Keeping a daily journal can be a transformative practice. Setting aside some time every single day for self-reflection, creativity, personal growth, or a freeform brain dump can give you the clarity and stress-relief you need to take on life’s challenges.
But just like crowds at the gym after January first, many of us start with a daily practice, only to abandon it as soon as our priorities shift or life gets too busy. But consistency is key with journaling, and we’re here to share with you a few easy ways you can build a daily journaling practice. Soon, it will feel automatic: like brushing your teeth, washing your face, or craving something sweet after dinner.
The Power of Daily Journaling
Before we delve into some of our tips and tricks for maintaining a daily journaling practice, it’s essential to understand why writing consistently is so valuable. In addition to the many research-backed journaling benefits, keeping a daily journal can help with:
- Self-Reflection: A daily journaling practice provides a dedicated space to reflect on your thoughts, emotions, and experiences, helping you gain insights into your life, relationships, and personal growth. Your attitudes, moods, and stressors change from day-to-day, and keeping up with consistent reflection helps you manage that.
- Clarity: Writing in a journal can help you organize your thoughts and make sense of complex situations. It’s a way to untangle your thoughts and discover hidden patterns.
- Creativity: Journaling can unleash your creativity. Whether you’re writing, including photos and audio clips, or reflecting on memories, Day One helps you think outside the box when it comes to reflection. Creativity is a muscle, and it needs to be flexed: daily creative practices will strengthen that muscle, and you might find creativity leaking into your daily tasks at work and in life.
- Stress Reduction: Let’s face it: life is stressful. Daily journaling can be a therapeutic outlet to vent emotions, reduce stress, and process difficult moments in a private, low-stakes way.
- Goal Setting: Journaling can help you set, track, and achieve your goals. By tracking your progress and setbacks, you can stay motivated, focused, and accountable.
How to Establish a Daily Journaling Habit
Have we convinced you that journaling is impactful? Now, the challenge is finding time and space in your hectic schedule to make journaling a priority. It might seem like carving out enough time to reflect thoroughly isn’t possible between all of life’s conflicting priorities, but we promise, it is! Here are some of the ways we fit journaling in (almost) every day:
- Set a Time: Designate a specific time each day—even if it’s just five minutes—for your daily journaling practice. It could be when you first wake up (journaling in bed is a great way to start th day!), while you’re sipping morning coffee, during a lunch break, or while you cook dinner.
- Start Small: Don’t feel pressured to write a novel each day. Even a few sentences can suffice. The goal is to create a habit; even two minutes of writing is a lot better than nothing.
- Use Prompts: Some days, you may feel stuck or uninspired. That’s totally okay—the trick is to not let lack of inspiration keep you from journaling. Try responding to journal prompts on these days to beat writer’s block and get the creative juices flowing.
- Set a Reminder: You can set up journaling reminders through the Day One app, and prioritizing writing will never slip your mind.
- Make it Enjoyable: Pair journaling with a favorite snack, playlist, or beverage. Soon, you’ll learn to link journaling with something you love, and your journaling experience will become more enjoyable.
- Habit Stacking: Choose an existing habit or activity that you do consistently every day, like brewing your morning coffee or brushing your teeth, and connect your journaling to that habit. For example, habit stacking might help you commit to journaling for five minutes right after your morning coffee or right before you brush your teeth at night.
- Reward Yourself: Celebrate yourself when you stick to your journaling habit! Define your reward ahead of time, for example: if I journal consistently for ten days, I’ll watch an episode of my favorite show, or if I make it to a month, I’ll treat myself to a massage.
The key is consistency, but it’s also important to not beat yourself up about any lapses in your journaling. The reality is, you won’t always be able to make time for journaling, and that’s okay: don’t let missing one day cause you to abandon your daily journaling practice entirely.
Start Journaling Today in Day One
The Day One journaling app makes it easy to build and maintain a daily journaling habit. Daily journaling reminders, daily writing prompts, and journal streaks are designed to help keep you motivated and consistently journaling.
About the Author
Phoebe Kranefuss is a freelance writer and marketer based in Madison, Wisconsin. She’s a lifelong journaler and (almost) daily writer. She studied English Literature at Bowdoin College, is currently pursuing her MFA in fiction at University of Wisconsin–Madison, and has written for and worked with healthtechs including Monument, NOCD, and more.
