For an inspired 2018 | My diary of choice

Hello everyone, wow three posts in a row?! That is the most I’ve posted in over a year haha. I’ve definitely made the most of these holidays to record content and also ease myself back into blogging. Whilst the blushing giraffe will always be a beauty blog first and foremost,  I am definitely going to start incorporating a bit of stationary here and there. This post is dedicated to my brand new diary and I know 2018 has started already – but trust me, if you’re looking for a new diary and you’re into setting goals, reflecting and striving for better things, this is 100% worth picking up still.

I’m going to show you a couple of the pages and I hope the creators of the diary don’t mind, but I want to show you exactly why this is probably one of the most helpful books I’ve ever picked up. So it starts off with a review of the previous year and I spent a good twenty minutes filling this out and really thinking about the past 12 months. It is so lovely to be able to look back to everything good thats happened, because sometimes it can be so easy to forget, am I right? 2017 has been a wonderful year for me education and career wise, but not the best on a personal level. That last point, thinking about the habits and skills which actually helped me to achieve those goals was such an insightful thing to add as well, because THAT is actually what helps you to go forwards. Reflecting on the things that I did to achieve what I have, helped me to then set goals which’ll in’sha’Allah help me to further prosper in the coming year. I found the page on the right a little more challenging to fill out…thinking about those questions and I guess envisioning each one. But a really helpful activity nonetheless.

The diary has a standard whole year calendar view, which I appreciate but thats pretty usual! I do really like the blank calendar on the opposite page though – it’ll probably be filled with key dates to remember as the whole overview.

Then we have the goals page and this is what I absolutely LOVE! They’ve divided it into four sections and given you space for 4 goals and also a line for why. Thats the most important thing, really getting you to reflect on why you’re setting this goal, whats the purpose? What will it achieve? I haven’t given myself a goal for each of the bullet points, but I like the fact that some are blank because if I decide on some more later on, I can always fill them in.

This is an example of the start of a monthly spread, and I am obsessed. Seriously, look at how they’ve firstly labelled it as a plan, because we all know that saying – fail to plan, plan to fail! I used to roll my eyes when I heard that as a 15 year old, but now a degree and PGCE later and I know it’s true. Setting four goals is a great way to take the goals that we made earlier and break them down, and then the steps to reach it?! Genius! I’ve filled all of this in and I’m excited to see how my month pans out with frequent check ins to this page.

I was going to show you a couple more pages, but I’ve decided against it because I don’t want to give it all away! Let’s just say, not only is the monthly spread brilliant, but the weekly spread….it is just as good and I know this diary is going to make a real difference.

On to the things I’d change if I could…I don’t love the ‘dear diary’ written on the front. Since it’s more of an inspirational goal setting and tracking PLANNER, the words don’t quite match! Its not a biggie and of course doesn’t impact the genius design of it. Also I wish it was a little bigger – well that was my first thought when I unwrapped it. However now I’ve filled in most of the front part and started using this weeks spread, it’s actually more than enough space. My previous planner was a ban.do one, which I snagged from TKMAXX for such a good price (£5), but I only had 8 out of the 18 months left to use it. I also used that for school and loved how much space there was to write in it. This time I’ve decided to just use the diary school gave me for school and keep this one for home.

I love this because it’s similar to a bullet journal, but the layout has been done for you and personally I do not have the time to continuously draw spreads…I wish I did because the whole bullet journal concept is amazing, but the ‘dear diary, for an inspired 2018’ is going to be a lot more helpful for me personally as the hard work and excellent layout is all already done.

The seller I used on etsy and the diary can be found here. It is the most pricy diary I’ve purchased, but for something so functional I don’t mind spending a little extra!

Have you purchased a diary this year? What do you use to organise yourself?