What Should I Use My Journal For? (8 Brilliant Ways)

Journaling is a fantastic hobby that is loaded with benefits that will have a positive outcome in your life.

It has many uses despite the obvious one of bullet journaling and scheduling your tasks.

You can easily use your journal to discover more about yourself through self-reflection, increase gratitude and positive feelings through the use of gratitude journaling, take notes and schedule your day-to-day tasks, create goals and plans that will help you reach success.

In addition, you can use your journal to express yourself freely and increase your creativity through the use of art journaling.

There’s a lot more that goes into journaling and it does have many uses that are bound to make a difference in your life.

If you’d like to figure out exactly what you should use a journal for, then here’s everything to know:

Different Ways To Use A Journal

1. Journaling For Self-Reflection

There are more than one thing you can use your journal for but one of the best ways is using it to explore and discover mroe about yourself.

And this can be done through self-reflection.

You can find out more about your thoughts, why you tend to think a certain way, how to make positive changes, or simply remind yourself of your accomplishments when you are feeling down.

If your self-esteem or confidence is at its lowest, journaling about it can help you build this up slowly.

When you discuss your feelings and really open up, you can discover a lot more about yourself than you might realize.

So, how do you journal for self-reflection?

Well, it’s really simple and it doesn’t necessarily have to take up too much time.

You can try these ideas:

Morning Pages – These are three pages that must be written as soon as you wake up. Without editing or judging yourself, you are encouraged to write any thought that comes to mind.

Prompts – Using reflective prompts is a great way to start journaling almost immediately without having to stress about what or where you need to begin. These entries can be short or long depending on how far you want to go.

5 Best Journaling Prompts To Use For Self-Reflection

What makes you feel at peace?
Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
List 10 things that you are proud of
I feel more relaxed when . . .
Who do I admire the most in life?

2. Journaling For Gratitude

If you liked the idea of journaling about self-reflection, then you’re going to love the benefits of a gratitude journal.

Gratitude journaling is mostly about listing the things you are grateful for having in life.

ways to use a journal for gratitude journaling

This could be the people that surround you, your health, wealth, the enviroment, abilities that you have, things that you, and the list goes on.

There are hundreds of things that we can be grateful and thankful fo.

Reminding ourselves of this can bring back those positive feelings into our lives even when things are not going well.

There are a few ways that you can journal about gratitude:

Creating a list for 30 days and writing one thing you are grateful for every day.
Writing 3 things that made you feel grateful anytime of the day
Picking one item from that list and discussing your feelings and thoughts as to why you are grateful for that thing everyday
Using gratitude prompts for more in depth journaling.

Using gratitude prompts allows you to explore more into why you are grateful for things and it can help you think more deeply.

Here’s a few gratitude prompts you might want to consider:

List something that made you really happy today
What are your favorite activities and why?
A particular moment that brought you joy
A person or place that makes you feel like you’re at home
A lesson you’ve learned that you are grateful for
Name a luxury you have that others might not
A childhood memory that makes you smile

3. Creative Expression Through Art Journaling

ways to use a journal for art journaling

Another fantastic way you should try using your journal for is art journaling.

This type of journaling is slightly similar to bullet journaling in the way of decorating the pages however the main difference that separates them is that art journals are not used to schedule or organize your life.

It is rather similar to a written journal about your thoughts and feelings except it is done through the means of visual expression by the use of images, drawings, and pictures.

Related Post: What Do You Write In An Art Journal?

Art journals are meant to be used as a means to express yourself by drawing, painting, or cutting random pieces of paper to create a beautiful and meaningful spread.

The feeling of not having to think too hard or stress about writing is fantastic when all you have to do is just turn on some relaxing music and fill the page with thoughts and ideas that mean something or relate to what you’re trying to convey.

4. Organizing And Staying On Track With Bullet Journaling

The next option for using a journal is of course, bullet journaling.

If you haven’t read any of our previous posts, then bullet journals are fantastic if you want to organize your life and keep track of things that are important.

You can schedule your day, weeks, and months with this type of journal but you can do so in a way that is creative and inspiring through the use of visually attractive spreads.

Besides just scheduling, you can also create pretty trackers to motivate you to stick with your goals and get things done.

You can track just about anything from your sleep, fitness, finances, reading goals, water intake, and much more.

Bullet journaling is definitely something that you should consider using your journal for.

5. Taking Notes And Important Reminders

If any of the previous options seem too time-consuming or if you’re just someone who isn’t creative or likes to be artsy, then you could consider using your journal to take note of important reminders.

Whether it’s keeping track of the minutes of your day or remembering to pick up a few groceries before you head home, you can use a small journal to do so.

If you’re a student, using these journals for note-taking is pretty useful as well.

6. Effective Goal Planning And Success Motivation

Another way that I love to use my journal is to plan out where I want to go in life.

This could be discussing my goals for the near future or the long run but also make plans and map out how I want to go about things.

You could easily use these journals to discuss every single detail but also turn to them when you have to change your plans to better fit the present situation.

If you have an important exam or work project coming up, use your journal to break every detail down to help you accommodate social and personal plans as well as detail how you will go about finishing that task.

You can also discuss your thoughts and feelings to ensure that you keep trying your best to succeed at whatever you’re doing.

This is a sneaky trick I like to use and it keeps me on my path especially when I feel down about not hitting certain goals but it helps me remember what my original or end goal was.

7. Capturing And Recording Memories To Look Back On

Besides journaling helping you through the present moment, it can be a great source to capture your memories so when you do look back, you’ll be surprised to rediscover things you may have forgotten.

You can use your journal for this entire purpose only and that’s writing down memorable moments that may have happened to you in the day or noteworthy moments that you want to remember for the rest of your life.

Using your journal to remind you of every good thing that happened to you will only make your feel better and have a greater outlook on life.

8. Working Through Feelings And Stress-Relief

As mentioned earlier, journaling about your feelings or when you really need to get your thoughts down on paper can feel like a weight that’s been lifted.

It can also help you realize and work through things, more so when you’re questioning your thoughts and feelings.

It’s the best way to help you through a situation if you don’t have anyone to confide in.

To carry around those stressful thoughts and feelings all day in our head will not be easy but pouring your feelings down onto paper will improve your mood and feelings.

Final Thoughts

There are plenty of ways that you can use your journal and a lot of these are golden.

They each have their own unique benefits but overall they are great for helping you improve your life in general.

It’s hard to determine for certain what you should use your journal for exactly but the only way you can find out is to try the one you feel you need the most.

However, there’s no harm in trying to use all of these journaling ideas to find the ones you love best.

What Should I Use My Journal For? (8 Brilliant Ways)