Oops, I keep forgetting my best ideas

I am committing to journaling to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s insights.

In my native language, German, there is this wonderful phrase: “der innere Schweinehund”. The inner pig dog, if you translate it literally. This bizarre creature is the inner voice that keeps you on the couch instead of doing what’s better for you.

For example, when you should be working out for your health or cook a meal with the already limp veggies in the fridge instead of ordering takeout. If you succumbed to it, you stay on the couch, cuddled up together with your inner pig dog under a cozy blanket, waiting for the Lieferando app to notify you that your pizza is on its way.

In that moment your inner pig dog was stronger than you; but deep down you know that it would have been better to overcome it and do the thing that’s uncomfortable but reasonable.

My inner pig dog shows up whenever I think about journaling.

I know it’s good for me, like those veggies.

I know I will feel better after it, like after swimming some laps at the pool.

But it’s still not easy for me to do it; and I sometimes fall for excuses like “I will do it later” or “I will journal a bit in bed before sleeping”. (As if that ever happened! Doomscolling before bedtime it is, baby!)

There are two things that I love about journaling: (*if* I bring myself to do it!)

(a) the short-term effect of feeling some relief after dumping things on paper, and often a burst of clarity for the next steps.

(b) the long-term effect of having somewhat of an archive of my thoughts, ideas, worries, moments of inspiration and maybe also some delulu stuff that makes me chuckle when I read it back.

It’s not that I don’t write stuff down. I stopped using regular paper planners some years ago and create Business Bullet Journals instead; and I also have notebooks for specific projects. However, if you look into my Business BuJo, it’s usually full of the day to day stuff.

I can grab an old BuJo from my stack and see which tasks I had a year ago or at what time my workshop started.

But what about the thoughts from that day? Any learnings from that workshop? How did I feel about that task? Why do I let that pass? Isn’t that the most important stuff?

I once heard a podcast interview about a founder who had built a creative studio from scratch. She said that during that process she always had a notebook with her. In that notebook she could jot down any ideas for the future studio, any problems causing her headaches, any questions she was still pondering about – because at a later stage she would need it. She would run into the same problem and would be able to look up how she solved it last time. She would finally have time to create the offers in her studio once the building phase was done, and all the ideas that shot through her head while doing the tilework came in handy again.

That’s what I want from my journal.

Because I absolutely have been there: *knowing* that I had a good idea; and then I forgot it. Feeling frustrated with something, and wanting to preserve that anger to give me motivation to make changes. Jotting down blissful moments of lovely feedback or feeling proud of myself so I can bonk Mister Impostor on the head with it when he shows up next time.

I know there’s this saying that “Today’s Problems Come From Yesterday’s Solutions” – but I still think that yesterday’s insights can be useful to solve today’s problems.

I want to be my own advisor, and I want to listen to myself better.

But to do that I need to

1. make time and space for it;

2. find a mode and

3. actually write it down or record it.

I already talked about journaling as a way of recording; let me say something about the mode.

Sometimes it’s good to just braindump what floats through your head, but sometimes it’s good so have some kind of structure, some kind of orientation, something to bounce off of.

For me, those are (a) astrology, (b) tarot and (c) inner motives. I am sure that I will find a good opportunity to talk about each of those and what they mean to me another day.

For now, they bring me to the explanation for this publication’s name: structure & space.

It was inspired by an astrology newsletter by Daniela @thecosmiclatte, sent for the Aquarius Full Moon on August 9, 2025. In it, Daniela wrote:

“Right now, you function best when you have space. If you’re too focused on the small stuff, the bigger picture slips away.

(...) Like the air element of Aquarius, you don’t thrive in stillness or feeling boxed in. (...) There’s a sense of being called to show up, do the work, or make a move without having all the answers. Often, the answers we seek don’t come from pushing harder but from stepping back and allowing space for insight to emerge. (...)

Just as much as you need space, you also need structure: some framework, rhythm, or clear boundaries. This is the nature of Saturn’s ancient rulership over Aquarius.”

(I’m a quadruple Aquarius by the way, so that resonated!)

When I read that newsletter, I was sunbathing at the local pool, having beaten the inner pig dog twice already: Went swimming! Did some full moon journaling!

I scribbled onto the paper: space and structure. structure and space. That has a ring to it.

And it reflects how I work and think.

• I love to create structures with/for clients (like frameworks, very systematized editorial calenders and seminar plans), but I like to create from blank space instead of a blueprint.

• I love to braindump onto a blank page; but I also like journaling prompts and questions that provide orientation. (Creativity comes from constraints, yadda yadda)

• I love the structures and archetypes that astrology and tarot provide; but in the end you gotta make your own thing out of it.

structure & space.

The balance of space (making space, taking up space, thinking big, braindumping everything on a blank slate) and structure (putting goals and tasks into systems, journaling from prompts or tarot pulls, organizing concepts into frameworks; ... ) fascinates me – that’s why I chose this name.

The self-discovery, self-reflection and self-knowledge that comes from journaling is so valuable to me. It brings clarity; and clarity is magic. It keeps me moving forward with my work, my passion projects and my personal stuff.

I know journaling good for me, so I want to find ways to make it easier and actually *do it*.

I want to make sure that all of my ideas (some genius, some mediocre at best) have a safe space and don’t get lost between brain rot Tiktoks, the day to day stress & dusty post-it-notes behind my desk.

In my work, I am often enough in the role of a teacher. Here; I am not. Don’t expect guides and how-tos here. (If I slip into that mode, feel free to give me a slap on the wrist.)

Here, I want to hold myself accountable to fight the inner pig dog, to go grab a pen and sit down with it, and then to take appropriate action. I want to inspire others to give journaling a try, too. I might want to give some insights into my tarot & astrology learning journey; and I might want to show or review some journals and notebooks here for my fellow stationary lovers. For now, this concept of structure & space resolves around journaling, but I am open to see where it leads me.

Last, very selfish reason: I just want to challenge myself to write more, to write from scratch without AI and to write in English instead of German. Another inner pig dog thing, but another opportunity to grow out of the comfort zone.

Thanks for reading.

Bye for now, Kato

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