You won’t regret starting a daily journaling practice
This blog post describes easy ways to start journaling if you would like to start writing or documenting your life regularly but don’t know how.
It’s a quick post designed to help you make an immediate start especially if you are trying to get over the mental road block of what should you should journal daily!
In fact there are no ‘shoulds’. Journaling is such a free-ing exercise because there are so little rules.
However you may need a little help getting started which is what this post is all about.
In addition we have other in-depth posts that will help you get set up and start your journaling adventure that you can read here on the website.
Posts such as:
7 easy prompts to start a journal
Easy journaling ideas that will take you five minutes
17 reflection journal prompts to get to know yourself better
Making a decision to journal should not be an onerous task. Journaling is designed to relieve you of burdens, not to give you additional stresses.
Deciding what to journal about daily should also be an easy decision.
So how can you journal daily and relieve yourself of burdens, stresses and strains, enjoy the process of writing and keep up a regular routine, daily even?!
Before you start try and find a comfortable place, maybe even a regular place that can become part of your journaling routine.
Do you have a favourite chair, an end of the table that you love, a quiet spot where the sun shines? Wherever you feel comfortable and relaxed can become your new regular journaling spot.
If possible try and journal at the same time each day. This is not to try and force you into a straightjacket of order and routine.
Rather it is to be able to give yourself time and space for yourself on a regular basis so that you can find regular time to invest in yourself, your inner growth and your inner life.
Make a decision to journal daily
When you make a decision to journal daily try and:
Decide what you are going to journal about
You can just write whatever comes into your mind each day. Or you can theme your journal. There are plenty of suggestions on this site for differently themed journals, such as: Journaling to be better dressed, creating a manifestation journal, creating a diy fitness journal and Journaling to improve your executive function.
Whatever you choose to write about, be sure that it is a subject that interests you and that you are going to look forward to writing about each day.
Find a journal that you really long to write in
I have various journals that I write in from time to time, that I absolutely love. My all time favourite is the pale pink suede, zip up journal. The day I bought it I fell in love with it. Even now when I see it on the shelf it fills me with total love.
I also have another journal in a large hardbacked notebook. I don’t love the cover as much as I do with the suede journal, but it is full of magazine images that I have stuck into the book with my journaling notes about what I think about the images. Just opening the pages to remember what I have written and to write some more and add another image fills me with total happiness. Who knew that life could be so easy!
Don’t limit yourself
If you have many interests, or various life projects on the go at any one time, you might like to keep more than one journal. You could have a house project journal, a weight loss journal and a Clothes I’d like to wear journal. Each day you can write in the journal that most suits you.
Remember a journal is not like a diary, you’re not trying to write every day to conform with the diary pages. Rather you are seeking to understand yourself and to capture your thoughts about whatever it is that interests you. There are no rules, except that you need to write, because that’s what journaling is 😊
When you are going to journal daily you can choose to write about one specific subject or you can journal about whatever you want.
You want to be as honest as you can when you journal. It’s not just a question of writing down how the weather was and who you bumped into in town. Journaling is about your inner world, you private life. Journaling is about ordering your inner world.
Ordering your inner world is a great thing but it does take work, so you need to be fairly honest and rigorous with the truth. So whatever form this takes, do it. Get to the truth of what you are thinking.
Easy straightforward ways to journal
If you are stuck for ideas about what you should journal daily then why not use one or two of our ideas to get you going?
A goals journal
Write down your goals each day. At the end of the day you can review how you got on, journal some more and then plan for the next day. The combination of journaling and organising is very powerful and you will see progress both in your brain and in your life.
A daily activities journal
Journal about your daily activities. You can do it from a goals perspective and write down the day’s goals. Or you could journal about your daily activities and how you feel about them. Or you could journal about activities that you do each day. For example journal about your dog walk, what you saw on the walk, what you were thinking.
A thoughts journal
Journal about what is scaring your or making you fearful right now. Journal about your decisions and decision making. Journal about what you are wearing and what you would like to wear if you could wear anything.
Make your own prompts jar
Keep a journal prompt jar. Write down ideas that interest you and put them in the jar. Then, when you are stuck for what to write about, draw a piece of paper from the jar and use that idea to get you started on your journaling for the day.
Journal about how you are feeling
If you are feeling low or sad, then why not make lists of things that make you happy?
Use visual cues
Use visual prompts – cut up a magazine or an art book. Cut out the pictures that you love and write about them. This also adds an additional texture to your journal which will make it look more tactile and personal.
Use a book to create a book
Give a book a second lease of life – buy a second hand book or use one of your own. Take the book to pieces and journal all about it. Use the cover as a starting point. Take your favourite pages in the story and journal about them. Whatever comes to mind, be creative.
Let your mind wander with maps and guidebooks
Guidebooks/maps When you visit museums/art galleries/beautiful houses you are often given a guide. So why not use that guide as a starting point for journaling. Take the images, text and maps from the guide, stick them in your journal and write all about your visit.
I love this idea. I’ve just made it up and I am definitely going to do it because I am such a keeper/hoarder of items from places that I have visited and I don’t know what to do with them.
They sit around, doing nothing, for months/years until I, reluctantly, throw them out. But now I know I can give them a new lease of life, plus create books of memories for the family to look back on in years to come.
I hope that this blog post has given you enough motivation and inspiration to start your daily journaling practice.
What are you going to start with?
What was it that triggered your imagination and made you think, “Oh, I’ll do that”?
Whatever it is enjoy!
If you enjoyed that post and the links we have given you, then you might like to move on to other journaling ideas afterwards such as:
How to journal your way to success with goal affirmations
Discipline affirmations: How to blow your own mind
Finally, let me tell you a little bit about Wardrobe Journaling. It is the process I have created that helps you understand yourself better through journaling and through thinking about the clothes you wear and your own unique personality. There are lots of Wardrobe Journaling blog posts available on this site. There is also the entirely unique Wardrobe Journaling course. If you want to take a step further into your own self development and self care this is a great, gentle but powerful course to take.
Have a great day!
Sarah