Wanting to spend less time in front of your screen? Excellent decision. Keeping a journal? Awesome. But what should you write in it? Good question... Finding yourself staring at a blank page can be intimidating. No one can write in your place, so having an idea of the general direction, the editorial line so to speak, can help you better approach the start. Discover several ways to approach your journaling practice below.
Diary / Personal Journal
The best known is the personal journal, sometimes linked to expressive writing, which consists of putting the emotions felt during a day down on paper. Although sometimes viewed with disdain, it is actually the most complete version of journaling. Indeed, this approach forces you to face and analyze your feelings, both the joyful and the unhappy ones. What did I feel? Why did I feel that? Does this make me happy? Does this make me suffer? It's not for nothing that this practice is often recommended by psychologists and other health professionals. Note: even though clichés die hard, no one forces you to give it a little name (but if it makes you happy...).
Logbook
Identifying and writing about your feelings is not automatic as you grow up. To avoid closing the door on journaling and to have a starting point, there is the more factual approach, where you note the facts: what you accomplished, what you witnessed, the significant events of your day... Call it a logbook, Captain. It is certainly easier, but the primary goal is not to complicate life but to form the habit. Over time, the logbook could evolve into a personal journal. Or not. Keeping a logbook is also a way to build archives. Who will remember exactly most of their actions and choices from today in 5 months? Maybe you will.
Travel Journal
When writing about the logbook, the mind thinks of a ship, a long crossing, a journey... And isn't that what existence is? A great crossing on a long river that is anything but calm, more like rapids embellished with a few waterfalls. The idea here is to keep a daily travel journal. It sounds counter-intuitive, but viewing every day of your routine as the discovery of an elsewhere forces you to observe: others, your environment, and yourself. Just like a holiday, you can try this approach for one or two weeks before returning to a logbook.
Gratitude Journal
An approach to change your perspective on everyday life. Rather than noting everything in your journal, both the positive and the negative, the gratitude journal focuses on the positive—what we are thankful for. The goal is to be more optimistic, to see what is going right rather than what is going wrong. This is not always easy, and nothing requires you to do it every day. You can decide, for example, that every Sunday or Monday, you will be in gratitude journal mode, to start the week off right.
Creative Journal
We keep a journal to gain a benefit for our mental health, to be better with ourselves, and to better manage our stress and feelings, but no one said you absolutely had to write reality in it, which is very subjective anyway. If what feels good to you is writing poetry or how your train dropped you off in a parallel dimension where human beings live like moles, blind in their tunnels, nothing stops you—have fun! Creative catharsis is an excellent way to express your emotions and, if necessary, to free yourself from them.
Organization Journal
Known as a Bullet Journal in English, it involves keeping a journal using only bulleted lists. This helps to better clarify your thoughts or your organization (or both), which is useful for people who feel overworked or overwhelmed. Making lists often helps to gain clarity and to realize that, ultimately, nothing is insurmountable. You can keep this type of journal with the tracker journal, by adding checkboxes below the existing ones, or with the notebook.
I hope this overview of the different types of journals gives you the necessary boost to get started. There are no right or wrong choices; choose the one that suits you best. Feel free to try several, and even mix them up.
