Writing a few minutes daily is a task that can transform your life. Find out how you can start journaling with just 15 steps.
Journaling is an activity that allows you to process your thoughts and emotions. It means writing down your thoughts, goals, feelings, insights, and so on to help you understand them better.
Apart from using it to put their thoughts together, many people keep a journal to cope with their different struggles, anxiety, and depression.
Writing daily helps you improve various areas of your life. The thing is, you don’t have to be a Nobel laureate to write in your journal.
You have probably heard of journaling. On the other hand, you might have found yourself writing about your emotions in a notebook. If this is you, you want to keep reading till the end.
In this blog, you will find out all you need to know about journaling. First, you will find out why it is important to keep a journal. If you are wondering if you need to learn how to start journaling, then this is for you.
Also, this blog provides you with 15 effective tips on how to start journaling, even if you do not love writing.
Article Contents
Why is it Important to Keep a Journal: Do You Need to Start Journaling?
Yes! You need to start journaling. Whether you are writing in a notebook or using a digital journal, the benefits of journalism are so many. Here are a few reasons you need to start keeping a journal.
Better Self Expression
Do you find it hard to express your emotions or thoughts? Do you often find yourself having pent-up emotions because you can’t express how you feel?
If this is you, then you need to start journaling. Keeping a journal gives you a safe and personal space where you can honestly write how you feel.
Anytime you find yourself going through a tough situation that you don’t want to talk to anyone about, write it out in your journal. This will help you deal with stress, chaos, and hard feelings.
To Improve Mindfulness
Journaling allows you to be mindful of your thoughts, emotions, and feelings so that you can learn to be more aware and embrace them.
When you keep a journal, you pay more attention to the present. By doing this, you can improve your general life because you’ll know what to work on.
By writing about your emotions and thoughts in your journal, you will gain more understanding and clarity about yourself, your personality, preferences, and values.
If you feel you are losing connection with who you are, then keeping a journal will go a long way.
You Will Become More Consistent
Whether you are writing down your goals or you are writing about emotions, journaling will help you to be consistent.
Keeping a journal will teach you a healthy habit that will impact your life positively. For instance, write down your goals and how you hope to achieve them in your journal. By doing this, you will feel more motivated to act on them because you can always go back to review your goals.
The more you write daily, the more consistent you will be. Consistency pays you a great deal.
Improved Communication Skills
Journaling will help you enhance your communication skills. When you write daily, you’ll find it easy to articulate your thoughts and emotions. So, if you want to get better at communicating both verbally and in writing, you need to start journaling.
Enhance Your Creativity
Journaling helps you stay creative and sharp-minded, especially if it is something you do daily. When you write freely in your journal, you will notice how ideas keep flowing.
If you’re doubting your creative strength, then you need to learn how to start journaling. Journaling is a good way to tap into your potential. It doesn’t have much to do with how well you can write. That’s if you’re willing to learn.
There are no rules to journaling. It could be something as simple as writing down your thoughts or significant things around you.
15 Tips on How to Start Journaling
Here are 15 tips to help you learn how to start journaling and get better at it in no time.
Ask Yourself Why You Want to Start Journaling
Keeping a journal sounds easy and interesting. However, it takes a lot to start journaling. You need to start writing daily if you want to begin journaling.
To do this, you need to know why you want to keep a journal. Do you want to keep your journal to express gratitude or do you want to use it to increase your self-awareness?
Having a strong reason will help you stay motivated, especially if you want to grow a journaling habit.
You could desire to write about your daily life, personal growth, or professional life. You can write about the present moments in your journal. You might also want to keep a journal to help you stay focused on your goals.
On the other hand, you can start journaling to process pent-up emotions or reduced feelings. Journaling can play a big role in your journey of self-discovery.
Pick Your Preferred Journal
You can’t start journaling if you don’t have a journal. It has a lot to do with having a writing routine. Hence, you need something to write on.
When picking a journal, you want to choose one that reflects your style. There are different types of journals that you could pick from. There are paper journals and digital journals. You can choose to use notebooks, a customized journal, or a mobile app.
If you want a physical journal experience, you might want to consider writing down your thoughts on paper with a fancy fountain pen. There is this feeling you get when handwriting your thoughts or ideas—it’s the best!
On the other hand, you can use mobile note apps or the notebook on your desktop if you want a digital journaling experience.
You are probably wondering if you can use both for your personal journal. The answer is yes! The whole idea of picking a journal is to help you find journaling more exciting.
Choose a Writing Time and Stick to It
You need a writing routine if you want to start journaling. If you will be writing daily, you need to choose a specific writing time.
Starting daily journaling isn’t something you do spontaneously. Having a specific time will help you to be consistent if you are interested in daily journaling.
You could start your day in the morning by writing in your personal journal. You can start with morning pages, whereby you write down your thoughts daily on three pages of your journal.
You can choose to write in your journal during a lunch break or in the evening. If you want to develop a regular journaling habit, you will have to make journaling a part of your everyday life. Choosing a specific writing time makes it easier!
Brainstorm the Topics You Want to Write About
You want to resist any pressure when you start journaling. Before you start writing, you will need small journal entries that hold the topics that you want to write about.
If you are starting journaling without any experience, you don’t want to be focused on writing about a specific topic. This could lead to writer’s block, a moment when you’re unable to come up with anything to write.
You might start journaling by writing down your thoughts or anything that comes into your mind at any moment. When journaling, you can write about stuff that ranges from mindfulness practice, thoughts, intense emotion, the present moment, personal growth, professional life, and so on. You can also write down your emotions and feelings to help you gain clarity.
Ensure that you start small and are consistent when you start journaling. You can focus on one topic for a while until you become better at it.
If you find it difficult to decide on the topics to use, you can use guided journals that feature prompts and exercises that you can practice with until you become better at journaling.
Write Daily
This cannot be emphasized enough! If you want to start journaling, you must be ready to write daily. It could be for a few minutes or hours, depending on how you want it. However, what matters is that you are writing daily.
You can start by scribbling down some thoughts in your head, or probably how you spent your day.
If you’re wondering, “What do I write in my journal first?” Start by writing down what you think, what you feel, or what you see. You can write about your present or past moments. The truth is, there are so many things you can write about.
Get Yourself Journal Prompts
Another thing you can do when you want to start journaling is to keep daily journaling prompts. Journal prompts include questions, ideas, and suggestions that inspire you to write.
You can find journal prompts in magazines or online. You can also try out journal apps if you need more guided help when you begin journaling.
The whole idea of using journal prompts is to help you boost creativity, especially if you are new to the world of journaling. Journaling prompts are even a perfect option if you want to develop a journaling habit.
Keeping daily prompts allows you to explore different ideas when you want to write in your journal.
Let Your Expectations be Realistic
Remember that journaling is more about writing down your thoughts, emotions, and your daily life. So, there’s a need for you to take it slow and steady.
Journaling isn’t about writing 1,000 words daily or five chapters every day. What matters more when you start journaling is that you are writing daily. You could set more realistic expectations by setting a few minutes a day to write in your journal.
It’s not how much you write that matters. You want to be committed and consistent when you start journaling.
Stay Away from Distractions
You don’t want to be distracted when journaling. Hence, you must create an environment that enables you to be creative when you need to write.
Know what works well for you. It could be a calmly lit room or listening to calm music. Just do anything that enhances your creativity.
When you start journaling, you might also want to carve a space in your room or outdoors where you can be relaxed and creative.
Write As You Think
You don’t want to overcomplicate things when journaling. You don’t need to strictly abide by any structure or rules.
You can start by writing down things that come to mind naturally. Don’t overthink it. One mistake many people make that you shouldn’t make is trying to be perfect when you keep a journal.
You might make a few spelling mistakes, or you might have to extend your writing time. It’s normal! You will improve the more you write daily.
Try Out the Stream of Consciousness Writing
Practicing the stream of consciousness when writing allows you to be free and expressive when you write.
You write anything that comes to mind when you want to write in your journal. This means you won’t overthink it or stress about anything.
You can do this when you wake up every morning by writing whatever comes to mind. You can start on a blank page and ensure you don’t stop until you get to the third page.
Remember, no pressure! What matters more is that you let it flow and keep writing.
Pay Closer Attention to Yourself
Practicing mindfulness will help you a lot when you start journaling. This has a lot to do with paying attention to your thoughts, emotions, and feelings.
The whole idea is to ensure that you are present in every moment, including the moments when you have intense emotions. Being mindful helps you become self-aware of your thoughts, emotions, environment, and moods.
By paying close attention to yourself, you will become less judgmental or insecure about yourself. Instead, you will learn to embrace yourself. By writing down your present emotions in your journal, you become more mindful of who you are, your best moods, and things that might trigger you.
Give Yourself Time to Become Better
Many people want to become a pro when they’ve only just started. The reality is that life doesn’t work that way.
If you want to journal like a pro, you must be ready to stay patient with yourself and be consistent. You need to understand that it will take you time to develop a journaling habit.
To get started, you need to create and maintain a writing routine. Write daily without overthinking it. Allow yourself to make spelling mistakes. Just ensure that you are writing daily in your journal.
Be Creative with Your Writing Style
Once you start journaling, you must be ready to be creative when you write. Feel free to experiment with different writing styles.
There are no set standards or rules that you have to follow strictly when you keep a journal. So, you can play around with the formatting, writing styles, and length when you write.
You can choose to draw visuals in your journal. Also, you can try using the questions and answers format. You can also write short-form and long-form entries in your journey. Just ensure that you are creative and that you’re being yourself.
Make It Personal
You want to practice free writing when writing in your journal. You can write pages talking about things from your everyday life.
You know your personality and style better, so you can always express that in your journal. You can keep an art journal if you enjoy art. You can pick a beautiful notebook if you like something colorful.
You can write about gratitude, self-awareness, professional life, emotions, or physical health. Don’t worry if you are doing it the right or wrong way.
Make your journal personal by writing honestly. Talk about things that are within your reach. Keep it as raw and unrefined as possible.
Always Celebrate Your Consistency
Commend yourself for every effort you put into journaling. You feel more encouraged to do better if you celebrate your wins.
The best thing you can do is set a milestone for yourself. Then, you celebrate yourself whenever you hit a milestone. It could be writing daily or it could be writing three pages daily.
You don’t have to feel bad if you don’t meet your target. Just keep going until you become more consistent.
Celebrate every progress you make. Celebrating yourself also helps you to fall deeply in love with journaling. Also, it helps you stay motivated till the end.
How Do You Start the First Page of Your Journal?
One of the challenges many beginners face when they start keeping a journal is figuring out where to start.
Now, you have a blank page that you are staring at. No idea of where to start comes to mind.
Here are a few ideas you can consider when you want to write the first page of your journal. This is only going to inspire you if you don’t know where to get started.
Feel free to be creative if you have an idea of where to get started.
- Write out the goals you want to achieve
- You can start with a quote
- You can write down writing prompts
- You can write a page talking about the purpose of your journey (Your Why)
- You can summarize how your life has been
- You can quote lyrics from your favorite song that relate to the journal.
While these are a few ideas to inspire you to start writing, you can do what suits you best. Make it personal. Show personality when you write. Don’t overthink it.
Don’t worry too much about what to write. Just write what comes to mind.
Wrapping Up
Journaling is an activity you will enjoy doing as long as you allow yourself to enjoy the process. See it as an opportunity to become self-aware and improve yourself.
First, keep in mind the purpose and goal you aim to achieve by keeping a journal. Ensure that you have a specific writing time to help you stay consistent.
More importantly, embrace imperfection when you start journaling. It’s normal if you feel what you’re writing isn’t good enough. You will make writing mistakes. However, that shouldn’t stop you from writing in your journal every day.
Remember that you can only get better at something when you allow yourself to make mistakes. So, keep writing until you get better at it. Ensure that you’re improving every day when you write.
When you’re journaling, you are writing for yourself. Regardless of whether you’re writing about gratitude, self-reflection, or your professional life, you are writing to gain clarity on your thoughts and emotions.
Finally, embrace the experience and enjoy every moment when you start writing. Don’t overthink when you want to write. Instead, just let yourself relax and write as it comes. If you can’t think of something to write about, you can get inspiration from journal prompts.
Have an awesome journaling experience!
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