Journaling – How to Get Started & Stick With It

“Dear… diary?” Do people even do that anymore? When it comes to “keeping a diary,” beginners in this area often get confused. How do I start? What kind of diary is best for me? How can I stay motivated? If you have questions like these, you’ve come to the right place. Even if you want to learn a little about the many positive benefits that keeping a diary can have for your mental health: here it is, your “How to Keep a Diary” guide. At least after reading this article, you’ll no longer have blank pages staring reproachfully at you.

I never travel without my diary. You should always have something exciting to read with you.                       - Oscar Wilde

Which diary is best? 

Before you can even get started, of course, you first need a book that suits you. If you’ve already had one for ages that’s just waiting to be filled, feel free to skip this section. Otherwise, here is a guide that briefly and concisely introduces different types of journals. 

Guided Diaries

Guided journals offer you a clear structure with helpful prompts that make getting started with journaling much easier. They help you focus on specific topics such as gratitude without having to think up something new to write about every day. The book asks you questions, and you answer them. Simple, but highly effective. If you want to use journaling to achieve a specific goal, such as becoming more grateful, reflective, or successful, the recommendation is clear: a guided diary. Progress and personal growth are much easier to recognise over time here – this motivates you and increases the likelihood that you’ll stick with it. The 6-Minute-Journals are guided diaries with different focuses:

Diaries with Blank Pages

Depending on your preferences, a diary with blank pages may also be the right choice for you. They offer plenty of creative freedom—ideal if you’re a fan of hand lettering or like to draw, for example. If you haven’t yet decided on a specific journaling path and simply want to record your experiences day by day or try out so-called expressive writing, blank or simply lined pages are also beneficial. However, it takes a little more discipline to stay on track than to fill out a guided journal, as you have to think up something new to write about every day.

Now We’re Off: Make Keeping a Diary a Routine

So, ideally, your book is now ready and waiting for you. Before your brain comes up with more excuses, because starting new habits always requires a little willpower at first, here are the answers: No, the book isn’t too pretty and therefore too good to write in—that’s what it’s for. ;) And tomorrow is another day, but if you start your new writing routine RIGHT NOW, you can be proud of yourself today for taking the first step. So: Let’s go! 

Keeping a Diary: 4 Tips for a Successful Start

Tip 1: Create a “Writing Oasis”

Think of a place where you can truly relax. This will be your writing space from now on. Make it as comfortable as possible and keep the area free from distractions. If it’s your desk, for example, make sure there are no unpaid bills or piles of dust on it. Once you associate the space with negative feelings, it will be difficult to establish keeping a diary as a relaxing and enjoyable ritual.

Tip 2: Start Small – and Keep It Small 

As a journaling newbie, you shouldn’t take on too much. Set aside no more than 10 minutes for your diary and stick to that time frame every day. You’ll notice that day by day you become more accustomed to it and more confident in writing down your thoughts. If you want to stick with it in the long term, you should choose a time frame that you can easily maintain every day—even on the busiest days. Here are the 6-Minute-Journals particularly practical, because they are designed to take no more than 6 minutes of your time. 

*Ping* – Your Diary Is Waiting 

If the writing routine hasn’t yet become firmly established in your brain as a new habit, you might simply forget about it on some days. That’s completely human, so there’s no need to feel guilty. Reminders are a good idea. This could be a smartphone alarm or a reminder in a reminder app, for example. Set one up every day until keeping a diary becomes second nature. It’s also very helpful to keep your diary visible in your line of sight rather than storing it in a closet. Display your book nicely, and it will be almost impossible to walk past it without writing in it.  

Tip 4: Not Perfect Is Just Right 

Don’t worry too much about what you can write. The longer you think about it, the more “polished” your entries will end up being. Perfectionism has no place here. Just write down whatever pops into your head first. If you can’t think of anything at all, try describing your general mood or telling a story about a specific experience. When developing a new habit, what you write isn’t as important at first as the fact that you write.

Sticking With It Is Worth It – Success Comes with Routine

We haven’t even properly talked about the many benefits of journaling yet. After all, the motivation to start keeping a diary as a daily ritual has to come from somewhere. First off: there are plenty of reasons to really stick with it. From feeling better after a stressful day at work to long-term, positive effects on your mental health, everything is covered.  

Keeping a Diary: Positive Effects You’ll Notice Quickly

• Stress Reduction: Journaling can immediately reduce perceived stress. You no longer carry burdens and tension inside you, but instead let them out in the truest sense of the word. Once you see what is particularly stressing you out, it also becomes much easier to reflect on it, and you can better address things that would make you feel more satisfied and balanced. The effects of keeping a diary for just two weeks are already noticeable, with a reduction in the release of stress hormones. 

• Better Mood: Keeping a diary can improve your mood, and yes, it may even positively change your entire outlook on life by shifting your focus. From an evolutionary perspective, we tend to weigh negative events much more heavily than positive experiences. In the past, this helped us survive. It was better to flee once too often than to be eaten. In today’s world, however, most survival instincts are merely relics of the past. So you can now rest assured that adopting an optimistic perspective is a good thing. If you’ve chosen a 6-Minute-Diary, you are automatically following the path of emphasising the good things in life.  The reflection questions are designed to help you notice the positive things much more often from now on than without daily journaling. You can actually train your brain to be more optimistic. 

• Increased Self-Confidence: This aspect is undoubtedly the most important for many. Journaling helps you become more aware of yourself. Every day you have so many thoughts and feelings, and much of it is vague. We often don’t even know exactly why we aren’t feeling so well and can’t name any real reasons. Mindfully writing down fragments of our thoughts ensures that we can bring them to our awareness again and again and gradually understand ourselves and our feelings. The better we know ourselves, the more confident and resilient we become. The first improvements in self-awareness usually appear within the first two weeks of journaling.

6 Reasons Journaling Strengthens Your Mental Health in the Long Term

The following changes appear after about two to four weeks. You’ll see: It’s worth it!

1. Mindfulness: Regular journaling sharpens your awareness of the present moment. As you write something down, you consciously relive moments and become fully present. Reflecting on your thoughts and feelings has an enormous, positive impact on your self-awareness. 
2. Gratitude & Optimism: If you keep the diary as a gratitude journal (which is automatically the case with the 6-Minute-Diary), your focus will be drawn to the positive aspects of life. If you regularly write down what you are grateful for, you can continuously reduce negative thoughts and learn to appreciate the big and small joys of life even more. 
3. Growth: A diary helps you understand yourself better. Perhaps you’ll finally recognise your own values or even get to know yourself properly for the first time. You’ll learn to set goals that truly suit you and fulfil you – what you want to achieve in life. This forms the basis for personal growth and development. 
4. Serenity & Balance: By consciously addressing your own thoughts and needs, journaling can reduce stress and increase well-being in the long term. With expressive writing, you can write down your worries and fears, become more consciously aware of them, and not push them aside: an effective way to deal with stress. If you use a 6-Minute-Diary, you bring positive thoughts to the forefront and restore your inner balance.  
5. Resilience: This point stems from gratitude & optimism, but it should definitely be mentioned separately. Because once you’ve achieved a more positive basic attitude, your resilience also increases. You go through challenging situations more calmly with a “prepared” mindset, and it becomes easier to stay strong inside even during difficult times.
6. Self-Confidence: Getting to know yourself through a diary is also great for your self-confidence. You develop a sense of your views, perspectives, and values, can stand up for yourself at any time, and generally feel more self-assured. Self-confidence is also not purely an internal matter: your posture improves and your expression becomes more assertive. So others will notice your “glow up” too. :) 

So, what are you waiting for? 

You’ve gathered enough arguments to get started. You can see that it won’t hurt you and can only do you good. It’s best to start right away before your newly found motivation fades again. The first words could be: “Here we go! The first step is taken.” And then: Keep going! Enjoy it.  

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This post was written by Elena Rieder. She once thought yoga was a bit silly. That was until she tried it for herself for the first time. Since then, mindfulness has been an important part of her life, which fortunately also fits perfectly with her work at 6-Minuten-Verlag.  

Sources:

https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/pulse-writing-for-wellbeing/#:~:text=The%20act%20of%20writing%20has,understanding%20of%20our%20own%20feelings.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.896741/full

https://6minutenverlag.de/collections/achtsamkeitstagebuch

https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-journaling/#benefits