One of the benefits of journaling year over year, is that I can see what pages I added which I had not planned for at the beginning of the year. This year I began tracking volunteer time in my journal (instead of a daily calendar), and seeing trends over time.

Of course, in 2025, I also underestimated how much room I’d need so my pages skipped around. When I started planning 2026, I made enough space for monthly hours tracking and a page to tally it all up.

Here’s how 2026 looks:

The next page is the recap page:

And a look back at 2025:

Volunteer hours are one thing I track just for my personal interest and to see trends over time. I might look back on June and see there were fewer hours due to an out of town vacation, or that October had many more hours due to an all day tournament.

You may want to track your own time volunteering at children’s schools, babysitting for friends, working at the church, making snacks for a game, working as a referee, or raising money for a charity. If you’re a caregiver, this is easily adaptable to track the time you spend taking care of someone, including time spent on paperwork, errands or medical care.