goals & advice

There are a few things that are best to avoid when journaling. It's not that they are necessarily wrong per se, but, they could impact your journaling practice and the effectiveness of it.

One important thing to avoid is to not judge yourself and what you are writing. Journaling is a safe space for you to write down what ever you feel you need to write down. This could be your thoughts, emotions, feelings, things that have happened that day, things you want to have happened, or anything else. It's a place for you to vent, to clarify and understand yourself, and to go on a journey of self discovery.

Another important thing is to keep it simple. Don't try to have perfect grammar, it's not the point of journaling. Don't try to copy someone else's style or write in certain styles other than your own, just be yourself. And don't try to fill out a whole page or multiple ones every time you journal, just write as much as you feel you need to, even if it's just one sentence.

Here is a longer article I wrote on this site's blog that covers more things to avoid and things that can help your journaling practice: The Essential Guide To Journaling: Dos, Don'ts, And Tips For Success

To journal, you don't really have to write a lot, and what you write doesn't have to be correctly spelled or grammatically correct. The goal is to just write down what ever is in your mind to try and help you understand it better.

What you write is intended for you, and not for any kind of presentation, so even if you do not like writing, or you think what you write is not good, it doesn't matter, because it is for you.

Some people who are new to journaling tend to go a little bit over the top and write whole pages, sometimes because they actually have things to write about, other times, because they think they need to keep writing and fill up a whole page or two. There is no specific amount of words or pages that you need to write to journal. Even writing something as short as "Today was a good day" can be enough to capture what you are feeling and want to write down in that moment. So don't think that you have to write a lot to make journaling work for you.