Writing down one thing you are grateful for each day is the cheapest possible therapy ever.
What do Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Frida Kahlo and Thomas Edison have in common? They were all geniuses at the tops of their fields – and they all kept journals. Learning how to journal helped them organize their thoughts, be more creative and make great discoveries – and it can do the same for you.
Interest in how to start a journal isn’t just for scientists and creative types. Use of journals is skyrocketing among business people, entertainers and more as they discover the same benefits as Darwin and Edison. And in today’s quickly changing world, just about everyone has thoughts and anxieties they need to get out. If you feel like you need to clear your mind and organize your thoughts, journaling can help.
Journaling multiplies our clarity and awareness. This clarity and awareness are the only way to ensure we are on the right path.
Journaling activates deliberate gratitude. It is often easy to get tied up in the business of our daily life and forget to be grateful. Journaling is a fantastic way to handle your emotions when you feel low, and express your gratitude for what is good in your life.
Journaling also allows you to plan effectively and set demonstrable goals. This means you will understand when your performance improves. As we have heard so many times, what gets written gets done. So, the act of journaling will help keep you more motivated. Finally, journaling captures your life’s best experiences. Journaling allows you to re-experience joyful times.
Learning how to journal takes concentration. Even stream-of-consciousness styles require you to look deeply within. A short meditation routine or priming can help clear your mind and get “in the zone.”
As people look to take a “time out” from their extra-busy lives or to reflect on what’s going on in the world, more and more are discovering the benefits of journaling. Tony Robbins himself has been keeping journals for as long as he can remember. They can help you see your progress, remember day-to-day events and focus on your future goals. They’ve certainly worked for Tony.
Don’t think you have the time? Journaling can actually help you be more productive, saving you time in the end. Whether you want to make sense of your busy life or pause and reflect, journaling has a plethora of benefits just waiting to be discovered.
Why journaling is important
Tony says that “Setting goals is the first step from the invisible to the visible.” But there’s another essential step: writing them down. One study found that writing down goals improves the chance of achieving them by 42%. The same study found that those who wrote weekly progress reports achieved even more. But why?
One of the reasons why journaling is important is that it can hold you accountable. Look back on your goals every night and write down the actions you took today that will help you achieve them. Then write down three things you can do tomorrow. Did you complete those actions? If not, why not? When you break your goals down into daily, achievable tasks, you could see your productivity skyrocket.
2. Find solutions to challenges
Former UK prime minister Benjamin Disraeli famously said, “The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write about it.” Journaling can help you explore and clarify your thoughts, feelings and ideas. It gives you insights into the most important opinion of all: your own. You can’t get that from talking to a friend.
If you’re facing a challenge in life, take advantage of the benefits of journaling to work through your options. Write down everything you know about the problem you need to solve or decision you need to make. It will be easier to balance opposing viewpoints, identify what’s really important to you and find a compromise or a solution.
3. Improve memory and recall
Journaling doesn’t just help you make sense of events – the process can actually help you retain information. Studies have found that expressive writing can increase working memory capacity, and the process of writing itself serves to cement facts or events in your brain. Drawing and even typing don’t have the same effect – writing activates the brain even more than those activities.
Even writing down facts that seem insignificant at the time will help improve your overall memory. And chances are that your future self will find these “boring” events much more interesting. Sometimes it is the small moments that have the greatest impact on who we become. Thanks to the benefits of journaling, you’ll be able to remember those moments.
4. Decrease stress and anxiety
The benefits of journaling go beyond problem-solving and achieving goals. Writing has also been proven to decrease depression and anxiety and improve resilience and overall well-being. Even writing about everyday stressors, like a work presentation or a fight with your significant other, can have anxiety-reducing effects.
Journaling can also be the first step toward creating other positive daily habits to reduce anxiety. This week, you’ll write in a journal for five minutes. Next week, you’ll develop an empowering morning ritual. You can use your journal to hold yourself accountable for these new goals. Before you know it, you’re on the path to an extraordinary life.
5. Improve physical health
One incredible reason why journaling is important is that it can actually make you healthier. Personal writing has been shown to boost immune function and help post-surgery healing, among many other benefits. In another study, college students who wrote about their feelings experienced fewer illnesses while they were at school.
The decreased stress and anxiety you’ll experience can also have positive physical effects, like helping insomnia. Combined with exercise you enjoy, the right diet and other healthful practices, journaling can be a powerful tool to improve your overall health.
6. Change your mindset
Writing about your thoughts and feelings can even help you see the positive benefits of stressful events, rather than focusing on the negative. Journaling can also help you see how far you’ve come. When you have a setback or a bad day, look back in your journal to see all that you’ve accomplished.
If you struggle with negative self-talk or limiting beliefs, you’ll understand why journaling is important. By writing down these negative thoughts and feelings and identifying them as false, you take away their power and can replace them with empowering beliefs. As with goal-setting, the act of writing it down can be enough to make it feel true.
Just 10 to 15 minutes per day is all it takes to see all the positive benefits of journaling. Now that you know how much you can gain from this mindful practice, it’s time to get out a pen and paper and start writing!
So, a simple act of writing in your journal can genuinely elevate your life.
Multiplies clarity and awareness
Activates deliberate gratitude
Reinforceses daily learning
Recrods where you are winning
Processes low energy emotions for release versus repression
Offers a place to work through confusion and worry
Allows for planning and goal-setting so execution improves
Captures your life’s best experiences
Allows you to re-experience joyful times
Elevates your creativity which when translated into productivity yields mastery
Extra read:
To start a journal, it might seem like all you need is a pen and paper. But you may also need to overcome your limiting beliefs in order to actually put the pen to the page. You want to learn how to journal but you may think you’re a bad writer. Maybe you’re nervous about writing down personal information. Or maybe you’re afraid of what might come out.
Famed children’s writer E.B. White said, “Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.” The first step in how to start a journal is to gain confidence. Understand that you don’t need to be a great writer or even a good writer. Accept that starting a journal is about the process of growth. You might discover some uncomfortable facts, but that is the only way you will grow as a person. Once you’re able to let your thoughts flow, you’re ready to learn more about how to journal.
To see all the benefits of journaling, you must make it part of your routine. Set aside a specific time each day and stick to it. Put a reminder in your phone or leave yourself a note. The important thing is to turn it into a daily habit.
2. Create an inspiring space.
Create a relaxing and comfortable space where you can focus without any interruptions. A spare room or attic nook works well, but if you don’t have much space, a breakfast tray in bed will be just as cozy.
3. Gather your supplies.
A pen and paper works, but there are many different types of journaling. Depending on which one you choose, you may need a journal that is formatted a certain way. If you go with a more traditional format, you can still make it interesting by purchasing a journal with an inspiring design or that speaks to your personal style.
4. Clear your head.
Over the past 5 years, I've journaled every single morning—and along the way, I've:
Answered over 1,000 questions
Tested every app, pen, & notebook But I always return to a pen, paper, and these 5 prompts
For notebook & pen, I use: Muji 0.5 pens + Leuchtturm1917 soft-covers (More about these at the end!)
For my prompts, I use:
The 80/20 Audit
The Morning Kickstart
The Evening Shutdown
The Bottleneck Analysis
The Compounding Projection
Let's dive in to each:
Prompt 1: The Morning Kickstart
My current morning routine:
Make a fresh double espresso
Crack open my notebook
Brain dump answers to 5 questions
But here's the catch: I set strict limits. No one has time to write a novel every morning—so here's what I do instead:
I start with 5 questions:  What's 1 thing I'm grateful for? • What's 1 thing I'm excited about? • What's 1 virtue I want to exhibit? • What's 1 thing I'm avoiding? • What's the 1 thing I need to do? But I set a 5-minute timer. And each question gets 1 sentence, max.
This prompt covers all of the bases: • Present moment gratitude • Future excitement for the day ahead • Reminders about the type of person I'm trying to become (and avoid becoming) And it ends with a reminder of the 1 most important thing I need to today. Now for evening:
Prompt 2: The Evening Shutdown Just like the Morning Kickstart, this one has to be quick. So I set a 5-minute timer and answer: • What were my biggest wins of the day? • Did I have any major realizations? • What's on the agenda for tomorrow? Here's why I chose these:
By recapping the my biggest wins & realizations, I keep a ledger of: • The good things happening in my life • The things I'm learning about myself & the world And by brain dumping bullets on the day ahead, I go to bed with clarity, letting my subconscious work overnight.
Prompt 3: The Bottleneck Analysis This one is the single prompt that has most accelerated my personal growth. And it has 2 questions: 1. What's the biggest bottleneck to achieving my next goal? 2. Why aren't I working on it today? Here's why it's so effective:
This prompt forces you to confront the brutal truth over the comforting lie. The truth is, you know exactly what you should be doing. So—stop looking for new things to do. • No shiny objects • No new books • No new apps Instead, do the things you know you should be doing.
Prompt 4: The 80/20 Life Audit First start with 2 lists: • Where am I feeling satisfied? • Where am I feeling dissatisfied? Brain dump anything and everything—health, finances, relationships, career, spirituality, get it all onto the page. Then, take each list and analyze:
Our goal is to find the 20% of: • Places • Habits • People • Beliefs That are leading to 80% of the positive & negative results. This is the 80/20 rule in action. And this reflection will make it painfully obvious which handful of things are driving your results.
During this reflection, patterns will emerge. The same people, habits, and beliefs—all leading to your best and worst results. From there, your goal is to: • Double down on the 20% positive • Ruthlessly eliminate the 20% negative The result? An instant life upgrade.
Prompt 5: The Compounding Projection It's cliché, but all successful outcomes come from compounding. Our success (or failure) is a result of tiny, daily actions compounded over time. But in the moment, it can be hard to gauge your progress. So ask yourself these 2 questions:
1. If I repeated every action I took today, every day for a year, where would I end up? 2. Is this the place I want to be? If you're confident in your current path, this prompt will help you be more patient. But if you're on the wrong path, it will help you course correct.
And that's it! These are the 5 prompts I come back to time and time again. • The 80/20 Audit • The Morning Kickstart • The Evening Shutdown • The Bottleneck Analysis • The Compounding Projection And they always leave me with a feeling of elite clarity.
Now for the most important part: If you have not written with a: • Muji 0.5 clicker pen • On a new Leuchtturm1917 • Over a freshly-poured double espresso You are in for a treat. Muji pens: https://amzn.to/3Rkevwt Leuchtturm1917 soft-cover notebook: https://amzn.to/3UyOIDe
Discovering what to write in a journal is a very personal process – that’s why there are nearly as many journaling styles as there are people who write in journals. The key, as with any goal in life, is to focus on your outcome: Is it to hold yourself accountable and achieve your goals? Is it to overcome limiting beliefs and change your mindset? Reduce anxiety? Be more creative?
Learning how to journal can do all of these things for you – but it’s important to set your focus on just one goal. Here are a few journaling types that are popular with some of the world’s most successful people.
Morning Pages
Initially developed by artist, author and teacher Julia Cameron as a creative exercise, Morning Pages is starting to catch on with the business world. This concept for how to start a journal is straightforward: Every morning, write three full pages of your stream-of-consciousness thoughts. You must do it by hand, and the only other rule is not to overthink it! Everyone from entrepreneur Chris Winfield to software engineer Nicky Hajal has experienced the benefits of Morning Pages. Why not try it yourself?
Five Minute Journal
No time for Morning Pages? Entrepreneur, investor and best-selling author Tim Ferriss swears by his morning ritual: the Five Minute Journal. This ready-made book makes it easy to learn how to journal. It’s filled with questions and quotes intended to prompt reflection, cultivate gratitude and make each day better than the last. Tim says just five minutes in the morning helps him be more productive and content throughout the day, making it well worth the small time investment.
Recording events
How to journal is different for everyone, but even recording everyday stressors and events can have a positive impact on your life. One study found that students who wrote down seemingly insignificant events rated them as more interesting when they looked back on them three months later. “Rediscovering” mundane events can make life more meaningful and help you see the beauty in every moment of your life.
If you’re wondering how to journal, the most important advice is to get started today. Whether you choose a structured format or a stream-of-consciousness style, writing down your thoughts and feelings can help you make sense of the world. That’s something everyone can benefit from.
Write your emotions daily. The two minute miracle: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18230223/
Blueprint
20 year plan
Integrate journaling into your standard agenda in the morning, evening and weekend two sessions intensively on Sunday evening and Saturday morning. Also do thick sessions per month and quarter.
Read through journal tips from your booklet and integrate them into your journaling. Work from a standard recipe. Goal setting and analysis, gratitude, planning, etc.