There's No Wrong Way to Write Your Journal

And A 30-Day Journaling Challenge

My Journaling Journey

Confession time—I don’t journal consistently. Truth be told, I rarely journal. That said, I have found one-shot journaling helpful at times when I’ve faced difficult problems. Most often, those problems involved significant career choices and life transitions.

I’ve always described this journaling “technique” as vomiting words on a page: a gross, but accurate description of my approach. I think this approach might also be described as free-writing or stream-of-consciousness journaling.

When I have a problem that’s causing strife and consternation and I don’t know what to do about it, I grab a pen and a notebook and start writing whatever pops into my head. I ask and address every question and issue I can think of. There’s no planning involved; I just let it all pour out until I can’t think of anything else to say.

After going through this process, I usually achieve clarity and a path forward. I always feel better for having done it.

Using this process, I’ve come up with solutions to some vexing problems. In hindsight, I feel like every decision I’ve made using this technique turned out to be the “right” one. I’m not typically one to lament the past or ask “what if?” (what’s the point?), but I’ve never looked back and felt like I’d chosen the wrong path.

The first time I used this process, it wasn’t like I said to myself, “Maybe writing this out would help me gain clarity.” I just did it because it felt right. It was a problem I really needed to work out on my own, so I talked (or wrote) myself through it. After that first time, it became something I did when I had a problem and needed to find a solution. I highly recommend it; this process hasn’t let me down yet.

So, if my one-shot-problem-solving journaling has been so beneficial, why don’t I journal regularly? One reason is because it needs to become a habit, and I haven’t really tried to make it one. But I think the real reason is because daily journaling feels forced to me and lacks the spontaneity and flow that I’ve achieved when I journal to solve a specific problem.

I believe if I use free-writing, stream-of-consciousness journaling rather than trying to fit into a category like gratitude journaling (I tend to be grateful for the same things day after day), it will feel more natural and allow me to achieve the myriad benefits of getting my thoughts down on paper.

Why Journal?

Journaling can improve mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Here are just some of the benefits of making journaling a regular part of your life:

• Manages Stress and Anxiety. Journaling can help ease stress and uncertainty and teach you more about yourself and what you want from life. According to research on mental distress and journaling, writing about your feelings and experiences can be therapeutic, helping to relieve stress and anxiety.

• Increases Self-Awareness. Journaling enables you to reflect on your thoughts and emotions, helping you to understand yourself better, which can lead to personal growth and development.

• Enhances Creativity. Journaling can promote your imagination and creativity. The act of uncensored writing can help you generate ideas and think more creatively. Insights and novel solutions often result from simply writing about a problem.

• Improves Mental Health. Journaling can be used to manage symptoms of depression and other mental health conditions. Writing about your feelings can help you process them and find ways to cope with them. It’s also a way to release pent-up emotions before they negatively influence your interpersonal behavior.

• Improves Physical Health. Journaling allows you to self-disclose thoughts, feelings, and emotions that we may not have told anyone. It’s generally bad for your health to hold things in. Journaling helps you release that burden.

• Improves Memory. A journal can help improve your memory by allowing reflection on your experiences and recording details that may have been forgotten. Writing stories down can facilitate memory and allow tracking of significant events, people, and places otherwise forgotten.

• Increases Motivation. Writing down your goals and plans can help keep you motivated and focused. You can track your progress and see how far you've come.

• Increases Productivity. You can use your journal to help prioritize tasks and make a plan for the day, which can lead to increased productivity.

• Increases Accountability. You can use a journal to track your progress in various areas of your life. Journaling about and tracking things like exercise and food consumption can provide a way to be accountable to and honest with yourself about why you may or may not be progressing in certain areas.

Journaling regularly, whether it be daily or a few times a week, is usually more beneficial than writing infrequently. Also it's important to be honest with yourself. After all, this is by you and for you, so keep it real.

Pen, Keyboard, or Digitally?

I’m old school—I love to use a pen and paper to write words on a page. The flow of the script (or “cursive,” as my elementary school teachers used to call it) creates a flow of ideas and thoughts that can’t be replicated typing on a keyboard. I also like pretty books. Even though I don’t have a consistent journaling habit, I bought some pretty journal notebooks that are just waiting for me to write in.

Interestingly, recent research in Frontiers in Psychology, found that handwriting can boost connectivity across brain regions involved in learning and memory. This research confirms a 2014 study called “The Pen Is Mightier Than The Keyboard,” which concluded that writing notes by hand allowed participants to retain information better than those who typed on a laptop.

While information retention isn’t necessarily the goal in journaling, anything that boosts memory and cognitive function is a winner in my book. Handwriting works best for me for recording my thoughts and working through problems. Thus, I plan to stick with pen, paper, and pretty notebooks for journaling.

While my preference is writing, your journal doesn’t have to be handwritten. It’s fine to journal on your computer or digitally. You also could use a journaling app like Penzu, Day One, Five Minute Journal, or others.

The key here is that there are no rules. There is no right or wrong way to journal. The right way is the way that works best for you—so just do it!

Ideas for Journaling

Whatever form of journaling you choose, it has benefits. Here are some journaling approaches and ideas that can be used individually or in combinations. This gives you some ideas if you need them. This list is by no means exclusive. With journaling, the sky’s the limit!

• Gratitude journaling. The idea behind a gratitude journal is to cultivate appreciative feelings. So you might write about experiences you're grateful for, create gratitude lists, or even paste in pictures of things to create a sort of gratitude collage.

• Reflective journaling. You might start by first reflecting on the details of an experience. Then, aim to interpret the event to try to understand what happened and find meaning or value in it.

• Health journaling. Some studies have looked at the impact of journaling on current health issues you might be experiencing. Like other forms of expressive writing about emotional experiences, this type of journaling appears to result in reductions in mental health issues like depression and anxiety for those with health issues. Thus, writing about negative emotions often yields positive impacts.

• Goal journaling. This may be more structured to help you set goals, plan, and track activities to help you reach your goals.

• Free Form journaling. This is also referred to as stream-of-consciousness journaling and is my preferred method because it’s spontaneous and unconstrained, allowing you to write whatever comes into your head. Pour your thoughts, feelings, and sensations onto the page without censorship or structure.

30-Day Journaling Challenge

Beginning on April 1st, I’m going to start a 30-day journaling challenge, during which I will journal something every day for 30 days. I will find a time when I can regularly journal in an effort to make it a habit.

Join me! The only rule is that you have to write something every day. It doesn’t have to be long or profound. Keep your journal with you, so when you have the time or inclination, you can start writing.

If you want to join the challenge and want some prompts, here is a link to 64 journal prompts that address love and relationships, work and career, self-reflection, uncomfortable emotions, living your best life, and personal life growth and goals. Use these prompts if you’re looking for ideas about what to journal.

Will you participate with me in this 30-day journaling challenge? Let me know in the comments below.