How to start journaling

How to start journaling, step by step

Keep the first few tries small. The aim is a habit you'll come back to, not a perfect first entry.

1. 1Choose where you'll write. A cheap notebook, a notes app or a printed prompt sheet all work. Pick whatever you'll actually reach for.
2. 2Attach it to a time you already have, such as with your morning coffee, on the bus, or the last few minutes before bed.
3. 3Start short. Five to ten minutes is enough at first. You can always write more if it's flowing.
4. 4Write the date at the top. It costs nothing and makes old entries far more useful when you look back.
5. 5Answer one question rather than facing a blank page. 'What's on my mind right now?' or 'What was the best and hardest part of today?' is plenty.
6. 6Write without editing. Don't cross out, don't polish, don't worry about whether it's interesting.
7. 7Finish with one line about what you noticed or what you might do next, so the entry doesn't just stop mid-worry.
8. 8Every few weeks, re-read a handful of old entries. This is where patterns start to show.

If you'd like the questions done for you, a prompt sheet is the easiest way in. The self-discovery prompts are a good general starting point.

Types of journaling, and which prompts fit

There's no official list of journal types, and you can mix them freely. But knowing roughly what you want from it makes the first page easier. Here are some common kinds, with the free prompt page that fits each one:

• Getting to know yourself: questions about your values, what fills and drains you, and the stories you tell about yourself. Try the self-discovery journal prompts.
• Gratitude journaling: writing down a few specific good things and why they mattered. Use the gratitude journal prompts, and the gratitude journal guide for how often and what to write.
• Growth or reflective journaling: tracking how you're changing over time, from habits and setbacks to a look back at the end of a month. The self-growth journal prompts are built for this.
• Shadow work journaling: writing about the parts of yourself you usually keep hidden, starting gently. Read what shadow work is first, then use the shadow work journal prompts, which go from gentle to deep.
• Free writing or a brain dump: getting everything out of your head and onto the page, with no structure. The brain dump template gives you somewhere to put it.
• A feelings journal: naming what you feel, as precisely as you can. The feelings wheel and the list of emotions help when 'fine' or 'stressed' is all that comes.
• Expressive writing: writing honestly about a difficult or important experience, often for a few sessions in a row. This is the kind most research has tested. Go gently with it, for the reasons in the section on whether journaling helps.

Not sure which one you want? Start with the self-discovery prompts. If you find yourself drawn to what's going well, try gratitude next. If you keep circling the same reactions and patterns, shadow work may be where you're headed.

What to write in a journal when you don't know what to write

The blank page is often the hardest part of journaling. A question gives your mind something to grab. Here are ten starter prompts for the days nothing comes. Pick one, not all of them:

• What's taking up the most space in my head right now?
• What was the best part of today, and the hardest?
• How am I actually feeling, in one honest word? Where do I feel it in my body?
• What am I looking forward to, even slightly?
• What's something I keep putting off, and what's in the way?
• What did I do today that I'd like to do more of?
• Who did I think about today, and why?
• What would I say to a friend who'd had my day?
• What's one thing I'm worried about, and what part of it can I do something about?
• What do I want tomorrow to feel like, and what's one small thing that would help?

If even that's too much, write 'I don't know what to write' and keep going for two minutes. Or just list what you did today. Plain facts count, and they often lead somewhere.

Common beginner mistakes

If you've tried journaling before and it didn't stick, one of these may be why. None of them means journaling isn't for you.

• Aiming too big. Promising yourself a page a day, every day, makes the first missed day feel like failure. Start smaller than you think you need to.
• Waiting for the right notebook or the right mood. The habit matters more than the stationery, and you don't need to feel inspired to write three lines.
• Writing for an imagined reader. If you're editing yourself in case someone sees it, you'll stop writing the honest bits. See the FAQ below on privacy.
• Only venting. Getting it out can help, but writing the same complaint every night can turn into going round in circles. Now and then, end with what you could do next.
• Diving into the deepest stuff first. Starting with your hardest memory can leave you overwhelmed. Build up to it, or leave it for a conversation with someone you trust.
• Never re-reading. Old entries are where you notice how your thinking has shifted. Glance back every few weeks.

Does journaling help? The benefits, honestly

It can, but the evidence is more modest than many posts about journaling suggest. Most of the research isn't on everyday journaling at all. It's on expressive writing, which means writing honestly about difficult or important experiences.

The method was first tested by the psychologist James Pennebaker and Sandra Beall in a study published in 1986. 46 students wrote for 15 minutes a night, on four evenings in a row. Those who wrote about both the facts and the feelings of a traumatic event felt worse straight afterwards. Their blood pressure and negative mood were higher after writing. But over the next six months, they made fewer visits to the health centre. The authors called the findings preliminary.

Since then the method has been tested many times. In 2006, Joanne Frattaroli published a meta-analysis (a study that pools many studies) of 146 randomised trials. She found a real benefit on average. It was small.

So here's a fair summary. Writing honestly about your life may help a little, for some people, some of the time. Those trials didn't test diary entries or prompt journals, so the benefits often claimed for journaling (less stress, better sleep, clearer thinking) are plausible rather than proven. The most useful test is your own: after a few weeks, do you finish a session feeling a bit clearer, or not?

It's also worth knowing that journaling can feel worse before it feels better, as the 1986 study found. A heavy feeling after writing about something hard isn't automatically a bad sign. But it shouldn't become the pattern. Signs journaling isn't helping you:

• You're writing the same worry over and over, without getting anywhere new. That's rumination, and the page can feed it.
• You feel worse after most sessions, not just the occasional hard one.
• You dread sitting down to write, or it's become one more thing to fail at.
• Writing brings up memories that don't settle afterwards.

If that's you, switch to lighter or more practical prompts, take a break, or talk it through with someone instead. That's not giving up. It's using the right tool.

When to get more support

A journal is a self-reflection tool, not therapy. It's good for thinking things through, but it can't listen back, and some things are too heavy to carry on paper alone. If low mood, anxiety, grief or painful memories aren't lifting, or journaling keeps pulling you somewhere dark, that's a reason to talk to someone, not to write harder.

A GP or family doctor is a good first step and can point you towards talking therapies. If you ever have thoughts of harming yourself, please reach out now: call or text 988 in the US, call Samaritans on 116 123 in the UK and Ireland, or find a free helpline where you live at findahelpline.com. You deserve real support, not just a notebook.