Journaling Tip: Write Every Day

It's so easy to give up on the habit of journaling altogether if you fail to write even for just a few days.

I've been journaling for a long time now (you can read more about it here). One crucial aspect of building a journaling habit is to be as consistent as possible in writing entries. Journaling is one of those practices that's so easy to give up on. How many of us have started journaling only to discard the practice several days later?

Here's a personal tip from my journaling experience: try to write something every single day. I pretty much write in my journal on a daily basis. However, here's a little secret: I don't necessarily write a lot every single day. The quantity of writing I do in my journal could widely vary from day to day. In fact, you might be surprised at the contents of some of the pages of my journal. Some pages might just have the date and the Bible passages I read that day. Some pages might just contain one word or one phrase or one sentence. Some pages are almost completely empty. But here's why: I'm simply trying to build a consistent habit of journaling, even if that means writing very little on some days.

It's so easy to give up on the habit of journaling altogether if you fail to write even for just a few days. Those few days will turn into weeks or months of not journaling. You might have good reasons for not writing. Perhaps there's nothing significant to write about on a particular day. I get that. There are days when I don’t have much to journal about—no big revelation from God or significant event that's worth writing about. But I still try to write something on those days even if it's minimal items just to keep the habit going.

When something inevitably happens that's worth writing about, it's not so difficult for me to pull out my journal and record it because I already have the consistent habit of writing every single day. If I didn't have the habit, I may fail to write the significant stuff when they do finally happen. Inevitably, a time will come when I will fill up 2 or 3 pages of my journal with thoughts, insights, and ideas. But those significant days come if I've been consistent with journaling in the first place. Although I don't always have much to write about every day, I want to be ready for when the time comes when I will. In fact, as time goes by, I actually find myself writing more and more in my journal and not less.

Writing every single day, even if it's just a few words on a page, is a tip to help you build consistency in journaling. When the time inevitably comes when you want to write more, it's very easy to do so because you've already developed a strong journaling habit.

Barnabas the Monastic

Servant of Christ. Husband. Dad. Modern Monastic. I have a wild ambition in life: get as close to the Lord Jesus Christ as I can while on earth. I explore and integrate ancient Christian monk wisdom in modern everyday life. Lives in Canada.