Activity-Style Journaling Journaled while out to lunch

Back on the 25th of September, I asked artists, art journalers, sketchbook keepers, and illustrated journal keepers to step forward and vote on whether they would classify themselves as an activity journal keeper or an event journal keeper.

An activity journal keeper is someone that keeps a journal as an activity much like someone would brush their teeth or eat a meal. It's just something they do without a prompt.

An event journal keeper is someone who journals about or because of a special event like travel, a birth, illness or growing an garden. Something external prompts them to journal.

The more I thought about this and the results of the poll, the more it seems to come down to whether the prompt is internally or externally driven. Some folks are compelled to create while others need a trigger to begin the process of creating.

The results were almost even for both categories:
18 votes for Activity journaling
17 votes for Event journaling

I have to say I am surprised! I thought there would be a leaning towards event-style journaling. Not a landslide, but I definitely expected it to have more votes. That's why it's good to ask and not assume.

Several folks commented that they fell into both categories as they had more than one journal going. I fall into both. I have a journal that goes with me everywhere and has a hodge-podge of subject matter in it such as the palm above.

Event-Style Journaling A pinecone from my recent trip to Maine

I also create special journals for my travel and everything in them pertains to the trip—the anticipation and trip building, the actual trip itself, things I saw and experienced, and finally memories of the trip.

Regardless of where you are—just starting out or years into your journey—there is no right or wrong style. There is also the strong possibility that your style may change. It could easily move from event to activity and back again since a lot of our journaling often finds its origin in what's going on in our daily lives.

Thanks to all of you who voted and shared your thoughts with me about your particular style of journaling. This is part of a bigger project that is slowly taking form in the background. I'll share more as it takes on more life.