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What To Write About In Your Journal (+Free Printable)

Journaling Prompts to help you build a journaling habit (+free printable)

Happy New Year everyone! It has been a while since I wrote a proper blog post but I figured the new year was the perfect time to return. The new year is always a great time to try new things and build up old habits again. Just like I want to write more on here, some of you might have set the new years resolution to pick up your old journal again or try journaling for the first time. If so, I hope it is going well and you are enjoying it. From my own experience, I know how exciting it can be to start a new journal. I usually have a lot of ideas in the beginning and can’t wait to get them all on paper. But there is always a point when the excitement wears off and I run out of ideas.

And that is where this post comes in. I want to help you get through that face of not knowing how to continue and help you build your own journaling habit. Therefore I went through my latest journal and put together a list of all the things I like to write about. I hope you can find some inspiration for your own journal. I even put together a printable you can find on the bottom of this post to save on your device or to print out for your own journal.

Let’s see what is on the list:

The Classics

  • What did you do today?
  • What topics did you think about today?
  • How did you feel today?
  • Things you are looking forward to
  • Set goals. Why did you choose those goals and what can you do to achieve them? (Important: be realistic!)

For Bookworms

  • Your thoughts on the book you are currently reading
  • Rate all the books you read this year
  • Your current TBR-List
  • Your favorite books of all time (so far): It can be fun to update this list and see how it changes over time
  • Your favorite authors. What do you like about them?
  • Reading goals

Music, Quotes, Movies & TV Shows…

  • Your current playlist with all the songs you are listening to at the moment
  • Your favorite songs/albums. Why do you like them? What is your favorite part? How do they make you feel? (I like to print out the cover art for the song and add it to the page
  • Poems or quotes that speak to you
  • A list of all the movies you have watched recently. You can even rate them on a scale of your choice
  • Your thoughts on a TV show or a movie you just watched

Mental Health

When it comes to my mental health it always helps me to write about it in my journal. Sometimes I don’t even realize why I feel a certain way or why I am struggling with something until I write about it. I originally started a daily journal because I needed a place to write down everything I was struggling with. Journaling can help with that but sometimes you go through things that won’t go away just by writing about it. If you need please reach out to people you can trust and try to get the support you need to feel better. With that said here are some key points I like to write about when it comes to my mental health:

  • Things you are struggling with at the moment. How can you tackle tem?
  • How are you feeling right now and what might have caused these feelings?
  • What might help you to feel better?
  • Things that make you happy/Happy moments of the day (sometimes I need to remind myself of those things to not get lost in the bad things)
  • Let it all out! Your journal is there to listen (Sometimes when you don’t feel like writing it can also help to randomly scribble on the page, poke holes in it or wrip it apart. It doesn’t have to look pretty. Do whatever makes you feel better)

For The Nerds (Like Me)

  • Notes on topics you are interested in at the moment
  • Your thoughts in current topics in the news (e.x. political discussions etc.)
  • Arguments for and agains a position you have on a certain topics (Sometimes when I don’t know how I think about a certain topic I also like to write down all the arguments around it and try to build my own opinion through writing)
  • Things you are learning about (e.x. in class)

Other Topics I Enjoy Writing About

  • A list of my favorite places in my hometown (e.x. my favorite cafés, my favorite bookstores etc.)
  • To-do lists
  • Weird things that are stuck in my head
  • Story idead and characters I come up with when I can’t sleep
  • Who I want to be in the future

Download the prompt list

And that is it. These are the things I like to write about in my own journal. I hope this list can help you to find new ideas for your own journal. If you like you can download the complete list here. I keep a printed version of this list in the front of my journal so I can always take a look at it when I need some inspiration.

As always

Lots of Love

just a blank space


PS: If you share your journal pages feel free to tag me. I love to see what others create in their journals and am always on the lookout for new people to follow 🙂

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