I learned about journaling less than a year ago, but it is something I’ve slowly been trying to incorporate into my life. I was one of those intense bullet journalers in middle school, and ever since then, I’ve wanted to get back into casual creativity. I’ve compiled a couple of tips that have been helpful for me. Honestly, writing these down is making me want to commit to my journaling even more. To me, “journaling” encompasses just about anything that occurs in a journal. I switch between junk journaling, writing silly notes, bullet journaling, doodling, and unpacking emotions all within the same notebook. That leads me to my first — and biggest — tip:
- Don’t Expect Perfection
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People say they want to start journaling and then begin by forcing themselves to write for 15 minutes at 7 am, or for half an hour before bed. If that works for you, great, but for a lot of us, that just gets too daunting. Try to let go of expectations surrounding what your journal should or shouldn’t include, and it will become a lot more fun. You also don’t have to start journaling every single day. Just once a week can slowly build to every couple of days and then every day. Creating a habit is a process, so begin with what you can.
- Carry it around with you
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Journals are often thrown into desks or nightstand drawers, and then they’re forgotten about. If you really want to use it, you should carry it around with you. In your backpack or a tote bag works fine. If it is always on your person, you can use it to write down thoughts, draw, plan, anything!
- Start small, writing by hand
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We use computers so much in our daily lives that transitioning to handwriting in a journal can be really hard. I always feel like my thoughts are going faster than my hand can write them down. So, it is really helpful to simply begin small. Have a page where you write down a few sentences at a time, and go from there. Take breaks often if you want to write something longer. Once you get more comfortable with writing on paper, it will get easier to reach for your journal instead of your phone’s notes app.
- Take those receipts
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One of my favorite parts of journaling is not writing — it’s designing! But fun markers and stickers can only take you so far. One of the best ways to incorporate your life into your journal is to actually keep those receipts when you buy items. Even if you don’t want your journal to become a scrapbook, pasting in a receipt of a latte can inspire you to write about your day studying with friends at a local coffee shop, for example. The receipts act as touchpoints to help you think of ideas. Sometimes if I’ve accumulated a lot of receipts in my pockets, I just glue them down and write one sentence about each, and boom! I’ve made a journal spread about my past week.
- Watch journal creators
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You will feel motivated to scrapbook and write down your thoughts if it constantly surrounds you. There are a lot of cute videos on TikTok — and long-form flip-throughs on YouTube — that you can start to watch. By interacting with other creatives, you will feel compelled to try out their ideas and work on your own journal. Don’t feel bad about copying; journaling is not a Canvas assignment where you’ll get flagged for plagiarism. If they make a list of their favorite movies, you can too! If they talk about their relationship struggles, join in on the conversation and respond to them in your own journal. Having a community of like-minded individuals will make the whole process more enjoyable.
I hope that this has helped you on your journaling journey, and happy creating!