Making Journaling A Habit: Ideas for Daily Journaling
Hello Friends! This is Amanda aka @shenoteditall from the Archer and Olive Ambassador team! In todays blog post I’m going to talk about some various ideas for building a journaling habit and participating in daily journaling.
My favorite supplies for everyday journaling:
- Travelers size (TN) Dot Grid Notebook
To get into the meat of this post I’m going to first have to rewind a bit. Do you remember your first journal? Mine was a little purple book with a heart shaped lock and the word “Diary” scrawled across the front. Like any good 9 year old I dutifully started each entry with “Dear Diary.” I can’t remember what I talked about. Probably my crushes, friends, and cat. Really I probably wrote in it for a month and then it got forgotten about. Ten years later, during my freshman year of college, my journalling habit really took off. I had so many thoughts, emotions, and adventures I needed to record. The problem was I felt like I needed to get literally every detail on paper or I was doing myself a disservice by skipping details. As you can imagine, this approach caused me the quickly loose the joy of journaling.
I never lost my interest in journaling however, and in 2020, as the world slowly turned on it’s head, I suddenly felt the urge to get back at it. I knew I would get quickly overwhelmed if I tried to journal like had had done before so I began to research ways to get my thoughts on paper in a concise easy way that was sustainable everyday.
The first thing I needed to do was choose a time. Habits are built by using repetition, and so by journaling the same time everyday I knew I would have the greatest chance at being successful. Then I had to decide how I wanted to document my life at the moment. As I said before, long drawn out paragraphs detailing my life were not going to be sustainable. Instead, because life was so difficult and exhausting (I’m a first responder and 2020 was tough), I decided I wanted to just write about the good things happening everyday instead of focusing on the bad. Thus the joy journal was born.
So what is a joy journal?
Basically, before I go to bed every night I journal all of the little things that brought me joy that that day. It could be anything from a beautiful sunset, to a delicious lunch, to finding my favorite pen that I thought was lost forever. This isn’t a fancy bujo for me (although it could be if I wanted it to), it’s literally a journal that I keep on my night stand, right next to my bed. I pick it up every night after I crawl into bed and make a bullet point list of all the things that brought me joy that day. After a couple months of repeating this practice every night before going to bed it quickly became a habit and something that in and of itself brings me joy.
While the joy journal is my chosen outlet, it certainly isn’t the only option for easy everyday journaling. Here are a few other ideas…
A Thankfulness journal (Gratitude Journal): This really is an old standard when it comes to journaling everyday. Similar to my joy journal you simply list everything that day that you’re thankful for.
A Doodle Journal: You can doodle memories from that day, follow a prompt list, or just doodle whatever comes to mind. This is a really great option for people who don’t love to write but do like to work on developing their drawing skills or who just love to draw/color.
(Doodling Journal example courtesy of @JaneMaday)
A Weather Journal: As simple as it sounds. Write down the weather everyday. You could even add a doodle. Was it a super sunny hot day and your family went to the beach? Maybe add the story to your weather doodle.
A List Love Journal: Lists can be so fun to make and there are thousands of prompts out there. Top 5 favorite movies. Top 10 favorite animals. Top 3 smoothie flavors. The options are endless.
A Quote Journal: Music lyrics, literary quotes, pop culture. The options here are endless. You could simply write out the quotes or turn them into are like @nolalettering does (or do a combo!).
(Quote Journal example courtesy of @nolalettering)
A Memory Journal: This kind of documentation really draws on many of the other ideas on the list. With a memory journal you’re not limited to one type of documentation. You can draw memories, write about memories, include pictures…one of my favorite ways to document daily memories is taking a photo every day for a set amount of time (a week, a month, and year). By the end of that time period your left with something really cool!
If you would like to hear more about journaling everyday and making it a habit you can find a youtube video describing the elements below...
I also made a fun quote coloring sheet to help inspire your journaling journey!
I hope these examples help inspire your journey to help make journaling an everyday habit for you, and for those of you who already journal everyday I would love to hear your unique ideas for creating the habit!
Below you can find more examples from other Archer and Olive Blogs to help you on your journey:
100+ Guided Journaling Prompts For Your Mental Wellness Bullet Journal