The practice of journaling is vastly important. Journaling helps us stay on track, remember things, practice gratitude, organize ourselves, keep notes, express our feelings, get thought & ideas out of our heads and much more.
Many of the world’s most successful and influential of people practice journaling. People have been journaling for a long, long time. Just look at Marcus Aurelius for example. The only reason we even know so much about the all powerful Roman Emperor of the past is because he wrote his thoughts down in a journal every day.
If you don’t know where to start your journaling habit and improve your journaling skills, do not worry. That’s where I come in. I’m going to give you a few different journaling styles to choose from and you can pick your favorite and go from there.
The Five Minute Journal
I heard about this journal from Tim Ferris. It is not his journal, but he endorses it.
This is a very structured and quick journal. There are 5 prompts to it as well as a quote at the top. The five prompts are:
- What you’re grateful for
- What would make today great
- Daily Affirmations
- Amazing things that happened today
- And How could I have made today even better?
This is a simple format which helps you to focus on gratitude, daily reflection, and improvement.
If you prefer a simple, quick, and very structured journal then this might be the journal for you.
I personally would not prefer this style because I like to have a more free form journal with space to write and better goal & habit tracking features. This journal is based around positive psychology principles though, which I am a big fan of.
You can get yourself a five minute journal here.
The Bullet Journal
The Bullet Journal is much different than the other journaling styles I have seen and I even found that I have been using some techniques similar to this without even knowing.
The Bullet Journal is a journal that incorporates a tracking system for daily tasks, goals, and reminders. It has a streamlined yet kind of complex way to enter everything about your day using a key system. For example you use a dot for tasks, a dash for notes, and a circle for events. It lets you keep track of everything in a quick and coded way.
If you are someone who finds yourself forgetting things often or if you like to be extremely organized and write everything down then this might be the journal for you.
As for me I have a different note taking system and would probably just get confused with all of the different symbols to use this journal effectively. It is super organized and keeps track of everything, but that just seems a bit overwhelming to me.
You can check out The Bullet Journal here.
The Best-Self Journal
I have talked about this journal before in one of my posts. This is the journal I use personally. So, I might sound a bit biased here.
The Best-Self Journal is a journal that takes elements from other journals and combines them all into one. The creators did extensive research about what makes the best journal and put this together. They are also constantly updating it. Once I had finished my first Best-Self journal, I bought a new one and was surprised to see that the format had changed. I think it was for the better though as it seemed to be even better.
The Best-Self Journal includes:
- What you’re grateful for
- Daily Goals
- Daily Targets
- What would make today great
- Pomodoro’s
- A daily timeline
- Daily Scores
- Mood Tracking
- Habit Tracking
- Daily Quote
- A blank daily page for notes
- 13 week long-term goals
- Weekly goals
- And even a bucket list
To me this journal has it all. I am not sure what I would add to it besides the fact that the daily goals, targets, and what would make today great seems a bit redundant.
This journal is best for those who want some structure, weekly and 13 week tracking, habit tracking, and also free form pages. It guides me by providing the prompts daily, but also gives me the room to write whatever else I want. Which I love. I will say that this journal is more expensive than the other’s though.
You can check out the Best-Self Journal here.
https://bestself.co/products/self-journal
Free Form Journaling
The last type of journaling you can do is just a free form journal. In which you take any journal with blank pages, add what you want, and write whatever you want. This is undoubtedly the cheapest option and leaves you the most room for creativity. Just grab any type of notebook you want and write down your thoughts, goals, and whatever else you feel like writing about in it.
One thing I would recommend is that you include what you are grateful for every day. This helps us to keep a positive mindset and improves our day with minimal effort using positive psychology.
Whatever type of journaling you choose to do, the most important thing is to start. Writing daily in a journal is an incredibly useful habit and one that everyone can benefit form.
Start journaling today!
If nothing else, commit to journaling every weekday for this month so you can see the benefits for yourself.
If you enjoyed this post don’t forget to like, share, subscribe for next month’s skill, and comment about what type of journaling you prefer to do.
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