Self care booklet: a 4-week fold and staple journal plus a 7-day mini

Self care booklet that you print, fold and staple at home, with two undated books in one file: a 4-week journal of 28 booklet pages and a 7-day mini of 8 booklet pages. Both are laid out in saddle stitch order on landscape sheets, so you print on both sides, fold the pile and staple. The 21 page PDF comes in US Letter, giving Half Letter pages (5.5 x 8.5 in), and A4, giving A5 pages (148 x 210 mm).

Download it right away. There is nothing to cut and nothing is posted to you.

How the self care booklet keeps you feeling cared for

A daily check-in needs only a couple of minutes. Score your energy, put a name to your mood, mark what you need today, choose one kind thing to do for yourself and answer a soft prompt, with two days sharing each page. When you feel too tired to think, a two page menu of 18 ideas across six areas offers choices, and every weekly plan turns those ideas into one small act of care per day.

Habit dots, a short review at the end of each week and a plan for when you are running low help you spot what fills you up and what wears you down before you hit empty. Being small, thin and undated, the book travels in a purse or bag, and you can print a fresh copy to begin again in any week.

Who this little self care journal is for

• Anyone who wants a self care journal small enough for a purse rather than a heavy binder
• Full weeks when you can spare only a few minutes a day to check in with yourself
• People who enjoy crafting their own paper booklets with a printer and a stapler
• Anyone who would like to test a self care routine for a single week first, using the 7-day mini

Booklet sizes, design and printing

• Elegant, minimal look: white pages with soft blush pink details that use little ink
• Generous margins, so a home printer will not trim anything
• From the US Letter file, each sideways sheet carries two Half Letter pages per side. From the A4 file, each sideways sheet carries two A5 pages per side. The order is ready for folding, so no cutting is needed
• Undated, so you can begin on any day of any year
• Pink fold guides on each sheet, numbered inside pages and staple guides on the middle spread
• 28 different gentle prompts in the 4-week booklet and 7 more in the mini
• To assemble, print one booklet as a single two sided job set to flip on the short edge, keep the sheets in order, fold on the pink guides and staple twice on the fold

Inside the self care booklet: 21 pages

1. 1Cover with the contents and a short summary of what the 4-week booklet holds
2. 2Printing help: a table listing both booklets with their PDF pages and sheet counts, how the sheets fit together, two sided settings, a test sheet tip, manual duplex steps and a box for your own printer settings
3. 3Imposition and duplex guide: a diagram of both sides of all 7 sheets of the 4-week booklet, the page order for the mini, five steps (print, stack, fold, staple, check), help with stapling when you have no long arm stapler and with heavier paper, and a checklist to run through before printing
4. 4 to 17The 4-week booklet, 28 pages on 7 sheets. A cover with lines for your start date and name. A start here page explaining how it works, what self care looks like for you, the signs you are running low and 28 numbered circles for daily check-ins. A two page self care menu with boxes for body, rest, mind, connect, joy and space, each holding three printed ideas and two empty lines. Habit dots for eight habits across 28 days, split into two grids of 14 days. Four weekly plan pages covering what you need more and less of, a Monday to Sunday care plan with done circles, one thing to decline, something to look forward to and your go-to if the week turns hard. Twenty eight daily check-ins, two per page, each with a date, energy from 1 to 5, mood, an I need row (rest, movement, quiet, people, nourish, outside), one kind act for yourself, a gentle prompt with three lines and how you feel tonight. A look back after every seventh day: what helped most, what drained you, how cared for you felt from 1 to 5 and what to keep and change next week. A little joys list with 40 numbered lines. A running low plan with what you notice, eight soothing things, four people to contact, words you need to hear and tasks you can drop. A notes back page
5. 18 to 21The 7-day mini booklet, 8 pages on 2 sheets: a cover, a quick care menu (five minutes, fifteen minutes, an hour or more), a week plan with habit dots for five habits, seven daily check-ins each with its own prompt, a look back at the week, and a back page for little joys and notes

What you download

• Folded Self Care Journal Booklet, US Letter PDF (21 pages)
• Folded Self Care Journal Booklet, A4 PDF (21 pages)
• Read Me First, a brief printing guide (PDF)

How to download and print

• Check out with PayPal, a debit or credit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Your download page opens as soon as the payment goes through.
• We email the same private download links to you, so you can download your files again later.
• Open the PDF in a free reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader and print at 100% or Actual size.
• Print only the pages you need, as often as you like, for your own personal use.

Good to know

• You receive a PDF for two sided printing and folding into booklets. It has no hyperlinks, so it is not a digital journal, and paper, a cover or a stapler are not included.
• This is a digital file only. Nothing physical is shipped.
• Printed colors may differ slightly from your screen.
• Personal use only. Please do not share, resell or pass along the files.
• Digital files cannot be returned. If a file will not open or print correctly, email us and we will help right away.
• Think of this journal as a tool for self care and reflection. It cannot diagnose or treat anything, it is not therapy and it does not replace help from a qualified professional.
• If you are having a hard time, please reach out to someone you trust or to a professional.
• Back side alignment differs between printers, so test one sheet on ordinary paper before printing a full booklet.

How this was made

Designed and written by PetiteDiary. AI tools helped draft parts of the text, and some background scenes in the preview images were created with AI. Every page was designed, reviewed and checked before release.

Questions about the self care booklet

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