There are so many ways to journal!

You can find a way that works for you.

This article is for you if you have wished and tried to journal and have failed to keep the habit or haven’t noticed its benefits.

You don’t have to do the traditional way of sitting down every morning or evening with a blank notebook and fill pages with thoughts and activities of the day. It doesn’t have to be about everything in your life. It doesn’t even have to be every day. You don’t need to be a writer, have perfect spelling or know much about grammar. You don’t have to have legible handwriting!

When I think of the dedication of pioneer women keeping journals on their way across the prairies I am amazed. They had little paper and used every bit of it, usually filling their book with writing on both sides and then turning the book and writing again over the old words in a sideways direction. I don’t know how they deciphered it later. Did they know they were making history? They were just living their lives. And it is history we can now read about because they kept a record.

Many writers kept journals to capture their elusive thoughts. But others did too. Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt, Leonardo da Vinci, Anne Frank, Beatrix Potter. Thomas Edison, Beethoven, Louisa May Alcott, Lucy Maud Montgomery and Madeline L’Engle. If you keep a journal, you are in good company.

A journal can be about the happenings of the day, the weather, etc, but it can also be about many other things. You could keep a journal of meals you’ve served to company, books you read, thing your child says, or quotes you run across that you don’t want to forget. You can keep a record of places you’ve traveled and what you saw or did there. You don’t even have to use words. How about making sketches? You can call it notebooking, commonplacing, acrchiving or make up your own word! (If you do, let me know what it is in the comments, please.)

Maybe by now, you are starting to think you might already be journaling!

Options include but are not limited to prayer journal, scripture writing journal, gratitude journal, commonplace book, reading record, bullet journal, or garden journal. You can journal for a season to catch a particular aspect of your life. You can journal on Sundays only. You can write three days a week or once a month. You can create any combination of the above ideas and create a one of a kind journal.

Any notebook will do and any pen. Just begin. If that is too open ended, try a guided journal. I saw one yesterday at Walmart that looked like fun. There are guided book journals, art journals, sketch books, devotionals, gratitude, mental health, and self care journals. A google search might bring up just the niche you are looking for. Choose one aspect of your life to work on and get a journal focused on that. Just be aware of the underlying beliefs of the prompts and that they align with your beliefs. Or you can always skip over the prompts you don’t agree with.

Try a digital diary. Keep your thoughts in a virtual notebook. Or record them on whatsapp. Start a blog! The variety could be overwhelming, but also makes it possible you can find something you like and will stick with. Just keep trying.

I don’t know what goals and aspirations are bubbling up as you rest and do the basics this January, but whatever they are, journaling and keeping records makes success much more likely. Maybe you’ve chosen a word of the year. Writing it down, and regularly interacting with it on paper will make it much more likely you will remember and use it into the future. Try the all-or-something approach to ease into the habit.

If you do decide to journal in some form this year, be aware you may experience some benefits. Journaling teaches you to express yourself, which in turn aids communication. Writing thoughts leads to clearer thinking. Journaling helps you sleep by getting the random thoughts and unfinished tasks out of your head and onto paper so your mind can relax. Recording events helps you remember them and also helps you move past them. Journaling helps you identify what you want and then makes your goals more real and therefore more possible. If you journal long enough, you will get tired of complaining about the same old problems and decide to take constructive action. Putting pen to paper focuses your mind and generates creativity. Journaling leaves a record, which we probably need to address.

Yes, you will write stuff you don’t want anyone to see. There is a risk since it exists, that someone could see it. The risks are pretty small though, in all reality. The benefits outweigh them by hundreds! You can see them as gold, look how far you’ve come, how much you’ve learned. If you won’t write because of bad days or embarrassing experiences, what about the good days? How will you remember all the happy memories? Life changes so fast and what you wrote last week is already not who you are. Maybe your old diary is just boring and that’s why you don’t want anyone to read it. But really, just burn the book when it’s filled up. A lot of the benefits happen as the writing is taking place. I rarely look back at old stuff. That’s not the direction I’m going.

So start small. Have low expectations. Find a medium (paper, digital) that feels right for you and a time of day that seems easy. Find a place that is conducive to writing. Schedule it in at regular times whether that’s once a day, once a week or even less. As often as seems easily possible, while still building a habit. Write one line. Or answer a prompt with the first thing that comes to mind. If you feel blank, write about something you are grateful for or describe your child’s latest escapade. Journaling whenever you’re in the mood won’t last long, give it some framework to hang on that builds the habit into your life. Tack it onto something else that is already a habit – morning coffee, afternoon exercise or evening routine. Track it if you’re the type that likes every box ticked. And if you get bored with one way, try something else listed above.

Let your journal be messy. Cross out, or draw, and don’t worry about grammar. Remember, nobody but you is going to see it anyway. We don’t even want to read it!! Even if you leave it laying out on the couch. Keep it handy enough that you see it at the time you set to write in it.

Start writing no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. — Louis L’Amour

And if you don’t care about these good things that come from journaling and you haven’t noticed any benefits, maybe you haven’t done it long enough. Small habits compound over time and the benefits grow exponentially. Keep going and trust the process. You will be glad you did. There is a gardening quote by Joshua Siskin that can apply here too: The first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, and the third year it leaps.

Some guided journals:

My Reading Life by Anne Bogel This journal contains lots of book lists, ideas for reading more or starting a book club and space to record 100 books. There’s a full review of this here.

Intentional Living Journal by Lea Ellen DiNonno This is a full color cozy self care guided journal to inspire you to be healthier. It focuses on gratitude and noticing the good things of life, alongside scriptures.

The Next Right Thing Guided Journal by Emily P. Freeman A journal about making decisions, whether major ones or low-grade daily ones. It focuses on reflecting on past decisions regularly and includes various list prompts to help you. It is not a planner but would be a good companion to a planner. It mentions God marginally, and seems like it needs prayer prompts, too, to be complete. But you could always add those in!

One Word, One Year Faith Journey by Michelle Robblee This journal helps you choose a word and then apply it in many ways as you live out the year. This journal includes spiritual and practical applications, a place for gratitude list, and craft ideas.

One Line a Day from Chronicle Books. One line a day is manageable for anyone. This journal lasts five years and the entries for each day are on the same page so you can compare thoughts on June 1, for instance, over five years’ time on the same page. That would be interesting!

Some books I have read that are written as journals:( the word to describe a book written as a journal, diary or letter is ‘epistolary’. Some books of the Bible are epistles and that might help you remember the word.)

The Passable Cook by James Jesser

Dear America Series

The Diary of Anne Frank

I can shake off everything as I write; sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.

–Anne Frank

If it worked for Anne Frank, it will work for you!

–Liz

For more:

4 Benefits of Keeping a Journal

How to Minimize the Bumps

Jeanette Lockerbie for some short devotional books