For more than 16 years Oprah Winfrey has kept a gratitude journal. A gratitude journal is only one thing to track, there are multiple things you could journal about. The things to choose depends on you, your goals, your habits, your interests. Your personal growth is one reason why you should journal daily. Additionally, your journal is a great place to track your habits, your behaviours and help you achieve success. Your journal is a place to write and let go. It is a place to share your thoughts, as well as a place to share joy and gratitude. As Oprah Winfrey shares, it is a place to find happiness in the small things around you.
I started journaling a few years ago. At first, felt a little strange as I was unsure what to write. It even felt a little uncomfortable at times. Me looking at my blank pages, wondering what to write. I just started by writing about my day and soon discovered that journaling was therapeutic and rewarding in many ways. My only regret is I didn’t start it sooner. I now journal daily as part of my morning routine.
Why you should journal daily.
Every day you have thousands of thoughts run through your head including many goals or activities you want to achieve. It is difficult to keep everything in your head. Therefore journaling becomes a way to release your ideas, thoughts and emotions. In fact, when you journal daily you develop creative potential and have the ability to accelerate achieving your goals.
Journaling accelerates your goals.
Journaling helps you achieve your goals as when you journal you can also track what you do. By tracking and noting what you do you see patterns. Patterns of progress and setbacks. Additionally, by combining tracking and journaling, you will notice how you feel as you work on habits to achieve a goal. By monitoring your habits and feelings you will discover what needs to change and be able to change it or ask for guidance to change the thought, the habit so you can progress towards success.
Related post: 90 day habit tracker: Reach your goals.
“I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”
Anne Frank
Related post: 5 ways to start a personal journal.
Journaling helps clear your emotions.
The expressing of feelings helps with reducing stress, this is why journaling helps. Writing creates focus and releases thoughts and emotions. By writing down your feelings you either let go, evaluate or become empowered. Some people who journal like to use emoji’s to show their mood. As some people find that the weather affects their mood than they also track the weather. By tracking the weather and your mood, you really can see if there is a connection to the ups and downs throughout the seasons.
Journaling enhances gratitude.
The reason journaling enhances gratitude is when writing your emotions shift. You release the negative by writing as you evaluate and see things differently. One tip is to write in your diary daily at least 3 things you are grateful for that day and why. Keeping a gratitude journal helps you become more aware of yourself, the important people around you and the things that matter most in your life. Journaling enhances gratitude by self-awareness and provides a place to reflect on the days when you feel down.
Journaling helps you remember.
So many wonderful days and so many adventures. To remember them all and when they happened is hard. Journaling helps you remember. Journaling is your story.
“To live will be an awfully big adventure.” – Peter Pan
To write in a journal is to write about your day, your thoughts, your dreams your wishes, your life goals, your relationships. Your journal is your space to express yourself.
I like to use my journal as a bullet journal and track different things daily. I found there are many things to keep track of daily and over the years I have tracked a variety of ways with a bullet journal both online and offline. Today I combine my journal and bullet journal and prefer to write by hand. I find writing by hand more therapeutic.
One of my first introduction to journaling was via a habit tracker. I had purchased the book ‘Living Your Best Year Ever” by Darren Hardy and each day I would tick off my actions towards my goals. Living Your Best Year Ever: A Proven System for Achieving Big Goals (4 CDs) by Darren Hardy is one of the books I reread and listen to every year.
25 Things to keep track of daily.
When you work towards a goal it is important to know what to track. After all, it is only by knowing your numbers that you can grow and develop in that area. Below is a list of suggestions to track in your journal.
pin for later
- Personal goals
- Bucket List
- Future projects
- Counting steps
- Tracking sleep
- Bedtime
- Track your savings
- Expenditure
- Track your payment of debt
- Books to read
- Birthdays
- Track your mood
- The weather
- Track what you eat
- Water consumption
- Pantry items
- Track weight loss or gain
- Exercise
- Your morning routine
- Evening routine
- Track your wins and losses
- Screen time
- Household tasks
- Gratitude
- Journalling
Journaling tips
- In a page in your journal, write up your goals and tick off your goal when you complete it. Track the steps to achieve the goal.
- If saving for a trip place a photo or draw an image to motivate the saving for the trip.
- Write the date at the top of your journal every day.
If you work for yourself or have work goals, ensure to track your results. Track your social media subscribers, track your daily activities and ensure you tick off the 5 things leaders do daily in your bullet journal.
Jim Rohn used to say “If you’re serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy influential, cultured and unique individual, keep a journal. Don’t trust your memory. When you listen to something valuable, write it down. When you come across something important, write it down.”
Tracking your successes and recording your losses to learn from is another benefit as to why you should journal daily. There are so many clear benefits of keeping a journal. The blessing is it is your choice to choose if you keep a journal, what to write in your journal, what to track in your journal and who if anyone to share your journal with.
Writing for clarity, writing to let go, writing to remember and track for success is why I believe in keeping a daily journal. Any additional thoughts on what you might track in a journal?
Angie blogs about setting goals and mastering habits as well as productivity and living abroad. She started blogging while learning the skills to start an online business. Her goal to work online came about due to wanting to see overseas family and travel around Australia. Her mission is to help others succeed with their goals. Angie often shares tips and tricks while walking the beaches or near the lake on the Central Coast NSW Australia.
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Hi Angie,
I love that you give so many different ideas for journaling.
I used to do it in very short periods of my life, that were the dark periods. My shrink advised about it after I broke with a boyfriend and was depressed. It helped a bit.
Later, it’s kind of fun to read this old stuff and remember what happened 15 years ago, how I thought about it.
It keeps memories.
I wish I had more time now to add journaling to my daily TO DO list.
Journaling certainly is a therapy a great way to release emotions. Reading back over a journal would be insightful. I’m sure there’d be times we’d all question things we did or how we reacted to them. The perspectives of lives journals tell! Time is always in short supply and that is why sometimes a journal may be a page long or a simple emoji to express the day.
I like the idea of a bullet journal. Frankly, I’ve started so many journals and can never keep with it. Argh! Thanks for the motivation!
I know that feeling, to start with I was not consistent in journaling and I still occasionally miss a day. Consistency comes with building it in to the day. A simple way to start is writing three things your grateful for every evening. A beautiful day, the smile on a child’s face, a night off cooking.
My Journal is full of expenses and bills. Lol. this way i know where my money is going..
loved the idea..definitely sharing this! thanks! 🙂
Tracking finances, that’s awesome. A great habit to have and a great way to save or pay off debt. Thanks for sharing.