Why You Should Start a Daily Journaling Practice

Starting a daily journaling practice can be beneficial in so many ways.

Your childhood wouldn’t be complete without writing a diary back in the day. That little notebook was the outlet for your emotions, secrets, problems in school, sibling rivalry, and of course, childhood crushes.

You probably will poke fun at yourself when you read your diary today, but it shaped a better part of you.

A “journal” works the same way – but there’s more to it than most people realize. Even the most brilliant minds in history took the effort and time to write one. Charles Darwin, Leonardo da Vinci, Marco Polo, Marie Curie, and Winston Churchill were proud to have maintained a journal throughout their lives.

For most people, it’s no more than a written account of their thoughts and feelings. For those who made a mark in history, the journal has become a permanent record of their contribution to society.

Even if you’re not da Vinci, nor you feel you don’t need to write one, keeping a journal has some surprising perks.

If you begin a daily journaling practice right about now, you get more than just a therapeutic release of your desire to write. Keep in mind that daily journaling isn’t just for writers – everyone gets something positive out of writing down emotions and thoughts.

Retain Memories

The human brain is designed to remember a ton of things; we’re capable of retaining both short-term and long-term memories.

Nevertheless, some memories we tend to forget, and that’s perfectly normal.

The brain recalls a memory when you give it a hint, and this is where a journal comes in handy. Like photos on a family album, the journal serves as a remembrance of a memory; only this time, it’s in written form.

Mental Health

Writing a journal contributes to your mental well-being. Aside from stimulating your creative mind, regular writing offers relief from anxiety and stress.

The journal is like your place of solace where you get to express everything without judgment or reservations. Call it a way to blow off some steam but in an innocuous way.

Simply put, starting a daily journaling practice helps you process your thoughts and feelings.

Feed Your Creativity

Daily journaling is different from publishing a book since you’re writing for yourself instead of an audience.

No rules apply – you just have to unleash your creativity and write everything down. By writing daily accounts of what you think and feel, you may uncover a talent or skill that you never thought you had.

People who don’t write are essentially holding back on their creative side. With daily journals, you feed your inner creativity.

Keep Track of Progress

If you’re working on a project, starting a journal helps you document your progress daily. It’s an old yet efficient way to monitor if you’re moving forward.

If you think there’s not enough development, you can go over your journal and figure out what’s causing it.

It’s most likely that you’ve jotted down the reasons why you didn’t finish a task yesterday and why you haven’t made any progress today.

Set Goals (and Achieve Them)

The journal is the best place to mark your aspirations and goals in life. Start the new year by writing the things you want to achieve and go from there. It serves as your motivation to focus on achieving that goal.

You’re constantly reminded of your progress every time you open your journal; you’ll know if you need to kick it up a notch or if you need a break since you’ve been working so hard.

Record Spur-of-the-Moment Ideas

Keeping a journal wherever you go means you can write down and record your spontaneous ideas anytime.

Whenever a thought comes up, you don’t worry about forgetting it because you have a journal on hand to write it down.

All you need is to revisit what you’ve written and make good use of it when you need to.

Start your daily journal practice today to get a better version of yourself.

Whether you want to improve your writing skills or you simply need to get organized – a journal makes life easier on many fronts.

There is more to it than being an outlet for your thoughts. It helps retain important information, obtain data when you don’t have any other means of documentation, and record spontaneous ideas when you least expect them.

The key to the success of your journal is making it part of your daily routine. Regular writing with no strict guidelines allows you to organize complex ideas and use them later.

Most importantly, you get to write about all your life experiences, some of which you’ll never have a chance to do again.

Your journal is not just for personal consumption – heirloom passed to your children and grandchildren, providing them with the story of your life that’s as real as it gets.