How to Keep a Journal

Journaling is a powerful art that has survived countless generations.

While the first diary you think of may be Anne Frank, consider this: Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Virginia Woolf, Anaïs Nin, Henry David Thoreau, Marie Curie and Charles Darwin also all kept journals (along with many other influential people).

There have been numerous scientific studies done on the subject of journaling as well. Studies suggest that journaling can help your self-growth.

It can be especially beneficial to your mental health as well.

The human memory is fallible. Not only do we forget things, we can even mis-remember them.

Reflection on our past is essential to our future growth.

Keeping a journal can be a log of memories permanently inked onto the page.

Reading pages you wrote long ago is almost like a time-travel – a window or mirror where you can see your past self.

There is no one right way to keep a journal.

It’s a safe and private space to be completely honest.

But, if you haven’t kept journals you might be wondering where you should even start.

I got you.

 
 

Define your Why

First, what is your reason for wanting to start a journal?

Is it for self-reflection and self-discovery? Stress release? To keep track of your growth and progress?

Maybe you just want to leave something behind to tell the generations ahead what your life was like.

Your reason can be anything, you just have to know it.

Knowing your why will make it a lot easier to consistently write in your journal.
 

 
You don’t have to have anything special going on to keep a journal, just write your thoughts down on paper and express yourself freely.

Journaling can be a powerful tool for self reflection by helping you work things out better than you can just in your mind.

Writing things out by hand often helps you organize your thoughts and gain clarity.

Even just the act of journaling can be therapeutic in itself.
 
 

Choose your supplies

To be honest, I love office supplies and stationery! Am I the only one who has a stash of blank notebooks and journals?

What kind do you prefer – hard or soft cover? lined, dotted, grid or blank?

The same goes for your writing utensil: Gel or Ink pen? Number 2 pencil or mechanical pencil? Black or Blue?

It doesn’t really matter what you choose, it’s just so much nicer to write with what you like.

 
 

Set the Mood

In the beginning you may need to remind (and make) yourself sit down to write.

A subtle alarm will do the trick – or by associating it with something you already do every day around the same time.

Eventually it will become habitual and a part of your routine.

It will become something that you look forward to.
 

 
Create the ideal environment to focus on your journaling. Set the mood by lighting a candle, maybe putting on some quiet instrumental music.

 
As I said before, there is no one right way to keep a journal.

There are so many different ways.

But I think there are two simple guidelines that you should still follow:
 

 

 
Now you know how to start keeping a journal, but knowing and doing are different things.

If you’re not putting pen to paper still, I have some ideas for you to get your writing juices flowing!
 

 
 

Try Prompts

A prompt is a question that is supposed to inspire you.

The idea of prompts is really just to get you thinking and spark some new ideas when you don’t have any.

Here are a few to get you started:

 
 

Stream of Consciousness

Just write out everything that pops in to your mind, each thing that you think of.

Don’t take time to judge your thoughts – just write them down.

The best time to do this is in the morning.

The idea of morning pages is something I mention in my HERO morning post.

The idea is that you write everything out first thing in the morning before you’ve had a chance to be distracted by the outside world.

If that doesn’t sound like something you want to do, try asking yourself a question.
 

 

Ask yourself an open ended question and then write down whatever comes into your mind.

It might be helpful to ask probing questions like, What is keeping me from being happy / healthy / successful?

Sometimes we’re not even aware of subconscious blocks in our mind.

Just because you believe something, doesn’t mean its true!

Your inner critic might be telling you something that just isn’t objectively true and one of the best ways to expose it is with stream of consciousness journaling.
 
&Nbsp;

Mental Inventories

More commonly known as a Brain Dump, I just think Mental Inventory sounds nicer.

This can be particularly beneficial when you have a thousand thoughts flying through your mind – especially if you have a thousand thoughts flying through your mind and you want to get to sleep.

Get those thoughts out of your mind and onto paper.

While it’s true that this is similar to stream of consciousness journaling, it’s not exactly the same.

For me it’s usually a messy page of notes with things that I need to remember and want to do.
 
 

Focus on Gratitude

Focusing on the things that you are grateful for can be life changing.

The more you look for things to be grateful for, the more things you will find to be grateful for.

It can be so easy to overlook and take some things for granted.

 

 

Like when you don’t think about how much you rely on your air conditioning, electricity or running water until it stops working.

Instead of focusing on what is wrong with your life or what you want to change, focus on what is right and good already.

 
 

Small Wins & Big Accomplishments

Record the little victories and highlights of your days.

It can be easy to forget when little things happen – but sometimes the little things are the most important.

Due to hustle culture we sometimes forget to pause and congratulate ourselves for meeting our goals before moving onto the next one.

Celebrating your accomplishments and milestones is important though, so try not to forget!
 

 

You can also use your journal to write down what your goals are and figure out steps to get there. I have an entire post on how best to set goals, so I won’t go into that here.
 
 

Track your Habits

We are what we do on a daily basis, right?

Or maybe you’re trying to achieve a goal and want to track your progress.

Seeing your progress can be a powerful motivational tool.

There are so many different kinds of habit trackers and habits to track.

If you’re aiming for a healthier lifestyle you might want to track how often you cook at home or how often you eat out.

You might want to track the hours that you sleep or which days that you exercised.

Another popular thing to track is your mood and how you’re feeling day to day.

 

 

If you’ve never tried habit tracking before I recommend starting with just one or two at a time so you don’t overwhelm yourself.

I actually just designed a free printable habit tracker if you want to get started tracking your habits!

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One or Two Lines a Day

If you find yourself struggling to write a lot about each day that passes, you might try putting a limit on how much you write!

Commit to writing just one or two sentences about your day, every day. No more, no less.

 

 

When it comes to how to keep a journal there are no right or wrong ways.

So, if you’re struggling with finding what to write you might want to give this a try.
 
 

Quotes, Sayings & Mantras

Fill your notebook with the words that inspire you, that encourage you or just resonate with you.

You can make pretty quote pages, or you can just scribble them down as reminders for the next time you need them.

Write them in all CAPS or create an artistic quote page.

 

 
 

Bullet Journal

I personally find a Bullet Journal to be the best thing to use a blank notebook for because they’re so flexible.

Setting one up does take a time investment, but one that I think is worth it.

I’m working on a whole post about Bullet Journaling but for now what you should know is that you can incorporate all of the above ideas into your Bullet journal – or BuJo.

The best way I can describe a BuJo is:
 

 

Many people use their BuJo to keep themselves productive and on top of things, but others use them as a diary or even a way to express themselves both artistically and privately.

Because you start a BuJo in a blank notebook, you can create it in whatever way works best for you.

Maybe you just want to use one pen and no drawings. That’s ok! After all, it’s yours.

There’s an entire book on the Bullet Journal method by it’s creator that you may want to check out to learn more.

But to be honest with you, I learned about bullet journaling from various other sources, tried a bunch of different styles and then just kept what actually worked for me.
 
 

Remember

Our memories are usually shorter than our notebooks, which is part of why journaling can be such a powerful practice.

But it can also be a difficult one to start.

If you miss writing a day (or more) NO BIG DEAL.

Just pick up where you were and start where you are now.

It’s about progress, not perfection.

Write long pages or just a few words. Scribble and draw in the corners.

You won’t have something profound and insightful to write in there every day and that’s completely ok.

Don’t forget that one of the two rules is to have fun.
 

 
 

 
Those are all of my best tips for how to keep a journal.

So which of these journaling techniques are YOU going to try?

Or do you already write in a journal consistently?

Please leave a comment below and let me know!
 
 

 
 
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