How to Make Journaling Consistently Fun

Journaling is a practice that has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress, increase self-esteem and support your self-improvement journey. The benefits of journaling are many, but you can only see them if you journal consistently over a period of time.

I have a personal confession: I have journaled on and off. I can mention all the excuses that ruined my consistency, but really what it boils down to is that I was overcomplicating it.

Lately I have been feeling inspired to start journaling again, so I’ve collected some ideas to simplify it and make it easier to keep a consistent practice. I hope they’ll be helpful for you as well!

Have you never journaled and don’t know where to start? Below are a few ideas to get you going, but if you must take only one thing out of this, make it this: journaling should not be an added obligation. Journaling should be fun!

Creative Journal Ideas

In general, journaling ideas and prompts center around writing. You can write about events that happened in your life, in as big or small detail as you want, you can write about dreams and aspirations. The list goes on and on. But sometimes other creative journaling ideas to express your thoughts and feelings may come in ways that are different than words.
You can make drawings, paint, color, a collage, or whatever other art form you feel like expressing yourself with. You may be surprised to find skills you never knew you had, and it may help you journal consistently when you don’t feel like writing!

Journaling as a Way of Situating

Although journaling is not necessarily for setting and planning goals (although some people like to use it for that), it is a great way to situating where your life is currently at. And knowing where you are at in your life is key to goal planning. You can’t go from point A to B if you don’t know where you’re at.
Describing your current life circumstances, in each sphere (professional and personal). For each one, are you where you want to be? Next idea: write about where you would like to be on each sphere of your life.

Use it to Ask Questions

Do you know in what direction you want to go with your life? Do you know the steps needed?
Your journal is a great place to put those questions down. As a rule, the answers already lie in your, and the act of writing them down makes space for the answer to pop up. If you don’t know what questions to ask, feel free to use prompts. Going back to the basic and only rule: make it simple.

Use it as a Positive Log

What wins have you had today (or recently)? What have you achieved or learned that you are proud of?
While you are probably not going back and reading your journal entries (the benefits are in the process of writing it down), you can use these as a reference to when you are feeling low, to cheer you up and remind you that you’re actually greater than you think you are.

Best Time of the Day to Journal

Is it in the morning right after you get out of bed, so you can use your journal as a mind dump to start the day clear headed? Is it before going to bed, when you can write about what happened that day while it’s fresh in your mind?
The truth is, the best time to journal is whenever it works best for you. If you work best with keeping routines, set a specific time of the day and stick to it. If you work better with being spontaneous, follow the general recommendation of carrying the journal with you wherever you go, to ensure you have it nearby when inspiration strikes.

Keep a Gratitude Journal

Similar to the “wins” journal tip, keeping a gratitude journal is a great idea to integrate your gratitude practice into your journaling practice. I have an article on the benefits of gratitude here you can check out.
You can end your daily journal entry with one (or more) thing you are grateful for, for example. And remember, it doesn’t have to be something big for it to be worth mentioning: I am grateful for the sunny day outside today, for example!
If you do well with prompts, don’t leave without getting our free gratitude journal. Grab it clicking on the picture below!

Keep It Simple

While there are really no set rules to how you should journal, I say the only “rule” should be to keep it simple.
Get one or all of the ideas above. Use a formal notepad or a cheap one. Write on paper or online. Set a timer for a routine daily time to journal, or do it when inspiration hits (as long as you are able to keep it consistent). Use prompts or be more flexible with the type of writing – or other form or journaling – you do.
If you miss a day, don’t beat yourself down. Just get back to it the next day. Keep it small if that makes it easier. One sentence counts, if that’s all you can do in one day. On other days your writing will be more prolific, so don’t worry.

To-do List Journal?

You are encouraged to write about things that you are concerned or worried about in order to get them out of your mind. And those things could include things that are on your to-do list weighing you down.
Try to avoid using your journal as a to-do list, or calendar, though. You can use other tools for that. Ideally, the things you jot down in your journal will be private and not serve as a reference for later, unless you wish to see how you’ve progressed personally over time.

Most importantly, have fun with journaling! It should be a practice that you can easily integrate on your daily life, so make it easy, start small. Use whatever tools you want to make it an easier and more enjoyable process.

I gave up journaling a few times because I felt like I had to do it in a certain way. I even tried bullet journaling then gave up because it didn’t look as pretty as the bullet journals we see on Pinterest. I’m going to get back on my journaling practice now that I’ve debunked this myths and learned these ideas. Will you?