I know what you’re thinking. “I want to journal, but I don’t have time,” “I’m not much of a writer,” or “I don’t think journaling will help me.” If this is you, I’m here to change your mind.
Journaling is more than writing words on a page. In fact, journaling doesn’t even require a pen and paper these days. You can try many formats and fill them out with anything you’d like. Today, you’ll find your perfect fit.
By the end of this article, you will understand how vital journaling is to your happiness. If journaling seems intimidating, I’ll show you how to get started and incorporate it into your life.
No time to read the whole thing? Read the summary here.
How to start the perfect journal
Table of Contents
Benefits of Journaling
Before we discuss the “how” of journaling, let’s consider why it’s a good idea to start.
Journaling can be used to reflect on the past and plan for the future. It has many benefits for your well-being. From reducing stress to sharpening your memory, you can expect a range of positive results when you begin to journal. Here are a few to consider:
Personal development
A journal is a place to reflect on your goals and values, record your ideas and experiences, be creative, and draw inspiration from your thoughts and observations.
It’s also a way to build confidence. You can write affirmations and compliments to yourself and even track your accomplishments in your journal. These are just a few ways you can boost your self-esteem.
Journaling can also help you identify problem areas and give you insights into how to solve them. Sometimes, you already know the answer to your problems, but your thoughts are too cluttered to identify them. Journaling can give you clarity.
Many people look down on journaling, but documenting your life and writing about your goals can help you track your progress and growth.
Mental Health
Journaling for self-reflection can help you get to know yourself better. By exploring your personality, behaviours and reactions to different situations, you reinforce your identity and build better self-awareness.
A journal is a good place to vent complicated emotions and make sense of difficult situations. For example, people with anxiety or depression tend to ruminate on adverse events or feelings. They may struggle with racing thoughts and find it challenging to keep track. Documenting these thoughts can help them assess each one individually and evaluate their validity and meaning.
Even if you do not suffer from a mental illness, journaling can help you mentally declutter, reduce stress and help you feel less overwhelmed.
For school & work
Reflection is critical in education and work because it helps you improve through experience. Journaling for reflection can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses in these domains.
Additionally, journaling improves communication skills. Writing down or recording a video daily will help you perform tasks quickly, practice efficient workflows, and improve written and verbal communication.
Journaling also has a planning element. Bullet journals are a popular way to keep track of projects, meetings, events, and dates in fun and creative ways. If you want to become more organised, I recommend reading Ryder Carroll’s “The Bullet Journal Method.”
Where to begin:
Choose your medium
Written Journal
Reflective journal:
A reflective journal is traditional in that it displays images of the words “dear diary” written in fancy script at the top of a page. This journaling style has endured because it is a good way to record thoughts and feelings about the day’s events.
Gratitude journals also fall under this category because you use them to reflect on life’s small wonders – the people, places and possessions that are most important to you.
Bullet Journal
If you don’t know what a bullet journal is, a quick Google search will tell you that it’s an organisational tool that can function as a planner, a to-do list and a place to brainstorm. Ryder Carroll developed the system to eliminate unnecessary clutter, clarify values and set intentions for the future. If this sounds like what you need, I’d recommend getting the full details from the source.
A bullet journal can be as simple as a pen and paper. Still, people have gotten quite creative with them, adding doodles, colour-coding dates, using stickers, and using colourful paper to customise their journals to suit their needs.
If you want to see examples, check out this Pinterest board.
Food and exercise
Diet and exercise are essential elements in any healthy lifestyle. A health and fitness journal is a good way to keep track of your physical health goals, plan meals, schedule exercise, and more.
Luckily, many companies have taken the hard work out of it, and you can purchase these specialized health and fitness planners. They help you track everything from your daily water intake to the number of steps you walked today.
Alternatively, you could focus on eating habits, your relationship with fitness and food, and how you feel about your body. If that seems like too much emotional labour, you can even use a journal to jot down your favourite recipes and how sharing each meal made you feel.
To-do lists
If a bullet journal seems overwhelming, you can keep things simple with a traditional to-do list. All you need is a notepad and a pen. Some wouldn’t categorise a to-do list as a journal, but it is a collection of notes you can use to track your progress over time, so I’ve included it here.
If you’re a fan of to-do lists but they’ve proven ineffective, you can adapt your methods with unique systems. For example, the Eisenhower technique is pictured below. The process allows you to declutter seemingly endless lists, allowing you to visualise what is urgent and vital. You will find that the number of tasks you must do will decrease significantly.
Project Planners and Progress Tracking
Life gets busy. You might need to use your journal to keep track of your projects at work or school or to measure their progress.
To the left, you can see an example of a simple assignment planner for students with a field to write the assignment description, a list of what needs to be done and the resources you’ll need to complete it. It has a progress bar at the bottom so you can visually keep track of your progress. This is one of many ways to stay on top of your progress and manage your time.
You could even use your journal to map out timelines for large projects like your final thesis or dissertation.
Digital Journal
Digital planner
Digital note-keeping is becoming increasingly popular. A physical journal may not appeal to people who are always on the go, and it can be incredibly challenging if you’re forgetful or have limited bag space. The solution is to digitise your notes.
My favourite productivity app is Notion. I use it as a digital planner and a to-do list. It’s fully customizable, efficient, and accessible across multiple devices. The user interface is intuitive, flexible, and easy to learn.
Below is my Notion homepage. It has a task list that I use to dump all my short- and long-term tasks. The rest of my pages are sectioned off to represent different areas in my life, like personal development, family, music, etc.
Blog
A personal blog may not come to mind when people think of journaling. However, the two are pretty compatible. Here’s why:
- Blogging gives you a way to express yourself
- You can invite comments and advice from others
- You can choose who gets to view your blog
- You might help people who are going through similar experiences as you
- It gives you a chance to try something new and be creative
I always knew that new writing had to be part of my life. I started my first hobby blog when I was fresh out of high school. It was a time of rapid change and growth, and blogging allowed me to share my thoughts and find people worldwide who were going through similar experiences. It was cathartic and fostered mutual understanding between strangers—a way to create a community.
Audio journals
This one is relatively self-explanatory. All you need is a recording device like your smartphone or a dictaphone. It’s up to you how you want to structure your audio journal. It could simply be a collection of ramblings or detailed, guided reflections, but this gives you much flexibility. You can listen to your thoughts word-for-word and expand on or counter them. You could even format it as a podcast and share your musings with the world.
Video journals/vlogs
Like the blog example above, vlogs are a great way to journal your life. It does not have to be a well-made video that ends up on the internet. It could just be you in front of a camera talking to yourself. You might choose this method because you want a visual representation of your past feelings through your expressions and body language. You can, quite literally, see yourself grow.
2. Who can see your journal?
Whether you want to keep your journal private or public is up to you. Many people share images of their bullet journals and to-do lists online to show off their creativity and inspire others. Others publicise their blogs and vlogs because they believe people can learn from their experiences.
Some things do not belong in the public eye, and many prefer to keep their affairs private. However, more general thoughts or information can benefit others. Choosing a public vs private journal depends entirely on one’s personality and preference.
3. Decide the function of your journal
We touched on this before in the “Choose your medium” section. Think about the purpose of your journal. Will it be general and include every aspect of your life, or will you focus on travel, prayer, daydreams, and gratitude? Or will you use your journal to explore life through art with some personal thoughts scattered in between?
4. What style will you use?
Now, think about your writing/recording style. Will you use stream-of-consciousness writing or create an outline? You may write according to a daily prompt or perhaps only one line daily. Whatever style or format you choose, it must be something you can commit to – something that brings you joy.
5. Create!
We’ve done a lot of thinking up until this point. Now it’s time for action. Gather your tools. You’ll need a pen and notebook for most of the time. If you’re recording, grab your phone or camera. Starting is usually the most challenging part, but it becomes second nature once you get into the rhythm.
If you plan on something more elaborate, like a bullet journal, check out this stationary Pinterest board for inspiration on the tools you could use.
6. Reflect on what you’ve documented
The last step in your journaling process is to reflect on what you’ve documented. There is no point in keeping a journal if you learn nothing from it. Some people incorporate reviews into their journaling process. They review their progress once a week or once a month and identify where they can improve.
I would argue that reflection is the most crucial part of the journaling process. We can use a to-do list as an example: if you can only do the first five items on your list, that would trigger you to place the five most essential items of the day on the top of your list. If you notice an emotional outburst in your reflective journal every time your boss dismisses your efforts, it would be a sign to address that with them. You will soon identify trends in your journals, and reflecting on them will give you ideas of what to do about these patterns.
Summary
Journaling has the benefit of helping you plan for school and work, accelerating your personal development and giving you the tools to improve your mental health. Anyone can start a journal with just six simple steps:
- Choose a medium: Will it be digital or analogue? What equipment will you need, and where will you get it? There are more options than you think, e.g. bullet journals, vlogs, progress trackers
- Decide if your journal will be private or public (e.g. a blog)
- What will you use it for? It can be for every aspect of your life or just for reading or fitness.
- Choose a writing or recording style
- Create!
- Make time to reflect. It’s the most crucial step!
Conclusion
Journaling is for everyone. You may think you are too old or busy or that journaling is only for teenage girls trying to figure out life. However, anyone can benefit from journaling. With the modern formats available and the human desire to keep a record of life, chances are you might already be doing some journaling. The key is to take that and fine-tune it to meet your needs.
