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Making Journaling A Habit: Ideas for Daily Journaling

by Ambassador Team 07 Apr 2023 0 Comments

Hello Friends!  This is Amanda aka @shenoteditall from the Archer and Olive Ambassador team!  In todays blog post I’m going to talk about some various ideas for building a journaling habit and participating in daily journaling.

My favorite supplies for everyday journaling:

- Amy Tangerine Dated Planner

- Travelers size (TN) Dot Grid Notebook

- Calliograph Markers

To get into the meat of this post I’m going to first have to rewind a bit. Do you remember your first journal?  Mine was a little purple book with a heart shaped lock and the word “Diary” scrawled across the front.  Like any good 9 year old I dutifully started each entry with “Dear Diary.”  I can’t remember what I talked about.  Probably my crushes, friends, and cat.  Really I probably wrote in it for a month and then it got forgotten about.  Ten years later, during my freshman year of college, my journalling habit really took off.  I had so many thoughts, emotions, and adventures I needed to record.  The problem was I felt like I needed to get literally every detail on paper or I was doing myself a disservice by skipping details.  As you can imagine, this approach caused me the quickly loose the joy of journaling.

I never lost my interest in journaling however, and in 2020, as the world slowly turned on it’s head, I suddenly felt the urge to get back at it.  I knew I would get quickly overwhelmed if I tried to journal like had had done before so I began to research ways to get my thoughts on paper in a concise easy way that was sustainable everyday.

The first thing I needed to do was choose a time.  Habits are built by using repetition, and so by journaling the same time everyday I knew I would have the greatest chance at being successful. Then I had to decide how I wanted to document my life at the moment.  As I said before, long drawn out paragraphs detailing my life were not going to be sustainable.  Instead, because life was so difficult and exhausting (I’m a first responder and 2020 was tough), I decided I wanted to just write about the good things happening everyday instead of focusing on the bad.  Thus the joy journal was born.

So what is a joy journal?

Basically, before I go to bed every night I journal all of the little things that brought me joy that that day.  It could be anything from a beautiful sunset, to a delicious lunch, to finding my favorite pen that I thought was lost forever.  This isn’t a fancy bujo for me (although it could be if I wanted it to), it’s literally a journal that I keep on my night stand, right next to my bed.  I pick it up every night after I crawl into bed and make a bullet point list of all the things that brought me joy that day.  After a couple months of repeating this practice every night before going to bed it quickly became a habit and something that in and of itself brings me joy.

 Joy Journal using a dated Archer and Olive planner

While the joy journal is my chosen outlet, it certainly isn’t the only option for easy everyday journaling.    Here are a few other ideas…

 A Thankfulness journal (Gratitude Journal):  This really is an old standard when it comes to journaling everyday.  Similar to my joy journal you simply list everything that day that you’re thankful for.

A Doodle Journal:  You can doodle memories from that day, follow a prompt list, or just doodle whatever comes to mind.  This is a really great option for people who don’t love to write but do like to work on developing their drawing skills or who just love to draw/color.

Doodle Journal

(Doodling Journal example courtesy of @JaneMaday)

A Weather Journal:  As simple as it sounds.  Write down the weather everyday.  You could even add a doodle.  Was it a super sunny hot day and your family went to the beach?  Maybe add the story to your weather doodle. 

A List Love Journal:  Lists can be so fun to make and there are thousands of prompts out there.  Top 5 favorite movies.  Top 10 favorite animals.  Top 3 smoothie flavors.  The options are endless.

A Quote Journal:  Music lyrics, literary quotes, pop culture.  The options here are endless.  You could simply write out the quotes or turn them into are like @nolalettering does (or do a combo!).

Quote Journal

(Quote Journal example courtesy of @nolalettering)

A Memory Journal:  This kind of documentation really draws on many of the other ideas on the list.  With a memory journal you’re not limited to one type of documentation.  You can draw memories, write about memories, include pictures…one of my favorite ways to document daily memories is taking a photo every day for a set amount of time (a week, a month, and year).  By the end of that time period your left with something really cool!

If you would like to hear more about journaling everyday and making it a habit you can find a youtube video describing the elements below...

I also made a fun quote coloring sheet to help inspire your journaling journey!

Coliring Sheet Quote Printable

I hope these examples help inspire your journey to help make journaling an everyday habit for you, and for those of you who already journal everyday I would love to hear your unique ideas for creating the habit!

Below you can find more examples from other Archer and Olive Blogs to help you on your journey:

100+ Guided Journaling Prompts For Your Mental Wellness Bullet Journal

How to Create A Quote Page

How to Doodle in your Blackout Book

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