For anyone looking for a distraction from digital life, or looking to get a little more hands-on and analogue, junk journaling is a really underrated tool that can offer unique benefits for both personal development and creative fulfillment. It can offer new ways to reflect, organise your thoughts and encourage personal growth and is a great option if you’re looking for a less conventional form of journaling.

What is junk journaling?

At its most simple, junk journaling is the process of creating personalised, creative journal entries through the use of repurposed materials, such as old books, newspapers, tickets and photographs etc. It’s great if you’re looking for a more creative style of journaling, or if a journal that involves a lot of writing doesn’t appeal. It’s also very free form which means you aren’t restricted to any particular style, which can take the pressure off for a lot of people, knowing there is no right or wrong way to do it.

This less structured style is no less beneficial though, and junk journaling offers many of the usual journaling benefits as well as several, unique benefits. This includes:

• Stress relief through creativity: Putting down your digital devices and getting hands-on with something practical has a whole host of benefits for relieving stress, easing anxiety and improving your mental health. If you can get yourself into that creative ‘flow’ space, you can find that external concerns are forgotten for long periods of time, and your mind, given time to subconsciously think, can often present solutions to issues that weren’t immediately obvious beforehand.
  
• A tool for organising thoughts and feelings: Although there may be an element of randomness to it, often times the materials you choose and the style of page you create can be extremely insightful as to where your headspace is at any given time, and often we can identify recurring patterns or themes within the pages of a junk journal that speak to our thoughts and feelings at any given period. At a more practical level, your junk journal is a place to store anything that speaks to you; quotes, photos, images, ticket stubs etc. Whatever you choose to use, you can come back to and reflect on what it meant to you at the time and what it means to you now, which can be a really powerful tool for self growth.
  
• Enhancing mindfulness and reflection: Creative pursuits often encourage us to be present with what we are doing at the given moment which is a key principle of mindfulness. This can help reduce stress and slow our thoughts down when they become overwhelming. Junk journaling asks you to focus on the task at hand, to think carefully about the materials you are choosing to use and the layout you are building on the page, and to reflect on their meaning and your thought process as you create, which can lead to real moments of personal insight and clarity, which can encourage personal growth and your sense of direction. 

Why junk journaling is perfect for men new to journaling

If you’re new to journaling or haven’t found a style that works for you yet, junk journaling can be an excellent entry point because it requires very little setup or equipment, you don’t need to buy a pre-written, ‘guided’ journal and you don’t need to worry about adhering to a predetermined layout or style. Some of the reasons that junk journaling is a great option for beginners includes:

• A creative yet low-pressure approach: Unlike most other forms of journaling, junk journaling doesn’t focus as heavily on writing and the written word. It removes that barrier to entry that a lot of people find when facing a blank page and having to decide what to write, and it opens the format up for more creative expression and freedom, which can be great if you’re journaling to increase creativity. There’s no expectation or defined structure which makes junk journaling a low pressure style of journaling.
  
• Mental clarity through reflection: In a passive way, junk journaling allows you to focus on a creative task and get into a flow state, which can help with mental clarity and allow your mind to subconsciously reflect and look for solutions to problems you may be facing, but junk journaling can also be a very active form of reflection, allowing you to choose materials and create layouts that represent things you want to reflect on, whether that’s in the form of gratitude or introspection, and that can really aid self-discovery and growth.
  
• Stress-free self-improvement: Junk journaling is a judgement free, formality free method of exploring creativity and expression, in a way that works for you. The fact it doesn’t have a defined form or a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do it, makes it a great low-entry point for new journalers.

How to start junk journaling

Getting started couldn’t be easier, but you are going to need a few things first:

• 1. Gather your materials:
  
  • You’re going to need a notepad of some variety and a pen or multiple pens.
    
  • You will also need to gather the materials you’re going to be using to make your pages. Look for old books, magazines, or newspapers, scrap paper, fabrics, photos, tickets and anything else that appeals to you.
    
  • Finally, you are going to need a few practical items such as glue or sellotape, scissors, markers, or stamps.
    
    
• 2. Create your first page:

Now that you have your materials gathered, youre ready to create your first page. Whilst there are no hard and fast rules to creating a page, there are some tips below that can help you get started.

• Start simple: Don’t expect too much from your first page and try not to overcomplicate it. Use your mix of old materials and experiment with where you place various objects before you stick anything down. If you do decide you don’t like an element after sticking it down, you can always put something over it, so try not to pressure yourself. To start, maybe pick a few, key, meaningful elements and arrange them in a way that is pleasing to you. You can experiment with collage techniques and calligraphy at a later date, so for your first pages, your priority should be trying to enjoy the act of creativity.
  
• Incorporate personal elements: An important part of the journaling aspect of junk journaling is that the journal is personal to you and represents you and your thought process, so to get the best out of your journal, use photos, quotes, or memorabilia that have meaning to you. You will quickly find that you can go back through your journal and it’s like being back in the time you created the page.
  
• Focus on reflection: Although junk journaling can be less introspective than more traditional forms of journaling, you can definitely add aspects of self reflection into your journaling habit. To do this, think about incorporating a daily quote, thoughts on a goal (or images that represent your goal or progress towards it), or random musings as they occur to you. This can keep the pressure low, because you’re not expecting a revelation or personal break-through on a daily basis, but you are giving yourself the space to reflect as and when you feel it would be beneficial.
  

• 3. Don’t Worry About Perfection:
  
  • Encourage imperfection: Junk journaling is about creativity, not perfection! If you strive for perfection every time you journal, you’ll find it difficult to maintain a consistent habit and you might end up giving up. The purpose of a junk journal is to develop your creativity, and you never have to share your journal with anyone, so it’s the perfect place to express yourself with no fear of judgement.
    
  • Mistakes are part of the process: When it comes to a journaling style that is unguided and formless, there’s really no such thing as a mistake. Your pages and layouts should be whatever you want them to be. If you spill, or rip, or stick in the wrong place, or misspell, try and incorporate this into your design – let the accidents guide the design and you’ll enjoy the process even more!
    
    
• 4. Make it part of your routine:
  
  • Set aside time: A fun part of junk journaling is that unlike traditional journaling, you’re not really expected to do it every day. You certainly can, but if you find it easier to journal every other day or once a week, that’s absolutely fine. With that said, if you don’t set a specific time aside to commit to journaling, you may find it easy to make excuses and never actually do the work, so for a happy medium, choose a frequency that works for you (eg. Once a week) and then choose a time to start and set aside an amount of time to do it. Even 10-15 minutes is a good place to start. .
    
  • Use It to reflect or plan: You can make your journal habit easier to maintain by making it useful to you in your daily life and routine. You can do this by using junk journaling for self-reflection, goal-setting, or simply to unwind. Choose materials for your pages that represent the things you want to reflect on and as you create, your mind should subconsciously reflect on the elements you are putting together. You can use visual representations of important tasks or goals or create visual progress trackers and make your journal highly creative but still practical and useful.

Tips for staying consistent with junk journaling

As with any form of journaling, the key to getting the most out of junk journaling is to stay consistent with it. If you can build a habit, you’ll find over time, you become more efficient at creating pages and you develop a backlog of entries that you can go back and look through which can be extremely useful for seeing your thought processes and areas of interest and how they have changed over a given period. Some advice to help you with consistency would be:

• Keep it fun: I’ve mentioned several times that junk journaling is meant to be low pressure and freeing. It doesn’t have to be a daily task and it’s not something you will be judged on so if you feel that you’re not having fun with it or the thought of journaling is causing you anxiety, maybe take a break or experiment with some new materials and techniques.
  
• Mix it up: If things get stale, try and find some new materials or techniques that you can experiment with. This can really change the process for you and re-spark creativity, especially if you have found yourself in a rut. You can also introduce ‘themes’ to your journaling that can give you a starting point or a new perspective. Try theming your entries around travel or your daily thoughts or hobbies for example. This is also a good technique for introducing some practicality to your junk journal, using creativity to explore specific themes or topics.
  
• Track progress over time: Using your junk journal to creatively track growth or life changes can be oddly motivating, especially when you take the time to look back and reflect. By keeping a consistent habit, you will soon have a collection of entries that can provide insights into your creative process, as well as revealing what elements are frequently important to you or on your mind. This can then spark new entries or self-reflections, so the compounding benefits of long-term journaling become really powerful.
  

Common mistakes to avoid

Now you now how to start and maintain a junk journaling habit, it’s worth reviewing some common mistakes that can torpedo your journaling efforts:

• Overcomplicating things: You can quickly begin to put pressure on yourself to create masterpieces or to include complex artistic techniques, or to explore multiple themes at a time, and this pressure can start to feel overwhelming. If this happens, do your best to simplify. Not every page of your journal needs to be gallery worthy. Go back to the very basics and pick a few, meaningful elements to work with to try and take some of the pressure off of yourself.
  
• Neglecting the journaling habit: Although there’s no need to journal every day when it comes to junk journaling, if you don’t set aside a specific amount of time to do it, it can become easy to completely neglect the habit altogether. Even if it’s just 10 or 15 minutes a week, schedule your time for journaling and stick to it.
  
• Using too much material at once: It can be tempting to throw everything and the kitchen sink at your pages but it can quickly become unwieldy and ineffective, trying to fit all your elements together in a pleasing and aesthetic way. Recommend working on one page or project at a time to avoid clutter.
  
  

Conclusion

Junk journaling is a low pressure, low barrier to entry form of journaling that encourages personal self-expression, creativity and self-reflection. This makes it a perfect option for anyone looking for a unique or unconventional style of journaling or a style that is less focussed on writing and less structured or guided. 

It is easy to get started, with very little equipment needed, and with a lot of material you will already have or can easily acquire and it is a simple habit that can boost creativity, aid long-term personal growth and help improve mental clarity and mindfulness.

If junk journaling sounds like something you could benefit from, I would encourage you to grab a few old newspapers or magazines and create your first junk journal page today!