How to start a journal.
Get a notebook or open a blank page, choose one time of day, and write for five minutes. That is the whole start. The rest of this page is about keeping going.
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- Choose where. A notebook, a file, or the Journal here — whichever you will actually open.
- Choose when. Attach it to something you already do every day: the first coffee, the bus, the last ten minutes before bed.
- Start smaller than you think. Three sentences, or five minutes.
- Have a prompt ready for the days your mind is blank.
- Expect gaps. When you miss days, start again today. Don’t catch up.
Paper or screen?
Both work. The difference is in what gets in the way.
| Paper | Screen | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Slower, which some people find helps them think. | Faster, especially for long entries. |
| Distraction | No notifications. | Everything else on the device is one tap away. |
| Finding old entries | You leaf through. | You can search. |
| Privacy | Anyone who finds the notebook can read it. | Depends where it is saved — check before you write anything personal. |
If you are learning English, there is one more difference: typing usually comes with a spell checker, which fixes mistakes before you notice them. That is convenient, and it also means you learn less from them. Some learners handwrite for this reason.
When to write
The best time is the one you can keep. Try tying it to something you already do every day, so you choose a moment rather than an hour: after I make coffee, when I sit down on the train, after I brush my teeth at night.
Morning entries often look forward — plans, moods, what is on your mind. Evening entries often look back. There are 60 morning prompts and 60 evening prompts if you want a starting point for either.
How long to write
There is no correct length. Five minutes is enough to start, and short enough that you won’t talk yourself out of it. Some methods ask for much more — three full pages every morning, in one well-known case — and journaling methods compares them. Start short. You can always write more on a day you feel like it.
What to write when you have nothing to say
An empty page is one of the most common reasons people stop. Keep a few sentence starters ready and finish one of them:
- Right now I am…
- Today I noticed…
- I keep thinking about…
- Something I want to remember is…
- The best part of today was…
- I’m not sure what to write, so…
- Tomorrow I want to…
- A question I don’t have an answer to yet:…
For more, there are 370 journal prompts in six themes.
Your first week
Seven short entries, each a little different, so you find out what you like before you commit to anything.
| Day | Write about |
|---|---|
| 1 | Where you are sitting right now, in five details. |
| 2 | One thing that happened today, from start to finish. |
| 3 | A list: everything on your mind, one line each. |
| 4 | One prompt from the self-reflection list. |
| 5 | Three specific things that went right this week. |
| 6 | A plan for tomorrow, in three lines. |
| 7 | Read the week back. Which entry was easiest to write? Do more of that kind. |
When you miss days
You will, and that is normal. The mistake is trying to catch up — writing up the missing days turns a five-minute habit into an hour-long job, and that is often where people stop. Leave the gap, write today’s date, and write today’s entry.
Keeping it private
A journal works best when you can be honest in it, so decide where it lives before you write anything personal. A notebook can be kept somewhere only you use. On a screen, find out where your words are saved: on the device, or on someone else’s server. The Journal on the Writing Desk is built to keep entries in your browser, on your device, with no account.
You will find a lot of promises online about what journaling does for your health. This page doesn’t make them. The research most often cited is about one specific kind of writing — “expressive writing” about difficult experiences, first tested in a 1986 experiment by James Pennebaker and Sandra Beall — and the results are mixed. A 2006 review of 146 studies found a small positive average effect, which its author argued was still worthwhile; about a quarter of the individual studies had results pointing the other way (a negative effect size).
A journal is a place to write. It isn’t a treatment, and it isn’t a replacement for help from a professional.
If something you write about feels too heavy to carry alone, you don’t have to. Talk to someone you trust, a doctor, or a support service where you live.
Frequently asked
Do I need a special notebook to start a journal? No. Any notebook, a phone note or a document works. Choose whatever you are most likely to open every day; you can change later.
What should I write in my first journal entry? Something easy and concrete: where you are, what you can see, what happened today. The first entry only has to exist. It does not have to be interesting.
Can I keep my journal in English if it isn’t my first language? Yes, and it is good practice. Write simply, don’t stop for words you don’t know, and see journaling to learn English for a short daily routine.