The best journaling template I’ve ever tried

Lately, there has been an increasing trend in journaling. As people started recommending this to me and telling me about how much it had changed their lives I wanted to give it a try.

The problem was I didn`t know how to apply this into my life. I had no idea what to write. So I sort of gave up on the idea of journaling.

Fast forward a couple of months I found myself one night having a mini-crisis as I didn’t know where my life was heading, I was confused and had so many ideas in my head about what I wanted to achieve in life but had no idea where to start. At that moment I decided I had to start taking journaling seriously as the sudden need to write down my thoughts and reflect on them seemed a necessity.

From that moment on I started investigating what people tend to write in their journals. Some people like to keep their journaling very regular and structured, whilst others prefer a more flexible and creative approach.

After experimenting with journaling structure I preferred and trying out many different templates; here are the main rules that I try to follow:

1. Don't use journaling as a diary.
   This helps me relate journaling with something that excites me as I am not bound to write every day. I prefer writing on alternating days or even once every couple of days as I find most of my days are pretty similar and I don’t necessarily have anything to reflect on. Forcing myself to write every day would only make me feel as if it was a chore and would take the joy out of it.

2. Don’t just stick to writing in your journal.
   I prefer to make it visual. If drawing isn’t your thing you can always add images or cut out words from magazines or newspapers. You can also use different color pens to add dimension and make it much more fun to read. I have found that using pens with different thicknesses also adds to the aesthetic of your pages. This helps the overall image of the journal and it makes me much more excited to add things to it.

3. Do write your goals down.
   The first thing that I do when starting a new journal when the new year comes around is writing down my goals for the year. This year I focused on five goals for my work life and five goals for my personal life. That way I don’t forget my initial goals as they are always there when I open up my journal. What I also like to do is write down random goals that I would like to achieve throughout the journal. They may not be as big as the yearly goals but I like to write them down so I don’t forget them in order to work on them after I have achieved, or done everything I could to get me closer to my yearly goals. Random goals could be anything from ‘Starting a clothing line’ to ‘Learn to cook a risotto’.

4. Do include random thoughts or things that caught your attention throughout the day.
   For example, you can write down the name of a new song you discovered that day, the name of a new restaurant you tried out, the name of a movie you want to watch, books you want to read or have finished, random quotes you heard that day, etc.

5. Do keep track of your emotions.
   I do think that keeping track of your emotions will increase the quality of your life as, when you look back on the days in which you felt extremely happy you can start to see a pattern. You can try to recreate those days and make a continuous effort to bring happiness and growth into your life. What I like to do is make a grid right after my goals for the year page. On one side of the grid, I write all of the days in the month, and on the other side, I write all of the months in a year. Then make yourself a color key; each color represents a feeling. For example, I write amazing, good, average, or bad to describe each day, that way I can fill in the chart with the color that represents how each day went.

6. Do make an ‘Important dates’ page.
   This is such a heartwarming detail to add to your journals as it is so much easier to remember the really important and life-changing days. I like to dedicate a page at the end of my journal to ‘Important dates’ so I can write down for example; 23/05/2010- the day I moved to Paris or 13/08/2019- the day I adopted a puppy.

7. Do take advantage of journal prompts.
   I think this is very useful, especially if you are just starting and you do not know what to write. I like prompts like ‘If I wasn’t scared of anything I would…’ as they make you reflect on your life and they awaken you to your true potential.