How to start journaling when you've never kept a journal

Short answer: grab a notebook or the notes app on your phone, pick a few minutes that already exist in your day, and write down one thing that happened and how it made you feel. Don’t fix the spelling and don’t aim for a full page. That’s a journal entry, and you can write your first one tonight.

It’s easy to put off journaling if you picture a nice notebook and a page of thoughtful writing every evening. You don’t need either. A journal is a place to write things down so you can see them a bit more clearly, and the habit is easiest to keep when the first entries are small.

What you need to start

Something to write in. That’s all. The health library at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) suggests keeping a pen and paper handy, and says a journal on your smartphone works too.

Paper suits you if you like the slower pace or want to stay off screens at night. A phone suits you if it’s always in your pocket and you’d rather type. Can’t decide? Use whichever is closer right now. You can switch later.

Your journal is also private. The same library points out that you don’t have to share it with anyone. So write as if nobody else will read it, because nobody has to.

Pick a time that already exists

The URMC library’s first tip is to set aside a few minutes every day. Those minutes are easiest to find when you hang them on something you already do:

• after you brush your teeth at night
• while the kettle boils
• on the bus or train home
• in bed, before you put your phone down

Pick one and stick with it for a week. Keep the time the same and let the length change from day to day. On a packed day, a single sentence still counts.

How to start a journal entry

A blank page is hardest in the first ten seconds. A simple order gets you past them:

1. Write the date. It’s an easy first move, and you’ll want it when you read back later.
2. Write one thing that happened. Make it concrete. “Missed the 8:10 train, got to work soaked” tells you more later than “bad morning.”
3. Name how you felt. One or two words is plenty: annoyed, relieved, flat, proud, tired.
4. Keep going, or stop. If you want more, write about why you think you felt that way. If not, you’re done.

Here’s what that can look like. It’s an example, not anyone’s real diary:

Tuesday. The presentation got moved to Thursday at the last minute. Relieved at first, then annoyed that I’d rushed all morning for nothing. Mostly tired.

Three sentences, under a minute.

URMC’s advice is to let the words flow and not worry about spelling or what other people might think. Your journal doesn’t need any set structure, and you can draw instead of writing if that’s what comes out. Treat the four steps as training wheels for the first week or two, and drop them once you stop needing them.

Why it’s worth naming the feeling

Step 3 is the easiest one to skip. There’s a reason to keep it.

In a 2007 brain-imaging study, Matthew Lieberman and colleagues showed people negative emotional images. When participants labeled the emotion in an image, the response of the amygdala and other limbic regions was weaker than when they processed the same images in other ways. The authors suggest that putting feelings into words may dampen emotional reactivity.

It was a single lab study of brain activity, so don’t read too much into it. Still, it’s a good reason to give the feeling a word, even when the word is just “meh.”

What to write when nothing comes

Some days the date is all you’ve got. A prompt helps. Pick one, not all of them:

• What took up most of my head today?
• What’s one small thing that went right?
• What am I still annoyed about, and why?
• What happened today that I’d want to remember a year from now?
• What am I looking forward to, even a little?
• If today had a weather report, what would it say?

Answer in one line if that’s all you have. One honest line is enough.

Writing about something that’s on your mind

Researchers have been studying one kind of journaling since the 1980s: expressive writing. The first study, by Pennebaker and Beall, came out in 1986. In the standard version, people write about a stressful or emotional experience for 15–20 minutes on three to five occasions, often on consecutive days.

A 2005 review of this research by Karen Baikie and Kay Wilhelm found that studies show some benefits, but the results are mixed, and the findings for emotional well-being were less consistent than those for physical health. If you want to try it, two details from that review are useful:

• Write about what happened and how you felt. Writing only about the emotions wasn’t as helpful as writing about the event and the emotions together.
• Expect to feel a bit worse right after. People usually felt more upset straight after writing. The benefits the studies found showed up at later follow-ups. The review suggests stopping at about 20 minutes so the task doesn’t feel overwhelming.

The same review is clear that writing isn’t meant to replace medical or psychological treatment. If something keeps weighing on you, a journal can sit alongside talking to someone you trust or a professional. It can’t stand in for them.

A sample first week

If a plan helps, here’s one. Change any of it.

If you miss a day (or a week)

Write today’s entry and carry on. Don’t backfill the gap or write an apology to your notebook. The blank spaces don’t erase what you’ve already written.

Looking back

Reading back is where a journal starts to pay off. Once a week or once a month, flip through. You might see which days tend to run long, or what usually comes before a good evening.

URMC notes that keeping a journal can help you identify what’s causing stress. That kind of pattern is hard to spot one day at a time and much easier across a few weeks of short entries.

Questions

How do I start a journal entry?

Write the date, one concrete thing that happened, and one word for how you felt. If you’re stuck after that, pick a prompt from the list above. Don’t worry about spelling or how it reads.

What’s the easiest journaling for beginners?

The smallest version you’ll actually do. For most beginners that’s one or two lines a day at a set time, with a feeling word. You can try longer formats like expressive writing later, once writing something down most days feels normal.

Trying it in a tea house

Bium Tea House: Mood Diary is a mood diary app built around this same small routine. You pick one of five teacups for how the day felt, add a sticker for what it was about, and write a line, or more if you like. The next time you come by, May has left a short note in your diary, written with AI.