40 Journal Prompts to Get You Writing

Need a journaling how-to? If you’re struggling with journaling ideas, the following journaling prompts are just what you need to get started. Read below and unlock the benefits of journaling.

"For all the benefits of journaling, the biggest barrier might be that people don’t know how to start"

WHY JOURNALING?

The benefits of journaling are well documented. In our Focus Planner, our main pages are all about optimising your day, but there are blank pages in the back that can be used for traditional journaling as well.

Simply allocating regular time to writing in a journal has been shown to reduce anxiety, help us deal with mental overload and manage emotional turmoil. You can use journaling as a tool for any number of things. You can journal for mental health, for productivity, to help you be more organised, to brainstorm, track habits and even to problem solve that issue that’s been scratching at the back of your consciousness. With all these benefits, it is no wonder journaling has been shown to dramatically reduce stress and now so many people want to make it part of their daily practice.

But…. Journaling for all those things can be a slightly different process: brainstorming is very different to dealing with anxiety. So where do you start? What you need are some journaling ideas.

You might also like this article:

How to Journal for Mental Health

THE STARTING POINT

“I’d love to start journaling, but I find myself just staring at a blank page!”

We hear this all the time. Most people intend to start journaling by opening their blank pages, sitting down with their morning coffee, pen poised and ready…. and then…. NOTHING. Some people feel self-conscious, others just completely blank on what to write, and others have so much swirling around in their heads that they simply don’t know where to start or which path to take.

For all the benefits of journaling, the biggest barrier might be just this. That people don’t know how to start. Then, they feel a little foolish and they stop trying. In our quest to help more people live their optimal day, we want to help with this.

GET SOME STRUCTURE

Our Focus Planner is the only full focus planner in Australia. By full focus, we mean that it helps with work life balance, productivity and mental and emotional wellness. One of the reasons people find it so easy to use is that is has the right level of structure. There are written cues to help you think of where you need to focus and trigger some reflection on what you can do this month, this week, or today, to help you get closer to your goals.

The same is true for general journaling. When you have some journal prompts, it becomes so much easier to get writing and once you actually put pen to paper, you build a momentum that tends to keep going - write a little bit, and you’ll probably end up writing a lot. A good journal prompt gives you a sentence to finish or a specific exercise to do so that you don’t have to worry about coming up with something yourself.

Have You Seen Our Journaling Course?

Journaling for Productivity, Stress and Mindset.

Click Here to See More

40 JOURNAL PROMPTS

Below are 40 different journaling ideas to get you started. You will find that different prompts align with different issues you might want to resolve or different benefits you might want to derive from your journaling practice for that particular day. You’ll find prompts for dealing relationships, anxiety, frustration, self-confidence and a bunch of others.

"A good journal prompt gives you a sentence to finish or a specific exercise to do so that you don’t have to worry about coming up with something yourself"

How to use the Journal Prompts:

Pick one of the 40 Journal Prompts – you might do this by reading them all and deciding which one fits with your journal preference for the day, or you might decide to pick one at random. Other people just work through all 40 in order, then start all over again.

Next - and this is critical - write the actual prompt. For example, if you chose prompt number one, you would actually write:

“A past relationship I am grateful for is” and then go ahead and finish the sentence.

You can finish there, or you can expand on why you are grateful, what you got out of the relationship etc. But writing the prompt itself is a brilliant way to break through any barriers you have and just get that pen moving across the page.

And without any further ramble, here are the 40 Journal Prompts:

1. A past relationship I am grateful for is…..
2. A positive quality am I grateful for is…….. In my past, I picked this quality up from…….. (parents/friends/colleagues/coach)
3. One of my perceived weaknesses is……. But it has it been a strength in my life when I ………….
4. One quality I love in other people is………These people might see that same quality in me:
5. A skill can I learn that would make a difference to my life is ……… And the one thing I can do today to get closer to having that skill is
6. One thing I am looking forward to today is ……..
7. An opportunity I have today that I can appreciate is ………
8. One thing (within my control) that would make today great is….
9. Something I have worked hard to improve at is….
10. I am not looking forward to…. But something positive I can find in it is….
11. One good thing that happened during the day was ….
12. I am proud that I have been able to overcome….
13. An experience in the past that I felt bad about is…. I now appreciate this experience because….
14. Something I love about my home (house, city or country) is….
15. If I met my teenage self, I would tell them….
16. One word I would like to live by is….. So today I am going to….
17. The kindest thing I can do for myself today/tomorrow is….
18. Just write this: I make enough. I am enough. I do enough.
19. A mistake I made today was…. But it taught me….
20. To give myself physical or emotional energy today, I am going to….
21. Something I can learn more about that would be fulfilling is….
22. I feel happiest when….
23. Today, to make my life better, I will say NO to….
24. Today, to make my life better, I will say NO to….
25. Right now, the words I really need to hear are….
26. If I couldn’t fail today, I would……
27. Right now I feel….. I am feeling this because……
28. Today my purpose is……
29. A challenge or adversity that I am grateful for is…. I am grateful because I learned….
30. One thing that is holding me back from being my best is…. And I can move past it by….
31. A negative story I tell myself is…. This story isn’t true because….
32. The three most important things in my life are…. (and list a reason for each)
33. There are people who wish they were in my position. One of those people would be….
34. If I could pick one thing to live a full life today (or tomorrow) it would be……
35. When I feel down, one thing that lifts me up is…… (and describe it)
36. It would be an absolute dream to…. To take a step toward that dream today I will….
37. One person I can thank today is…. (and why)
38. One habit I would like to create is…. It would help me be better by….
39. I could simplify my life by….
40. One thing I am worried about that won’t matter in 12 months’ time is……

We sincerely hope you use and enjoy these journal prompts. Share them with whomever you like and please let us know how they work out for you.