How to Start Journaling: A Beginner’s Guide

You sit down with a pen and notebook, open to the first page, and suddenly your mind goes blank. If this sounds familiar, you’re far from alone.

Many people who want to learn how to start journaling have similar questions: What am I supposed to write? How often should I do it? Does it have to be meaningful?

The good news is that journaling is not a performance, and no one is going to be assessing your prose. It’s simply a time to explore your experiences, thoughts, and feelings in any way that feels helpful to you.

This guide will help you to get started, address some common obstacles, and build a journaling practice that feels supportive.

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What Journaling Actually Is

Journaling is simply an act of personal reflection. It can be a more traditional chronological account of everything that happened during your day, but there are many other options.

Journaling can also be about:

• Reflecting on your day
• Expressing difficult feelings
• Organizing a busy mind
• Exploring a particular problem or challenge
• Recording dreams or memories
• Tracking habits, moods, or goals
• Practicing gratitude
• Collecting ideas, drawings, quotations, and observations

In this way you can see journaling as a toolbox rather than a single tool. You don’t have to use the same format every time you write. One morning you could write down what you’re grateful for, and another day you might explore a particular feeling you’re experiencing.

You can write in a physical notebook or on a digital document or app, record voice notes, or use doodles, collages, or diagrams instead. Choose whatever makes you most comfortable. You don’t always have to stick to the same method—play around and see what feels good.

And finally, there are many benefits to journaling like helping people organize their thoughts and process emotions, but the effects vary between individuals. That’s why it’s best viewed as a well-being practice rather than a guaranteed treatment (Sohal et al., 2022).

How to Start Journaling: Set Your Intention

What sparked your curiosity in journaling? What made you think, “I should give this a try”?

While it’s not necessary, it can be helpful to consider why you want to journal and what your intentions are before you start. It could be:

• Quieting racing thoughts
• Understanding feelings
• Remembering more of your life
• Making decisions
• Noticing patterns, strengths, and challenges
• Paying more attention to positive experiences

It could also be a combination of these—it doesn’t have to be a single thing. However, knowing what you’re hoping to get out of it can help you to choose a starting point.

For example:

• Brain-dump if you just need to get your thoughts and feelings out.
• Record mood, activities, experiences if you want to notice patterns.
• Write down what you’re grateful for if you want to increase positivity and appreciation.

Your intentions can change, of course. Let the practice evolve with you and make it your own—there’s no right or wrong way to journal.

If you’re unsure, we have a list of journaling prompts that could help you to get started.

Set Yourself Up for Success

When you start journaling, you might come up against certain obstacles like time, pressure, perfectionism, or not knowing what to write.

To manage these, the following tips may be helpful.

Lack of time

If you feel like you don’t have enough time, remember that you don’t have to write much or for a long time. You could start by writing for five minutes or writing one paragraph or three bullet points.

You also don’t have to journal every day. A few times a week or whenever something is weighing on you may work better. The aim is to create a practice you can return to when you need it rather than forcing yourself to write daily.

Pressure

When something feels like a chore, you may want to avoid it. So, try to make it a pleasant experience. Find a comfortable chair, make a cup of tea, go to a café, sit in a park, or add anything else that can make the experience enjoyable for you.

Feeling like someone is going to read what you’ve written can also cause pressure. It’s difficult to be honest when you’re imagining somebody else reading your words. In that case, keep the physical notebook somewhere secure, use a password-protected document, or delete the entries after writing them if you value the process more than keeping a record.

Perfectionism

Your journal entries don’t need to have perfect grammar or be error-free or beautifully written. Fragments, repetitions, and crossed-out sentences are all welcome. You’re not writing a publishable memoir—you’re discovering what’s there.

Not knowing what to write

Staring at a blank page can feel strangely intimidating. Some people find using prompts helpful, while others might just start writing down the first thought that comes to mind and see where it goes. We’ll explore this more in the next section.

Importantly, your journal is supposed to serve you and not cause more stress, frustration, or pressure. If it starts to feel that way, change the format, shorten the session, or take a break.

How to Write Your First Journal Entry

Let’s start with some good news: There are no rules.

For some people, that might feel even more intimidating. If that’s the case, using prompts with guidelines might be the right choice for you.

You could also start with these sentences and see where they lead:

• Right now, I’m thinking about …
• Right now, I’m feeling …
• Something I need today is …
• One thing I would like to remember about today/this week is …

Or just write that you don’t know what to write and see where it takes you. For example, “I don’t know what to write. I don’t know what I feel right now. Part of me thinks this is silly but I want to give it a try. Yesterday this happened …”

A brain dump can be another useful strategy. That means writing down every thought as it appears in your mind, from serious concerns to trivialities like, “I need to change my sheets.”

Seeing them all written down can help you to consider one thought at a time, which may spark new insights and make overwhelming thoughts more manageable.

Noticing patterns

After a few weeks, you may want to look back through your entries with curiosity and ask these questions that can help you to notice your patterns:

• What keeps appearing?
• What tends to give me energy?
• What tends to drain my energy?
• What worries resolved themselves?
• What seems important to me?
• What has changed?

A Take-Home Message

Learning how to start journaling is about finding a form of reflection that works for you.

Whether that’s recording your day, writing down what you’re grateful for, or reflecting on deeper issues and memories, it’s entirely up to you.

Your journal doesn’t need to be eloquent, productive, or profound. It’s an opportunity to slow down and take a moment for yourself.

Set a timer for five minutes, use a prompt, ask yourself a question. Try different formats. Change direction if you need to. There’s no right or wrong way to do it.

What’s next?

You may want to start journaling for a specific reason, such as to help you cope with anxiety. If that is the case, our journaling for anxiety article is the perfect way to get started.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our five positive psychology tools for free.