6 of the Best Daily Journaling Tips for Beginners
Committing to a daily journaling practice is hard. I won’t sugarcoat it for you. When I challenged myself to write on one page a day I knew it was going to take discipline and determination. I’ve always been willing to do what I had to if I knew the results would benefit my mental health. But I also know that people starting out may have a tough time like I did so I wanted to share some daily journaling tips. These are the tips I used to keep me motivated. They helped me add entry after entry to my journal each day. Here’s hoping they help you too.
Here are 6 daily journaling tips beginners and longtime journalers can use
#1 — Keep it simple
I can’t stress this enough: Journaling doesn’t have to be some long-winded extraction of your life and all its problems. Journaling is unique to the individual doing it. If you don’t want to relive trauma or past regrets, you don’t have to. If you only want to write about happy things or recap your day, go for it. Yes, journaling through trauma has shown to be beneficial, but if you don’t have any interest in doing that, don’t do it! It’s as simple as that. That’s why tip #1 is keeping things simple. You can make your journal entries as detailed or as vague as you want. Don’t want to write more than a paragraph, then don’t. When you learn to keep your entries simple and to the point, you’ll find it easier to come back to the page day after day.
#2 — Journal at the same time every day
Of all the daily journaling tips in this post, this one will help make journaling a habit rather than a chore. When I started my “one page a day” challenge, I knew that to make it stick, I needed to choose a time I could sit down each day and write during. For me, that was after dinner. For you, it might be another time. All you need is five to ten minutes. So if right before your kids wake up is the best time, journal then. If it’s at night right after you put the kids to sleep, so be it. But it’s imperative that when you start try and journal at this same time every day. This will instill the habit into you. Once it becomes second nature to pick up your journal every day, you can be more flexible with your time.
#3 — Have a prompt ready to go
One of the hardest things about journaling every day is wondering what to write about. Let’s face it, our days are not always filled with exciting developments and crazy happenings. Prompts are a great way to fix that. There are so many places where you can find journal prompts, but I encourage you to find ones that are easy to answer. If you’re not the type of person to look within yourself and answer some deep-rooted prompts, don’t choose them. Find prompts that ask a basic question; something simple like, “What’s one win you had today?” Once you get into the habit of writing every day you won’t always need prompts. But they’re always there for you when you need a little direction. A fun exercise you can try is coming up with your own prompts.
#4 — Set a timer
Certain daily journaling tips are meant to make the process easy. I created this method to be exactly that: simple. But at the start of my journey, I needed something to hold myself accountable. It wasn’t enough to say I’m going to journal every day at 6:30 pm. No, I had to make sure I was actually doing it. Enter the timer.
Using a timer helped me in the first few weeks of my daily journaling practice. Once I got my journal out, I set the timer for eight minutes and started writing. Sometimes I stopped before the timer went off. Other times I kept going after it buzzed. Either way, a timer helps you focus on what you’re meant to be doing, which is journaling. Once journaling has become a habit, you can stop using a timer. Even though I’m well over 700 entries, I still use one sometimes. It’s especially helpful on days when I’m busy. I’ll set my timer for two minutes. Even if all you can give your journal is two minutes a day it’s better than none.
#5 — Embrace the messiness
My mission when creating this method was to remove the pressure journaling seems to have around it. I felt like if I wasn’t writing perfectly curated entries, I was doing something wrong. Now I embrace the mess. If my pen skips, if I spell a word wrong, or use the wrong grammar, I ignore it. A journal is your place to be unapologetically messy.
Don’t worry if you write one run-on sentence. Don’t worry if your words don’t make sense and it’s literally a jumbled mass of random words. Sometimes we don’t always have something coherent to say. We simply need to remove a bunch of weird stuff from our heads. I’ve had entries that are bullet lists of words that have nothing to do with each other. So if some of your entries have a few more mistakes than others, let it be. I’d rather you write an entry that is grammatically incorrect than force yourself to make it sound like a Pulitzer Prize-winning novella.
#6 — Try a different tactic
We conclude this list of daily journaling tips with another favorite of mine. I’m a firm believer that if something isn’t working, you can do one of three things:
Stop using it and move on to something else.
Adjust it until it works for you.
Make up your own system.
One Page a Day was my solution to a journaling problem I had. No other method I tried was working, so I made my own. You can do the same. If writing in prose form for every entry is boring you, switch it up. Try different formats. Draw your feelings in tomorrow’s entry. Write a letter to someone in the following day’s entry. Rapid log your day instead of writing details about it.
Instead of quitting when something starts to bore you, it’s always best to try a different tactic. While most of my entries are written in prose, there’s the occasional gratitude list or doodle thrown in. Sometimes a little change is all you need to reignite the spark. So the next time you feel bored, try a new format. Use it for a few days or see what happens. Always remember that your journal is for you. The only person criticizing your entries is you.
As I mentioned earlier, committing to a daily journaling practice will take time, patience, and dedication. But I promise you it is worth it in the end. And know that if you’re ever stuck the One Page a Day Instagram account has daily prompts for you to use. I also share quick tips and inspirational Reels to keep you going. So if you aren’t already, make sure to follow us.
Do you have any daily journaling tips that you swear by? Share them in the comments below. I’m always looking for new tips to add to my repertoire.
