I Wrote 1,000 Consecutive Journal Entries and Here’s What I Learned
On October 2, 2022, I celebrated a major milestone. It was my 1,000 consecutive journal entry! I haven’t written that many journal entries in a row in my lifetime. And it’s all thanks to a little practice I created called One Page a Day Journaling.
I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with journaling. I kept a diary as a kid and worked hard to keep up with it during high school, college, and beyond. But there came a point when I thought I was journaling wrong.
I can’t say exactly why I started thinking that, but I did. And it made keeping my current journal a tough act to follow.
The birth of One Page a Day
But I knew the benefits of journaling. Have felt them repeatedly when I kept a somewhat scheduled practice. And so in January 2020, I gave myself a New Year’s Resolution/Challenge. I would write on one page a day, every single day.
I didn’t care if I wrote a whole page, a paragraph, or a sentence. I thought, “Anyone can write on one page a day. That’s what I’m going to do.”
Well, two months later Covid happened. If it wasn’t for this self-created daily journaling practice, I don’t think I would have stayed as sane as I did during that time.
The idea of writing on one page a day rather than multiple pages transformed journaling into a simplified act. I know many people who swear by Julia Cameron’s “morning pages” practice, which is writing three pages every morning. But it was too much for me.
I wanted something I could keep up with that would also give me the benefits of journaling. One Page a Day did exactly that.
It’s a practice that’s changed the way I view journaling and I wanted to share my main takeaways with you after completing 1,000 entries.
Here are my main takeaways from a self-created daily journaling practice
#1 — Start with tiny habits
A productivity and planning nerd, I swear by breaking large goals down into smaller, manageable tasks. Lessons from authors like James Clear and David Allen were paramount in my coming up with the “rules” of my journaling practice.
One page doesn’t seem like a lot. And as I mentioned before, I wasn’t aiming to fill the entire page each day. Some days I filled the page but most entries are only half full or a mere sentence or two.
Starting with tiny habits like committing to one page a day is enough to get you going. Then, as you build momentum, you may write more. Truthfully, none of my entries went beyond a page and I don’t imagine any ever will.
#2 — Pick a timeframe to journal during
When starting a new habit, practice, or routine, it’s important to do it around the same time every day. This helps train your brain into accepting the practice as part of your daily life. When I started this new journaling practice, I focused on writing at night, before bed.
I set an alarm to go off at 9:30, which is when I would crack open the journal and write. Because I was only writing on one page, I finished the entry in 15 minutes or less.
However, once the habit has become part of your daily life, you can adjust the time. Now I journal in the mornings after I complete my meditation and affirmations. Prior to that, I journaled whenever I felt the urge.
I stuck to the same timeframe for the first six months. By the time I reached my 300th entry, the habit was pretty consistent, and I journaled at different times of the day.
#3 — Don’t overthink
There’s a ton of information online about journaling. But this is what can complicate the act itself. Listening to too many opinions. Some people believe journaling is recapping your day. Others believe it’s a way to empty your mind of unwanted thoughts.
I find journaling a highly individualized practice. Meaning, it will vary from person to person. Use it to recap your days. Or use it to track triggering behaviors. Only you can decide what you want your journaling practice to be.
That’s why when I started One Page a Day, I was adamant about not overthinking what I was going to write. I simply turned to a fresh page, wrote the date, and started writing. Eventually, my thoughts evened out. In some entries, I rambled on, writing about one thing only to end on another. But most entries are usually about one subject.
If you’re truly at a loss for what to write about at the beginning, prompts can help. But I’m not talking about prompts that ask you deeply personal questions. I’m talking simple prompts that you can answer in a few sentences.
I created One Page a Day’s Instagram to share prompts like that. Although I’m currently on hiatus from posting, there are still a year’s worth of prompts to choose from. Once you become more comfortable, you can drop the prompts altogether, though sometimes they still come in handy.
#4 — One sentence is enough
When setting up the guidelines for this journaling practice, I wanted to give myself enough leeway, so if there was a day I didn’t feel like journaling, I still did. The answer to that was “one sentence is enough.”
I look back at my old entries and while most fill half the page, there are quite a few where I only wrote a sentence or two.
Look, sometimes you won’t always feel like journaling. Maybe you had a bad day and you don’t want to relive it on the page. Or you had an amazing day and there’s nothing you can write that will put it into words.
But part of my challenge was to write on one page a day. Even if it was only a sentence. I literally have an entry where I wrote, “Today was a pretty chill day.” That’s it. That was the entry. And yet I still kept my promise of writing on one page a day.
It doesn’t matter what you write or how much you write. All that matters is that you’re keeping up with your practice. That is the most important thing.
#5 — Be creative
Sometimes when you start a new habit or practice, it can become a little boring. That’s normal! But when that happens, you have two options: keep going as you are or try something new to reignite the spark.
By entry 200, I was becoming bored with the prose version of journal writing. It’s by far the most common and the one I write in the most, but I needed to get excited about opening the notebook again.
And so I tried different formats. In one entry, I wrote a letter to someone who had hurt me years ago. Another entry I wrote about my day in bullet points. I’ve written poems, gratitude lists, and more.
This is where the journaling practice becomes yours and yours alone. Be creative and try different formats. No one says your journal has to be lyrical or complete sentences. You’re not being judged on grammar.
If you want to doodle instead of writing, go for it. If you want to just list out everything you did that day, do it. It doesn’t matter how you journal, so long as you keep up with the practice. So have fun and see what other formats you can try using.
You may resort to one over another, and that’s the one you should stick with the most. But don’t be afraid to try new formats whenever you feel stagnant.
My ultimate goal when creating this challenge was to simplify the act of journaling. I wanted a practice I could keep up with, enjoy, and still reap the benefits from. One Page a Day Journaling gives me all of that plus some.
Will there come a time when I don’t write consecutively? Probably, but no matter what, I will continue to tell myself, “One page a day is all you need.”
If you’re interested in learning how to start your own One Page a Day Journaling practice, feel free to message me with questions. Don’t forget to check out my prompts over on Instagram and you can read more journaling posts here.
I’ve also written about journaling over on Craft Better Books and Writing & Wellness so give those a read when you can.
What’s your relationship with journaling? Have you tried keeping a daily journal with no luck? What’s a struggle you have when it comes to journaling?
