Diving In

Starting a blog has been on my mind a lot lately! So here goes nothing! I’m nearly 29 years old but I’m pretty far behind the times where social media is concerned. This is my first attempt to put myself out there!

By way of introduction, my name is Erin! Nice to meet you! I’m from Canada but right now I live in Japan. I decided to start The Simple Life Journal in order to share what I’ve learned about cleaning up my life, and share my journey as I continue to learn and grow.

Over the last few years, I’ve developed my own style of journaling and organizing my life. It started out as a simple chore chart. Flash back to three years ago. I’d been in Japan for about a year. My job takes place mainly in the afternoon and evening, which made it easy to get into a routine of partying at night and recovering during the day. I bought all my meals from the convenience store, lived in a pigsty, exercised never, and drank way too much. I told myself that because I’d accomplished my dream of graduating and getting a job overseas, I earned some celebrating. I had worked really hard to get to where I was, and letting loose with my new friends was my reward. I was having a good time, but I felt completely out of control. I don’t know what happened, but a switch flipped in my mind. This wasn’t making me happy anymore. I felt completely unhealthy, unfocused, and lost, swinging from one good time to the next without a sense of meaningful direction. So I decided to make some changes.

My first priority was to get my house in order. If I had a clean and functional place to live in, I could clear my head and make room for a healthier lifestyle. As a bonus, making myself do a bit of cleaning and tidying every day, I thought, would help stabilize my routine and build discipline. I got out an old notepad and made up a chore schedule. I devised a way to reward myself for completing all my chores for the day. At first, I stuck with it for a few days at a time before falling into old habits for a week or so. But every time I backslid, there was my system waiting to be seamlessly picked up again when I was ready. It took a long time to build the habit, but with forgiveness and persistence, I eventually built a solid habit that I continue to this day!

From there, I began adding new things and working on new habits, bit by bit. I learned about I started planning my meals, budgeting my money, exercising, organizing my hobbies and work schedules. I’m still working on a lot, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come!

I’m hoping this blog will be a place where I can share my successes and document my progress. It’s my hope that I can pass on what I’ve learned to anyone who finds themselves in the same situation as I was three years ago.

In this blog, I’m planning to post:
-Pictures of my planner.
-Rundowns on how I organize my life.
-Stories from my journey.
-My thoughts about various aspects of planning.
-My favourite planning supplies.

If you’re new to planning and need some ideas, if you’re a bullet journal addict, or if a part of my story resonates with you, stick around for more! I can’t wait to journal with you!