Lately I’ve been a little lost- lost in a sea of my own thoughts, all crashing into each other and mixing me up. You know that cloud of dust that Pig-Pen from Peanuts has that follows him wherever he goes? I feel like I’ve been walking around with that cloud above my head for months. But my cloud isn’t dust, it’s thousands of scribbled thoughts all jumbled and intertwined, waiting for the organised part of my brain to unravel them and neatly place them where they need to go. The organised sector of my brain must be on holidays because the cloud is still there and at times I feel like it’s great because I go to bed thinking, “Yay, today was awesome, I came up with all these ideas and thoughts of creative magic”. But then the next morning, they are all still up there, tangled and messy and floating.

To keep myself on track, I’ve started journaling in 2 different books. One is a pure ideas book where I write whatever I’m feeling, thinking, seeing. I stick photographs and little pieces of ephemera from my day in the journal and then come back to it when I’m feeling the Pig-Pen Idea Cloud appear. I get the ideas out of the cloud and onto paper. It seems to be working so far.

The other is a more organised journal that lays out my week ahead for projects, work and to do lists. It also has a section for blog posts and I section I call “Me”. Under the “Me” heading are bullet points that I have to tick off at the end of each week. It’s sad that I have to remind myself to go to bed by a certain time, to exercise, drink water and to eat a certain way but when life is so complicated, it’s simple things like looking after yourself that get forgotten.

Do you keep journals to keep yourself on track? How do you deal with your Pig-Pen cloud?