Strategies for when journaling feels like a chore

Do it before you do something pleasurable. (before eating, drinking, checking social media or watching a show, before or after meditating). This will help your brain to associate the practice with a reward.

Print out calendar pages for the next twelve months and mark off each day you journaled. Imagine what it will feel like to look at a year of marked-off dates and know that each of those days were accounted for.

Remember that the time it takes to write an entry can be as little as 30 seconds.

Strategies for dealing with concerns about privacy

To get started, you can write as though you know someone will read your journal. Eventually, you’ll find your comfort level.

You can always go back later and edit. You can add whatever you want or remove whatever you’re not comfortable with having in your journal.

• Handwritten

  • You can cross out something that you're not totally comfortable with. You can tear out the page along the left margin, leaving a summary written on the margin.

  • On the back page or a separate piece of paper you can keep in the book, you can keep a log of the dates of entries that felt personal that you might want to revisit

• Digital

  • For digital entries, you can create a bookmark for something you might want to edit. This will help you to find and revisit it see if you want to make changes.

For both handwritten and digital journaling

if you’re concerned that someone might read it, write as though you know they’ll read it. This might feel like an affected way of writing, but it will help you to feel safe as you build the habit of daily journaling. In time, you’ll get a sense of what feels safe to write.

The journal is a living document

Understanding your journal to be a living document allows you to

• Journal retroactively which makes it easier to start your journal whenever you want it to start. Memory triggers can help you to remember what was happening during earlier times in your life. These triggers can be photos in your library, sent email or news headlines.

• Remove or add content as needed. Content added to a handwritten entry can be written in a box drawn in empty areas on the page. It can be written in a different color ink or written on a separate piece of paper that can be attached to the page.

• Allows for an element of safety for people concerned about privacy - you can write sensitive material knowing that you edit later if needed.