10 of the Best Wellness Journals on the Market

After working with several journals to find a good system, I wanted to share what I found on the market to help make a decision.

Before we get into the list, I spoke with a registered therapist recently about the use of notebooks for introspection and personal growth. She said therapists recommend using a notebook (or really any tool) to practice the act of self-reflection and organize your thoughts into a record. This standard practice is helpful to anyone that wants to see where they are, where they have been, and where they are going.

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I. Therapy Notebooks

Designed by a team of therapists, these notebooks act as mental health tools to grow and learn through self-reflection. Taken from their site “The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)-based notebook entries are made to help you track your emotions, become more aware of thought patterns, and grow over time specifically to reduce anxiety and manage stress.”

What I like most about these notebooks is that they don’t over-promise. A lot of notebooks like these make unrealistic claims through their marketing copy, but as this has been made by doctors, they know that this isn’t the end-all-be-all of therapy. These are well thought-out notebooks and have an muted design aesthetic.

The notebooks include:

• 100 Journal Entries you can use whenever you feel stressed or anxious.

• Structured exercises proven to help you feel less anxious and track patterns.

• 5 Check-Ins covering different therapy tools for anxiety.

• 100+ notes and tips from therapists throughout the notebook to help guide and encourage reflection.

• 270 guided pages on 8”x5” paper.

The notebook is filled with 100+ notes from therapists, one per a journal entry. They’ll help guide you as you journal, serve as additional reflection questions, and provide tips you can use anytime.

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II. Monk Manual

I have been using this notebook for over a month and genuinely like the layout and overall benefit that it provides. This notebook is more than just a standard to-do list and is built around living a more purposeful life.

The monk manual is a 90-day journal that promotes more planning and reflection rather than just filling up the day with tasks and checking them off. This notebook is very helpful if you are looking for more in life than just the short-term feeling of completing tasks, and shows you what you have accomplished while moving toward a greater goal in your life.

If you want to read more about this notebook I wrote up a full review last month Here.

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III. Full Focus Journal

This is also a 90-day planner that starts with a plan to set up and organize your life goals. This planning method, along with the weekly strategy to accomplish your goals, is intended to help relieve stress and avoid feeling overwhelmed. Developed by Michael Hyatt, a leadership coach, this notebook and the courses that you can join are all designed around getting the more important things done in life, not just the number of things you try to get done.

I will say that this notebook looks like it has a large marketing budget behind it and while I have not used it yet, I feel like this is made more for the business professional or team leader.

Full Focus Planner

Full Focus Planner

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IV. Bloom Meditation Journal

This notebook is a collaboration between Baron Fig the notebook company, and Justine Bloome, a well-known mindfulness expert. This book helps get into meditation and make it a daily practice and to build self-awareness.

I have several of the guided Baron Fig Notebooks and they always do an amazing job with their products. I have only used meditation apps to help but believe this notebook would be a great tool to help beginners and anyone that has trouble staying consistant.

The notebook comes with:

• Meditation Guide

• Meditation Log

• Daily Tracker

• 40 Day Challenge

• 4 Toolkits

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V. Mind Journal

This notebook is geared towards men due to the founder, Olie Aplin, designing the book for his own benefit first, and then selling it to other men that have had the same problems. This singular focus has helped him to make a solid notebook that did well on Kickstarter and I was moved by his personal story.

Features:

• 3 Months of Journaling

• Signature Check-in Tool

• 30 Life-Changing Exercises

• 3 Stages of Self-Discovery

• 264 Ruled 110gsm Ivory Pages

Once you complete the Journal, there is a second notebook called the Jotter that is designed for moving forward and is a free-form style of journaling without much in the way of guidance.

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VI. Bullet Journal (2nd Edition)

Ryder Carol is steadfast in his dedication to helping us lived well-intented lives. He has always come across as genuine and authentic without any reason to doubt his work. The bullet journal system is more than a productivity tool because it taps into a deeper thought process of self-reflection. In applying the BuJo system, you are able to get more done, so along with a feeling of self-worth, you also become more efficient. I have always been a huge fan of this system and have been using it for five years.

“Leading an intentional life is about keeping your actions aligned with your beliefs. It’s about penning a story that you believe in and that you can be proud of.”

— Ryder Carol

Ryder also wrote a book called The Bullet Journal Method and it is a great companion. The last section of the book is about the importance of reflection and he writes, “If you don’t do, if you don’t dare, then you rob the world-and yourself-of the chance to contribute something meaningful.” The time used for reflection in our journals is key to the purpose of the system. While it takes time to do this, it is one reason why it works so well and keeps us all on task at the greater life purpose.

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VII. Ink+Volt Gratitude Journal

Ink + Volt continues to impress me and I have been a long-time fan of the creator of these quality notebooks, Kate Matsudaira. I had the chance to catch up with her when she was first developing the Spark Notebook and that notebook was very well organized and perfectly designed. From there, she has designed a whole line of notebooks to help with self-improvement.

The Gratitude notebook is something that is recognized in the therapy world as a helpful tool to pick yourself up and nurture positive thinking. This notebook has a lot to offer and recommend checking out the different styles, as well as other notebook options.

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VIII. Best Self Co.

While this company only started with two people, it has grown into a full sized self-help company. I initially backed their Kickstarter in 2015 and the notebook was just okay. Since then, they have built out an entire suite of products and completely redesigned their flagship notebook called the Self Journal.

Features:

• 13 week goal planner

• 100gsm white ivory paper

• Hardcover 5.75in by 8.5in

• Includes videos and guides from website to help

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IV. Papier Wellness Journal

This notebook has a little bit of everything. While it does lack the in-depth guides that some of the notebooks above provide, it makes up for it with the number of sections. It includes:

• Goal Planning

• Wish Lists

• Daily Planning

• Meal Planning

• Gratitude Journal

• Goal Check-ins

• Reflection

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V. Blank Notebook

The number one recommended notebook by therapists is…a blank one. They don’t tell you which one, they just want you to use whatever works best for you. The act of using a single voice so that you are required to think about what you are trying to say and write so that it comes out in one direction. This is the reason there is a market for notebooks because the therapists don’t want you to get distracted, but the key point is that you get into the practice of getting your thoughts out and into some form of record keeping.

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Good luck and I hope I have helped!

As always, I have not received anything from any of the aforementioned companies and my thoughts are my own.

Cheers,

Mike

Karst Stone Paper Review

In theory, these notebooks should be awesome, on paper, they are far from it.

Karst Sketchpad $30.

Karst Softcover Notebook A5 $25.

Karst Notepad $25.

With the Karst Stone Paper notebooks, I was intrigued by the design process of using stone to make paper. The process is very interesting and to help the planet move away from cutting down trees is a great idea…but after testing these out, I feel they are still missing something.

While the paper may work for commercial printers, to use this as a notebook is actually a pretty terrible idea. I hate to say this, but with the high cost associated with these notebooks, I don’t want anyone else to make the same mistake that I did!

The Notebooks

The first issue is using a pencil on this paper. Even one with as soft graphite as the Blackwing pencil, the tip kept catching on the soft paper. While the paper is tear-resistant, it does not do well with a sharp pencil point, and forget about using a mechanical pencil on these notebooks!

Moving on to pens, the only option to avoid problems, is a gel ink rollerball pen. Fountain pens, ballpoint, and needle point pens all fair poorly for various reasons due to the construction and coating that is put on the pages. The fountain pens skip and take forever to dry. Ballpoint pens push too hard on the soft paper, and needle point pens like the Hi Tec C catch on the paper and even created a hole!

Pens pushing through the paper to the back.

The three notebooks I purchased were much heavier than I originally thought. Even with the stone, I was surprised at just how heavy they are and all ended up being about twice the weight of a standard notebook the same size and page number.

Notepad A4 size - 1lb 5.6oz

Sketchpad - 1lb 4.4oz

A5 Softcover Notebook - 14oz

The Pencils

The unique pencils were also intriguing due to their all-graphite design. I had to wait a long time for these to be restocked so I was fairly disappointed when they did arrive. While they work okay on standard paper, they are unusable on the notebooks and even the sketch pad.

They did fair better on regular paper but they are quite soft and I would recommend them to an artist rather than a writer.

You only get 5 pencils for $22!

In Summary

I honestly don’t like writing negative reviews and I wish these notebooks and pencils could find a good use case, but I don’t see one. Even if the notebooks worked better, there is nothing special about the layouts. It is lined, dot grid or square. Nothing new in the design or use case.

If anyone disagrees with me and enjoys them, please do let me know!

As always, I purchased these items (really wish I hadn’t) and did not receive anything for free. My thoughts are my own.

Cheers,

Mike

Monk Manual Review

Can you remember three things you accomplished three days ago?

…

Before I started using this notebook I couldn’t answer this. Over the past month I’ve made the monk manual a daily habit and I wanted to share some of the things I found and also do a thorough review on the quality and craftsmanship that has clearly gone into this book.

(My three things are listed at the end in case you want to know)

The monk manual is a 90 day journal that promotes more planning and reflection rather than just filling up the day with tasks and checking them off. This notebook is very helpful if you are looking for more in life than just the short term feeling of completing tasks, and shows you what you have accomplished while moving toward a greater goal in your life.

Intro to the Monk Manual

Monk Manual started as a Kickstarter project in October 2018 by Steven Lawson. Leaning on his background in psychology, he has built a very interesting and purpose-driven notebook layout.

Monthly

The notebook is divided into three sections, Monthly, Weekly, and Daily. This is to help plan, act, and reflect within each timeframe to help provide a more purposeful life.

Weekly

When I first started it was a bit overwhelming at first because there are no examples or guides on how to start. There is a short intro to what you will get out of using the manual, but no specific pointers on where to start. The website has a lot of good material and if you are looking to use this, I would start with their pdf guide here.

Daily

The daily pages are my favorite and where I gain the most insight to where I am trying to go in life. I have struggled over the past month to help find a new purpose for my work and by setting up a plan for the next day, it has genuinely helped me. I start my daily page with coffee in the morning, and on the second page once the day is over, I fill it out with a evening drink to relax and reflect.

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The Notebook

Getting into the construction for a bit, overall I am very happy with the design and construction. It comes wrapped beautifully like a gift and includes a few stickers along with a small pocket notebook to keep track of things throughout the day.

Monk Manual Website

Free Pocket Notebook - dot grid 3in by 5in

My favorite part of the design is the three book markers. These help mark the current month, week, and day which doesn’t sound like much, but they are very handy!

The Details

• Size - Standard A5 8.5in x 5.5in

• Weight - 1lb 3oz

• 4 Monthly page layouts, 14 weekly page layouts, 91 daily layouts, and 10 dot grid pages

• Paper - Light Cream colored and I am guessing 100gsm paper weight

• Expandable back pocket for loose pages

• No pen loop

• Cost - $38 (They offer a quarterly subscription for 20% off)

Along with the notebook comes a wealth of knowledge as the folks there are constantly creating helpful videos and blog content to help keep you going. There is also a large Facebook community of fellow ‘monks?'

Coming soon is the Sprout Journal which is designed for kids. As I have been working on my notebook my kids have offered suggestions about what I should do the next day and they have even filled out some things in their own notebooks. I am excited to see what they come up with and you can check it out here.

Personal Contract with past Mike

Overall I am very happy with this notebook and will continue using this well into the future. The page layouts are very well designed and act as a good support structure for my own personal growth.

By the way, to answer the first question, the three things I accomplished three days ago are:

1. Signed off on a new case design from the manufacturer

2. Ran 6 miles

3. Washed all the windows in and outside

If I missed anything or have any questions about the book please let me know!

Thanks for reading!

Mike :)

P.S. As always I was not paid for this review and my thoughts are my own. Cheers!

Analog - The desktop notecard productivity system.

The latest project from UGMonk is a beautiful walnut card-holder, with a simple, yet well-designed to-do system.

“We always seem to think we can get more done in a day than what’s actually possible. The physical constraints of the Analog card force you hone in the few important things to tackle each day. No more endless lists or productivity guilt.”

— Jeff Sheldon (Kickstarter Project)

Put simply, this is a to-do list desk companion with pre-printed index cards. However, behind the minimal design, is a thoroughly researched approach to getting more important things done, with fewer distractions.

As an avid bullet journaler, I see a lot of similarities to the Bullet Journal System. Using the bullet points to reflect on the days work, and ‘migrate’ the information to the next card is one tenet of the bujo system that works very well.

PICTURES

Reference card

Checklist guide and insight into the three dots on the top right.

Dot-Grid layout is on the back of each card for notes and sketches.

One issue with the heavy paper is that it soaks up fountain pen ink and feathers. I would stick to gel/ballpoint pens and pencils.

DETAILS

• Price $79 (Cardholder and 3 months worth of cards)

• Pack of 50 Cards - 35 Today, 10 Next, 5 Someday

• Card Holder Dimensions - 6.25" x 3.55" x 1.15"

• Card Dimensions - 3″x5″

• Paper - 100# smooth uncoated paper

• Metal card cover with magnetic closure

Ugmonk also has a travel case available for $32

UGMONK

I have been backing Jeff Sheldon’s projects for years and he continues to make better and better products. He moves forward from each Kickstarter project and doesn’t look back so when his inventory is gone, it is really gone. He also curates some amazing products on his site that you can find here.

INTERVIEW

Jeff was very kind in getting back to me this past week when I was bothering him with a few questions that I had and thought I would share them with you:

1. What led you to use notecards with this productivity system?
I find the physical constraints of the 3x5 cards helpful to limit how many tasks I can have on my to-do list each day. I also like the portability of the cards and being able to easily write notes or quick sketches on the back.

2. What is your background and how did you decide to begin designing and producing products.
I grew up with a passion for art and making things. Even as a kid I would spend hours building things with cardboard and whatever I could find. Later I transitioned into graphic design and fell in love with designing t-shirts. That's what led me to launch Ugmonk back in 2008. I've slowly grown Ugmonk over the past 12 years and expanded into other workspace objects like Gather and Analog, all centered around the same idea of combining form and function.

3. Where do you draw inspiration from?
I draw inspiration from all over. I feel like it's a mashup of Scandinavian and Japanese design as well as industrial designers like Dieter Rams and Charles and Ray Eames. Really inspiration comes from everywhere, whether it's being out in nature, exploring a new city, or browsing through old design and architecture books.

4. How did you come up with the name Ugmonk?
It was kind of a happy accident. When I launched Ugmonk in 2008 it was just supposed to be a little side project, so I didn't think too hard about names. I wanted something unique and started googling URLs that were available. "Ugmonk" happened to be available (which was just something we made up and didn't have any real meanings) so we went with it. Now 12 years later, it has become one of the best branding decisions we ever made. If you google the word "Ugmonk" there are 120,000 results that all point back to us :)

5. Any new products in the pipeline we can start to get excited about?
I'm working on some additional Analog accessories that I can share much about yet. But I'm excited to continued building out the system and seeing how people adapt Analog to their workflow.

SUMMARY

With desk real estate always a premium for me, I find these cards fit nicely into my layout. They quietly do their job reminding me to stay on task throughout the day. As I mentioned before, Jeff doesn’t restock many of his Kickstarter items and this is one that I recommend getting in on the pre-order price before it goes up!

I paid for the Analog system and did not receive anything in return for this review. My thoughts are my own.

Cheers,

MIke

Together We Build - Notebook Review

The team at Write Notepads led by Chris Rothe have come out with yet-another great notebook.

This one was an instant buy for me because it fits the company’s history, it is wrapped in an awesome cover, and has a unique paper grid design.

The quality of Write Notepads is already well known and this one is no exception. Chris has been creating notebooks and notepads at Write for 10 years in Baltimore, MD, USA. Taking a page from his own family heritage of bookbinders and adding it to his own design, this notebook speaks to what we Americans hold dear, the power of our own small businesses.

Together We Build - $16

• 7” by 7” page size

• 120 pages of think off-white almost cream paper color

• 1/4” blue grid lined engineer paper

• Letter-pressed medium weight card-stock cover

• Double O ringbound

There is also a similar notepad version of this paper Engineer Memo Pad

Image property from Write Notepads

If this is your first introduction to Write Notepads, I highly recommend checking out their site. They have a full selection of notebooks, notepads, and even a great lead-holder that you can see in the first few images. Everything they make is thoughtfully designed and well-curated.

If you want to learn more about Chris and Write Notepads, check out his interview on the Pen Addict Podcast. (Interview starts at the 27-minute mark)

https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-pen-addict

GIVEAWAY TIME!

If you want a chance to score a free notebook, please add your name below!

This one could be yours :)

As always, I do not receive anything for free and my opinions are my own. Thanks for reading!

Mike :)

A notebook you haven't heard of…yet.

With 4 kids I don’t have time to tinker, but I do have a lot of repairs to make. To keep track of my notes I stumbled upon this incredible notebook. It is packed with pages of reference material, square grid numbered pages, two rulers, and a back pocket to keep loose notes. This is a great addition for makers, repairers, tinkerers, and spirited men/women (more on this term later.)

This is the 3rd edition that is produced by the team at Make: magazine, and sells for $23.74 on Amazon.

The Maker Details

• 9 1/4” x 6 1/4” size

• Hardcover with elastic closure

• 146 numbered square grid pages

• 1/8 inch grid layout, with 1" inch major lines

• Metric and Standard rulers

• 20 Reference Pages

  • Common Weights and Measures

  • Conversions (e.g. 1/16 = .0625)

  • Caffeine (e.g. coffee 8oz/65-120mg

  • Recycling symbols

  • Archaic Chemical Names (e.g. aqua fortis = nitric acid)

  • Mnemonic Devices (e.g. Kids Prefer Cheese Over Fried Green Spinach. For: order of taxonomies in biology: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.

  • Common Radio Call Signs

  • Hello, World! in various languages

  • Sewing Machine Needle Sizes

  • Common Technical Abbreviations

  • 10 Useful Tips for Makers

  • Maker Slang (e.g. monkey tight=tight enough, gorilla tight=too tight)

  • Web References

  • Robot References

  • Common Bonds

  • Material Considerations for CNC

  • G-Code Reference (CNC Machine commands)

  • Ohm’s Law

  • Basic Electronics Components and Function

  • Basic DMM Circuit Tests

  • Resistor Codes

  • Capacitors

  • LED Color Chart

  • Microcontrollers (MCU)

  • Single Board Computers

  • 3D Printer Filament Types

  • Basic Kid Maker Skills

Speaking of reference material, I highly suggest Adam Savage’s book, Every Tool’s a Hammer.

A brand new channel I recommend for makers, and fellow repairmen, is the Spirited Man by Van Neistat. He is the older brother of Casey Neistat and he has an out-of-the-box method to his work. While the channel has just started, it looks authentic and very original.

IN SUMMARY:

This is a very handy notebook to have around. The notebook is well-made, and full of good reference material.

As always, I purchased this notebook and my thoughts are my own. Thank you kindly for taking time to read my blog!

Cheers,

Mike

How to turn a $0.15 Pen Into a $45 Pen - The Ensso ARIA

The average Bic ballpoint pen is roughly 15 cents…the team at Ensso have built an incredible upgrade to a classic design.

When all the metal pen makers started to create pen bodies for the Hi TEC C and other pen refills, I have been wanting one for the Bic Cristal. I always come back to this cheap pen when I am sketching or working in a composition notebook. The different link weights that you can make with this pen can’t be beat and it always seems to work.

The designers at Ensso have been making pens since 2015, and are well known for their minimalist approach, especially the flagship pen, the Uno. While their products look and work well, I have been put off by their high-brow approach to marketing. They promote how many awards their pens have won, which I believe is warranted, but it hasn’t ever made me want to buy their pen. After talking to Carlo however, I have come to appreciate his work. (More on the owner, Carlo Aiello, below.)

This all being said, they sold me on their latest design which is called the ARIA. It launched on Kickstarter in November 2020 and after successfully funding, they quickly delivered an incredibly well-balanced pen. The aluminum pen body weighs 0.85 oz and 6.25in long. They also offer the pen in brass which weights considerably more at 2.45 oz.

The best aspect of this pen is the simple twist mechanism at both ends. The cap twists on when not in use, but when you open it, the cap fits perfectly on the back ‘posting’ it.

For as quiet as this company is in its marketing and communications, they do make some amazing products. Check out their site for some very minimal and well-designed items.

I had the privilege of talking to Carlo Aiello about this pen and his company Ensso. I haven’t found any interviews online with Mr. Aiello so it was interesting to find out more:

1. How did you come up with the design for this new pen?

Each pen that we design is an answer to something that is familiar but not exactly available on the market. We all know or have used a BiC ballpoint pen, and although they are excellent writers, they are seen as disposable objects. It is very common to have a few of these pens forgotten around the house. We wanted to create something beautiful and timeless that would give new life to all these refills. We are very excited with the response that we have received from our customers and we might offer the pen in different materials in the near future.

2. How many prototypes did you go through before you got everything perfect? I imagine there is a lot more work involved in this pen than it appears in its minimal design...?

Our design process starts with old-fashioned sketching. After the idea has been conceptualized and imagined, it is drawing to scale using 3D computer software. Afterward, we proceed with many plastic 3D prints which we use to test the design for function and aesthetics. Finally, we make real metal prototypes with CNC machines. If we discover something that we don’t like or doesn’t work along the process we go back to step one. For the ARIA pen we did two rounds involving the whole process.

3. How many people work at Ensso?

We are a small family company (husband and wife). My name is Carlo Aiello and I am an architect and product designer. Although I spent the majority of my time designing buildings, I have a passion for writing instruments. I decided to start this venture in 2015 and since then we have launched 8 different products. We try to develop and launch 2 writing instruments per year. Our suppliers and machining experts in Southern California have experience in precise CNC manufacturing that involves a large range of products from micro components to aircraft parts.

4. Do you have any new products coming soon?

We are currently developing two pens. The first is a new pocket fountain pen that uses large #6 nibs and has a wide section. Although very practical, pocket fountain pens usually have a very slim profile that is difficult to grip and the nibs are usually very small. We wanted to create something very compact, but that would be very comfortable to use and have a large nib. The second project is a new iteration of our GIRO ballpoint pen.

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I highly recommend getting on their mailing list as they do not make large production runs on their products. They also offer generous discounts on their Kickstarter launches as I was able to get this pen for $29 compared to the $45 it costs now. Once they sell out of something, it does not come back and there are only 65 of these black pens left!

As always, I purchased this pen and did not receive anything from the company. My thoughts are my own - free of ads and paid affiliation.

Cheers,

Mike