What Is the Best Way To Write a Diary?

Journaling is one of the most personal, intimate habits you can cultivate. I’ve kept mine for over 4 years now. Here’s an excerpt:

It’s like sitting down and having a talk with yourself, every day. Naturally, it should follow whatever unique, personal structure makes the most sense for you.

This is where most people get hung up on: you think you need the perfect journaling practice to be able to journal and so you never start.

Classic miss of the cause-and-effect relationship: the only thing that will help you find the best way to journal is to try different ways of journaling.

Make it a habit first, then optimize it. To do so, I highly recommend you pick a journal with a predetermined structure, to make filling it in each day a no brainer.

Here are my favorites.

1. The Five-Minute Journal

2. The SELF Journal

3. The Productivity Planner

4. The Freedom Journal

5. The Bullet Journal

Then again, if you feel overwhelmed even with these, you might want to try a simple, 1-sentence journal.

Write a thought-provoking question on a piece of paper.
Answer it each day in one full sentence.

Don’t worry about making the right choice. Roll a dice, flip a coin, randomly point to one of these on the page, but whatever you do: pick one.

Because each day you spend journaling instead of thinking about journaling is a good day.

Nik

Niklas Göke writes for dreamers, doers, and unbroken optimists. A self-taught writer with more than a decade of experience, Nik has published over 2,000 articles. His work has attracted tens of millions of readers and been featured in places like Business Insider, CNBC, Lifehacker, and many others. Nik has self-published 2 books thus far, most recently 2-Minute Pep Talks. Outside of his day job and daily blog, Nik loves reading, video games, and pizza, which he eats plenty a slice of in Munich, Germany, where he resides.