Looking to buy a gift for someone who just loves their paper planner? Fear not! As someone who has been addicted to planners since her high school days and spends way too much time binge-watching ‘Plan With Me’ videos on YouTube, I have lots of ideas for you!

I’ve put together the ultimate selection of gifts that are guaranteed to put a smile on any planner’s face…

I started journaling in the Hobonichi Techo Cousin because I wanted a record of my life and my favorite memories, but I soon discovered that journaling held the potential for so much more than that. Including my thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams made the process therapeutic. I’ve never been particularly in touch with my emotions, so that didn’t come easily at first but I made gradual progress over a few years and started to use journaling prompts to stretch myself further.

And then there’s the creative side of journaling. I’m a neat freak and I certainly wouldn’t describe myself as artistic but, as I fell further down the journaling rabbit hole, I started to want to make my pages look pretty as well as neat. I started to use decorative stickers, stamps (coloured in with my Tombow dual brush pens), photos and screenshots (printed on my HP Sprocket) and newspaper/magazine cuttings.

When it came to actually drawing something myself from scratch though, I didn’t have a clue, and that’s when I fell even deeper down that rabbit hole and started reading about journaling. Like most people who are into planning and journaling, I love books too. (We just love all things paper, right?) So, I suppose reading about journaling was a natural and inevitable progression. And wow, did I discover some awesome and inspirational books!

Let’s dive in…

Today, I have something really special for you: 38 journal prompts for self-discovery. It’s an opportunity for me to share something that, for a number for years, has been hugely beneficial for me – journaling. I think of journaling as being like having a conversation with my soul. It’s a fantastic tool that helps me to really dig deep – to set aside the illusion of the material world and ‘tune in’ to my inner thoughts and beliefs, and get in touch with my emotions.

This post has certainly been a long time coming for, over the years, I’ve collected many journaling prompts. Not only are they useful to overcome writer’s block, but thought-provoking questions are a great tool for personal growth too.

So, here are some of my favourite journal prompts for self-discovery:

Personality

• The kind of person I am not is…
• What makes you unique?
• What are the traits of a good person? Do you exemplify these traits? What qualities feel the most important for you to embody?
• Finish this sentence: “I can’t stand it when other people…” Examine those character flaws. Do you also possess them?
• If the people in your life described you, what do you think they’d say? Is that a description you like? What type of person would you like to be known as? Consider what people like about you and whether these the same things you like about yourself.
• What are your best qualities? List the 15 things you love most about yourself.
• What are your greatest strengths? Does the work you do right now let you build on your strengths? Do you have any strengths and talents that you’re not utilizing on a regular basis?
• What is your greatest weakness? What impact does this have on your life?
• What compliment do you want the most?

Mindset + Morals

• Finish this sentence: “Something I would love to do but I’m not sure I can is…” Now consider how you could overcome your limiting beliefs.
• What fears hold you back from living your best life?
• When you think about your future, what do you fear the most?
• What do you value most in life?
• Are you a spiritual person? Describe your beliefs and/or doubts. How do those beliefs affect how you live your life?
• What are your core values and morals? Are you living life in accordance with them, and do your goals align with them?
• Imagine a world where you could do anything you like without being judged by others. Would you do anything differently?

Joyful Living

• What brings you joy?
• Make a list of everything and everyone that inspires you. Include books, people, quotes, topics, places and activities.
• What do you love about life? Write a list of 99 things you love.
• When you’re in a bad mood or feeling down, what can you do to cheer yourself up and turn your day around?
• What does happiness mean to you?
• Make a list of 30 things that make you smile.
• What would a perfect day look like for you? Consider how you would live your day-to-day life if money were of no concern.
• What activities set your soul on fire and leave you feeling more energised? How can you add something fun into your everyday routine?

Relationships

• What makes you feel loved?
• What do you value most in a close friend? Do you have those characteristics?
• Whose approval do you want the most, and why? Why are you looking for approval from others?
• Discuss how the people in your life make you feel. How do you perceive yourself after spending time with them? How will that affect how you spend time with them in the future?
• Do the people in your life understand you well? Is there something you wish they knew about you? How are you most often misunderstood by other people?

Life Goals

• What do you want to be remembered for, and how can you work towards that? What do you think your legacy would be currently?
• What does success mean to you? How would your life look if you were “successful”?
• What’s one topic you need to learn more about to help you live a more fulfilling life?
• Compose a bucket list.
• What is the number one problem you would like to solve (or see solved) in the world?
• What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
• If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do? What would you be doing a year later?
• When you think about your future, what do you hope for the most? if you could gaze into a crystal ball and learn the answer to one question about your future, what would you ask? What would you hope to see?
• Pick one thing that’s standing in the way of your dreams. What could you achieve if that one thing was removed from your life?

Do you get to the end of your day feeling exhausted yet wondering what you have actually achieved? We all have days like that, but if those days are your norm, chances are you need a productivity system. Let’s face it, we all want to be more productive. After all, time is our most precious commodity in life. We all have goals, deadlines, social activities and the hum drum daily chores, and we want to rock them all with time to spare for some rest and self-care.

To get you on track your #1 read should be Zen to Done by Leo Babauta. It incorporates the best concepts from other productivity systems, such as Getting Things Done by David Allen and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. The full Zen to Done system comprises 10 habits but Leo Babauta also identified the first 4 of these as the essential habits that form the simplest possible productivity system, calling this system ‘Minimal Zen to Done‘.

But how do you decide which tasks to do?

I always plan my day the evening before. I prioritize my tasks and then schedule time in my Passion Planner to complete them. This is known as time blocking and a planner with time slots like the Passion Planner really helps for this.

I don’t only block time out for my work tasks though. I make sure to block out the times that I am going to exercise, meal prep, walk my dog, meditate, read, play board games with my family, etc. etc. It’s important to get a balance and prioritise your self-care too.

An ever-growing to-do list can be overwhelming, sometimes to the point of paralysis, but making a plan for each day and blocking out the time in this way can really help reduce stress. It also allows you to see how much time you have available before you take on other commitments.

So, how do you smash that to-do list?

The answer is the Pomodoro Technique. Developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, the Pomodoro Technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. These intervals are named ‘pomodoros’. You can download the full details of the Pomodoro Technique in this free PDF, but Wikipedia summarises the six steps in the original technique well:

1. Decide on the task to be done.
2. Set the pomodoro timer (traditionally to 25 minutes).
3. Work on the task.
4. End work when the timer rings and put a checkmark on a piece of paper.
5. If you have fewer than four checkmarks, take a short break (3–5 minutes), then go to step 2.
6. After four pomodoros, take a longer break (15–30 minutes), reset your checkmark count to zero, then go to step 1.

As for timers, this TimeCube is my favorite. It was developed specifically for time management programmes and features 5, 10, 20 and 25 minute settings. You simply turn the TimeCube to your desired time setting to start the timer and it will give you a friendly beep when the time is up, which can be set to loud or soft. (Soft every time for me!)

This method works best if you do just one task for the entire 25 minutes or, if you have multiple small tasks, group similar tasks together. The most important thing is to concentrate solely on the task at hand and not get distracted by other things on your to-do list, Facebook notifications and the likes. Why? Studies have shown that it takes a whopping 25 minutes to get back into the swing of a task after you’ve been distracted!!

And then there’s time batching…

This brings me onto another productivity hack – time batching. Basically you do a lot of the same things together at the same time. It’s so much more time efficient as it reduces the time it takes to set up for a task and clean up afterwards, and it’s easier to concentrate and get in the zone for that particular task too. For example, you could allocate a specific day of the week to writing blog posts, allocate another day to creating pins for your posts, another day for scheduling your social media posts, etc. etc.

You could batch tasks based on their location too. For example, all within 500 yards I can meet a friend for dinner, then go to the cinema with another friend and then do my weekly shop!

Shop the post & manage your time like a boss…

Anyone who has known me for more than a few minutes will know that the Passion Planner is my favorite planner. Seriously, I tote that planner everywhere. So, when Angelia Trinidad, the CEO and founder of Passion Planner, told us about the book that helped her start Passion Planner – The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss – well, I was all over it. I mean, that girl and her brand are amazing and Angelia’s success and values make her a super role model.