Week Four with the Theme System Journal...Last week I decided to take “Bad” out of the 4 categories I write about daily in the journal section of the Theme System Journal. I replaced it with “Rant” because I wanted some space to “get things off of my chest” so to speak. I think it’s healthy to have some space to write this way. And...on a week like I had (super busy) I found myself only using the journal as my space/time to write. I did “rant” about something each day and it felt good so this is a category I think I’m going to keep for a while.As the week progressed I started thinking more about constraints. The categories are a constraint because they limit me to writing just about “Good,” “Rant,” “Proud,” and “Forward.” I’m not saying this is bad or good...it just “is.” Another constraint I’m noticing is the space in which I have to write in the journal pages section. Take a look...
As you can see, on the left I have a page set up for this coming Monday. Also...the pages are divided into 4 predetermined rectangular boxes. I have decided to go with the same category order the creator of the journal, Myke Hurley uses when writing things down...the only difference is that I have replaced “Bad” with “Rant.” What I’m wondering is...what might happen if I kept the categories but decided which space/box to place them daily? If I keep “Rant” where it is now...I limit the amount of space I have to...”Rant” that day. If I keep “Forward” where it is now...I limit the space I have to think about what and why I am looking forward to something. Keeping the categories in place keeps things consistent...easy to look at. Varying the placement of the categories seems to “respect” the fact that I may have more (or less) to say about something on any given day.I’m set up for Monday so I’m not changing things. Tuesday will be my first day to experiment with placing the categories in the spaces based on what I want to say.