For more than 10 years, I’ve written a few words every morning, and what I’ve learned from this practice has changed my life. My only regret is not starting sooner.
If you’re interested in adding a daily journaling practice to your life, these tips and tools can help you not only get started, but stick with it.
Why keep a journal or diary?
My diary is a tool for clarifying my thoughts, recording details of my life that are sometimes useful to learn about later, and reflecting. However, the importance of reflecting only became apparent after I had been writing for several years and was able to look back at my life to see it from a different perspective.
I have always been very hard on myself. I don’t make excuses and look at my failures with trepidation. Whenever I went back and read a series of diary entries related to the low points of my life, I was able to see them from an outsider’s perspective. I can see more clearly how difficult things were, or how many things went wrong at once, or the severity of an event that I may have minimized in that moment. This reflection has inspired me to be more compassionate toward myself and others. I have learned to cut myself some slack.
You may discover something else, whether a pattern of behavior or something else you want to change. Or maybe in retrospect you realize that the things you thought you wanted to change didn’t need to be changed at all. Journaling sheds light on all this.
Memory is fickle. The personal self-reflection that we do entirely in our minds is very different from what we can do with notes. In short, that’s why I’ve continued my daily writing for over 10 years.
What should you write in your journal?
Start each diary entry with the date and your location. Why bother if your computer or phone can add them automatically? some reason. First, you’ll never look at a blank page, and you’ll always know how to get started. Second, metadata can get messed up over time or during file transfer, so adding them manually is more reliable. Third, typing the date and location in the diary entry ensures that those very important pieces of information can be found.
What else should you write? A diary entry can be a simple brain dump. that’s what I do. Other things worth mentioning are major events, strong emotions, and hopes and dreams.
If following a method helps, you can try gratitude journaling. I know some parents ask their kids at the end of the day to reflect on their “rose, thorn, bud” – a highlight of the day, a difficulty, and something they’re looking forward to – which is an equally good diary formula.
How to make it a habit
The best trick I have for forming a new habit is to tie it to an existing habit. Find a habit you already have and combine it with a few minutes of daily writing.
I journal every morning as soon as I have my coffee in front of me. My coffee-making routine has been set as unchangeable, immovable, seven days a week. Even when I stay in a hotel, I bring a travel coffee maker with me and I write in my journal while I drink coffee.
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