needed), so that when you add something like “Sophie’s Gratitude List” you can mark the page number in the front of the notebook and easily find it later on. Emmalee likes to take notes when she’s studying something but isn’t always able to get all the way through - video, chapter, or whatever - so by making a note in the front she can go back and see where she stopped. 

Sometimes you need to allow your brain to just… wonder and write, doodle, pretend to be in middle school again 😜so not everything in your Daily Notebook will be amazing and wonderful and professional - but really? That’s more then okay - this is about a place you can go and enjoy the time gathering your thoughts and “all the things”. 

The key here is to allow a simple place for everything to gather…. Then for us it makes things easier when we need to go look it up, we remember the date (and we put the date range in the front of the notebook). Everything is together - everything.

Happy Organizing!! 🥰🥰