How to start journaling, and keep going

Start smaller than you think

The usual way to start a journal is to buy a nice notebook and promise yourself a page a day. A page is a lot. On a tired Tuesday it feels like homework, so you skip it, and a skipped day makes the next one easier to skip.

Promise one sentence instead. One sentence is too small to put off, and it still counts: a year of single sentences is 365 days you would otherwise have lost. Most days you will write more than one, because starting was the hard part. But the promise stays at one.

Pick one time of day, and tie it to something you already do

“I'll write when I have a minute” does not survive a busy week. Choose a moment that already happens every day and attach the journal to it: after you brush your teeth, when you get into bed, with your first coffee. The existing habit does the remembering for you.

Evenings work for most people, because the day is still fresh. Mornings work too. Plenty of people write about yesterday over breakfast, and a night's sleep often makes it clearer what mattered.

A first week, one line a day

If you'd like to be told exactly what to do, do this. Each one takes about a minute.

1. Day 1 Write one sentence about today. That's the whole entry.
2. Day 2 Name one thing you ate, saw or heard that you liked.
3. Day 3 Who did you talk to today? Write down one thing they said.
4. Day 4 What took up most of your attention today?
5. Day 5 Write about something small that went well.
6. Day 6 What are you looking forward to this week?
7. Day 7 Read your six entries. Write a line about what you notice.

What to write when nothing happened

Something did. It just wasn't news. The entries people treasure years later are almost never the big days, which they'd remember anyway. They are the ordinary ones: what was for dinner, what the baby couldn't say yet, what the commute was like at the old job. Write down the plain facts:

• Where you were, and who was with you
• One thing someone said
• What you ate, watched, read or listened to
• What you were worried about, and what you were looking forward to

You don't need to be insightful or write well. Nobody else is going to read it.

If you miss a day, don't catch up

You will miss days. The mistake is treating a gap as a debt. Sitting down to reconstruct last week is a chore, and a journal that feels like a chore gets closed for good. Write today's entry and leave the gap alone. Yesterday is close enough to fill in the next morning. Anything older, let it go.

Paper, an app or email

The best place to keep a journal is the one you'll still be using in three months. Each has its trade-offs:

• Paper. Quiet, private and pleasant to write in. Hard to search, easy to leave at home, and gone if you lose it.
• A journal app. Always in your pocket, holds photos, and can show you old entries. You have to remember to open it.
• Email. A message arrives asking about your day and you reply to it. Nothing to open and nothing to remember, which is why it tends to last.

70 journal prompts for when you're stuck

Pick one. Answer it in a line or two. That is today's entry done. They're grouped by what kind of day it is.

What a year of journaling gives you

Not much, at first. The first month of a journal is the least rewarding, because you remember all of it anyway. The return comes later, and it compounds. A year in, you can read what an ordinary Thursday was like. Five years in, you can watch yourself change your mind, see how long a hard stretch really lasted, and find the exact words your kid used at three. None of that is available to buy later. You can only get it by having written it down at the time, a line a day.

Common questions