Who else has a collection of beautiful notebooks that they take out and sigh over every now and again? Are you too worried about ‘ruining’ the first page and therefore the entire book?

I have a couple of tips…

1. Wreck the first page… gently if you like. Just a hastily scribbled note, a big old sticker, a drawing, maybe even splatter ink on it or cover it in stamps or collage made from wrapping paper. Getting a bit creatively crazy takes away that pressure of perfection.

2. Create off the page. I often do this, I create ephemera from envelopes, stamped images, fabrics etc, little journal pages in themselves that don’t touch the inner pages of notebooks until they are ready… this gives you control and the ability to start again if you feel you must.

Remember that nobody even sees that first page, even if you share your journaling online… who’s to say that your third, fourth, twenty-seventh page can’t be the first one you show?

Use the notebook.