How to Journal Daily for Those Who Hate Journaling

As I’m cleaning out my bookshelf, I stumble upon five unfamiliar notbeooks. I must have recieved these as gifts years ago. In browsing the first few pages, I find that they more of less follow the same structure.

1. The date
2. Some mundane activities performed on said date
3. A promise to keep up with the journal
4. Proof that I had not kept up with the journal found in the blank pages that followed

Within the past year or so, my struggles with my mental health reached peak intensity. I had always had low self-esteem and struggled with anxious tendancies. However, I started to feel depressed and had difficulty controlling my thought patterns. I decided, once again, that I would start journaling. I started, once again, writing long narritives of my day that didn’t vary much from day to day. I didn’t really understand how this was supposed to help my mental helth when I was just ruminating in the sad or anxious or angry moments of the day and found myself ignoring the good, happy moments. I eventually fell off of journaling, as I found that it wasn’t providing me with the joy that I was expecting it to.

A few months later, I stumbled upon the idea of a gratitude journal. Listing things to be grateful for seemed so easy to do and would help reduce my wallowing while journaling. However, after trying it for a few days, I found that I wasn’t doing it as consistantly as I wanted. I also felt like I needed a little bit more structure than simply listing things using bullet points. This is when I decided to try the technique that I am using now.

So for my journaling method, I use two journals that I keep by my bed. I know that may seem like a lot to keep up with and somewhat intimidating. However, I only use one everyday. The other is for when I really need to process my emotions. My daily journal is 4.5in X 5.5in black Moleskin notebook with lined pages. I find that it is helpful to have smaller pages so I don’t feel pressured to write a lot. My other journal is a bit larger measuring about 5.5in X 8in, also with lined pages.

Here’s what I put in my daily journal.

1. The date

I find that dating pages helps to keep me accountable for daily journaling. By no means do you need to journal daily, but I find that this method helps me to keep journaling and allows me to be consistant in my mindfulness practices.

2. Rose, Bud, Thorn

I worked at a summer camp while I was in college and this was a nightly activity that I would do with my campers so we could all process the day together. Basically you write your positive highlight of the day (Rose), something you are looking forward to (Bud), and one not so great thing that happened that day (Thorn). I try to keep these short and only try to write one in each category, but sometimes I write two. This not only allows you to document what happened each day, but it also lets you acknowledge how parts of your day made you feel. Say you had a really rough day. Writing something good that happened allows you to see that your whole day wasn’t bad. On the contrary, if you had the best day in the world, writing one not so great thing that happened helps to acknowledge bad moments that maybe we were ignoring.

3: Emotions

I have found that naming my emotions has helped me to understand and deal with them. I typically write down 3 or 4 prominent emotions I felt throughout the day. This also helps me to examine conflicting emotions that I felt and understand how different events and activities cause this tension.

4: Gratitude

Learning to find things in life that bring us joy can do wonderful things for our mentality. I normaly write down 4 or 5 things that I am grateful for. They can be specific things that I am grateful for that day, or things that I am generally grateful for. I normally keep these to one or two words to minimize the pressure of needing to write too much.

5: Affirmations

As I mentioned before, I have always has self-esteem issues. I started naming things that I liked about myself, even if I didn’t fully believe it. Eventually, after repeatedly naming these things, I began to gain confidence and really believe the things that I was saying. I also try to list 4 or 5 things every day that I like about myself, also keeping them short. I write these and my gratitude list next to each other in columns to save space.

This normally takes anywhere from 3 to 7 minutes everyday.

If I am writing in my daily journal and I feel like I need to process and event or emotion I am writing about, I write in my other journal after daily journaling. I find that keeping these journals separate helps me to once again, not feel pressured to write long-form journal entries every day in my daily journal. However, if having two journals seems too overwhelming, by all means keep your entries together. I also date my long form journal entries, but thats really the only structure I give them. Sometimes I write paragraphs, write poetry, or draw. I don’t do this everyday because I find that I end up dwelling on situations or running out of things to write. I also try to balance writing about sad or anxious situations with writing about exceptionally happy times.

After staring this method of journaling, I’ve been the most consistant I’ve ever been with anything. I never imagined that journaling would become a part of my daily routine, but I find myself looking forward to relaxing, listening to some good music, and writing for a few minutes every night. I hope that you are able to adapt these ideas to fit your needs and learn to hate journaling a little bit less!