6 Proven Tips for Daily Journaling

Journaling can help you keep track of your thoughts, memories, and goals. It is truly for everyone! Like forming any other habit it can take some time to get used to adding it to your routine. 

Here are 6 tips to make it a part of your routine. 

Keep Track of Your Daily Habits

Journaling is a perfect way to keep track of your daily habits. If you’re someone who likes to walk or exercise for an hour each day, then write that down in your journal. It could also help you to plan out your day and make sure it doesn’t run away from you.

Related: How To Process Your Emotions in Healthy, Productive Ways

Embrace the Ritual

Journaling isn’t just convenient—it’s therapeutic. It can help you deal with stress and anxiety, improve your mood, and even relieve pain. It is also a form of self-care as well. Taking the time to write down how you feel can help you better manage your emotions instead of letting them control you. When you have something to write about it helps you process what happened at that particular moment so that when something similar happens again, you already know the answer. When we don’t journal, we often create more negativity in our lives because we don’t have a way to process or work through situations before they happen. Instead, writing down what happened and processing what happened builds positive moments into our life that we can look back on later when things aren’t going so well.

Find a Happy Writing Environment

This is the most important tip on this list. It’s good to be creative, but if you don’t like your writing place, it will actually make you not want to write as much. Find a place that makes you happy, whether it’s in your bedroom, living room, kitchen, or wherever else you write. Make sure it’s somewhere that makes you feel calm and relaxed so it can help with your creativity.

Related: 10 Easy Ways to Begin Practicing Mindfulness

Find A Journaling Method That Works For You

Journaling isn’t just about writing whatever comes to mind—it’s about finding a consistent and productive method for journaling that helps with creating memories or communicating things in your head clearly. Some research has shown that people who journal using free-writing methods are more likely to keep their diary up-to-date than those who use more structured methods. If you want to try out free-writing methods, try one of these:

• Write for 10 minutes without stopping for the next hour
• Write for 5 minutes without stopping for the next hour
• Write for 3 minutes without stopping for the next hour
• Write continuously from a specific word or phrase

Try Sketching and Drawing

Drawing and sketching are fun and easy ways to get into the routine of journaling as well. If you’re not sure what to draw about, try drawing the people around you and the things you see during the day. Drawing can also be a relaxing activity for people who don’t want to write down their thoughts all the time. It’s nice because it doesn’t require any thought or strain—you literally just have to pick up a pencil and paper and start drawing. Sketching can also help with creative thinking when you're stuck on an idea for something new that you need to come up with. It makes it easier for us to get out of our own heads and think of new ideas outside of our regular routine. And lastly, if you like writing but don't always feel like it, sketching or drawing can help trigger those creative juices again!

Related: Why Self Care Isn't Selfish

Add Some Humor and Color

Adding humor and color to your journal is one of the best ways for it to be more enjoyable and easy to read. It’s also important for journaling because when it feels nice to write about something, we are more likely to do so. When we do, we are able to process our thoughts better because they become easier to organize and remember.

Stick to the basics of journaling and you’ll be able to get more out of your own insights. So start writing today and reap the benefits in the long run.