I Despised Journalling So Much, I Forced Myself to Journal Even More

3 experiments I tried that made journalling and diary-writing a little more bearable

Photo by FuYong Hua on Unsplash

The worst part of my day is sitting on my bed, notebook propped on my lap, black pen spinning in my hand and my mind going:

What the hell am I supposed to write today?

I teach creative writing and English to both children and teenagers. My weeks are inundated with essays, marking and figurative language. Cultivating an interest in reading and writing is a goal monumental to my teaching. So I write short stories, for myself and for my students. For their interest, for their learning, for my creativity. Fiction writing was a piece of cake.

Journalling? Oh boy, that was a whole new minefield that terrified me.

For me, journalling meant processing my thoughts and noting down introspections from my day, and to continue this habit on a daily basis. I wanted my journalling to seem insightful. Deep. Profound.

The pressure I placed on myself to journal something amazing each time I opened that empty notebook made me freeze. It made me hate journalling.

I was aware of the positive impacts of journalling. I wanted to journal. I wanted to see my thoughts in front of me and dissect the reflections to create new thought processes.

However, I needed a guide.

A guide to journalling.

So I decided on a three-month-long experiment to learn how to journal more easily, with one experiment each month.

Experiment 1: Set a timer for five minutes

When I encourage my students to read, I tell them to start with one page every day. It is easy, it is achievable and it shows progress.

Journal one page a day? Not so much.

Setting a timer helps to shift your mindset from needing to fill at least one page of thoughts, to instead, keeping it within a time limit.

On some days, five minutes yielded two lines. On other days, five minutes would create half a page.

When the five minutes were up, a rush of dopamine would hit me for achieving that goal.

You start to equate journal writing with positive experiences and intrinsic rewards. The perfect recipe for maintaining a daily habit.

Did my liking for journalling increase after this? Definitely.

Experiment 2: Have only one question to answer every day

The most difficult part of journalling is finding a piece of thought, event or observation to write about.

Remove that hurdle by choosing the same question to answer every day.

My question: did today bring me closer to my goals?

I loved that question. Focusing on one aspect helps. It provides structure, clarity and conciseness.

Here are more question that you can try:

1. Rate my day from 1–10. What could have made it better/worse?
2. One new fact that I learned.
3. Would I do a do-over of today? Why or why not?

Experiment 3: Write a line from a book/article I was reading and comment on it

By far, this was my favourite experiment.

I keep a resonance list; lines from all forms of media that resonated with me. That evoked some form of thought or reflection from me.

So for this experiment, I would write down those thoughts and reflections based on one line I had encountered that day.

Here’s an example:

“Plug that hole in your face — that one, right in the middle of your face, and watch how much better you get.” — Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday. I keep attributing my mistakes and failures to my lack of ‘specialness’. I should find ways to fortitude my mental resilience and to stop the complaining and just do the work.

It was fun, it was easy, it was thought-provoking.

I can safely say that the process of journalling became easier — or dare I say, enjoyable — through these little trials and errors.

And so, I encourage you to give one of them a shot for at least two weeks.

What other experiments have you tried to make journalling and diary-writing a more bearable experience for yourself?