Transform Your Creative Practice into Your Life Story
Capture the magic in your everyday moments with ease.
Hi friends,
Everyday life is where the real magic happens.
We’re so used to documenting and celebrating the big moments. Whether it’s birthdays, holidays, vacations, or other moments, the *special* stuff gets outsized attention. But who we are on our birthday, or what we do on vacation is just a tiny slice of who we are, and certainly not the rich tapestry of what our everyday lives look like.
The quiet moments, the simple routines, the seemingly ordinary bits of our lives? That's where our true stories live.
When you create a habit around documenting those moments—through writing, art, photos, or however you decide to document your life—you're building a living record of who you are, right now, and what matters to you. And that is powerful.
Today, we're diving into how your notebook + creative practice can be the easy way to document those little moments of everyday life that are so often overlooked.
Here’s what we’ll cover in this email:
How to make your creative practice work for capturing everyday stories.
Simple tips for finding meaning in your day-to-day moments.
Why these small pieces of life are worth documenting.
Here’s the thing: your everyday life deserves to be celebrated.
We often think our stories aren't important enough, especially if they're not big or flashy. But think about it—the days that make up our lives are mostly composed of small events. These are the moments that make us who we are. The little things that we like, the little things that we don’t like—it all adds up to create us.
Moments that might seem mundane up front are actually full of meaning when you look closer. A your favorite drink, a quick walk, your favorite couch pillow, the birds chirping outside, the food you pick up at the grocery store—they all provide the context for our life story. Appreciating the little things that are happening all around us, makes our life story richer and shows off such a deeper version of who you are.
By building your practice around capturing these moments, you're celebrating your existence, honoring your experiences, and giving your future self a gift to look back on. It’s so important to just stand up and say “I Exist.”
3 Tips to Document Everyday Life (Even If You Feel Uninspired)
1: Look for the Small Beauties
Start by noticing the small things—the kind of details you might normally rush past. It could be the way sunlight hits your desk in the morning, the first sip of your fav drink, the book on your bedside table, or an inside joke you’re texting with your besties. These little bits of life, though brief, hold so much power. Documenting these small beauties brings them to life again, allowing you to fully appreciate them (and more of your life).
One of my favorite little things to document is the media that I’m currently consuming. If you’ve been paying attention over the last few weeks, I’m deep into the dragons for girls1 books. I’ve made a bunch of different pages, or included little bits on my pages about things I love or (like the page above) just a little name recognition.
Something I noticed after building up my creative practice—there are so many pages. If I want something to really stand out, one of the best ways to do it is through repetition. Because if I’m flipping back through my notebooks, a single mention of something or a single page about something, isn’t going to really stand out. So if something is a big part of my life, it’s going to show up more often in my notebooks.
2: Create Rituals for Reflection
To capture the full view of your everyday life, consistency helps. Develop a ritual around your creative practice. Maybe it’s writing a quick reflection at night before bed, taking five minutes in the morning to jot down one thing from the day before, or even joining us for my Daily Pages livestream. Rituals help us stay connected to our habits, and they create an environment where reflection and creativity can naturally happen.
Rituals don’t need to be rigid. My most grounding ritual is filling out a Currently List each Monday. It helps me get back into the swing of things after the weekend, and it gives me something to build my page off of.
In addition to being a great building block, it’s also a great way to document the tiny little things that you might not otherwise have a place to jot down.
But filling out the list is where the rules of my ritual end. I don’t need to dictate exactly how to make the page each week. I get to take the prompt (use the journaling card 90% of the time) and then figure out what else I want to do for the day. Sometimes it’s as simple as a single sticker on the opposite page and sometimes I’m feeling super creative right off the bat and decide to really play outside of the box.
3: Embrace the Unfinished
Life is never neatly packaged, and your creative practice doesn't have to be either. Embrace the unfinished, the in-between moments, the scribbles and doodles that aren’t polished. They’re part of the story too. Sometimes, documenting everyday life means celebrating its messiness—capturing things as they are, not as we think they should be. Give yourself permission to be real, to be raw, and to let go of the need for perfection.
I love putting little IRL stickers in my notebook. I make a bunch of these simple pages in my Your Story Matters journals these days, since these days, with my Daily Pages habit, my pages are a little more in depth. But with my YSM notebooks, I can just put down really simple little bits that don’t need anything more in depth than a sticker and a note.
Your creative practice works best when it works for your life. If that’s everyday, awesome. If that’s on the weekends, awesome. If that’s whenever you can make the time to get to your desk—that’s life. Understand this season of life’s limitations and accept the ways in which you can be successful with your creative practice.
Sneak peek at a new way I’ve been documenting my everyday:
I love documenting my everyday stories in my Daily Pages notebooks. But like any project, it has it’s limits. I make one page a day, so sometimes, it’s not the easiest place to document all the tiny little things that I think about throughout the day.
So, over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about keeping a daily diary/junk journal/notebook. Somewhere that I could just put in random thoughts throughout the day. After a few days, I realized that a lot of what I wanted to document (or comment on) was digital. It was a whole bunch of screenshots, photos on my phone, or the digital art I’ve been making on the iPad.
To keep things simple and fit into what works for me—I decided to go with a digital junk journal. I’ve been playing around in it for the last week or so, and I’m really enjoying this way of documenting all the little things. I’ll share more how this project is going in a few weeks.
What’s your favorite way to document your everyday life?
Weekly Resource List:
The Basic Guide to Daily Pages (7-minute read): Everything you need to get started with Daily Pages.
The Best Notebooks for Daily Pages (3-minute read): Use this guide to decide which notebook you should choose next.
Five Minute Pages The Art of Quick Captures (5-minute read): Tips for creating a habit when you don’t have a lot of time but want to stay consistent.
Document the Little Stuff When the Big Picture Gets Overwhelming (4-minute read): A note I wrote about 10 years ago, about documenting during tough times.
Sponsored by: ALP Book of Me
Save the Date: March 8th – International Day of the Woman!
Join us for Book of Me, a transformative creative experience that helps you document your story in a meaningful and artistic way. We’ll have guided lessons inspired by iconic female artists, you'll create a personalized album that celebrates your life, memories, and unique voice.
The live kickoff event on March 8, 2025, will feature hands-on workshops, interactive discussions, and exclusive digital + printable resources to help you get started. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with a supportive community and take your storytelling to the next level.
Mark your calendar and stay tuned for more details!
Here’s what we covered today:
Everyday moments are the foundation of your story—don’t overlook them.
Small rituals can make your creative habit consistent and meaningful.
Perfection isn’t required—embrace the unfinished.
The key takeaway? Your life, exactly as it is, is worth documenting. When you capture your everyday moments, you give them a chance to grow in meaning over time. They become part of a larger story—your story—one that only you can tell.
Action step: This week, find one small moment each day that makes you pause and smile. Capture it, however you choose. By the end of the week, you’ll have a collection of these moments—small beauties that are uniquely yours.
Talk to you next week!
xoxo,
Kristin
P.S. If you’re enjoying these newsletters, please consider sharing this edition with a friend who might need a little creative boost today.
And whenever you are ready, there are 3 ways I can help you build your creative habit:
Upgrade your Substack subscription and join me Monday-Friday at Noon ET for my Daily Pages creative time (bring any project you’re working on). And—join us on the first Saturday of the month. for our live masterclasses, a new topic each month on building and sustaining your creative habit. See the full archive here.
Check out the free Awesome Ladies Project community + app and join us for weekly challenges, free stickers, and amazing friendships!
This is in no way derogatory. I’m so thrilled that people are finally creating stories like this.
I've been looking through old albums lately, and I've come to realize that the things that take me right back to the time I made this spreads are: photos of whatever meals I was hyperfocusing on at the time, what tv show we were bingeing, and what music I was listening to. Those things seem like such unimportant things to document on the surface, but I will forever be adding food photos and ✨life soundtracks✨ to my albums.