How To Journal Daily
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably tried journaling before but haven’t been able to keep it up on a regular basis. In this post, I’ll be sharing my tips for making journaling a daily habit.
I like to try to journal daily or as often as I can. It’s a lovely slow practice that helps me to maintain my creativity and let my mind settle. Keeping this habit on a daily basis can be hard at first. After I set aside time to journal, used prompts and created a cozy environment, I was able to hold myself more accountable with realistic expectations and journaling became an enjoyable experience.
My simplest advice is - just start!
The benefits of journaling daily
As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, the practice of journaling daily has huge benefits for our mental clarity and productivity. Some of the many benefits of daily journaling include:
Emotional release: Journaling provides a safe space to express and release emotions, reducing stress and promoting emotional well-being.
Self-Reflection: Journaling allows you to explore your thoughts, feelings, and experiences, leading to greater self-awareness and personal growth.
Stress Reduction: Regular journaling has been shown to reduce stress levels by helping to process emotions, gain perspective, and find healthy outlets for negative feelings.
Improved Mental Health: Journaling has been linked to reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression, promoting mental health and overall psychological well-being.
Increased Creativity: Engaging in journaling exercises and free writing can stimulate creativity, inspire new ideas, and encourage innovative thinking.
Goal Setting and Achievement: Journaling provides a structured way to set goals, track progress, and celebrate achievements, increasing motivation and accountability.
Set aside time for journaling
To make journaling a habit, set a consistent time for daily practice. Decide in your schedule when you can have some quiet time to yourself. Journaling in the mornings is widely preferred as its easier to keep a morning habit. Leaving journaling to the evening, it can sometimes be forgotten about or left of the day’s to-do list.
You can also try the ‘habit stacking’ method. This is the process of pairing a new habit with an old habit. For example, each morning when I finish making my coffee, I’m going to do my journaling.
Use journal prompts to get started
Do you often feel stuck on what to write? I know the feeling where your mind is drawing a complete blank and you lose motivation to follow through on your journaling that day. If you’re unsure what to journal about, try researching ‘journal prompts’. Journal prompts are ideas or words to encourage inspiration and give you something to start with. You can try Pinterest for prompt ideas.
Alternatively, you can use the popular ‘Morning Pages’ method. This method involves three pages of consciousness writing, typically done when you wake up each morning. The wonderful thing about the ‘Morning Pages’ method is that there is no right or wrong way to do. You are free to write about anything and everything that crosses your mind. Give it a go!
Choose the right environment
Choose the right environment for you. Do you like to journal in the tranquility of your home or do you prefer to be cozy at your local cafe? Create a positive and inspiring space for your daily journaling. Make sure it’s comfortable.
I have my desk set up with all my various supplies. And a memo board on my wall with images, graphics and text to inspire. I like to keep cosy with a blanket throw. And I listen to music that is calming and creates a nice atmosphere to be creative. I like to set up a lo-fi playlist in the background while I write.
Keep yourself accountable
To have more incentive to keep up your daily habit, create a scenario where you can hold yourself accountable. Maybe commit to posting your daily page on social media. Or team up with a like minded friend and agree to send each other your journal page for the day.
If you want to keep your journal private, you could alternatively try a habit tracker to mark your daily progress. A habit tracker is a page set out so you are required to mark off each day that you have practiced your habit.
Set realistic expections
Keeping your expectations realistic will help you to maintain your journaling habit. If you are only just beginning, don’t compare your work to what you see on social media. Feeling disappointed may discourage you from journaling daily. Instead, keep your journals simple to begin with and as your habit progresses your creativity will grow and flow more easily. It’s better to set up a good foundation for your habit.
Making journaling an enjoyable experience
Journaling shouldn’t feel like a chore. Make sure to journal about things you love & in a style that you love. Habits are much easily set when they are things we enjoy and look forward to. So make sure that your time journaling is a joy that leaves you feeling refreshed and empowered.
I hope you enjoyed these tips to make the practice of journaling a daily habit for yourself. Remember, daily journaling is an incredible tool that can have a huge positive impact on your wellbeing. By committing just a moment of your day to put pen to paper, you open the door to self-reflection, creativity and personal growth. I hope you enjoy your journaling journey!
