TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR JOURNALING

Keeping a journal has lots of benefits and one of the most important of all is that you’ll embark on an interesting journey of self-exploration and self-discovery. Sometimes putting pen to paper can work as a brain dump, sometimes as a tool for envisioning and planning and sometimes it can be just an effective way to record live events that touched you emotionally in some way.

Journaling is something that comes naturally to some people but some will be blocked by the blank whiteness of a page. What to write about? Are there right and wrong ways to journal? there is such a variety of planners and notebooks out there, how do I choose? If you’re new to writing journals this article was designed to introduce you to the basics of journaling and tech you how to create this beneficial habit in your life.

What’s Your Journaling Style?

The first question to clarify when you are new to journaling is what style of journal fits your needs best. You’ll see that many posts will tell you to answer at this stage: Why do you want to journal? The simple as this question seems it gets tricky when you try to answer it. No one really knows on the beginning the answer so you’d better not stress yourself at this stage with such specific questions. It might serve you better to take a more general approach and ease into the specifics of why you are journaling as you go.

There are many styles of journaling bringing into existence various types of journals. The list below focuses on those style that seem to us to be the most effective and efficient journaling styles out there:

• Concentration enhancing or mental journaling – records thoughts
• Emotional , inspirational, expressive journaling – records feelings
• Creative, vision, scrapbook -journaling -records creativity, ideas

Most journals will focus on these 3 aspects of ones personality : the mental wellbeing, emotional wellness and expressing the creative flow. Journals can be simple or a complex combination of these aspects. Some people like to have it all in one journal and some have separate journals for each aspect. There are no rules here. The idea to take with you from here is that journaling is a conversation that you are having with yourself about thoughts , feelings, visions, ideas. You can keep this discussion minimalistic and structured in style or you can do it in a fun and creative way.

Journaling is a conversation that you are having with yourself about thoughts , feelings, visions, ideas. You can keep this discussion minimalistic and structured in style or you can do it in a fun and creative way.

S.K.Benko , anchortobloom.com

NOTE : As you could notice goal setting and planning was not included here. It was intentionally left out because in my opinion goal setting and productivity planning is a different category. If you are more interested in starting a planner for realizations, success and productivity the… article was designed to introduce you to the efficient ways to use planners. To read more on journaling styles you can check THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE 3 MAIN STYLES OF JOURNALING.

Starting a Journal

1. Prepare a journal – gather the supplies
2. Decide on the time and the time limit – specific time each day
3. Create a structure ( or not) – this is personality dependent
4. Set the stage – clear your head and focus on what you are doing
5. Write your fist entry – and than keep on writing each day

1. Gather the supplies

To start a journal all you need is a simple booklet/ notebook and a pen or some other writing tool. Of course you can go more creative in the future but for the beginning a pen and a paper will do.

What to bare in mind when choosing a notebook for journaling?

The first thing to clarify is whether you want to carry with you the notebook or you’ll keep it in the privacy of your home. If you plan to journal only in the morning and at night at home, than you can go for the more massive sized, larger notebooks. My advice is to keep your journal private and personal so don’t take it out of the house where it can be lost, mostly if your in the process of healing, doing emotional journaling or vision journaling. You don’t want these things read publicly.

If you plan to carry your notebook with you it is better to choose a smaller, thinner journal that fits in your purse, bag or pocket. You would want to do this when your journal is safer with you than left at home, or when you want to record your thoughts as they arise. This type of journal is more prone to get easily damaged due to the heavy traffic day by day, so it is advisable to choose a hard covered or leather bound notebook for this purpose. It is a good idea to carry with you a smaller sized notebook A5 size or less, to jot down ideas during the day and than work them out in more detail when you get home. A digital journal works also fine for this purpose.

Structured or blank notebook is the second question that arises most often when you are choosing notebooks. A lined notebook can be better for writing, however it can also feel limiting and school like. Ruled or dotted notebooks can be good when you are journaling for mental hygiene or when you are recording lists of gratitude. A blank notebook can facilitate creative flow so it is better for those who prefer art, drawing mind maps, creating photo vision boards.

2. Decide on the time and the time limit

Journaling is basically the practice of keeping a journal. This means that over time you will develop a habit of writing journal entries. To start this habit of journaling you can set aside a specific time each day for journaling only. It doesn’t have to be hours. Most people will find it enough to write for 5-15 minutes each day and maybe spend a little more time on journaling on the weekends. You can start with something like 8 minutes, which is about half a page writing in a regular notebook.

Journaling is the practice of keeping a journal.

Is it better to journal in the morning or in the evening?

Once you know how much time you have for journaling the next thing to decide on is when to do it during the day? The morning hours an the relaxed evening hours can be both effective times to engage in journaling. Whether morning or evening habits are more efficient, is an ongoing debate between experts but maybe the best it to just stick with the middle road. You could journal a little in the morning and a little in the evening to get the most out of this habit.

Morning Journals.

Journaling in the morning is best for vision and mental health. Morning hours are a transition time from passiveness into activeness so you can benefit from a journaling practice that follows this rhythm. Start more general and non day specific and go towards more that is relevant for the day.

You could keep a dream journal for all those vivid, interesting or scary dreams. As you put them on paper their emotional impact fades a little and you can look at them with more awareness.

You can write a short list each morning of what you like, what satisfies you where you are. Remind yourself how much is going well and from the heights of that good feeling you can jump into planning the day. You can go through your vision journal, write out intentions, affirmations to get your thoughts and energies flowing and then proceed to planning out the day, activities, food , fitness in your planners.

Evening Journals.

Journaling in the evening is best for emotional wellbeing and mental health. Evening hours area transition time from activeness into passiveness so you can benefit from an evening journaling habit that follows this rhythm.

Journaling at night, or in the evening can be as simple as keeping a diary. You can go through your planners, calendars to finish off the day and than take out your journal to have a friendly conversation with yourself about those daily events. You can use prompts, questions, sentence stems for structuring your day or just write freely without restricting what wants to come out. How to write freely? Imagine that a good friend just called you on the phone in the evening and you have 10 minutes to tell them about your day. You don’t need structure to talk to your friends and journaling is a similar friendly conversation that you have with yourself. Of course, you will tend to be more honest and direct about your feelings when you reveal them to a blank page instead of a person.

For those interested in personal development the evening hours can be a good time to take a problematic issue from the day and try to tell a better feeling story about it. It is not about fixing things or finding a solution immediately. It is more about chilling out and letting things settle. The best is to set a time limit of less than two minutes to write out all that is disturbing about that situation or person, and than try to write really slowly and beautifully all the opposites of those sentences. (for example: If someone is rude to you – write I like nice people)

Evening journaling can be about self-esteem and self-acceptance. You can write out 5 things that you were good at today. The danger here is that what didn’t go well will jump in immediately as you approach this subject and you have to stay guard and focus on the positive self talk. You can try and see how it goes and if you tend to end up in the negatives than it’s better to leave out these type of journaling for a while.

The same is true for the daily gratitude lists. If it feel right to write nice things, focus on those facts in your reality that feel good to you than do it because it benefits you on the long run. If you are going trough really challenging times it might be difficult to find the feeling of satisfaction and gratitude. It is better to capture moments in this case. Just write one “capture moment” : a food that tasted real good, a flower or tree that you noticed, a cute dog, etc. Everyone has at least one good moment so find yours.

For all the creative souls out there evening journaling is like a hobby. You write a little , you paint a little, you glue in things from brochures, magazines or ticket stubs. It is a great way to finish off your days in a good mood.

Last but not least, it is meaningful to date every entry. Setting a time for journaling is a good way to motivate you and integrating journaling time into your existing routine will make it more sure that you’ll practice it daily.

3. Create, choose a structure

Starting the journaling process is difficult because you don’t really know how it is easer for you to write. When you look around for your first journal you will see endless variations of templates for sale or for free download? How to decide what is best for you? Well, there is no way I can tell you or any other post can tell you the answer to this. You got to find it trough testing and experimenting.

Some people prefer structured templates to have some logic and an organized structure for their thoughts. Others find templates rigid and prefer free writing on blank pages so thoughts can freely flow. Free flow is more natural to your mind, but it can end up in notebooks looking like useless mess. (You know that feeling when your mind is going on and on about a topic getting nowhere. ) Free writing is the best way to mentally slow down and enhance your emotional state. Free writing can be structured by adding a page limit or a time limit.

As a beginner in journaling it is good to experiment with both templates and free writing. The structured part can consist of writing lists, creating inventory entries about life events, filling in blank spaces in pre-written sentences. The free writing part can be prompted, answering questions, continuing sentence stems. Another way of free writing is when you don’t want to write about your day because what you are journaling for is personal development and mental clarity. In this case you can choose an inspiring thought like a quote, an affirmation or even a picture, a painting, a book or a movie and write down your ideas about it in a discussion style. Why you like it? What you like most about it? The more you practice free writing the better it will feel.

When you have experimented a little with free writing and prompted writing and had some experience with filling in journal templates you can choose more wisely which structure fits you best in the morning, which is best for evening journaling and what serves you in recording ideas, thoughts during the day.

MORE : Main Types of journals and Writing Techniques

4. Set the stage

As a beginner journal writer you will probably feel a little embarrassed because you are doing something new. Because of this it is best to find a quite time and place for journaling. Choose a time when you can be alone at home, undisturbed. Journaling is much like a private phone conversation with your best friend, that you don’t want other to hear. So find a similar peaceful place for writing as you would find for a private phone conversation.

As you get more experienced in journal writing you would write everywhere. You’ll find it usefull to have a digital journal or a small notebook that you can carry around and take out instead of your phone, when you have to wait in an airport for example. Of course this isn’t about personal , emotional journaling but you can take those ideas that you jotted down during the day and turn them into art, stories, poetry, music in your more detailed journal later.

A good way to get into the mood for writing is to do it after a deep breathing exercise or meditation. Free flow is natural to the mind and as you meditate you slow down the river of mental processing. Get in the zone, breath deep , meditate and you’ll find interesting that you somehow always come up with an idea to free write about without prompts and questions.

5. Write your fist entry

All this is useless so far if you don’t write your first entry. If you feel like journaling but you are a bit anxious and blocked by blank pages it is good to start decorating you journal at this stage. Make it feel your own. Many people have 10s of yearly planners and journals laying around forgotten in the depth of the drawers because they are too pretty to write in. Don’t be afraid to “destroy” the perfection of a blank page or a well decorated journal with your words.

If writing scares you than try being more artistic and choose a drawing template where you don’t have to tell how you feel, but you are coloring based on your feelings. It is also a way of self-expression. Once you’ve started, don’t go back to edit it. Accept it and create a new and better version next time. Don’t think too much and do not rewrite sentences, rather explain them better in another sentence and let it flow.

Conclusions & Suggestions for New Journal Writers

Journaling is discussed on this blog as a tool to self knowledge and self expression and in this sense the best way to start journaling is by starting it as you can. Do what you can now, have fun with it and go on into more complex journaling as you gain more experience in the field.

Suggestions:

• Protect your privacy – keep the cover & title or personal, emotional journals discreet and simple so it doesn’t raise unwanted interest
• Sometimes, journaling itself can help you work through struggles and challenging times, but don’t hesitate to seek out additional, professional help for processing difficult thoughts and emotions 

Credits and further readings :

Images: P1 pressfoto ; P2,P3 freepik