What is #onebookjuly2015?
The One Book July challenge was thought up by @rhomany, and basically its “One book. One pen. One Month.” I know, I know… I can hear some of you sigh from over here in South Carolina… But, it’s okay.. I did the same. However, it is an amazing challenge that helps you simplify things whether you’re a planner, a journaler, or both–and it’s not THAT restrictive. If you’re interested in learning more about it then please check it out here.
The reasons I decided to participate in the challenge seemed like all the right reasons:
- I suck at staying organized. I even got a gorgeous red Filofax Domino A5 at the end of last year so I could get organized. I started decorating, organizing my dashboards, decorating my dashboards, and got it all set up—three months later it dwindled down to once a week I was taking it out–on Friday’s, which is bill day. Then it was once or twice a month… Now I barely use it. I hate ring bound things, spiral notebooks…
- I need to stay organized, especially since I have ADHD, but the FF system wasn’t for me, so I tried the TN thing. And I love it. I have more than one, which seems to be par for the course once you hold that leather in your hand and figure out all the cool things you can do with inserts–did I mention the smell of the leather? O-M-G! (lol). But I got a bit distracted–I tend to do that–when I had major surgery in February and got more into the art journaling thing than my writing, or anything else. I was housebound for the most part while I recovered, not really doing much planning, organizing, writing, etc.
- After recovery, I knew I needed to find some sort of planner/art journaling peace. The way I’ve found writing journal peace–I use a customized A5 Jonelifish bifold TN for my writer’s bible and have 4-5 inserts inside that beautiful handmade work of art. If you’re interested in seeing her beautiful work check it out here (she is on a hiatus right now, but her work is definitely worth the wait).
- I’d also found my what I call my “paper” peace after finding out that Nanami paper carries notebooks with Tomoe River paper in them, the kind of paper that is in the Hobonichi. I have one of their Seven Seas Standard notebooks and come September when they restock I’ll be ordering another one, as well as a Seven Seas Writer notebook (the Standard is for my art journaling, and the Writer is for my writing).
- So… how to simplify things but still keep it fun? How to simplify things but organized and workable? I wasn’t sure of that answer but participating in the #onebookjuly2015 challenge meant I might have the chance to figure it out.
Now, what I started out with and what I’m actually now using, since today is now day 4, are two different things. And it’s not the little black book’s fault, it’s mine. I’m just OCD about paper pilling, etc… If you’re interested I’ve posed the videos here…
If you’re participating in the challenge or want to please let me know. 😀
Burgess Taylor 