- [Michelle] Hey, what's up.
I am Michelle B and this video is all about
how I'm filling my notebooks,
to give you some ideas about how to fill your own.
The feeling of cracking open a new notebook
is similar to that feeling that you get
when it tics over to the new year.
It feels like a literal, fresh start in life.
Blank pages can give you inspiration that you really
cannot get anywhere else.
If you're a Harry Potter fan, I've always felt like I could
relate to Hermione Granger when she smelled the love potion
and it smelt like freshly mowed grass and new parchment.
I feel like new notebooks, with a touch of aged books,
would definitely be what I smelled.
Along with salty caramel.
I've recently given my notebooks a complete refresh
as part of a reset for the new year.
They're all now beautiful, they're matchy, and they're fresh
on my desk and my heart is so happy.
So I wanted to share with you all what I'm using
my notebooks for, to inspire you for how you might want to
fill your own notebooks.
I want to thank the beautiful Skill Share
for sponsoring this video.
Skill Share is an amazing online learning community
for anyone looking to up their quality
of their life through learning.
So you guys might know that I used to do monthly goal
reviews with my dad, who is a beautiful, supportive soul,
to review how my goals are tracking, see what I'd done
and what still needed to be done.
My dad's a very supportive dude.
Since he has now moved an hour or so away,
to a place where they have kangaroos in their backyard
and bush dances are a normal part of everyday life,
my sister, another beautiful supportive human in my life,
has started doing weekly sit downs with me
to chat about our goals.
Which, of course, involves a goal tracking notebook.
So we sit down, we chat about how our goals went last week,
what we need to tweak to make things work this week
and what we're going to be doing for our goals
then we write it all down in our notebooks.
The next thing I use my notebooks for
is having a daily closeout journal.
So if you've been following me for a while,
you know that every night, I like to close out my days
by writing down three or more things
that I'm proud of myself for doing in the day.
So that could be anything.
It could smiling at a human being in an elevator,
it could be bringing my lunch in
rather than buying it for work.
Then I write down three or more things
that I'm grateful for during the day
and three to-dos for the next day.
It really closes out the day for me and it sets me up
for success the next day as well.
I use this teeny little notebook from K-mart to do that.
But to be honest, I get a little bit lazy with this
and if I don't have my notebook nearby,
I'll just write it in my phone notes or type it in my iPad.
The next notebook is all about channel growth.
So I'm really dedicated to growing my YouTube channel,
reaching more people.
So naturally, I have a notebook for that.
I'm trying to dig a little deeper into story telling,
so in my notebook are some of the notes from the Skill Share
story telling course that I mentioned in my how to reset
your life video, linked in a card and down below.
My notes are on a course called story telling for leaders,
which really should be called story telling for anyone that
creates any kind of content.
This course is taught by a legit expert.
His name is Keith Yamashita and he has worked with brands
like Apple, eBay, Nike,
to teach you how to tell a better story.
Skill Share has courses with some pretty legit people,
people like Gary Vaynerchuk, Adam Jacobs,
Simon Sinek, Mary Andrews.
People that you know, which is always awesome.
Skill Share has more than 17,000 classes in things
like using Photoshop, how to do water color,
hand lettering, how to take a better photo,
how to create a better presentation and more.
If you get a premium subscription, you can access some
really high quality classes and you pay less than $10
a month for courses that, let's be honest,
can be worth a lot more than that.
These are courses that help you to improve your skills,
unlock new opportunities and do the work that you love.
The first 500 people to use the link in the description
will get their first two months for free,
if you want to give it a go and see how you like it.
My next notebook is my art for self care notebook.
This notebook probably has the least
clear purpose in the bunch.
I use it to scribble out thoughts, quotes, collages.
I kind of added this little label to give it more direction,
because I was like what is this notebook for?
Some people may think that this is sacrilege,
but I love taking old books and collaging
from the pictures in those old books.
I find it really therapeutic to do.
So the fun is to fill this book with collages
with no real purpose, just for fun, just for me.
Next up, I have a book notes book.
I love to read, since I was little.
My parents would find me hiding in closets of a morning
before school, reading my book, not ready at all.
And that love has definitely leaked into my adult life,
although I probably read more non-fiction
than I do fiction these days.
Since I discovered the Libby app, that I talked about
in my Things That Have Improved My Life video,
I'll have that linked,
I've been reading more than ever.
I also like to read with intentions, so to make sure that
I'm getting something out of the books that I'm reading
that I'm taking action steps
from whatever I'm reading, if possible.
Hence a book on my book notes.
So usually I'll have my iPad in one hand and then my book
notes book in the other and I'm writing as I read.
I try to just summarize key learnings,
any key sentences that really stand out
to me or make me think.
I chuck that all in my book notes book.
You guys know that I love to mind map.
I find it a really easy way to just get my thoughts out.
Then I create mind maps to spark new video ideas,
if I've got a new project, I'll mind map that out.
I'll create a mind map for individual videos
before I do them so I can get all my thoughts on paper.
I actually mind map in lined notebooks with black pen
and just scribble everywhere, all the time.
I don't get to precious about it,
but if I'm getting really intentional
and setting aside some time to do a big mind map,
often I need more space then a A4 notebook,
so I have a big old notebook just for mind mapping.
And the last notebook is a journal prompt notebook.
So this is actually a new notebook for me.
I've talked a little bit about how I feel
when it comes to free flowing journaling before.
It's one of those things that I find
not that helpful for me personally.
I just need direction when I journal so I want
to start journaling more about the tough questions like what
are the values I live by or what am I doing to make myself
available to new opportunities?
What do I like and dislike about my life?
That's where I find that journaling can be really helpful.
I think, for me, I need that direction
because otherwise I write aimlessly and it just ends up
going in a direction that isn't helpful for anyone.
If you liked this video, you might like my video
on six lists to write to organize your life.
Especially if you want to create a notebook full of lists,
which I have on my computer at the moment.
But you could definitely have in a notebook.
I'll have it linked on the screen and down below.
Don't forget to check out the Skill Share link below.
If you're interested, the first 500 people
will get their first two months for free.
Subscribe to my channel for more videos on living life
intentionally and I will see you next week.