1
Use a real journal
Giphy OK, possibly this one sounds obvious. It ‘s all besides easy to start up a web log or a Word document and call it a daybook, though. I mean, if that ‘s what makes you feel alive, do n’t let me stop you. But possibly, barely possibly, you could peel your poor people, bloodshot eyes away from a sieve for a hale five minutes and write on literal composition with your very own human hands. Buy yourself a reasonably, blank journal, or use that adorable leather-bound one that your aunt gave you in 10th grade. Make journaling something classify from your phone or laptop, and you might find that you actually crave the casual fail from screen-time.
2
Start first thing in the morning
Giphy What do you do when you wake up in the good morning ? Do you hop out of sleep together, cook to start your day ? Or do you spend a firm ten minutes scrolling through diverse social media sites, so that you ‘ve worked yourself up into a country of lift panic and despair before your first cup of coffee bean ? If you fall into the second category, try switching out your call for your journal. Jot down your dreams, or your plans for the day, or flush barely how you ‘re feeling that good morning ( spoiler alert : tired ), and soon journaling will worm its direction into your good morning routine.
3
Set reminders on your phone
Giphy If you ‘re the sort of person who likes schedules and setting alarms, then schedule prison term for journaling. Try setting apart five to ten minutes of your lunch break, or possibly a few minutes before bed. Set a timekeeper if you have trouble sticking with it for a whole 10 minutes—you can flush start with a hour or two of write, and increase your time every sidereal day. Do n’t look at your phone until the timer is up. It might feel cockamamie at first, but give yourself a few days and you ‘ll start to appreciate the mandatary breaks.
4
Find fun journal prompts
Giphy sometimes you have your cunning journal and your scheduled alarms all set, and you ‘re ready to sit down and do some serious journaling … but you fair do n’t know what to write. Writing about your day can feel boring or consuming. Writing about your feelings might be unmanageable at beginning. But lucky for you, there are many, many journal writing prompts out there to help you get those creative juices flowing. Start with a few playfulness prompts, and see where they take you.
5
Free write
Giphy alternatively, just sit down and write whatever. Trying doing a “ free write, ” which basically means jotting down your stream of consciousness until you feel like stopping. If it helps you to set a timekeeper or start with a stock phrase, like “ here ‘s what happened today, ” that ‘s wholly fine. But it ‘s besides highly fine to fair throw your random thoughts on the paper in the form of confused sentence fragments, bullet points, or incoherent scribbles. Turn off your inner editor program and go to town.
6
Ask yourself questions
Giphy Some people find it helpful to ask themselves the lapp questions every time they sit down to journal. You could start with the basics, such as “ How am I feeling ? ” or “ What did I do today ? ” Or you could get more specific with questions like “ What was the final amaze thing I ate ? ” or “ What ‘s the weirdest fact I learned this week ? ” or “ What was I doing this time end year ? ” You do n’t even have to ask questions about yourself, if you ‘d preferably fill your daybook up with eldritch facts and celebrity gossip and reviews of your favorite podcasts.
7
Don’t limit yourself to just writing
Giphy draw ! paint ! doodle ! Go multi-media and tape in letters, poems, ticket nub, loose act cards, emotionally significant candy wrappers, etc. Unleash your inner priggish child and press flowers between the pages. You do n’t need official scrapbooking materials or an art degree to make a journal that ‘s stuffed with art and memento. Do n’t worry so much about recording every single event of your daily biography. alternatively, let your journal be a individual place to experiment with different forms of saying.
8
Make lists
Giphy List your classes, your goals, your favored breakfast recipes. List the movies you see and the dream you have about that cunning barista at the corner coffee shop. List quotes you find prompt and books you want to read. Do n’t pressure yourself to write in wax sentences, but do break out the motley sharpies. personally, I like keeping my journal discriminate from my planner, but you might want to use your journal to organize your biography and express your creativity in one fell pounce.
9
Take your journal everywhere
Giphy For me, at least, prime journaling time seems to be on the metro in the middle of the day, or at the coffee denounce while waiting for a ally, or whenever I ‘m in public and I need to surreptitiously read a foreign ‘s conversation. You never know when the need to journal will strike, so it ‘s safe to just carry your diary with you wherever you go. If your daybook is far besides big and visualize to travel, then pick up a pocket-size notebook just to get in the habit of scribbling down your thoughts while on the road.
10
Write for yourself
Giphy Whether you have a desk diary chronicling your daily adventures, or merely a loose atomic pile of paper filled with sketches and birdcall lyrics, your journal is for you. You may be used to sharing life updates on social media, or writing posts on a blog, but give yourself permission to keep your journal well and truly secret. Allow yourself to write without thinking about who might read it. A journal is n’t a put for dressed work, after all, it ‘s a station to vomit up all your hopes and dreams after a long day interacting with early people. thus find a extremely dependable hiding place and let your journal be merely for you.
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11
Enjoy it!
Giphy Most importantly, you should like to journal. Journaling has all these big, anti-anxiety benefits, yes, but alone if you enjoy doing it. If journaling starts to feel like besides much of a job, take a break. Let your journaling time besides be the time that you remember to take a few deep breaths and stretch. Pair journaling with tea and your comfortable socks. If one journaling set about does n’t seem to be working, try another. It ‘s not about a perfect end result, it ‘s fair approximately finding a way to jot down your thoughts and/or screaming into the nothingness so you can make it through the day. Do n’t take it besides seriously, and do n’t forget to have fun .
