I didn’t set any resolutions this year, but I did decide I wanted to keep a daily log book. I got the idea from Austin Kleon and even bought the Moleskine daily planner that he uses.

Sometimes I find it hard to fill the pages with things that aren’t the mundane tasks that I perform most days…I ate, I watched tv, I went to work, I slept…so I find myself filling it with things to do like: “Buy John Prine’s new album on April 13th” or “Listen to Pedro the Lion.”

I also log what I’m reading or music I listened to that day. Also movies I watched. And I write down quotes or ideas that I overhear or come up with, like this one from today that I heard on CBS Morning: Trees can’t lie. 

On one page I wrote down “What now, universe?” That’s a quote I heard on Netflix’s Grace and Frankie. On another I wrote, “I wish I’d written more love letters.” Also inspired from when we were watching the latest season of Grace and Frankie. Being a comedian, I log joke ideas and shows that I am on.

I will admit there’s been a day or two where nothing happened other than those mundane tasks so I left the page blank or drew an X on it or a frowny face. This brings me to what this post is about.

At the beginning of the log book there are several blank pages, pages with other information like a list of time zones or holidays, full calendars of each month, a map of the world, etc.  I started doodling on these pages. Mostly trees (some of the doodles are pictured above) but I’ve also started drawing profiles of faces.

I forgot how much I enjoyed doing this back in high school. I had a sketch book at home that I loved to doodle in because one of my best friends was a very good artist. I guess in a way I wanted to mimic (or copy, see below) him. Nothing ever came of it and I certainly wouldn’t call myself an “artist” of that sort today, but doodling is good therapy.

There are nights when I don’t want to read and I don’t want to surf the web or Facebook on my tablet, but I feel the need to do something. So I doodle. Last week Austin blogged about how copying is how we learn.  And that’s very true. A few nights ago I started attempting to draw the image of Sally Bowles from the cover of the Isherwood novel I’m currently reading.

It’s creative in a sense and it helps put my mind at ease. The feeling we have as kids with a new box of markers or crayons and some blank sheets of paper never goes away, so it’s fun to embrace that again.