Journaling is a free way to pretend you're talking to a friend when you're really talking to yourself. It's just the two of you. You are on your own. All by myself. All joking aside, journaling will be extremely beneficial to you throughout your life, particularly during this strange and unprecedented year. While there is no right or wrong way to journal, there were some errors I made in the beginning that kept me from forming a healthy journaling habit, but as I corrected those errors, I really got rolling and have now filled up this entire enormous box of journals.


Before we get started, though, if you want some inspiration and accountability, I recommend starting with something really easy. All you need to do now is a form that habit.



 

Step one: Obtain a notebook. 


Step two: Write in a notebook regularly. 


Try to do this at the same time each day for the best results. After you wake up in the morning or before you go to bed both work well because journaling is less likely to be pushed aside by the rest of the day's activities. Make whatever necessary arrangements to remind yourself, such as setting a reminder on your phone or leaving your notebook on your desk. You should keep a journal on your bedside table so that you can start writing as soon as you wake up. Once you've developed the habit and learned to love journaling, you may not require as much discipline since you'll find yourself straying over to your journal on your own. However, it is quite beneficial in the beginning.


Speaking about notebooks, I believe that having a lovely notebook is beneficial; it does not have to be expensive; rather, it should be something that you would not ordinarily use for school or work. That way, once you sit down with your diary, you receive a little bit of pleasure and a sense of luxury, and your brain will begin to associate that particular unique notebook with the habit of journaling so that whenever you see it, your brain will think "time to journal."



It's entirely up to you whether you want to take your journal with you or journal on the fly. It depends on what you write in there; I wouldn't bring my journal out of the house, but if it's more of a daily log with nothing super private or sensitive in it, you might enjoy having it with you throughout the day so you can write whenever the mood strikes, or you can keep it in a safe under lock and key if you have like, state secrets.

 

Another thing I would suggest is starting small and having modest expectations when you're first starting out. It's a good idea to stop yourself before you feel like you've accomplished something when you're creating a new habit. So, for example, when you first begin meditating, you may feel as if you could meditate for five minutes. You don't use up all of your original enthusiasm, and part of it is saved for the next day. 


Similarly, if you've recently started journaling, try to stop before you feel like you've written everything down. This may seem counterintuitive, but you'll have a loose thread to take up the next time you journal, and you'll be more excited to start writing the next day because you didn't complete the day before.


You don't have to record everything in your journal, either. When I first tried to start journaling, my biggest stumbling block was trying to write a minute-by-minute account of all of my daily activities and feelings. It began to feel like a chore, and I despised it because I felt like if I missed anything, I was somehow failing at writing, and I was simply losing all of these memories that were actually rather mundane.




So, after many years of journaling, I've learned that if you don't feel like writing about an incident, don't. There are certainly significant occurrences that I haven't included in my journals because I didn't feel like writing about them, and that's fine. I didn't feel compelled to relive or process them, thus there was no need for me to write about them. I was able to make journaling a habit because I didn't push myself to do it, and I only wrote about things I genuinely WANT to write about.


Another typical stumbling block for many when they first begin journaling is the belief that if they aren't writing very deep, insightful, straight from the heart, emotional, raw passages, they aren't doing it well. No one is going to quote your journal because you're not writing a book here. This is solely for your use. I believe journaling is similar to meditation in that the more you practice it, the better you get at it; yet, unlike meditation, the goal isn't to achieve a totally clean mind.


Similarly, with journaling, the goal isn't always to write extremely insightful stuff; it's the practice that matters. So, if you're just getting started, try writing a couple of sentences about what you did that day to establish the habit and to become more aware of what you're doing and what your thoughts are, and then, if you give yourself the time and the practice, deeper, more introspective writing will come naturally.   

 

You may also have a kind of daily question that you reply, based on whatever your work is at the moment, and so, this month, I concentrated on feeling better and working on my mind and making small positive choices that made me feel overwhelmed, but that did not.  Maybe it's helpful to distinguish a daily from a "deep thought" journal.


 So I did so since my morning and evening notebook and my daily questions are, quite honestly, full of repetitive, worldly walking, because that's just how my life is, all right? I would like, therefore, to make this unique diary, which is for special diaries. After a few therapy sessions, I started this and decided to have a devoted spot to write about the issues I discussed with my therapist in more detail.


I also believe that a journal like this could be an excellent location to write in if you take a large decision. Just like we talked about a sophisticated notepad, so you can sit down and write a newspaper. I think if you have a different notebook, it can stimulate you to think more deeply when you write it.




Another thing you may do is write your newspaper letters. It's certainly a bit longer, but it can offer some amazing insights and give you greater knowledge and empathy. How, now that you have greater information and self-consciousness, can you write a letter to your prior self? You can compose a letter to your future self and put down what you are planning to achieve when you arrive.


You can even compose a letter and never send it to someone you know, whether it's a letter of thanks, perhaps it's a letter of fury that helps you get pent-up sentiments and comprehend the issue better. Everything you need to get out of your chest. One thing I've done recently is to produce a newspaper jar. There are so many newspaper tips, and I think it's incredibly useful to collect those you enjoy, especially in one spot, at times when inspiration is needed. So I collected some ideas for a diary in a document and thought it was a fun approach to get a newspaper jar out of it.  


I believe that it can be good to focus on your whole life aside from evaluating yourself daily and clarifying your thinking, having such a lasting conversation. When you just begin, however, you don't have to think about such an extremely long-term large picture, just focus on building that habit and seeing where it takes you.