Discover the Joy of Nature Journalling: A Step-by-Step Approach to Get Started

If you’ve tried journalling before and haven’t found much success with it, or if you’ve long since wanted to begin journalling, but aren’t sure what’s an accessible entry point to start with, look no further than the humble nature journal.

Nature journals are a great way to step away from the digital world, get outdoors, connect (or rather, reconnect) with the natural world, and record your observations through illustrations and text. You can also simply meditate on the events of the natural world in a method that is looser than the classical journal, and implements visual and shorthand techniques to engage you in ways most diaries and planners can’t.

diary bullet journal planner

In order to start nature journalling, all you need is two things: a writing implement, say a pen or a pencil, and a small journal that you can easily take with you on the go. Moleskins are a popular journal to use, but usually journals of all kinds come in part from the use of bullet points in the daily logs, and the popularity of using dot journals as opposed to the more standard lined-paper diaries.

Once you have your journal and your writing implement of choice, it is time to begin.

People who nature journal find it very engaging to add visuals to their journals, such as illustrations or designs to add flavour and life to their daily logs. If that appeals to you, but you do not have much practice drawing, you might want to get a small sheet of stickers, and pepper them throughout the journal.

What is a bullet journal

1. The Index

To begin with the index, you’ll want to have a few pages at the very start of the journal for this section.

Tantamount to the ethos of the nature journal is the simple presentation of ideas and notes, often by using shorthand that makes sense to the journaller, and this is exactly what the index is for. The index is where you’d like to put short, clear explanations of the shorthand you use throughout the journal.

While this might seem redundant for some shorthand, being that you are choosing that which makes the most sense to you, it helps maintain a sense of consistency for the entire nature journal, making it more useful as a tool for reflecting on past thoughts and ideas. You do not need to have the entire index completed at once – simply leave yourself enough room to add shorthand and symbols as you begin using them in your daily additions to the journal.

2 & 3. Logging & Logs

The second and third portions of your nature work hand-in-hand, those being rapid logging and logs.

Despite the similar names, they describe similar, but different functions: rapid logs are visual illustrations, and any other form of relaying details clearly and efficiently; logs, on the other hand, are lists and paradigms relayed on different time scales.

It is this division of tasks that make nature journals so appealing to creators, because they make abstract, sometimes overwhelming projects with multiple moving parts much easier to keep up with. 

How to draw a butterfly butterflies nature journal


4. Collections

The largest part of the bullet journal is the fourth section, the collections.

Collections are the part where nature journalling comes closest to traditional journalling, with most journallers including daily entries about their progress.

The most common method of creating a collection page is to first title the page with the relevant topic – for example “Bird Spotting” or “Which Plant Type?” – with the page itself being full of looser, more freeform presentation of thoughts and information.

This is the place to include observations, changes in the progression, new ideas, or any other thoughts you might have throughout the process, anything that is relevant to the topic at hand.

The free associative writing style of these collections have lead many to describe the nature journalling process as meditative, helping you clear your mind and connecting with the natural world.

Now that you have all of the basic portions of the nature journal, what’s left is to make it your own! While some nature journals are tools for observations and that alone, many choose to have them be more representative of their interests and other reflections.

Shopping for blank journals with covers that interest you is a good place to start, whether that means finding your favourite colour, or one that has quotes or images that speak to you.

Similarly, choosing how to design beyond the basic building blocks is also a chance to bring your creativity to the table – selecting pens and coloured pencils that can create a more visually interesting journal, creating your own shorthand that makes sense to you on an individual scale, and maybe even adding scrapbooking elements to build up the visual feast of the nature journal.

All in all, these are only general guidelines and you don’t have to follow them to the tee; there are no wrong steps in journalling, except for never starting!