Margot Lee
The Right Question at the Right Time
Inside Margot Lee’s No Particular Order
Margot Lee has been journaling for as long as she can remember. Long before No Particular Order existed, before shipping pallets and fulfillment centers, before custom paper stock and printers in England, journaling was a private ritual. Her first journal was even voice-activated, a childhood solution designed to keep curious siblings out and secrets safe. That instinct to protect inner thoughts never left. It simply evolved into something more intentional, more generous, and eventually, something shareable.
By the time Margot reached college, journaling stopped being just reflective and became essential. It was no longer about recording memories; it became a way to get through the day. Blank pages turned into structured lifelines. She began writing her own prompts at the top of each page, asking herself questions that helped untangle anxiety, clarify decisions, and understand why certain moments felt heavier than others. What she noticed was simple but important: the structure mattered. The right question could change how she processed everything that followed.
At the time, prompted journals already existed, but most leaned heavily toward positivity and self-optimization. Gratitude lists. Daily affirmations. Endless encouragement to be “better.” That approach never fully resonated with Margot. It felt incomplete. Life, especially during pivotal transitions, isn’t just about optimism—it’s about confusion, uncertainty, and the messy middle. No Particular Order was born from that gap.
Rather than positioning her journals as tools for fixing yourself, Margot designed them as companions for moments when people are navigating change without a roadmap. Graduating. Starting something new. Ending something familiar. Many people don’t have mentors who know exactly what to ask during those transitions. No Particular Order steps into that space, offering guided questions that act like a quiet presence, asking what you might not think to ask on your own. Over time, those answers form something even more meaningful: a time capsule of who you were while becoming who you are.
The process behind each journal begins long before a page is designed. Margot starts with conversation—talking to friends, revisiting her own past journals, and running focus groups within her community. She looks not only at the exciting parts of a life chapter, but also the moments that feel anxious, uncomfortable, or overwhelming. Every theme is shaped by lived experience before it’s translated into prompts. The goal is never perfection, only clarity.
Design plays just as important a role as language. Many of No Particular Order’s visual cues come from Margot’s love of bookstores and children’s books—the nostalgia, the typography, the physicality of paper. In a digital-first world, the journals are intentionally tangible. They invite slowness. They ask you to sit with yourself without notifications, without tabs, without the pressure to perform. Books, to Margot, are portals back to an inner self we often forget how to access.
That attention to detail extends into collaboration. Margot’s partnership with her designer, Dahlia, began with a simple Instagram DM at exactly the right moment. Their workflow is built on shared references, open dialogue, and trust. Margot provides clear tools and direction, allowing Dahlia the freedom to bring her own creativity to the table while staying true to the brand. It’s a relationship grounded in alignment rather than limitation—a theme that mirrors the ethos of No Particular Order itself.
What started as a simple idea quickly became something far more complex. Instead of printing prompts into an existing blank notebook, Margot went in the opposite direction, developing a fully custom journal. Every detail matters: durability, paper that won’t bleed, pages that lay flat, and a structure designed to be lived with. She jokes that she never expected to become a book expert, but the result is a product that feels intentional in every millimeter.
Today, No Particular Order’s journals are printed in England, shipped to a fulfillment center in Brooklyn, and sent directly to customers through Shopify. It’s a far cry from the early days, when Margot packed orders from her parents’ basement. Seeing the scale of the operation has only deepened her respect for the labor behind the scenes—and reinforced how much care goes into every journal before it reaches someone’s hands.
The first volume of No Particular Order arrives wrapped with a simple question: If you were given a blank slate, what would you do with it? For Margot, that question captures the heart of the brand. Once the journal leaves the warehouse, it’s no longer hers. It becomes yours. A space to customize, to carry through monumental periods of life, and to return to years later as proof of how far you’ve come.
Margot doesn’t see No Particular Order as a solution or a fix. It’s a set of tools for noticing: how you think, how you feel, how you show up in relationships and everyday moments. By building a relationship with yourself through honest questions, she believes the world begins to open up. Possibilities feel closer. Decisions feel clearer. And growth becomes something you recognize rather than chase.
Just as people change across ages, places, and experiences, No Particular Order is designed to evolve alongside them. The journals hold space for who you’ve been while making room for who you’re becoming. There is no single right way to do life—but sometimes, it takes the right question to reveal what’s next.
This is Margot Lee’s Field Trip.