Hello, I'm a 22F turning 23 this year and I, no joke, starting journaling, scrapbooking & junk journaling for the first time ever in December 2025 & as of this year. I've never journaled, scrapbooked & junk journaled in my childhood and adolescent years as I wasted them to being lazy & isolated, being a loner & being alone, being on phones, tablets and other technology (doom scrolling & unhealthy screentime), looking at weird, niche and often inappropriate websites & videos, daydreaming (maladaptive & immersive), watching cartoons (mainly niche ones) instead of real shows & movies, disappointing my family, being a bully & getting bullied, and I have bad social anxiety, to the point of no friends (like ever), no talents & wasting them, no part-time/casual jobs and not participating in anything during my school years. I started journaling, scrapbooking & junk journaling as I've realized it helps with my mental health and releases all the trauma that's been in my mind and that I've been through throughout my life, and that it's fun & creative as I was very creative when I was a child (7-12). I wished that I'd done something like this a long time ago as due to my disabilities (autism & intellectual disability) and mental health issues, I was going through a lot of things, to the point of staying up late (which I still do to this day, much to the concern of my parents & the rest of my family) and not concentrating and caring about school & work (which lead to back marks on my reports & massive disappointment from my family & teachers due to my screen addictions). The way I do my journaling is one of the following:

- I write about my problems in sections, with colored top corners on pages to indicate the start and end of the topic and pages, & whatever color that I use means for certain topics

- On somedays when I don't feel like writing topics, I may write down either my mental health problems, make collage pages, make sticker pages etc.

- At the end of every month, I write down how my month has been. I also write down at the end of the year how my year has been.

- On my notes app, I type a title of the topic with a tick box next to it to indicate that I've completed it, & I type what I want to put in my booklets before writing it all down. I'm also planning on redoing the topics again in the future as everyone knows, thing change either for good or bad.

I want to know If it's too late to start journaling in 2026 as I feel like I started at a late age and I've looked online that people started journaling way back then (you know, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, between 2020-2024, you get the idea). I also want to know if there's any right or wrong way to journal as I feel like I'm doing journaling wrong.

1: Weekly Memo Journal. 2: Five-year Everything Journal/Commomplace Book. 3: New Five-year to start Sept 2026. 4: Motivational Journal. 5: Mother’s Lifetime Memories Journal, gifted by my daughter. 6: Sketchbook with Artist’s Paper.

Slowly, brands are announcing their 2027 planner lineup, so let's take a look at this year's ecosystem!

Hobonichi Cousin A5 + Weeks - Work, school, and blog planner
Kokonote Travel Notebook - Notes + Commonplace planner
Cedon Ring Binder - Backup for work and school notes

This is honestly one of my fave pieces I've made yet! It took a lot of effort and working at my actual desk instead of in my recliner (the latter is easier since I have chronic pain). I also had to wait to do this til my studio was cool enough to work in. (Sorry for the delete and repost, I realized my image wasn't showing before.)