What to Write in a Daily Journal

What to write in a daily journal may seem daunting when you are first starting out. What do you write about every single day? Some journal writers enjoy writing without direction (stream of consciousness) while other journalers want or need a daily prompt to either write about or to help lead them to a deeper writing about something else.

Below are several ideas to write about in your journal(s). You can keep different journals according to subject, such as a gratitude journal, a travel journal, or one just for inspirational quotes.

What to Write in a Daily Journal

Quotes and Reflection

Inspirational quotes are great journal prompts and there are hundreds to choose from. Find a quote that inspires you to do something more in your life. Write it down or cut it out of a magazine and paste it into your journal. Then write your thoughts on how it applies to your life. Any quote that resonates with you will work, whether it’s from a line in a book or movie, a funny joke, an anecdote, or part of a poem.

Answer Questions

Do you ever have questions that just pop into your head when you are taking a shower, washing the dishes, driving to work, or doing some other mundane task and you can’t look it up? Keep a small notebook with you and write it down, then later when you have time go back and reflect on the question in your journal and look up the answers. You can also visit sites dedicated to asking questions. Find one that appeals to you and write about it in your journal.

Personal Life Goals

Write about your personal life goals in your journal. You can list them in a single entry. And
then dedicate other entries to a specific goal. Talk about the goal, what actions you can take to achieve the goal, and the importance of the goal in your life. One of my favorite quotes I like to keep in my journals when I’m frustrated about my goals is “Your life won’t change until you do”. (by Steve Harvey). That always reminds me that I need to list out the actions I need to take to accomplish my goals, and then act upon them.

Important Events

These can be events you personally experienced or significant events. They can be historical events, like the ending of a war, or the death of a famous person. They could be small events that happened in your town. Or specific important events in your own life and how they changed you.

Challenges and Solutions

We all face a variety of challenges every single day. Anytime you experience a struggle during your day, write about it in your journal.

• What happened that made it a challenge?
• How did you feel when you had to face it?
• Did you overcome the challenge?
• How?

Some challenges can’t be overcome in a single day. Write about possible solutions to the challenge in the days and weeks ahead. The more you focus on writing or brainstorming for solutions, the more you will hear your intuition give you the answers through your journaling.

Dreams and Memories

Almost every day a memory will pop randomly in my mind while I’m doing something else. Take time to journal about the memory and how it makes you feel. Add these memories to a “Memory List” where you can expand on them later on. This could be for a book for your children about your life. Or a memoir to publish. Or a private entry just for you to reflect on.

If you had an interesting dream the night before, write it down in your journal and take time to reflect on what the personal meaning is for you. If nothing comes to you, look up possible meanings in a dream dictionary to see if any meanings resonate with you.

Write About Food

Writing in a food journal is a great way to save your favorite recipes. You can write the original recipe in the journal and then how you changed it and what you liked or didn’t like about it. It’s a great way to explore new foods and new ways of cooking, fermenting, canning, and preserving your food. Start a pantry list in your food journal and rotate menu ideas and grocery lists.

You can also keep a food journal if you are trying to lose weight. Keep track of what you ate during the day and how it made you feel, new recipes that helped you slim down, or modifications to recipes to make them healthier.

Nature Journal

Keeping a nature journal will help you connect and ground yourself in nature. You don’t have to be an artist to keep a nature journal. You just have to be curious about the natural world around you. Find a sit spot where you can observe nature every day for 20 minutes. Or take your nature journal with on a hike or camping trip. Record the weather, what the clouds look like, what birds are near you, what kind of trees or plant life. By learning to really look at what you are seeing, you will develop more focus, retain details to put in the journal, and connect to nature around you. Ask questions:

• I notice . . .
• It reminds me of . . .
• I wonder . . .

Watch a few of John Muir Laws’ videos for inspiration, ideas, and how to draw when you don’t know how to draw.

Write What You Are Grateful For

Keeping a gratitude journal allows us to show our gratitude for the good things that show up in our lives every day. Once you spend a few minutes each day writing something that you are grateful for, it becomes easier to look for the positive in each day and keep a more positive mindset.

Travel Journal

Keeping a daily travel journal gives you a place to record your memories along your trip or vacation. Write about your discoveries, include a map, or draw a map of that day’s part of the travel. Where and what did you eat? Did you stay in a hotel? An RV? Tent? Write about your day and put any memorabilia in your journal as keepsakes.

Day to day happenings of your life

Write in your journal what happens each day. Who did you call or talk to during the day? What did you eat? What was the weather like? Did you go shopping? What did you do at work? Writing about the highs and lows of the day will help you relieve stress as well as remember the good parts of the day.

Plan out projects

A journal is a good place to plan out projects. It could be a garden project where you can use a garden project journal. Or building a shed, planning out a quilt, fleshing out a novel plot, or any other project you want to complete where you need to write out the details and supplies you need.

Reasons to be proud of yourself

We all have an inner critic that reminds us every day of our shortcomings. How about journaling reasons to be proud of yourself instead? Kick that inner critic to the curb and replace it with all the things you did right or accomplished or the skills youy developed that further your goals.

Things you need to get done

Keeping a list of things you need to get done in your journal and crossing each one off gives you a sense of accomplishment. Keep a running list in your journal where you can refer back to it to mark them off. These could be housecleaning chores, grocery lists, things around the house to repair, bills to pay, or a list of birthdays to remember (and the gifts you want to get for them).

Hopes and dreams or vision board

Write about your hopes and dreams. Draw up a vision board in your journal to make a visual of what you want. Paste images in the pages of exactly what you want—is it a Jeep you want? What kind? Color? Year model? etc. Find an image of the exact model and color you want and paste it in there along with your goals of how you are going to get it.

Final Thoughts

I hope this list of what to write in a daily journal inspires you to pick up your journal and pen and start writing. All of these are worth documenting and journaling is a rewarding addition to your day.