Tips for Motivating Yourself to Keep Journaling

Did you start journaling to help reach a goal, help with stress, or just help with daily to do lists? And do you now find it more difficult motivating yourself to keep journaling?

It is normal to have an ebb and flow to journaling. Getting out of the habit of journaling can be caused by lots of things. Sometimes it’s a lack of time, priorities have shifted, or you just run out of things to write about at the moment. And sometimes you just don’t feel motivated to continue journaling.

Here are some tips that can help you keep that motivation and even changed up your journaling routine to make it fun again!

Create Daily Prompts

Creating daily prompts is a great way for motivating yourself to keep journaling. Once a week, gather enough journaling prompts for the week ahead. This will give you enough to stay busy with your journal and look forward to, as well as focus on. Knowing your prompts ahead of time will give you some time to think about them before you sit down to journal.

What type of prompts should you set up? There are all kinds of writing prompts available on line with a simple search, or make yours more personal around your life.

For example, you can write out prompts that deal with:

• Upcoming events at work
• Goals you are trying to reach
• Events you are looking forward to
• Politics
• Sports
• Movies coming out
• A book you recently read
• A poem you wrote or one that inspires you
• Or start a memory list—write out a list using 3 words up to a paragraph of as many memories you can recall throughout your life. Then you can come back to this list and use your memories as journal prompts!
• Nature journal your backyard

Knowing your prompts ahead of time will give you some time to think about them before you sit down to journal.

Don’t Just Write

Don’t feel pressured to write in every journal entry you have. There are so many other ways to add personalization to your journal!

• Put in pictures/photos
• Put in drawings your child/grandchild drew for you, or your own
• Print out a favorite meme and tape/glue it in
• A pressed flower
• Add some fun stickers and write around them
• Track the weather
• Put in a movie ticket
• A favorite family recipe
• Glue in some fabric—either for decoration or from a favorite clothing, or your child’s clothing, etc.
• A date that is important in your life—when something amazing happened, or the last note a family member wrote, etc.

The point is to keep your journal personal. Put things in your journal that mean something to you. Don’t just write. Feel your emotions instead.

Decorate the Journal

Decorate your journal! This journal is yours and every page inside as well as the outside of it is yours to do with as you please. One day at a time, spend some time making it something that represents you.

You can decorate the covers, the interior pages, and the flaps (if it has them). Look up “junk journaling” on the internet or YouTube for ideas. Make the journal inviting for you to come back to everyday, something that calls to you to write in it. It should be as welcome as your home, your bed, or your sofa, wherever you find comfort.

Share some Entries

Sometimes we feel more motivated to journal if we talk about it with other people. You can share journal entries and pages (that are not very personal) with others to help you stay motivated.

For example, you can share a picture you drew on the page, or a poem you wrote, or how you designed a few of the pages to reflect you. The positive feedback can be very motivating to keep you going.

There are many places to share your journal entries—Facebook has numerous groups you can join, there are journaling forums on the internet, or start your own journaling group with your friends.

By incorporating some, or even all of these tips, motivating yourself to keep journaling will become easier. You may even discover some reasons you lost your motivation and avoid those in the future.