How to Start Journaling in the New Year
Written by Saara Sastry
It is widely accepted that keeping a journal can help you create order when your world feels like it's in chaos. You get to know yourself by revealing your most private fears, thoughts, and feelings. It can be an amazing tool to ameliorate your mental and emotional health. I’m sure we’ve all seen YouTube or TikToks videos of journals that are filled to the brim with colorful lettering and scrapbook art. Despite the plethora of journaling inspo and clear wellness benefits, I’ve tried journaling several times in my life, but I never end up making it a habit.
But in 2023, I started the year with the goal to actually finish a whole year of journaling, which I finally accomplished! With the start of the new year being the perfect time to adopt new habits, I’m going to share some tips and tricks (along with some prompts for the new year) to help you start and maintain journaling as a habit in 2024.
You do not have to write every day.
A common misconception when starting a journal is that you have to write something down every single day. And while that is a nice idea, many of us do not have the luxury of enough time to do so every single day. On the flip side, some of us may not have anything new to write every day, and would end up writing “filler” entries that do not take advantage of the mental benefits true journaling can provide.
For these reasons, when I was journaling in 2023, I freed myself from the idea of writing every day and instead wrote whenever my emotions were so strong that I felt I needed to release them in some way. So whenever I felt extremely sad, angry, happy, excited, or any other emotion, I wrote about that.
You do not need to journal in a certain aesthetic.
I mentioned journaling inspo videos earlier, and while these can indeed serve as inspiration for journaling layouts, they do not necessarily serve as the blueprint. If you are a very artsy person who enjoys incorporating drawings and scrapbooking into their journal, and that will serve as a form of creative expression for you, then by all means do so! But if your journal is just writing and is not “aesthetically pleasing,” that is also entirely okay. The purpose of the journal is to relieve emotional and mental hardships in a healthy way, so if simply writing down your thoughts is doing that, then it is okay not to follow the inspiration videos on YouTube or TikTok.
There is no structure to journaling. You do you!
In a similar vein, it is also important to remember that there is no structure to journaling. While some people benefit from using specific prompts or titling and putting a date on every entry, it is not at all necessary. You don’t even need to be writing down a diary-style emotional entry to receive the benefits of journaling. Perhaps you want to write down your favorite song of the week, or a food review of a restaurant you went to recently. Anything and everything is fair game when it comes to journaling.
That being said, for those who prefer a little bit of structure, here are a few prompts geared specifically to the new year:
How am I viewing the beginning of this year as a fresh start?
What new skills do I want to acquire this year?
What skills from last year am I carrying into this year?
What am I most hopeful and excited about for this year?
If utilized effectively, journaling can be an incredible mental, emotional, and creative outlet. I hope I’ve given you some useful tips and perhaps alleviated some pressure off of the journaling process!
Be Well,
Saara
