Journaling is a practice that ranges from hobby to professional tool, and people use it in many different ways. If you are new to journaling, or are in search of a more structured way to use your journal, keep reading. In this article, we'll discuss how often should I write in my journal.
The truth is, there is no right or wrong way to journal. But if you're looking for a schedule to write on, you should first consider the purpose of your journal. If you are keeping a fitness journal or a food journal, you will want to record every time you eat in your journal or every time you do an exercise. If you are tracking goals, you'll want to write down your goals, and come up with a set time to check in on your thoughts, emotions, progress, challenges, etc. This could be daily, weekly, monthly.
In essence, the frequency of how often you write in your journal is up to you. Depending on what you're journaling about, you can determine how often you would like to be writing in your journal and go from there. Below are some examples of typical journaling schedules based on the type of journal you're keeping.
Fitness Journal
Your fitness journal should be in keeping with your exercise schedule. If you workout daily, you should journal daily. If you engage in fitness activities a few times per week, you should journal according to when you exercise. It also depends on what is inside your fitness journal. If you track your exercises and food intake, or mood, you may want to use your journal daily. It's all about your goals and your lifestyle. Journal accordingly.
Food Journal
When keeping a food journal, you will want to document your meals. If you meal prep, you can do this all at the same time at the beginning of the week (or month) depending on how organized and disciplined you are. If something changes, you can note the changes. Make it work for you.
Goals Journal
Goal tracking is completely left up to preference. You may want to write out your goals for the year or the quarter, and do a weekly check-in. Some people like to track daily progress to make sure they are staying on-task with taking daily action toward their goals. Do what is best for you and what makes sense for your goals.
Vision Journal
Writing the vision is similar to goal setting. The only real difference is that vision writing is more about the bigger picture rather than individual goals. So, you may write the vision for different areas of your life, or one big vision. Either way, journaling about your visions may be a less frequent activity than the other types of journaling listed above. Again, do what you feel is best in your journal.
Daily Journal
Now daily journaling speaks for itself. People often like to transfer any and all thoughts from their minds onto the page. Some call this brain dumping. You can do this daily, or several times throughout the day. It has been said that keeping a brain dump journal can help people stay focused for longer throughout their day which increases productivity.
Gratitude Journal
Gratitude journals are popular, and people like to use them at least once or twice per day. You can start your day by writing out all the things you have to be grateful for. And you can end your day the same way. Busier people like to practice keeping a gratitude journal by writing out everything they are grateful for at the beginning or end of each week. For those of us who enjoy journaling and make more time for it, gratitude journaling is likely a daily practice.
Now that you have an idea of how often different types of journals are typically used, you can tailor your journaling practices to your preferences and lifestyle. Happy journaling!
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