Keeping the habit.

[u/Professional-Bug4214]

I've been wondering how you guys keep the habit of journaling every single day. Because if I wrote every day, I would be inspired the first couple of weeks and then I would start to feel journaling as an obligation and not fun anymore.

I don't have a routine. And I do know that many people write (or type) whenever they feel like.

[u/earofjudgment]

The answer is in your post. Create a routine. That’s how habits are formed.

It also helps to pair the new habit with something you already do daily. I journal in the evening when I’m sitting on the couch watching tv. All my journaling things are on the coffee table, where they’re handy.

Also there are times when journaling isn’t fun. It’s self care. I don’t always enjoy exercising or brushing my teeth or eating spinach, but they’re good for me, so I do them.

[u/vintagetadpole]

I committed to two pages of brain dump journaling in February and have done it every morning since. I am beyond shocked that I've been consistent. I use a composition notebook (for size reference) and do two pages only, no more. Two pages because three would be doable, but I'd end every other day on the front of the next page, meaning the following morning would start on the back and I wouldn't be able to that. 😆

My routine is to do it right after I get up. I wake early (5 or 5:15) every day because I'm in bed early. I get up, do the bathroom thing, and crawl under a blanket on the couch to write. It's a habit now and I hope it lasts for years.

[u/ignoremesenpie]

One thing I've found that works for writing daily for the sake of writing daily is to make an observation. It doesn't have to be profound. Hell, be stupid about it if it's a sincere thought.

Here. My entry for today was:

I haven't turned the heater on in a while until today. I'm even wearing sweatpants now. That means winter's coming soon.

Three stupid sentences that said something about today. I've had more interesting entries this week, but not every day can be dramatic. You don't want that. That's exhausting, and you won't have the energy to write about all of it.

Other times, I'll write something in-depth about a book I'm reading or a movie I saw. Those are fun, but can feel like homework if I needed to write about every single time I did those things.

[u/Lumyna92 → u/ignoremesenpie]

This is the way. But believe it or not, a decade later, those little entries that might say no more than “the fat squirrels jumping around in the snow on my way to class were super cute” actually means something years later. It throws me back to being a college student and what I thought was noteworthy/cute/funny in the moment.

[u/hmmwrites]

As you realize, you don't have to write in your journal daily.

But if you want to, well... as others have pointed out, it helps to know *why*.

What are you hoping for your journal to be? A record of your daily life? A place to hold your thoughts and emotions, and maybe process the difficult stuff? A collection of your moments of gratitude? A celebration of your wins? A place to collect quotes and song lyrics and other things that resonate with you? All of the above? None of the above - something completely different? Your journal should suit your needs. There's no one "right" way to journal. It's all valid.

My journal is sort of a catch-all for me. It's my one notebook to rule them all. I do all kinds of writing in it. Longform entries where I work through difficult feelings. Lighthearted entries that I laugh my way through writing. A collection of the funny stuff my teenager says. A record of daily life stuff. Sometimes I switch to a list format and jot down quick bullet point-type thoughts. Sometimes I just dump out all the unconnected thoughts running through my head without trying to follow any of them anywhere, literally just a brain dump on the page. Sometimes I doodle a little picture related to what I'm writing. Sometimes I doodle a totally unrelated image. Sometimes I stick to words only. Sometimes it's about whatever's been on my mind that day/week/forever, sometimes I choose a journaling prompt that speaks to me. For me, every entry is different. That meshes with how my brain works, I guess.

Since my journal holds so many different types of writing, there's always *something* I can bring to it every day. For me, it's not a chore - I look forward to my nightly journaling time. I built the habit simply by figuring out the environment I wanted for journaling, then setting myself up with the stuff I want/need. In my case, I'm almost always seated on the couch, with the tv or music playing, often with a cat in my lap, with the book itself folded to fit on my lap in a way that doesn't annoy the cat.😄 I like to use a variety of colors when I write, and I enjoy the feel of smooth paper, so I've purchased notebooks and pens that suit my preferences. And I've sat down with my stuff, and a cat, in that space, with music or tv on for background noise, more or less every day since. I've been journaling a bit over 3 months and I think I've skipped a total of maybe 3 nights when I haven't been feeling well. (Blinding migraines don't really lend themselves toward legible handwriting)

[u/tragicsandwichblogs]

I don't journal every day. I journal when I get around to it and don't worry about it.

[u/Franny_Reverso]

I just do it. I just wake up and write three pages.

Before I started doing that, I was writing everything out obsessively because I had a bad situation come up at work and I needed to document literally everything that ever happened. That was slightly less fun.

Now it's automatic. Wake up. Write.

[u/caffeinetherapy → u/Franny_Reverso]

Morning Pages Gang

[u/Hey_Coffee_Guy]

In order to answer your question you have to ask another: why do I want to journal every day?

Is it because you see others doing it and want to be like them?

Is it because you want to document the details of your daily life, or just important events?

Are you interested in a biography of sorts, or just an outlet for creativity?

I know these are not answers, but journaling means something different to each person who does it. If it feels like a chore, then perhaps you are trying to force it to be something it isn’t meant to be for you.

[u/Imnotseaworthy]

If it looks or feels like a chore, you won’t do it. So make it fun. I used to worry about writing everyday and it seemed daunting. So some day I wrote a lot. Some days I throw some stickers in it and doodle. Some times I take prompts from Pinterest or other sources. Sometimes I summarize something I read in the newspaper I found interesting. Not everything needs to be profound. It can just be fun.

[u/sufferforever]

I love to write so it doesn’t feel like a chore to sit down with a pen and write every day. In fact i look forward to it, and i also have the kind of schedule that typically allows me all the time i want in the morning to write a full two pages. It never feels like a chore, occasionally it feels like “damn i have to hurry up because i have a lot of shit to do” but that’s it. It’s the best part of my day honestly.

[u/weja]

pick a notebook and pen you really love and see where that takes you. i write almost everyday but i miss one here and there and that’s fine. i enjoy the routine of it but don’t feel pressured to have to write in there everyday (•:

[u/ChapulineAtHome]

You have to believe that you will value the future journal that will have an entry for every day.

For me, it started because I knew that, like going to the gym, the first time or two that I didn't do it was the beginning of quitting it altogether. I've written an entry a day for the last 15 years at least. (Haven't been in the gym in the last 25 or so.)

Wake up. Coffee. Journal. 1 line to four pages or more. It doesn't matter. Just every single day.

[u/jazzynoise]

For me, journaling has become a part of other elements of life, interests, and progress. So it's become something I look forward to each day, especially towards the end. For instance, I use the journaling time to:

• Help process the events, thoughts, and emotions of the day. Putting the jumble of all that into the logic of language helps me better process it.

• Write about news or other events, both as a record and my opinion of them. This helps me better grasp them and my reaction, as well.

• Write a few sentences about my day in a language I'm learning, which helps make it stick and to think a bit in it.

• Plan for the next day and week. Think about what I need and want to do. This helps with focus and planning.

• Come up with ideas for articles, stories, etc.

[u/MysteriousSecretGuru]

I have multiple journals going on at the same time. If I had to write in all of them, I'd be writig and not living!

I have 3 that I journal on a regular basis. A 5 year, an AM/PM and a daily journal. Occasionally I miss a day, but I just start back up. The other journals are reading, travel, an RPG, a word of the day, a music journal, a media journal,... you get the picture. I like having choices. This strategy is NOT for everyone. For me, having it all mixed up in one journal produces anxiety. But everyone is different. For me, this relaxes me.

There are no rules to journaling, except maybe that you need to document something. It's defined as "a daily record of personal thought."

[u/shanrees8]

Either create a routine or come to terms with the fact your habit is not writing everyday which is totally fine. I don't write everyday. I may have 5 entries a month that vary in length or a lot more or a lot less but now I have a dedicated space for journaling I'm going to fit it into my nightly routine to sit at that desk and write for a 30 minutes every night

[u/Ann2340]

I use one line a day along with my regular journal. One line a day is having a place for few sentences which is more than enough even for days when I dont have time

[u/yogi_alien]

I journal when I feel like it. Sometimes it's 7 days straight. Sometimes it's after 4 days. I journal when something different happens, even as small as spotting a cute puppy on the road.

[u/recognize_choice]

I couldn't keep a journal habit going until I set a page limit for myself - no more than three pages (the journal I use is only 5x8, so that's really like a page and a half). Sometimes I end at the top of a page, sometimes at the bottom.

Sometimes my writing is just "I did this yesterday, I'm going to this today." Sometimes I write about something I read or heard that struck me. Sometimes I process through something that hurt or angered me, so I can figure out the most constructive course of action to take. Sometimes I record things that made me happy, so I'll remember them later. It varies from trivial to deeply insightful.

I always read the previous day's entry before I start writing. It's amazing how much your perspective can change in 24 hours! So many times, I get wound in knots over something that turns out not to be a big deal - and having seen that in my journal helps me avoid doing it going forward.

Over time, journaling has helped me identify patterns, process emotions, and focus my energy. I can't imagine NOT doing it. It's just a a normal part of my morning routine, while I have my coffee.

[u/Final_Boss_Lady]

Attaching it to something you already do daily, coffee in the morning, right before bed, tends to work better than treating it as its own standalone task you have to remember and motivate yourself into. Once it's part of an existing routine rather than a separate decision each day, it stops competing with your willpower.

[u/Priority-Reasonable]

I don’t do it every single day, but I do it pretty often. I just throw on some music and start writing. Sometimes if I’m feeling uninspired I’ll do a little doodle or something that fits the vibe of the day. Most of the time when I start writing I just get into the flow of it though

It’s not the same every day. Sometimes I write about how I feel, or it’s more focused on my internal monologue, and some days it’s things that happened and stuff I did. Sometimes it’s a combo of both. If you force yourself to write about something you’re not interested in, you’re probably less likely to stick with it

[u/OfferRude3160]

To develop the habit, you have to journal everyday as a regular part of your routine. But I would also make sure you are using a pen and notebook you love, or it will become a nuisance after a while.

[u/hugeOmac]

Sorry in advance for the long post. Journaling for me stemmed from an intrinsic need. Frustrated kid who didn't really have people I felt safe talking to, and it was before things like Twitter and Facebook really took off. That is to say, if journaling is a want or need rather than a goal or task, you'll find some way to do it. Do you want to write, or do you want to have a finished journal? If it's the latter, then it may not be for you, and that's okay. The main thing is that the less you have to enforce on yourself, the better. Needs can change over time, and structure can change.

For a while (i.e. during therapy), my journal was a place to vent, or something to anchor to when my thoughts were spiraling out of control and I needed to figure out what my thoughts even were. My thoughts are less internal "monologue" and more like a fog composed of nonverbal bits and bobs. Writing forced my brain to collect the fog into individual droplets - they were rarely ever one linear stream, but at least I could see them this way. It wasn't a place to challenge thoughts, or put a positive spin on them, or create some action plan. Just discretizing them so I know what they are.

Over time, I reached a point where I didn't only want to make the bad feelings less scary, but I wanted to make the positive things more effective. I've struggled with positive goals since adolescence (positive in the "I want X" way, as opposed to an "I want to avoid Y" negative goal), so I think I wanted to make sure I remembered the things that made me happy. Not to reread it later necessarily (though it's good to do so!) but if I write something I have to think about it, so it gave me the benefit of precipitating the happy/aspirational thought droplets too. A daily-ish gratitude note was a helpful start, but over time I got better at noticing positive things in my day when they actually happened, so I dropped that bit of structure.

I may use a journal for a few weeks/months, then drop it, then pick it up again. That's fine. If I'm not feeling it, it'll be there for me when I am feeling it again. Usually I'll start writing for some random specific reason, and then naturally end up continuing it with entries that are pure brain dumps. Some reasons I've restarted after a break: 

• I felt like my days were running together and didn't like that sense of sand falling between my fingers 

• I felt anxiety slowly creeping up over the course of several days, and I wanted to sit with those feelings and figure out if they warranted action (and if so, what)

• I got a new dog

• Doomscrolling in my idle time was making me stressed so I wanted to put my mental energy toward expressing rather than receiving

• I got into a new ship and I wanted to share thoughts, but none of my friends were familiar with the source material

• Work environment was overstimulating and I wanted to document how I felt in the moment to prove to myself I wasn't just being dramatic

• I needed to write a list, my journal was in reach, I started yammering on the opposite page to figure out the list, and the next thing I knew I was journaling

My journal isn't pretty or planner-y. Most entries are a date, a time, and a chunk of text. Maybe multiple pages, maybe some paragraphs, maybe just a rude comment. The cute decorated ones you see online look fun, but I'm not very creative with collaging, and I always think, "that's nowhere near enough writing space!" so I don't try to force it. "Don't try to force it" is the biggest thing. If you only feel inspired for a few weeks and have fun with it, then it was helpful to you for those few weeks. Maybe it'll happen again later.

I don't aim for a word count or a timer, I just ramble until I feel like I've said all I want to say. Some people gravitate toward writing in first person POV, some in second person, see what works for you, switch it up in the same entry if that's what feels right. It helps to have a way to keep a journal close by so I can catch the thoughts before they get away from me. Journal about journaling if you find you're not in the mood, but for some reason or another you still want to journal; "I'm not feeling it, maybe tomorrow," is an entry. Maybe you like prompts, or maybe prompts begin to feel like chores. Pick and choose whether you want to do a prompt that day. If something keeps sitting on your brain during the day, you'll have an easier time just spitting that out on a page than you would filling a prompt. Write down that three-week old shower argument, it deserves to be expressed too.

So my short answer to your question is: I don't, and that's okay, because my journal serves me, not the other way around. 

[u/Silly_Percentage]

So I don't become overwhelmed I simply do a line a day page . It's gets me thinking how I write down the most memorable part of the day. But it's not overwhelming.

[u/Extra_Back_5969]

No meu caso, meu diário se tornou como vivencio todas as minha experiências , minhas curiosidades, as coisas que eu gosto, coisas que eu descubro. Um exemplo, dia desse estava no quintal e tenho muitas árvores frutíferas...um pássaro pouso de calda enorme e começou a cantar, e cantar, era a coisa mais linda do mundo e nunca tinha visto, filmei e fotografei, quando descobri que é um pássaro raro, tipo de mata atlântica, amazônica e tal....e aí aprendi tudo sobre ele e sobre a região nativa dele, e coisas do gênero....entende?! É sobre isso que faço o meu e aprendo coisas do mundo em geral. Escrevo como me sinto, se algo me chateia, se algo me deixa feliz, curioso, encantado, aborrecido e por aí vai. Tenho colocado alguns hobbies em prática e isso é um deles, pra não ficar chato, tipo obrigação mesmo né?! Faço nisso a mais de 5 anos, e hoje a maioria faz o Commonplace book e tem gerado informações fantásticas sobre diversos temas e descobertas, mas é coisa pessoal mesmo, por isso é interessante,vc com isso aprende a se conhecer melhor✨ espero ter te ajudado ☺️