Not too long ago I blogged about journaling and how beneficial it has become to my well-being in recent times, so I figured I should now take things a step further and detail how exactly I journal, in case it helps anyone out there who may be trying to get into it more. I will also include a screenshot from my own journaling at the bottom of this post, as a visual aid…
No further introduction needed, so here we go:
Start with small notebooks
The smaller the notebook, the less intimidating the act of journaling itself will be. Holding a rather large notebook in your hands may feel daunting, whereas a smaller notebook may feel like something that can be filled out rather quickly (because it can). Completing your first few notebooks quickly and seeing them getting stocked on top of one another in a short amount of time may help you to stay motivated to journal longterm. Pocket-sized notebooks also have the convenience of being more portable, of course.
Skip every line between sentences
So if I had to guess, you’ll eventually run out of small notebooks and start having to fill out larger ones that you find around your home. No sense in wasting money on other small notebooks when you have plenty of big ones that haven’t been used yet, right? Well, when you eventually get to this stage, and still feel intimidated by normal, non-pocket-sized books, simply do what I do and start skipping every line between your sentences. Nobody ever said you had to fill our every line, after all (assuming you’re even using lined paper to begin with). Alternatively, you can simply skip every other line, even if your sentences are long enough to take up more than one line at a time. The handwritten version of “double spacing,” if you will.
Bullet-points/ incomplete sentences is fine
By skipping every line between sentences, you’re already doing a form of bullet-journaling, sorta. Therefore, I would argue that forgoing grammatical-correctness and simply writing in incomplete sentences is fine. More than fine, in fact. By prioritizing incomplete sentences, you’re allowing yourself the opportunity to get thoughts “out of your system” faster. Who cares if the writing itself is hard to follow? Nobody is gonna read your journal other than you anyways, most likely. Heck, you don’t even have to read back through old entries (I almost never do).
Try writing in cursive
A long time ago, someone encouraged that I write in cursive “to make writing more fun.” I started doing so, and never looked back. As this old friend of mine had said, writing in cursive is just simply much more fun. Plus, as another friend of mine from around that same time had said, it’s “a dying art.” As far as I’m concerned, we might as well all start writing in cursive just for the sake of keeping the art alive, so to speak.
Use a good pen
Going into journaling with a shitty pen is like going into battle with a shitty gun. Personally, I’m partial to Pentel RSVP, fine-size, but you do you! My dad is really into fountain pens. I gave those a try, and they’re not my thing, but maybe they’re yours. More power to you if so.
Start your entries by noting daily things
While I personally feel it’s important to journal at least a little every day, I understand that some days are more “journal-worthy” than others. Because of this, I always like to start my entries by making note of a few things that are “constants” in my day-to-day life: How many hours of sleep I got the night before, the number of days since I started my diet (gotta stay motivated for that shit somehow), and what I plan to eat throughout the day. As the day itself progresses, I also like to use my journal to keep track of how many friends I text throughout the day (usually like 10-15, as I’m fortunate to have made a lot of good friends over the years).
Regrets/ worries (“that’s what journaling is for”)
Now this is the real “meat” of everything that I’ve been trying to accomplish by journaling as much as I do now. I mentioned in my last journaling-themed post that I struggle with two things in particular; regretting the past, and worrying about the future. I usually make note of that at least once per day in my journals. Sometimes I go into details about whatever specific worries or regrets I may be experiencing in that moment, but most of the time I just simply write something like “having regrets again this morning.” Either way, I always, and I mean always, follow this up with the following sentence: “But that’s what journaling is for.” EDIT: Lately I’ve been feeling homesick, so every day now I write a quick sentence about the thing I miss most from home on that particular day. I also make sure to write about at least one regret in detail every day now.
Noting reactions to bad flashbacks
This may not apply to everyone reading this, but some of my past regrets are so bad that it causes me to have distressing “reactions” (twitching, cursing at the top of my lungs, etc.). That said, I’ve noticed that ever since I started journaling daily over this past year or so, I haven’t been having these sorta reactions as much, and I think I large part of that is because I journal about them. Again, I’m usually pretty vague, and just write something like “had a couple of reactions as I woke up this morning, but I think they’re getting less frequent still, so that’s good at least.”
Noting current events
Even though I don’t like reading back through old entries, whenever a major event happens, I like to write it down, just for the sake of turning some of my entries into “time capsules,” of sorts. As I’m sure you all know, a lot of unprecedented events have been happening in the world recently, so I’ve been jotting down current events more than usual…
Stream-Of-Consciousness
This probably goes without saying, but when I can’t think of anything else to do, I just write whatever comes to mind, without really thinking about it. Usually, at this point, I write about other tasks I plan to do during the day, but it doesn’t always have to be that…
…Well, that’s it! Hopefully at least some of this helps someone out there…
Peace!
PS: I know there’s a stigma against straight men who journal, but that stigma seems to be fading, so pay it no mind!
Related: List Repository
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