At some point I am probably going to have to design journal themes around material paper, because I did not use any this time around. In all fairness, despite the fact I love material paper, it takes more effort for me to use.

So make of it what you will.

The reason why I mention material paper is because you can kind of see where it is getting a bit thick, but it's not as thick as it could be. Part of it is due to it being a B5, I find that B5 and square journals don't become obviously bulky, whereas with A5s, even if all you use are stickers and tape, it is far more noticeable.

In September 2024, I decided to try making a work journal for myself. This is because I have ADHD, and I'm often doing work that never seems to goddamn end. Part of the brain chemistry of ADHD is difficulty regulating dopamine, which can make long term projects, or constant workflow feel pointless, tedious and unmotivating.

There was also the on-going issue of me being unable to express when I start having difficulties with work (because there are days where it's always difficult), and more personal things I need to keep track of, I just... don't.

I had found in the past that giving myself a tally mark for a task completed helped keep me going. However, I was doing that digitally and that was cumbersome. It's much easier to have a journal open and just make a mark (or two) in-between tasks.

And I had taken this a step further, but categorizing tasks into admin (database changes), email (whenever I send an email), calls (answering and calling out), booking (when an appointment is booked) and faxes (when I send out a fax).

The important part of categorizing it this way, was that certain tasks fell under more than one category, and so they would get more than one tally mark. This actually informed me better of how time intensive some of my work was.

It also gave me information to take back to managers, especially when I should be booking more appointments and sending out less faxes on behalf of inquiring co-workers.

Also, an analog system meant at the end of my week when I started filling out the to-do list for the next week, I was slowly removing myself from my computer. This made it easier to leave rather than stay on longer.

The journal only finished at the end of December 2025 because there's not a lot of collections I need for a work journal like this. In addition, this was an Archer and Olive A5 notebook, which tends to have a 192 pages. It is most likely my next notebook will last me from January 2026 to September 2027.

So apparently, I did not take a picture of this journal at this angle before I started filling it out, but you can kind of tell it got really chunky anyways. I find with A5 journals it is easier to tell that you shoved it full of things compared to the bigger sizes.

Two other notes, I am very impressed on how the gold gilding still shows up very well. Knowing how the pages separate as you use them, I've always been nervous about having a book with gold gilding.

Wow, half a year already went by? Where did the time go? It feels not that long ago to be honest. It's so weird that this is another journal done.

Unlike the last time I used a square journal, you can kind of see the bulge from a well used journal. This is in large part due to the scrapbooking style that was done in May (along with memory keeping birthday card and other things), as well as the dutch door set up from June.

I forgot that using a lot of dutch doors (also known as waterfall tabs) will very much affect how the journal will look. There were a few pages in here that weren't done due to me being sick or just not having a lot of time, which was unfortunate.