The 7 Surprising Benefits of Writing a Journal

How to Get Started Today

“The habit of writing for my eye is good practice. It loosens the ligaments.” — Virginia Woolf

Do you keep a journal? I’ve spent years writing in journals of various forms and it’s my favourite writing practice. In this short post, I explain why you should start one too.

(I’ve also snuck in a Bitcoin reference because… you know!).

1. Journal writing helps you think things through

I like to bite my nails, throw stress balls at the wall and overthink things, which isn’t a good use of time. I spend so much time in my head I forget where I am sometimes.

Journal writing helps me wake up!

Writing about your inner life is a useful practice for getting ideas out of your head and onto the blank page

Journal about problems you’re having in your personal life, business or elsewhere. You can even use journaling to work on messy first drafts before turning them into Medium posts later on.

Try these questions on for size:

• “What went well yesterday?”
• “What didn’t go well?”
• “What could I have done better?”

2. Journal writing is like having a personal therapist on retainer

Anger.

Jealousy.

Disappointment.

These emotions surprised me while journal writing because I thought all was rosy in the garden before sitting down to write.

At first, I found negative thought patterns alarming. I even considered hiring an expert to help me work through these problems.

Then I realised it’s okay to leave negative thoughts on the page because nobody else will read them.

Plus, it’s cheaper than handing over thousands of dollars to a fancy therapist!

Try:

• “What am I angry about?”
• “What disappointed me?”
• “Why do I feel that…