I bought a $12 career journal on a whim. Now I'm mad it actually works.

Last September I saw this bright orange journal at a Target in Portland called 'The Year of You' and rolled my eyes hard. I bought it anyway for laughs and started writing down one work thing I learned each day for 2 weeks straight. Six months later I flipped back and realized I'd forgotten half those lessons completely. Has anyone else had a random cheap tool actually change how they think about their job?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jesse10d ago

Wait, so you're telling me I could've been buying cheap notebooks in Portland this whole time instead of the fancy Moleskine I've been pretending to use? I bought a $6 spiral notebook from CVS once with a dog on the cover, wrote down three things I hated about my commute every morning for a month, and somehow stopped road raging by week two. It's like the universe is mocking me for thinking I needed something "nice" to be productive. Now I'm just mad at myself for not realizing a cheap notebook with a stupid cover can outthink my expensive apps.

ivan87310d ago

Think about what exactly made that cheap notebook work for you. Was it the act of physically writing things down that did it, or was it something about the dog on the cover making you less angry? I'm asking because I've tried the fancy journals and the cheap ones and for me it was all about the ritual, not the price tag. Like once I started writing first thing in the morning, my brain just flipped a switch. So was it really the notebook or was it the habit that finally stuck?

ramirez.daniel5d ago

Now I'm just picturing a dog on a notebook judging my road rage, honestly that would make me less angry too.