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HandoutHandout 1: What You Actually Need for This Class
Handout 1: What You Actually Need for This Class
Okay, first thing — you do not need to buy anything fancy for this. I mean that. If someone tries to sell you a $40 journaling system, that's a them problem, not a you problem. Here's the real list.
The Bare Minimum (Budget Tier)
A notebook. Any notebook. My honest recommendation is a spiral one from the checkout aisle at Macey's, the kind that's like $2.50. I'm not being cute about that — the cheap ones are genuinely better for this. A nice notebook makes people scared to mess it up and then it sits on a shelf for six weeks. Ask me how I know.
A pen you actually like writing with. Doesn't have to be expensive. Just one that doesn't skip or blob. Grab two or three from the same store run so you've got backups when one dies mid-sentence.
That's it. That's the list. Notebook, pen, done. Bring those two things to week one and you're set.
Nice-to-Haves (Only If You Want Them)
- A dedicated bag or folder to keep the notebook from getting crumpled in with everything else in your car. The dry air out here does weird things to paper edges over time, so if you want it to last, keeping it somewhere flat helps.
- A second notebook for "the good stuff." I'll talk about this in class — I skew toward writing about what's wrong, and a few people have told me having a separate small notebook just for things that went right helps them actually do it. Not required. Just an option.
- A folder or envelope for loose pages. Some weeks you might write on a scrap of paper at work and want to tuck it in later. Handy to have a spot for that.
- A nicer pen, if that's your thing. Some people love a good pen the way I love a good trail. If that's you, heck yes, go for it. Just don't let "I don't have the right pen" become the reason you don't write.
What I Would Not Bother With
Bullet journal supplies — the dot grid notebooks, the fine-liner sets, the stencils. I tried this. Mine fell apart in a week, boxes half drawn, trackers abandoned. I'm not knocking it if it's your thing, but don't buy into it just for this class. We're doing plain writing, not spreads.
Also skip anything that says "guided journal" with a prompt already printed at the top of every page. I'll bring plenty of prompts. You don't need to pay extra for someone else's.
A Shopping Note
Macey's, Walmart, even the drugstore up by the point of the mountain — any of them will have a $2-3 spiral notebook in the school supply aisle. Costco sells packs of pens for less than buying them one at a time if you go through them fast, like I do.
Honestly, if you've already got a half-used notebook sitting in a drawer somewhere, use that. Doesn't need to start on a blank first page. Journals don't care where they begin. 😊
See you at the first class — bring your notebook, bring a pen, and don't overthink the rest.
HandoutJournaling for Clarity — Cheat Sheet
Journaling for Clarity — Cheat Sheet
Print this, stick it in your notebook, forget it exists half the time. That's fine. It'll be there when you need it.
Quick check before you dive in — how's your week been? Rough one, easy one? Either way, both belong on paper. 😊
The Basics
Notebook: cheap. Spiral, from the checkout aisle, whatever's on sale at Macey's. A nice leather one will just sit there guilting you. Mine did for six weeks.
Pen: whatever's nearby. Handwriting slows your brain down in a good way, but if typing's what gets words out of you, type. I'm not dying on that hill.
Time: five to seven minutes is plenty to start. Set a timer if you want, or just write till you run out of steam.
When: morning works for a lot of people because your brain's still loose and unedited. I do mine by the coffee maker. But there's no rule. Evening, lunch break, whenever.
The Core Techniques
Morning Pages — just start writing and don't stop till the timer's up. Complaints count. Grocery lists count. Some mornings mine reads like a weather report of my own mood. That's still a page.
The One True Thing (gratitude, but not the chore version) — skip "three things you're grateful for." Write one thing you actually mean. "The dishwasher didn't leak today" beats a fake list of ten every time.
The Rant — set a timer, write down exactly what's bugging you, no filter, no fixing it. Nobody's grading this. First time I tried it I tore the pages out after, felt too guilty. Don't do that. Leave it in. The tearing-out was my mistake, not the ranting.
The Letter — write to somebody, living or not, and say the thing you haven't said. You don't have to finish it. I've got one in my notebook that just stops mid-sentence. That blank space is part of the entry now, as far as I'm concerned.
The List-as-Diary — grocery lists, to-do lists, whatever you're already writing anyway. Keep them. A list is a kind of diary if you're paying attention to what's on it.
Ground Rules (mine, anyway)
- No streaks. Miss a week, come back, no ceremony, no catching up on missed days.
- Spelling doesn't matter. Adn if you leave a typo in, who cares.
- Nobody reads this but you. Not even me, unless you want to share.
- If it's not working, ditch it. Anyone selling you a "system" is selling you a system.
When You're Stuck
Start with the sentence "Right now I feel—" and just keep going from there. Doesn't matter if the feeling is boring. "Tired" is a fine place to start.
Or copy something. An old letter, a recipe, a text from a friend. Copying counts as writing your way in. I've built whole entries around a grocery list I found in my mother's handwriting.
What I'm Still Bad At
Bullet journaling. The pretty spreads and trackers. Mine falls apart in a week, every time, and I've stopped apologizing for it.
Writing about the good stuff, honestly. My journal skews toward what's wrong. I'm working on catching the good days too. You might be better at this than me — heck yes, if so.
At the end of the day, the only wrong way to do this is not doing it at all. 🌞
WorksheetHandout 3: Your Own Starter Kit
Handout 3: Your Own Starter Kit
Okay. This is the one you get to write on. Grab your pen (or don't, if you're one of my typing people, no judgment).
By now you've tried a few things in class. This handout is just for pulling those into something you'll actually use at home. Fill in as much or as little as you want. There's no grade here, look, I mean that.
---
Part 1: What actually worked for you
Circle the ones that felt okay. Cross out the ones that didn't. Both are useful information.
- [ ] Morning pages (just dumping whatever's in your head)
- [ ] Gratitude list (one real thing, not ten fake ones)
- [ ] Letter to someone (living, gone, or complicated)
- [ ] Copying something down (a quote, a recipe, someone else's words)
- [ ] Complaint page (yes this counts, I mean it)
- [ ] Something else you tried: _______________________
What surprised you?
---
Part 2: Your notebook
What are you actually going to write in? Be honest, not aspirational.
Notebook I'm using: _______________________
Where it's going to live (be specific — by the coffee maker, in the car, on the nightstand):
A note from me: don't buy the fancy one yet. Try a cheap one first. You can always upgrade later if the cheap one's working. Mine's still a spiral from the checkout aisle and it's never once judged me. 😊
---
Part 3: When
Circle what feels doable. Not what sounds impressive.
- Every morning
- A few times a week
- Whenever something happens I need to get out of my head
- Once a week, same day
- Honestly, no plan, we'll see
If you miss a stretch, what will you tell yourself?
(My answer's always the same: no ceremony. Just pick it back up. The streak thing is a trap and I won't pretend otherwise.)
---
Part 4: One page, right now
Set a timer for five minutes. Write without stopping. Don't reread it yet.
Prompt, pick one:
- What's actually true today, good or bad or boring.
- Something you're carrying that you haven't said out loud.
- One thing you're grateful for that you actually mean.
Use the back of this page or your own notebook. Go.
---
Part 5: Before you leave tonight
One thing I'm keeping from this class:
One thing I'm letting go of (a method, an expectation, a "supposed to"):
If I get stuck in three weeks, I will:
---
At the end of the day, this whole handout is just a nudge. You don't owe me a finished page. You don't owe your notebook a streak. You just owe yourself somewhere to put things down.
Heck yes, you're allowed to close this notebook and not open it again till next Tuesday. That still counts. 🌞
HandoutHandout 4: When Journaling Gets Stuck (a troubleshooting guide)
Handout 4: When Journaling Gets Stuck (a troubleshooting guide)
Every single problem on this list, I've had. Some of them I still have. Look through it, find yours, try the fix, and don't feel bad that you needed the list in the first place 😊
1. "I don't know what to write." Write that. Literally: "I don't know what to write." Then write what you had for breakfast, or what's bugging you, or what the weather's doing. The page doesn't care. It just wants ink on it.
2. "I bought a nice notebook and now I'm afraid to mess it up." This is a real thing, not just you being precious. Patrick got me a leather one for Christmas once adn it sat empty for six weeks. Put it away. Grab a spiral one from the checkout aisle at Macey's. Cheap paper doesn't judge you.
3. "I missed four days and now I feel like I failed." You didn't fail anything. There's no streak to protect. Open to a new page, write today's date, keep going. I don't even mark the gap anymore.
4. "My gratitude list feels fake, like homework." That's because "three things you're grateful for" turns into a chore real fast. Skip the quota. Write one thing you actually mean. "The heater finally kicked on" counts more than a fake list of ten.
5. "All I write is complaining. Is that bad?" Nope. Some mornings mine's just a rant about a table that stiffed me at Balefire. Getting the bad stuff out of your skull so you can function is a win, not a failure. The guilt about it is the only part I'd fix — I used to tear those pages out and now I think that was the mistake.
6. "I write in bursts, then stop for weeks." That's still journaling. It doesn't have to be daily to count. Some of my most honest writing came from a stretch where I only managed one line a morning, standing by the coffee maker before my shift.
7. "I start a hard entry and can't finish it." Leave it unfinished. I've got one in my own notebook, a letter I started and never finished, and I decided the blank space after it is part of the entry too. You don't owe the page a tidy ending.
8. "I don't know if I should write by hand or type." Handwriting slows you down enough to actually think, and that's why I like it. But if typing is what actually gets words out of you, type. The goal is words on a page, not winning a purity contest.
9. "I tried a fancy system (bullet journal, prompts, trackers) and it fell apart." Heck, mine did too, within a week. Boxes and spreads are not my gift and I've stopped apologizing for it. If a system isn't fitting, it's not a personal failure, it's just the wrong system. Try a plainer one.
10. "I'm worried someone will read it." Keep it somewhere that's actually private, and let that be that. But also — nobody's grading this, nobody's checking spelling, and my own notebook is a disaster of dropped words and half-crossed-out lines. Yours can be too.
At the end of the day, most of these problems have the same fix underneath them: lower the bar, keep the pen moving, and don't let a rule you picked up somewhere talk you out of writing. If something here still has you stuck, bring your notebook next time and we'll look at it together 🌞
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay wait, say that part again, about the text message, because I don't think I've heard this one.
BRENDA: Oh, the "this is stupid" one?
JESS: Yeah.
BRENDA: So this is a friend from the ward. Hard stretch, she was going through it, and I got her doing gratitude lists, just one thing a day, didn't have to be big. And a few days in she texts me, "this is stupid, but I feel better."
JESS: That's it?
BRENDA: That's it. And honestly? Best review I've ever gotten. Better than if she'd written me a paragraph. She didn't want it to work and it worked anyway.
JESS: I love that. Okay, for anybody just tuning in — this is the podcast for Journaling for Clarity, the class through Community Learning. I'm Jess, I produce these. And this is Brenda, who's teaching it.
BRENDA: Hi. How's everybody doing, by the way, before we get into me.
JESS: I'm good! Cold's finally letting up a little.
BRENDA: Heck yes. My hands have not forgiven me yet for this dry air, I don't care what month it is.
JESS: So — for people who don't know you yet, give us the thirty second version of why you're the one teaching this.
BRENDA: Sure. I'm not a therapist, I'm not a writing teacher, I work doubles at Balefire most weeks. I started journaling because my mom passed and I found a shoebox of her letters and I couldn't stand the idea of nobody knowing who these people were. That turned into me writing my own stuff alongside hers. And somewhere in there, mostly out of exhaustion honestly, I started doing morning pages just to complain onto paper before my shift. Turned out it helped. So now I tell other people it might help them too. That's really the whole pitch.
JESS: No hard sell.
BRENDA: No, I'm not selling anything, I just think it works and I'd rather you find out cheap. Which — that's kind of the whole class, that's the tone.
JESS: Okay give us something practical. Somebody's listening in their car right now, they're not signed up for the class, what's one thing they can do today.
BRENDA: Get a cheap notebook.
JESS: That's it?
BRENDA: That's genuinely it. Not the nice leather one somebody got you for Christmas — Patrick got me one, gorgeous thing, and I couldn't write in it for six weeks because it felt too nice to mess up. Went back to a spiral one from the Macey's checkout aisle and the words came right back. A cheap notebook has never once judged me.
JESS: So the fancy one is actually working against you.
BRENDA: For me, yeah. For me it did. Some people are different. But if you've bought a beautiful notebook and it's sitting there blank and shaming you, that's not a you problem, that's a notebook problem. Get an ugly one.
JESS: Okay, I'm writing that down. Ugly notebook.
BRENDA: And don't do the thing where you have to write every day or you've failed. That streak thing is a trap, in my opinion. Miss a week, come back, no ceremony about it. Nobody's grading this.
JESS: Alright, so — session one. What are people actually walking into?
BRENDA: Real low pressure. We do a little bit of talking, then everybody writes for like five, seven minutes, then I ask who wants to share and nobody has to. I'll go first, usually with something small and kind of dumb from my own notebook, so people know the bar is on the floor. Spelling doesn't matter. Mine's a disaster, I've got typos everywhere, I don't fuss over it.
JESS: What's next session, give us a preview.
BRENDA: Next time we're doing gratitude lists, but the right way, because I think they get a bad rap. People do "three things" as a chore and it's useless. One thing you actually mean beats ten you don't. So we're gonna practice actually meaning it.
JESS: I like that. Okay, last thing — anything you want people to know before they show up?
BRENDA: Just bring a notebook, any notebook, doesn't have to match anything I said. And show up even if the last few days were bad and you feel like you've got nothing to write. Complaining onto paper counts. That's a whole session in itself, actually, we'll get there.
JESS: Love it. Thanks Brenda.
BRENDA: Thanks Jess. See you all Tuesday 🌞
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay but did they actually stiff you, or was it a bad tipper situation?
BRENDA: Oh, stiffed. Full stiff. Table of six, big order, they left a dollar. And I want you to know I did not journal about it calm.
JESS: This is a good place to jump in, actually. Welcome back, everybody, this is episode two of the Journaling for Clarity podcast, I'm Jess, I run the recorder and mess with the levels, and this is Brenda.
BRENDA: Hi. How's everybody doing, actually? I mean that. Before we get into my restaurant drama.
JESS: I think they're doing fine, Brenda, keep going.
BRENDA: Okay. So the dollar tip. I went home and I wrote two full pages about that table. Every detail. What she said, what he didn't say, the whole thing. And here's the part I actually want people to hear — my first instinct was to tear those pages out. Because it felt petty. Felt like I shouldn't put that in a nice notebook.
JESS: But you didn't.
BRENDA: I didn't, and that was actually a mistake I made a long time ago, tearing stuff out, and I've stopped doing that. Now it stays in. Complaining onto paper counts. It's not a lesser kind of journaling. Sometimes you just need the bad thoughts out of your skull so you can go to your next shift without carrying it.
JESS: That's basically opinion number five from your list, right? I've seen your notes.
BRENDA: You've seen my notes. Yes. At the end of the day — and I hear myself saying that, I know — at the end of the day a journal that only has gratitude in it is kind of a lie. Mine's got plenty of grump in it. That's honest.
JESS: Okay, tell the bullet journal thing. I know it's on the list for today.
BRENDA: Oh, heck yes, let's do it, because I want people to feel adequate. So I saw one of those videos, you know the ones, color-coded boxes, little trackers, somebody's handwriting looks like a font.
JESS: The aesthetic ones.
BRENDA: The aesthetic ones. And I thought, I can do that, I'm a organized person. I bought the dot grid notebook, I drew my little habit tracker, I did the monthly spread.
JESS: How long did it last?
BRENDA: A week. Maybe less. By day five my boxes were crooked, I'd skipped two days so the tracker had a gap that stressed me out more than the thing I was tracking, and I just — I quit. No apology. Told everybody I quit. That's not shame, that's just information. Some systems aren't for some people. That one's not for me.
JESS: I love that you didn't try to save it.
BRENDA: Life's too short to save a bullet journal. Look — if that stuff works for you, heck yes, keep doing it, it's genuinely impressive. I just can't. My boxes editorialize at me and not in a good way.
JESS: Okay, so give people the actual usable thing today. Something they can do tonight, no class required.
BRENDA: Sure. Here's what I'd say. Don't start with "three things I'm grateful for," because that turns into a chore and you end up writing "coffee, sunshine, my dog" and not meaning any of it.
JESS: Guilty.
BRENDA: Everybody's guilty. Instead, write one thing, and make yourself say why. Not "grateful for my sister." Write "grateful my sister called today because I'd had a rough one and hearing her laugh at nothing made it feel smaller." One real thing beats ten fake ones. That's it. That's the tip. You don't need my class for that, you can do that tonight at your own table.
JESS: With a cheap notebook.
BRENDA: With a cheap notebook. Always. Patrick got me this beautiful leather one for Christmas one year and I couldn't write in it for six weeks, it felt too nice to mess up. Went right back to a spiral from the Macey's checkout line and the words came back the same day. The notebook's never the problem. The pressure is.
JESS: Alright, before we let people go — next session, what are we doing?
BRENDA: Next time we're doing the letter thing. Writing to somebody who isn't there anymore, or somebody you can't say something to directly. I've got one I never finished, I might even bring it, we'll see how brave I'm feeling.
JESS: No pressure.
BRENDA: No pressure. Bring a notebook, doesn't matter which one, and if you missed this week that's fine too, there's no streak to keep up. Come back whenever. 😊
JESS: That's it for episode two. Thanks for listening, we'll see you in the room next week.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —wait, say that again, because I don't think I've ever heard you call a blank page an entry before.
BRENDA: It is, though. I mean it. Sometimes the not-finishing is the whole point.
JESS: Okay, back up for anyone just joining us in the car right now. This is episode three of Journaling for Clarity, I'm Jess, I run the podcast side of things for Community Learning, and this is Brenda.
BRENDA: Hi. How are you doing, by the way? Before we get into me.
JESS: I'm okay! Tired, it's been a long week. But I want to hear the blank page thing.
BRENDA: Okay. So last year was the first time I actually wrote through the anniversary of my mom passing instead of just gritting my teeth and getting through the day like I usually do.
JESS: You normally just power through it.
BRENDA: Every year. Head down, don't think about it too hard, go to work, come home, done. But last year I sat down that morning and I started writing her a letter. Just, you know, catching her up. And partway through I just... stopped. Couldn't finish it.
JESS: Did you go back later and finish it?
BRENDA: Nope. Left it. Half a page and then blank space under it.
JESS: That sounds like it would bug me.
BRENDA: It bugged me for about a day. And then I looked at it again and I thought, that blank space is the entry. That's what that day actually felt like. It didn't fix anything, look, I want to be honest, it's not like the day got easier. But it gave the day somewhere to go instead of just sitting in my chest all day long.
JESS: That's — okay, that's a lot heavier than I expected for episode three.
BRENDA: (laughs) Sorry. You asked!
JESS: No, I'm glad you told it. Okay, can we do something practical now, for people listening who aren't even signed up for the class? Something they could just go do tonight.
BRENDA: Heck yes. Okay, here's mine. If you don't know what to write about, don't try to write something deep. Write down what's actually annoying you, right now, today. A person, a bill, whatever. Don't dress it up.
JESS: Just complain onto the page.
BRENDA: Just complain onto the page! People think journaling has to be some big meaningful thing or a gratitude list you don't even mean. But sometimes it's just getting the garbage out of your skull so you can actually drive to work without replaying an argument for the ninth time. That's a win. That counts as much as anything else you'd write.
JESS: And you don't need a nice notebook for that.
BRENDA: Please don't get a nice notebook. I mean it, that's my actual opinion, cheap notebook every time. Patrick got me this gorgeous leather one for Christmas one year and I couldn't write in it for six weeks because it felt too nice to mess up. I went back to a spiral one, the kind that's just sitting there at the Macey's checkout, and the words came right back like nothing happened.
JESS: The notebook was intimidating you.
BRENDA: It was! Isn't that ridiculous. A notebook, intimidating me. But there you go.
JESS: Okay, one more question and then I want to plug next session. When people get stuck, what do you actually tell them in the room?
BRENDA: I tell them there's no grade. Nobody's reading it, spelling doesn't matter, mine is a disaster half the time, typos everywhere, and it still works. I'd rather someone write two messy sentences than nothing because they're waiting to write something good.
JESS: Good pep talk.
BRENDA: At the end of the day, that's kind of the whole class. 🌞
JESS: Okay — next session, what are we doing?
BRENDA: We're going to talk about gratitude lists, but the right way, because I think they get a bad rap. Everybody's done the "three things you're grateful for today" thing as basically a chore, and it's useless when it's a chore. I want to show people how one thing you actually mean beats ten you're just listing off to check a box.
JESS: I like that. Bring your own disaster notebook.
BRENDA: Please do. Mine's coming too, don't worry.
JESS: Alright, that's episode three. Thanks for listening, and Brenda, thank you.
BRENDA: Thanks for asking how I'm doing, by the way. Nobody ever remembers to ask that back. 😊
Videos worth your time
Hand-picked by your instructor, with notes on what to watch for.
- HOW TO JOURNAL *for beginners*Carrie Walker
Good starting point if you have never journaled before and want a no pressure beginner walkthrough.
- how to start JOURNALING ✍🏼 routines, prompts, & habits that actually workSophie DiLoreto
Watch for the simple routine and prompt ideas she gives to help a new journaling habit actually stick.
- How to Journal for Mental Clarity: A Simple 2026 SystemChadeveryday
Focuses on a simple step by step system for using journaling specifically to clear mental clutter.
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