So you’ve got a brand new journal, either as a gift or with great intentions to fill it with deep thoughts and meaningful prose! And then you open it up and those blank pages seem so intimidating! Well here are some journaling tips to get you started – and to keep you writing daily, hopefully. One of the things I love most about keeping a daily journal is being able to look back and see how far I’ve come or how my life has changed from year to year, simply by comparing entries from year to year. There’s also something surreal about reading a story in your own handwriting that you’d completely forgotten about, and suddenly having it spring to life in your memory.

Tips on Daily Journaling:

1. Skip the first page or two

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by wanting something perfect to put on the first page or two, just skip it! Sometimes I go back and write a brief summary about myself at the time of the journal writing – like my age, my favorite band, my favorite restaurants, where I work and where I’m living.

2. Write just a page a day

Don’t feel like you have to fill pages and pages to have a fulfilling journaling experience. If you’re not much of a writer but want to remember what was going on in your life, a short summary of each day will be fine

3. If you get stuck, do a drawing

Do a little sketch of something that sticks out in your memory from the day – like what you wore, or what you ate – if you sell handmade items, you can do a sketch of what sold that day – then, if your sketches come out as weird as mine do, make a little caption so you know what you drew later

4. Make it a Habit

I do my 1 page a day journaling right before bed, while my husband is brushing his teeth – just enough time to scribble out a page, and only takes at most 5 minutes.

Journaling Prompts:

1. What advice would you have given yourself 10 years ago?
2. What are your goals for 10 years from now?
3. Describe your 5 favorite friends and how you met them
4. List your 5 favorite music albums
5. List your 5 favorite restaurants and the best and worst items on their menu
6. Net worth: how much money do you have in all of your bank accounts?*
7. Draw a sketch of your favorite outfit, with captions
8. What is your favorite season, and why?
9. What are you worried about right now?
10. What websites do you spend the most time on?*I used to do this as an 8th grader, pretty funny to look back at my bank balance of $121.37 and remember how proud I was to break $100!