Personally, I get nice cheap hardcover notebooks from Staples. I buy them a few at a time and they are such a simple, high demand item that I doubt they will stop making them any time soon. This makes my growing stack of past journals consistent. The simple, elegant design reminds me of how important the act of journaling is. And the hard cover protects my pages when travelling. I start each entry with the date and time to make them easier to navigate.

I also have cheaper semi-soft cover notebooks for brainstorming and writing during the day. I treat these a little more loosely, which gives me the freedom to do things like doodle in the margins and write random bullshit. There’s a consistency to my journal entry format that I hate to break or bend too much. I use these for anything I feel doesn’t belong in the journal.