It’s easy to start a journal. You can just purchase a traditional paper journal or download Daily Notes, write your first entry and boom, you’ve got yourself a journal. But maintaining and writing on it on a daily basis is the hard part. You become too busy, you forget, you lose the motivation, you don’t know what to write but it all simply boils down to not allocating some time in your day to do your journaling.
It’s not hard but it won’t be an easy journey either but you can start with the following tips to find some time to write:
Schedule it
Block off some to write. Treat it like an important appointment. Think of the best time where you can take care of your appointment to write. Add that to your to-do list and schedule a reminder beforehand everyday.
Tip: Add it in your to-do lists in Daily Notes by tapping on Tasks > +ADD
Find a cue.
Make it into a habit by finding a “cue” that will lead to a “reward” later. It can be when you’re on your desk, before you get a coffee. Or when riding an everyday long bus commute, on your way home. It can be at night, before you go to sleep. Try to integrate it in your daily habit in a way that you will still get your reward after.
Get the right tools.
If you’re comfortable with a traditional paper journal, then go with it. But if you’re too busy, we highly recommend that you get a journal app, like Daily Notes. The calendar feature lights up when there’s an entry and it’s quite motivating to see a week or month of entries on the app. You’ll be more inspired to write just seeing how many journal entries you’ve already come up with. You can also schedule a reminder an hour, a few minutes or even a day before, for you to remember to write in your journal.
Just write
Sometimes the reason why we don’t continue with writing in our journal is because we don’t know what to write. Maybe we don’t want to confront whatever it is that we’re thinking and we don’t want to actually see that on a page but it has been proven over and over again the benefits of journal writing. Whether you had a great or bad day, an exciting or mediocre one, whatever might have happened, however glorious or mediocre your day was, just write it in your journal.
Remember to passcode protect your journal by tapping on the Settings > General Settings > then add in your Passcode. You never know who might stumble on your journal, intentionally or accidentally so keep its contents safe and for your eyes only.
It’s all about managing and finding the right time. Give yourself a 30-day challenge. Follow the tips above and the journal prompts from ArtofManliness and eventually, you’ll be clamouring for more time to write in your journal.
Download the Daily Notes App
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