7 Common Journaling Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them
You might think the act of journaling is easy. I mean, how hard is it to sit down and jot your thoughts in a notebook? But the truth is journaling can intimidate a lot of people. Journaling is vastly different from the diary-keeping you might have done as a kid. Journaling also seems to have a different set of standards. So you might have done one of these common journaling mistakes.
Making mistakes isn’t bad. If people didn’t make them we wouldn’t know how not to do something. We also learn from mistakes, which is why they should normalize making them. Don’t fear mistakes. Embrace them. And when it comes to journaling, I’ve put together a list of 7 common journaling mistakes.
This way you know ahead of time what to avoid. Or, if you have a dedicated journaling practice, you can check to see if you’re doing any of the below-listed items.
Here are 7 of the most common journaling mistakes that most of us have made or are making
#1 — Criticizing your thoughts
Journaling is an intimate practice that’s between you and yourself. Journals are not meant to be read by other people. If you’re in therapy and your therapist requests to see it, that’s a different story. But for the most part, people keep their journals private.
Some people have a hard time separating a private journal from other types of writing. We're used to handing in school assignments or having business proposals looked over. Writing that’s turned into someone else is going to be criticized and judged. It’s going to get feedback and suggestions.
Your journal is not one of these assignments. No one is going to read and offer editing suggestions. No one is going to correct grammar or spelling mistakes. The only person doing that is you.
Stop criticizing your thoughts. This will change your journaling game. If you're afraid someone you wrote about is going to find your journal and see your entry, don't. It's not like you're bringing your journal to work or toting it around like a show dog. So stop judging your thoughts and just write. Forget about spelling and grammar. Forget about being nice. Your journal is your space to vent, celebrate, and more.
#2 — Journaling at the wrong time
If you want to maintain a dedicated journaling practice, one of the things you have to do is journal every day. This builds it as a habit until it becomes second nature. This might also include journaling at a specific time of day. But one of the journaling mistakes people make with this is journaling at the wrong time of day.
And by that I mean you journal at a time that is not convenient for you. You do morning pages because you see celebrities you admire doing them. But your mornings are jam-packed. You don’t have time to do morning pages. Yet you cram it in any way, which leads to an unfulfilled entry.
When deciding what time to journal, find a time that works best for you. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing. If 11:00 pm is the best time for you, that’s when you should journal. It might be before your kids come home from school. Or after dinner.
Once a certain time no longer suits you, find a new one that does. Journaling should evolve with our routines. Especially since they can change without us knowing it.
#3 — Trying to sound fancy
Language is a beautiful thing. Some people have a knack for stringing together poetic sentences. I’m not one of them. My writing is simple, to the point, maybe with the occasional big word or two thrown in. What about you?
One of the biggest journaling mistakes you can make is trying to sound fancy for fancy sake. If you think your journal must be this conscious stream of beautiful sentences and language, you’re going at it all wrong.
A journal is a conscious stream of your thoughts. If you happen to write in beautiful sentences, by all means, don’t change something that comes naturally to you. But if you don’t have the strongest writing abilities, that doesn’t matter here.
Journaling doesn’t require you to be Ernest Hemingway or Sylvia Plath. It simply requires you to be you. So keep your writing simple if that’s the way you write. And if you want to throw in a big word or two, go for it.
#4 — Making it perfect
The perfectionist in me cringes at this one, but it’s true. Your journal doesn’t have to be perfect. And by perfect I mean, it doesn’t have to:
Be written in perfect handwriting.
Have no random ink splotches or crossed-out words.
In pristine condition.
Most of my entries are messy. And sometimes my handwriting is illegible. But seeing as that no one else is going to read this, I don’t mind.
When you stop trying to make your journal perfect, you’re able to capture your thoughts with more clarity. Because our thoughts come to us in jumbled fragments we should write them down no differently. Some of my entries are legit ramble fests where I start talking about one thing and end with another, unrelated topic.
That’s okay! Don’t let the perfectly preserved journals you see on social media derail you. I'm sure that person has a few entries that are full of scratches and rambled thoughts.
#5 — Lying to yourself
Whatever you do, don’t lie in your journal. If you’re thinking one thing and write down the opposite, you’re fighting against the nature of journaling. This is a safe space for you to lay it all out. Don't be afraid to write about how your boss, co-worker, or spouse is pissing you off. Be honest!
When you lie in your journal, you’re not giving your thoughts the release they need. Oftentimes, I just need to vent in my journal. And sometimes in those venting entries, I'll write some not nice things about someone. But after I’d write these entries I would feel better and forgive them.
So don’t sugarcoat your feelings. Write the truth in your journal. The minute you start lying in your journal is the minute you stop giving credit to your thoughts.
#6 — Treating it like a chore
You might think journaling every day is one more thing to add to your already full plate. You could have a hard time finding the right time to sit there and journal. When you do all you want is to get it over with.
When you start thinking of journaling as a chore — or as some other annoying thing in your life — you’re not going to reap the benefits. Considering it a chore will mean not putting in the appropriate amount of effort. You’ll rush through it and most likely your entries will all be similar.
Instead of calling it a “chore,” call it a “habit.” Habits are a more friendly term and are usually good things you incorporate into your life. You make it a habit to workout three times a week. You make it a habit of eating vegetables at dinner.
When you take journaling seriously you’re going to see and feel the benefits a lot faster than if you continue to view it as a chore. This is why it’s important to pick a time when you have nothing else going on. No other commitments. That becomes your journaling time and soon it’ll become a habit.
#7 — Buying expensive journaling equipment
Raise your hand if you ever purchased a leather-bound journal? I have. In fact, I used to buy journals and notebooks like they were going off the market. As a writer, that’s normal. Most of us have a notebook addiction, but I’ve learned to curve mine. And one of the journaling mistakes I see a lot of people do is waste money on expensive journaling equipment they don't use.
Just because you see someone on social media using a fountain pen in their journal doesn’t mean you have to. Fountain and calligraphy pens require a little training to use. You also have to be careful with the amount of pressure you write with. I tend to use a lot of pressure when I write so a run-of-the-mill ballpoint pen is fine for me.
The same goes for notebooks. The notebooks I use are from my old non-profit job. They’re nothing fancy. Just a plain old notebook. While leather-bound journals are nice, if you’re not comfortable writing in them, you won’t be inspired to journal every day.
Instead of spending money on expensive journaling equipment, use what you have. Again, no one else is going to read this so it shouldn’t matter if you journal in a notebook or on a legal pad.
If you’re a journaling veteran, have you ever made one of these common journaling mistakes? I know I have. But that’s okay. We learn from our mistakes and if you’ve done any of the ones listed above, you now have the solutions at your fingertips.
Looking for simple prompts to help you journal daily? Follow One Page a Day Journaling on Instagram. Every prompt posted can be answered in 3-5 sentences. If you end up writing more or less, go with it.
