Loose pages
Why printable journal pages beat a blank notebook for some people
Printable journal pages are loose sheets, each with a structure printed on it, that you fill in and collect into a journal of your own. A blank notebook asks you what to write every time you open it. A printed page has already asked: here is today’s date, here is a question, here are five lines. For anyone who has bought a beautiful notebook and left it empty, that is the whole appeal.
Loose pages also forgive. A bad week in a bound journal leaves seven blank pages staring at you; with printables you simply print the next day. You can mix page types to suit the season, a gratitude page in a hard month, a reading log in a long holiday, and nothing is wasted on pages you never use.
The free pages ranking for this search show the range. One site, lifeismessyandbrilliant, offers more than 35 free bullet journal printables, from trackers to monthly calendars. Another, solightlylivingjournals, offers guided journals that run for 20 or 21 days alongside prompt sets, in Letter and A5. Beneath the styles, the useful pages fall into six types.
Page types
Six printable journal pages, and what each one is for
You do not need all six. Most people keep two or three, and the right pair depends on whether you journal to reflect, to remember or to get through the day.
| Page | Suits | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Daily page | Most journalers | Every day |
| Prompt page | Anyone stuck on what to write | When you want |
| One line a day | Busy people, memory keepers | Every day, one minute |
| Monthly review | Reflecting and planning | Month end |
| Lists | Books, films, ideas, wishes | As you go |
| Letters and memories | Keepsakes, future self | Now and then |
The daily page has a date, a few lines for what happened, and often a small mood or gratitude box. It is the backbone of most journals. Prompt pages print a question at the top, such as what surprised you this week or what you would tell yourself a year ago, and are the fastest way past a blank page. One line a day gives each date a single line, so a whole month fits on one sheet and a year of pages reads back like a diary written in shorthand.
The monthly review is a page for the last day of the month: what went well, what did not, what to carry forward. Lists are the pages people keep longest, books read, places to go, things people said. Letters and memories are for the pages you mean to reread, a letter to your later self or a memory you want to keep in your own handwriting.
Habit
How to keep a printable journal going
When a journal stalls, it is rarely for lack of pages. Four small rules keep it going.
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1
Start with the smallest page
One line a day takes a minute. Once that holds for a few weeks, add a fuller daily page if you want one.
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2
Keep the pages where you end the day
On the bedside table with a pen clipped to the binder. A journal in a drawer is a journal you forget.
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3
Skip days without catching up
A missed day is a blank line, not a debt. Write today’s page and carry on.
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4
Reread at the end of each month
The monthly review is where a journal pays you back. Ten minutes rereading the month makes the next one easier to start.
A missed day is a blank line, not a debt.
If the journal you want to keep is about books, our guide to the reading journal covers the pages that suit it. And if daily habits are what you are tracking, a habit tracker printable does that job on one sheet a month and keeps the journal free for writing.
Printing
Printing and binding a journal from loose pages
Decide on the cover before you print, because the cover decides the size. A ring binder takes US Letter, 8.5 by 11 inches, or A4, 210 by 297 mm, in most of the world. A smaller planner binder or a discbound notebook usually takes A5, 148 by 210 mm, which is half of A4 and the size most journals are sold in. Use a file drawn for that size and print at 100 percent; a Letter page shrunk to A5 leaves lines too tight to write on.
Leave room at the binding edge. A page printed edge to edge loses its first words to the holes or the spiral, so choose files with a wider inner margin, or leave the first line of each row blank.
Ours
The free journal pages set
The free printable journal pages set is on our printables shelf now: twenty undated pages in one PDF. A daily page with a mood scale and three things you are grateful for, twelve writing prompt pages with one prompt each, a one line a day month, a monthly review with what went well, what did not, what to carry forward and one word for the month, list pages for books, places and things people said, a letter to your future self with the date to open it, and a memory page. The pages are each drawn separately for US Letter, A4 and A5 rather than scaled from one master, in the Editorial, Hours or Dot-Journal style, with no signup.
If you journal on an e-ink tablet instead of paper, those page types already exist together in The Journal: a page for every day of the year, a mood month, one line a day, a month review, memories, things people said, dreams, letters to your later self and running lists, for reMarkable, Kindle Scribe and Boox. Our guide to the digital journal template shows how it is laid out. Every page built for paper will collect under printables.
Which journal page have you kept the longest? Tell us in the comments.
FAQ
Common questions, answered briefly
What are printable journal pages?
What pages should be in a journal?
What size should printable journal pages be?
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What if I miss days in my journal?
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