Minimalist vs fancy spreads - which actually sticks? My 3 month experiment

So for the last two quarters I went back and forth. First 3 months I did the whole Pinterest thing with washi tape, multiple colors, little drawings. Looked great but I kept skipping days because it took too long. Then next 3 months I did basically just a line for the date and a dot for tasks. Bare bones. And you know what? The ugly one got filled in every single day. All 90 days. The pretty one had like 40 something. I'm starting to think all those decoration ideas people post are just for the photo, not for actually tracking stuff. But then again some people swear they need the fun colors to stay motivated. What side are you on? Has anyone else actually tracked how long they stuck with each style?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaron8806d ago

Yeah but you're totally MISSING the point here. That boring dot system works BECAUSE you already knew what you wanted to track. For people like me who get decision fatigue staring at a blank space, the pretty spreads actually function as a GUIDE not just decoration. I tried the minimal thing for two months straight and ended up writing NOTHING because the blank page felt like a chore to even look at, let alone fill in. The colors and washi tape create a scaffolding for my brain, like here's where the habit tracker goes, here's where the meals go, so I don't have to think about layout every single day. Your brain might work fine with a dot but mine needs the visual CUE to actually remember why I'm opening the notebook in the first place. And honestly, the time thing is overblown - my decorated spreads take maybe 2 extra minutes and I'd spend that anyway staring at a blank page trying to figure out what to write.

nina_hall486d ago

@aaron880 is it really that deep though? like it's just a notebook not a life coach, you're overcomplicating a piece of paper.

wader716d ago

@aaron880 you actually just explained the whole reason I switched from bullet journaling to a more decorative setup. The scaffolding thing is real. My brain sees a blank page and goes into planning paralysis trying to figure out where to put things. A little color and tape means I don't have to decide anything, I just follow the template I already made.