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Two journals and two pencils on a white desk.

Life is a balancing act and sometimes it can really test our perseverance. We are constantly juggling and multitasking a number of different things from work, assignments, plans with friends, personal downtime- you name it. There can be so much on your plate that it’s hard to prioritize your mental well-being. When this happens, it’s time to take a step back and practice some self-care strategies.

Spring is here. The birds are singing, the snow has melted, and flowers are poking up through the dirt, both where they are expected and where they are not. At the beginning of winter term, I wrote a blog post on freewriting with a focus on my notebook as an agent of the writing process. I’d like to come back to this general topic, but from a slightly different perspective: spring.

At the start of the first year in university, I was determined to be productive and organized. I bought an agenda, but I realized that there would be weeks where I used it constantly and weeks where I didn’t use it at all. I didn’t think this was the best resource for me, so I decided to try bullet journaling for my next year.

Journal writing is one of those things that everyone seems to start, but can never maintain. Life gets in the way and we are often too busy to sit down at the end of the day and dedicate time to self-reflection.

Stephen King’s On Writing is a great resource for anyone who wants to become a better writer. Although King’s memoir mainly targets fiction writers, I believe that many of his opinions on writing can be used by all writers. Whether you are writing a blog, co-op report, literature review, cover letter, etc., King’s tips about writing will be useful to you.

Here are four of King’s tips about writing that will help you and your writing process.

Stress can be caused by many different situations, but it can also affect many different parts of your life. For me personally, it affects my food habits the most; specifically what I am eating and how much I am eating. This then cycles back to being more stressed out because I am hungry, not eating the right foods, and worried about possibly gaining or losing too much weight, while still having to do all the things that made me stressed out in the first place.

In the last few weeks I’ve been listening to the Mortified podcast, which features adults reading their adolescent diaries in front of a live audience, with no exaggeration, no embellishment, “just god-given awkwardness”. Every episode is guaranteed to produce cringing smiles.

I kept a diary of my own for six years, running from grade nine through my first year of university.

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Managing self-care through self-reflective journal writing

May flowers: some poems that survived the winter

Bullet journalling: Creative vs practical approach

Making time for journal writing

On Stephen King's "On Writing"

Stress, Over- and Under- Eating, Ways to Cope

Free Writing

University of Waterloo | Writing and Communication Centre

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