Keri Smith2007a journal you are meant to ruin
Ruin the first page on purpose. After that, nothing you make can spoil it, so you finally start making things.
HourLife prompt Nº 00
Make a mark you can't take back.
The core idea
Keri Smith is an illustrator and author whose books ask readers to make things rather than only read them. Wreck This Journal is a journal in which nearly every page gives an instruction to mess the book up: scribble on it, tear it, get it dirty, take it outside. The idea is that perfectionism and the fear of spoiling a clean page stop many people from making anything at all. By asking for damage, the book takes away the chance of doing it wrong, and the reader finds that accidents and process are often where the interesting work starts. There are no case studies or chapters to read; the reader's own wrecked pages become the content. An expanded edition with new pages followed, and Smith went on to write related books such as How to Be an Explorer of the World and Mess.
The trick is a flipped instruction. A new notebook quietly asks you to be careful. Smith's pages ask for the opposite, so the fear of spoiling something has nothing left to hold on to. Each instruction is small and a little absurd, takes a few minutes, and asks for no talent at all.
It is not a book about becoming an artist. It is about the habit underneath making anything: starting before you feel ready, keeping what went wrong, and treating the process as the point. HourLife's page below works the same way, with prompts we wrote ourselves.
Idea one
Being told to ruin the page removes the chance of doing it wrong. There is no standard left to miss, so you begin.
Idea two
The minutes spent making count, whatever comes out. The page is a record of doing, not a finished piece.
Idea three
Spills, smudges and tears are material. What you did not plan is often the most interesting thing on the page.
Interactive · wreck this page
A blank page, a random prompt and four tools that are hard to be neat with. Follow the prompt for five minutes, then download the page or clear it and deal another. There is no good result, only a finished one.
Draw the room you are in without lifting your pen.
Suggested tool: Scribble
The prompts are HourLife's, written in the spirit of the book. None is copied from it. Your page stays in this browser: nothing is uploaded, and only the last prompt is remembered.
Keyboard: focus the page, then use ← ↑ → ↓ to move and draw (hold Shift for bigger steps), and Enter to splatter, tape or scribble at the cursor. Or press Wreck it for me.
Concept anatomy
The journal's instructions fall into a few families: break it, mark it, stain it, fill it with found things, take it somewhere. Each is a small lesson against perfectionism. This is HourLife's drawing of them on one page.
Step 1 · Instruction
A short prompt decides the first move, so the blank page has no hold on you.
Step 2 · Mess
A few minutes of marks, spills and tears, with no way to get it wrong.
Step 3 · Surprise
A shape or a stain you did not plan. That is the bit worth keeping.
Step 4 · Lower stakes
The next blank page feels less precious, so the next start costs less.
HourLife's summary of how the journal works on you over time. The step names are ours.
Community insights
Nine takeaways in HourLife's words. Vote for the ones that changed how you start.
01HourLife takeaway
Plenty of nice notebooks sit empty because the first page feels too important to spoil. The book removes that weight by asking for damage before anything else. Once the page is already a mess, there is nothing left to protect, and you start making things.
02HourLife takeaway
Waiting for the right idea, the right pen or the right mood feels like care. Most of the time it is a way of avoiding the risk of making something bad. The journal's instructions are silly on purpose, so there is no standard to fall short of.
03HourLife takeaway
A spill, a smudge or a torn corner can be the start of something you would never have planned. Smith returns to this idea across her work, and her later book Mess is built around it. The habit to build is looking at what went wrong and asking what it could become.
04HourLife takeaway
Most pages of the journal do not produce art anyone would frame. They produce a few minutes of making without judging. That practice is what carries over into the work you do care about.
05HourLife takeaway
A blank page asks you to decide everything at once. A short, odd instruction decides the first step for you, so you can start straight away. Constraints lower the cost of beginning.
06HourLife takeaway
Tearing, crumpling and staining are usually how you ruin something. In the journal they are how you add to it. Seeing destruction as one more way to make marks loosens the grip of keeping things neat.
07HourLife takeaway
Several of the journal's pages send it outside, into weather, pockets and everyday places. A journal that travels picks up dirt, found things and ideas you would not get at a desk. Ordinary places become somewhere you can make things.
08HourLife takeaway
Children scribble without asking whether they are good at it. Somewhere along the way most people stop. Having the permission printed on the page makes it easier to start again without feeling foolish.
09HourLife takeaway
Every stain and scribble comes from a real moment: a coffee, a bus ride, a bad day. By the end, the book holds a period of your life more honestly than a neat diary would. Readers have long shared their wrecked copies with each other for that reason.
Action steps
Get the plainest, cheapest notebook you can find, so it can never feel precious. On the inside cover, write that this one is for wrecking.
Before you write or draw anything good, spoil page one. Scribble on it, spill a little coffee, or tear the corner. Now nothing after it can ruin the book.
Put a cheap pen, a crayon, a glue stick and a roll of tape in a pouch with the notebook. Keep it where you will see it, by the door or on the table.
On the last page, list twenty short instructions in the same spirit, such as draw with your eyes closed or use only your other hand. When you are stuck, pick one at random.
Pick a place away from home, such as a park bench, a bus seat or a café table. Take the notebook there this week and do one page.
Set a five-minute timer, pick a prompt and stop when it rings, however the page looks. Do it on most days.
Do one page a week with the hand you do not write with. Notice how quickly you stop judging the marks.
Never tear out a page because it looks bad. Date it, and later draw on top of it or turn the worst part into something else.
Once a month, show a friend a page as it is. Do not explain it or say it is bad.
Ruin the first page on purpose, and every page after it is free.HourLife note after Keri Smith
Pick setup actions and daily habits from Wreck This Journal, choose a start date, and download a printable checklist with real calendar pages.
Keri Smith is an illustrator and author whose books ask readers to make things rather than only read them. Wreck This Journal is a journal in which nearly every page gives an instruction to mess the book up: scribble on it, tear it, get it dirty, take it outside. The idea is that perfectionism and the fear of spoiling a clean page stop many people from making anything at all. By asking for damage, the book takes...
HourLife’s key takeaways include: A page you are allowed to ruin is a page you will actually use. Perfectionism often looks like high standards but works like fear. Accidents are material, not mistakes to hide.
It's a strong pick for readers exploring Confidence and Creativity & Making. HourLife distills its core idea into key insights and practical actions worth trying.
Buy a cheap notebook to wreck — Get the plainest, cheapest notebook you can find, so it can never feel precious. On the inside cover, write that this one is for wrecking.
About five minutes. The HourLife summary distills Wreck This Journal into its core idea, 9 community insights, and 9 practical actions you can apply right away.
One idea from one book and one small habit from another, every week or once a month, on the day and around the hour you pick, where you are. Nothing else, and one link stops it.
Print it, pin it, post it. Ways to take Wreck This Journal off the screen and into the world.
The core idea, key takeaways, and how to apply Wreck This Journal, as one clean, readable page.
Read summaryEvery action from this page as a printable to-do list, with a 7-day tracker.
Download PDFA shareable card with the book and its top-voted insight, for saving or posting.
The summary card and every quote card in six sizes: Instagram feed, Story, Pinterest, YouTube thumbnail, phone wallpaper, and link preview.
Save the insights that land, build the habits that stick, and keep what you learn from Wreck This Journal working long after you close the page — inside HourLife.
