You might imagine journaling a little like this: A preteen girl sprawled on the floor writing in a pink diary with a gold lock and hiding it under her bed so her little sister won’t find it. And if that’s the way you see journaling, you may say nope. Not for me. “Dear Diary…” is definitely one way to do it, but it’s not the only way. In this post, I’m sharing 9 different journaling techniques to help you start a journaling practice. 

As a writer, it should be no surprise that journaling has been part of my life for many years. When I was little it was a pretty floral diary with no lock so I had to bury it in my pajama drawer so my brothers couldn’t find it. I’d write the details of my day in careful handwriting. As the years have gone by, it has taken on different forms in different seasons. Sometimes I don’t journal at all. Other times it’s like a flowing river. 

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from a link, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

What is Journaling? 

Journaling is the practice of writing down your thoughts, feelings, observations, or experiences. It can be a self-reflection practice that helps you take a step back from the events of your life and your feelings and emotions and gain insight and perspective. Journaling can help you reflect, set goals, prepare for your day, or keep a record of various pieces of your life. I process these things well as I write things down, especially long-form instead of typing. 

It can look very different for different people at different times of life, and it can serve different purposes. Do you notice a theme here? It’s unique to you. In some seasons, your journaling habit might include writing every day. In other seasons, you might only write once or twice a week or a month. Some days you might write for a few minutes, while other days you get lost in the process. 

If you like, your journal can be kept completely private. Or it can be saved and shared with your children and grandchildren–depending on the type of journal, you may want to consider sharing it.  

Benefits of Journaling

Journaling can actually be beneficial to your mental and physical health. So even if you don’t feel like journaling, you might want to consider adding it as a habit, at least occasionally. Journaling can help you

• Manage stressful situations and worry: A Michigan State University study found that your brain can only handle so many thoughts and emotions at one time. “Worrying takes up cognitive resources; it’s kind of like people who struggle with worry are constantly multitasking – they are doing one task and trying to monitor and suppress their worries at the same time.” Writing your worries down in a journal can free up those cognitive resources.
• Get to know yourself and your thoughts: Journaling can help you reflect on and make sense of your emotions, your actions, and your motives.
• Track progress and personal growth: Flipping back through the pages of old journals can help you see how far you’ve come over time. 
• Create an outlet for processing difficult emotions: There’s something about writing in a journal that no one will see that helps you name, face, and process hurt, sadness, or anger. I almost always feel a little bit better, a little more clear headed, after writing.
• Cultivate gratitude: Again, looking through the pages of your journal can cultivate a sense of gratitude for your place in life and the people around you. 

Even more, journaling boosts your creative thinking, improves memory and cognitive flexibility, supports healthy relationships, increases mindfulness, provides stress relief, and improves sleep. Have I convinced you yet? 

9 Types of Journaling

I hope you’re convinced that journaling can be a useful tool now, but you still might be thinking that you hate writing and isn’t there any other way you can get all those amazing benefits without having to write pages and pages every day? 

Don’t worry. There are probably as many ways to journal as there are people who journal. I think we all probably approach it a little differently, so I’m sure you can find a way that fits your personality and preferences. 

I’ll share a handful of ideas below. Feel free to combine them, use one one day, a combination of two the next, or try something completely different another day. Experiment and find what works for you. 

#1. Reflective Journaling 

Reflective journaling might be what you think of when you think of journaling. It is the process of recording and analyzing your experiences, thoughts, and feelings. This type of journaling helps you dig beneath the surface of your day-to-day thoughts and feelings, memories, behaviors, values and beliefs, and goals and aspirations. It can take different forms, “such as writing down observations about one’s day, describing emotions and reactions to events, analyzing one’s behaviors and motivations, or exploring personal values and beliefs” (source). 

You don’t have to fill pages with the minutiae of your daily life like your green breakfast smoothie  or the air temperature on your afternoon walk, and how that made you feel. That’s certainly an option, but you could also write about something that’s heavy on your heart, create a good things list, reflect on your faith habits, or explore why you’re resistant to start a new project. Any reflection works. 

#2. Frequency Based Journaling

Daily Journaling 

Daily journaling is the practice of recording daily events and how you feel about them–like a log of your life. A daily journal is a great resource for looking back on different seasons of your life, and it could be a wonderful gift to leave your children or grandchildren. You could also incorporate reflective journaling into daily journaling, reflecting on the events of your day, how you felt about them, and how you reacted. 

Weekly Reflections 

Weekly reflections might be for you if you prefer long periods of writing time and find you can’t or don’t want to squeeze that in every day. Or your weekly reflections might look like a record of your week’s events, challenges, or accomplishments. I like using a few prompts for my weekly reflections: 

• Where were 3 big accomplishments this week? 
• What challenges/obstacles did I face? 
• What lessons did I learn? 
• What blessings did I see? (See below for more!)

As-needed Journaling 

Maybe you only pull out your journal when you’re a little stressed about something or when something exciting has just happened! That’s okay, too. While there are proven benefits to journaling every day, you should work on creating a sustainable habit that you enjoy. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to do it like anyone else. 

#3. Gratitude Journaling

Gratitude journaling is any form of journaling that helps you reflect on the blessings in your life. It encourages you to look for ways to be thankful, and when you look back through the pages of your journal, you can see how God has been faithful in your life. 

Why journal your gratitude? Number one: God commanded this. Well, maybe not the actual journal, but the gratitude part for sure. And when God encourages us to do something (or not do something), it’s because it’s good for us. Science backs up God’s command. Studies have found that people who practice gratitude journaling have improved wellness, reduced stress, increased happiness, better sleep, and improved relationships (Day One, Gratitude Journaling). 

#4. One-Line-a-Day Journaling

This is such a lovely practice, and great for especially busy seasons. All you do is write one line or sentence every day. I’m starting this practice and look forward to this simple way to reflect on my day and especially to look at the rhythms. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like much, but I’m eager to flip back through the pages to see how much has changed and happened over the course of the year. I have a friend who has done this for years and says it’s a blessing!

You can even buy dedicated one-line-a-day journals that will span 3-5 years. Every date has a page and every year has a line on that page so that when you go to write in your journal on September 19, 2024, you see what you wrote on that day in 2023 and 2022. I love that rereading old entries becomes a daily practice as well as the writing. 

#5. Goal Journaling

You know how I love goal setting! Even with all the goal setting I do, though, I never considered it journaling. But in researching for this post, I found it mentioned several times. Goal journaling includes setting, tracking, and reflecting on the progress and obstacles of your personal and professional goals. It can be great for motivation and holding yourself accountable. 

Of course, tools like Cultivate What Matters’ Powersheets (not an affiliate link, I just love using these!), include prompts for reflection, rewriting your goals, and space to track your progress. You can journal your goals in any notebook, but I’ve personally found I enjoy having some prompts and structure to come back to when I stray from my goals. 

#6. Bible Journaling 

Bible journaling is a visual faith practice in which you write in your Bible. It can be as simple as highlighting a verse and writing a thought or note in the margin, or it can be as complicated as painting a full page with a visual reflection of the words written there. Bible journaling helps me focus as I study and remember what I’ve read and learned later. It can also be a beautiful gift to pass to children or grandchildren. 

#7. Free-writing

Free writing can be a great exercise to practice before you sit down to write something with more care–a Christmas letter, an essay, or a blog post. But it can also be a great practice to do at the beginning of your day. Julia Cameron calls these Morning Pages in The Artist’s Way, and talks about how effective they are at clearing the junk from your mind and helping you get to your deeper ideas and thoughts. 

This can be a great way to start journaling if you’re not sure where to start. Even if you can’t think of anything to write–your mind feels completely blank–you are allowed to write “I don’t know what to write” over and over again until the pages are filled. I have often started that way and found that after several lines my thoughts came loose and the writing began to flow. I used to use this method in the classroom to help students loosen up their writing muscles. It works. 

#8. Mind Mapping

Another easy and approachable way to begin journaling is mind mapping. Yep, that practice your high school English teacher made you do before writing an essay. In formal writing, mind mapping is usually the step I take even before free writing because it is so low pressure. You hardly even have to write. Simply write a word, circle it, write another word, circle it, and draw a line connecting them. (I love to use colored pencils or markers for this!)  Let your thoughts, feelings, and experiences spread across the page in a spider web. It will loosen your thoughts, and before long, you’ll have more mess on the paper than in your head. Perfect.

#9. Creative Journaling

Photo journaling, video journaling, sketching or doodling can also fall under the journaling category. So no, you don’t always have to write line after line on a blank page.

An art journal combines sketching and painting with writing. Photo journals incorporate photos with captions or short descriptions–great if you love visual storytelling. Video journals are great for those who love being on or behind the camera. You can document your life in creative, thoughtful ways and save them to share with your children and grandchildren. 

#10. Creating a Life Timeline

A life timeline is a list of the important events and dates in your lifetime. The year you graduated high school, the date you met your spouse, your address in New Mexico, or the details of your vacation to New York. Creating a life timeline might not exactly fall under the journaling category, but it is a way to reflect and keep a record of your life. Our memories are to be cherished and shared, especially the ones which tell the story of God’s faithfulness in our lives.

Why else create a life timeline? Having major dates and places recorded as a reference can be useful to have on hand (for example, when you’re filling out paperwork), tell your story in seasons of life can help you remember the Lord’s faithfulness, and getting it all down on paper can help clear your head of some of that clutter.

How to Start Journaling 

Identify your why. 

Why is this important to you? This will help you determine the right type of journaling for you, and it will help you stay motivated when you don’t feel like journaling. 

Find the right technique for you. 

Review the types of journaling above. Which ones stood out to you? Pick a few to try, and remember that you can mix and match for this season of your life. 

Decide on a routine. 

Daily? Weekly? Whenever you feel like it? Where will you journal? What time of the day? 

Gather your tools. 

Will you use your computer or will you use a pen and paper? If you choose to use a computer, make sure you have a program (the Notes app, Day One, or even just Word all work great). 

Gather your tools and set them up so that they’re easy to use when you’re ready to journal–reduce the friction to start. If you decide to journal first thing in the morning on your computer, for example, you should close all your other tabs the night before and make sure your journaling app is open and ready when you sit down to write. Or if you want to journal in the cozy chair by the front window, leave your journal and pen there (and maybe a blanket and a coaster for your tea). 

Set yourself up so that you can jump right into your journaling routine. 

Remember a few tips. 

No judgment. 

Journaling should help you reflect on your life and your faith. Its main purpose is in the present, so don’t worry about what your handwriting looks like or whether your grammar is flawless. Remember, no one has to see this, so relax and let it flow without judging yourself. 

Be realistic. Start small. 

When you’re just starting out, it’s probably not a great idea to start 5 different journals and dedicate an hour a day to writing in them. (Why do I know this? Been there.) Be realistic and start small. Even just 15 minutes of journaling can help ease feelings of anxiety and stress (source). 

Make journaling part of your daily routine. 

You can certainly choose to journal only weekly or as needed, but to get all the benefits of journaling, it’s best to do just a little bit every day. If you establish a regular routine, it will become like second nature–like brushing your teeth.

Use prompts or questions to get started. 

If you struggle to know what to write about, prompts can be helpful. Here’s a list of 50+ journal prompts for when you’re stuck. 

Use a journal template. 

You can take prompts a step further and use a journal template. These pre-designed journals include layouts with prompts to help guide your journaling. You can even buy planners that include prompts for gratitude, reflection, and goal setting. Other journals leave space for you to write how you felt that day, what and who you are thankful for, as well as blank space for you to free-write. 

Experiment with different journaling techniques. 

If you can’t settle on one style of journaling, experiment. Try one style one day and another the next. Have fun with this! You may even find you want to have a few different journals–one for free writing, one for recording your goals, and a one-line-a-day journal, for example. But again, remember not to jump into the deep end where you have a hard time catching your breath. 

Reflect and assess your journaling habit as you go along. 

Is this working for you? Could you try something different? Maybe a different time of the day or a different room in your house? Maybe you want to give Bible journaling a try for a while? 

The Important Thing

Did you know that God’s Word calls us to reflect? 

“Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.” Proverbs 4:26 

While this is not a specific invitation to journal, this is encouragement to ponder, to think, to reflect. 

It’s so easy to race through life without reflecting. I’ve had busy and stressful seasons where the only reflection I do is at two in the morning when I toss and turn and fret. You too? And that, my friends, is not a healthy way to reflect. Interestingly, I find this happens less when I slow down each day and ponder, reflect, and sometimes journal. This also helps me to focus on what really matters – or as I’ve often heard . . . The important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing. 

Here’s the most important thing. 

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:33. (When you have time, read the rest of this passage!) 

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