3 Simple Daily Journaling Methods to Easily Fit into Your Busy Schedule

Table of Contents

• The Consistent Struggle of Finding the Time to Journal
• 1. Freewriting
• 2. Daily Prompts
  • 13 Daily Prompt Ideas
• 3. Review & Revise
• How to Overcome Common Challenges in Daily Journaling
  • Not Enough Time
  • Perfectionism
  • Expectation
  • Interest
• Simplify Journaling to Make It Achievable

Journaling has been around for a LONG time. And still around because there are so many benefits for anyone to enjoy. Leading to self-discovery and deeply personal insight, it remains one of the most popular forms of writing used to navigate life.

But between the ping pong paddles of our lives, it can be very hard to find the time to journal. Being busy, sometimes we miss journaling altogether. Many other times we start but don’t finish or fully develop our thoughts.

With this dilemma, the classic approach of breaking large daunting tasks into small manageable pieces works. When journaling seems like a large daunting task, simple daily journaling methods can make them completely doable.

They can also help you work towards longer journaling times, more profound journaling themes, and better writing habits. Use these simple methods geared towards daily journaling to get back on task with journaling and stay on task.

Freewriting is an easy technique used for journaling and creative writing. Through uncensored, unstructured, and stream-of-conscious like writing, writers use this technique to turn on their idea machines.

How Does it Work: Set a timer, and write whatever comes to your mind, no matter how bizarre or nonsensical your thoughts come. Don’t stop to correct mistakes, change words, or re-think. Write until your time’s up.

The goal is to warm up your creative thoughts and get you in the mood to write. Used by creative writers, it’s also used to overcome writer’s block; This technique can be done in 5 – 10 minutes anywhere at almost any time.

In addition to warming up your creative thoughts, free writing can be very revealing. Reviewing the contents of your thoughts, their progression and organization gives you insight into how your brain works, what inspires you, things you commonly think, etc.

Use this method to get into the groove of consistent writing, and get your thoughts on paper.

Daily journaling prompts are thought-provoking questions that encourage daily writing. These prompts can be about the day you want to have, a reflection on the day you’ve already had, or something random. Done with or without time restriction this technique can be used in the morning to set intentions about your day, or in the afternoon to reflect on your experiences.

How Does It Work?
Choose a prompt to respond to and write.

With daily journaling prompts, there are no right answers, required structure to follow, or required length to adhere to (unless the prompt specifies so). Promote intentional writing, self-awareness, and personal success, you’re encouraged to respond authentically.

Daily Prompt Journaling Tip: Avoid wasting time looking for prompts by pre-researching and pre-picking your prompts days or nights before. You could plan your prompts in a calendar. This way when it’s time to write, you already have a prompt to work with.

13 Daily Prompt Ideas

1. What are you grateful for today?
2. What was the highlight of your day? Why?
3. What did you learn from someone else today?
4. Who were you most happy to see today?
5. What was the most memorable conversation today?
6. How did you manage your emotions today?
7. When could you have taken a break, to improve your mood, performance, and energy?
8. What about today’s events was similar to yesterday’s?
9. What conversation would you do-over? What would you say?
10. How could you have improved your work ethic today?
11. What did you improve on from yesterday?
12. If you had all the money in the world what would do and why?
13. If you finished your work 5 hours earlier, what would you do for the rest of the day? Why?

The review & revise technique is an effective method aimed toward active personal growth. It promotes self-awareness and learning from mistakes through introspection. This technique makes gaining personal insights and setting actionable goals for the future easy.

How Does It Work
With or without a time limit restriction this journaling technique encompasses 3 steps.

1. Reflect and write about your day or a specific part of it. Try to fully understand its events, your perspective, and other people’s perspectives and perceptions.
2. Consider ways things could’ve been done differently. Specifically on ways you could’ve positively influenced better outcomes through alternative reactions, approaches, behaviors, and verbal responses.
3. Briefly and explicitly list immediate changes you could implement in your attitude, speech, reactions, and approaches to produce more moments that align with larger personal goals.

In the heat of any moment, our actions and reactions often come spontaneously. Reviewing & revising through journaling allows us to be intentional about our actions and set micro goals that we could accomplish within 24 hours.

Not Enough Time

Not having enough time to journal is an obstacle everyone shares. Luckily there are 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 4-5 weeks in a month, 12 months in a year, and many years to keep trying,

Use journaling techniques that directly tackle timing issues can provide fast results. If large journaling projects are your things, break them into small sessions that can be done in little time.

Still, there are so many common reasons that journaling becomes an abandoned task. Wanting to enjoy its many benefits, maintaining a regular journaling practice needs some proactivity: strategies to navigate common but beatable journaling obstacles.

Perfectionism

Don’t self-censor or hyper-focus on writing the perfect journal entry. Your journal entries are yours to create and benefit from. Instead of focusing on things like perfect format, aesthetics, and cohesiveness, aim for authenticity and personal growth. Embrace imperfection because it’s part of the process and celebrate your effort and positive progress.

Even though cohesiveness, beautiful aesthetics, and prestigious languag improves your journaling experience and quality, those things are not the point of journaling. They come naturally with time and personalization.

Obsessing over the perfect journal entry only hinders you from picking up momentum.

Expectation

Don’t expect too much. Unlike perfection, discovery is a huge and important aspect of journaling. Approach journaling with curiosity and openness to allow your thoughts to flow naturally. Instead of focusing on performance, focus on being present for the journaling process. This will promote genuine growth and reflection.

Interest

I’m definitely guilty of losing interest in a journaling prompt or topic while writing. But this can be a quick fix.

• Avoid extensive journaling sessions that run for hours
• If you are up for long journaling sessions, take breaks to extend your energy and focus
• Write about things you want to write about
• Use journaling prompts to shake things up and introduce fun out-of-the-box topics
• Keep your favorite food-for-thought snacks on hand to keep your thoughts fresh.

Journaling is many things. When we actually find the time write, it can be a practice that helps us appreciate and personally improve the life we live. To find the time, simplify whatever you think journaling is and use easy techniques that’ll fit into any open slot in your busy calendar.

If you didn’t have the time to journal today, try again tomorrow…or the next day.