Amelia Dall, Insight Publishing Assistant.

Life is busy and that’s never truer than when you’re trying to balance study alongside it. Sometimes it can feel like there are more thoughts in your head than it’s capable of holding. Getting those thoughts onto a page by developing journaling as a hobby can be a form of self-care that comes with a myriad of other benefits.

Benefits of journaling

• Helps you manage stress
• Stay connected to your goals and celebrate your successes
• Practice your handwriting
• Provides a safe outlet for thoughts and feelings
• Aids in development of your writing skills
• Improves your memory
• Provides a safe space to be creative.

Types of journaling

There are many types of journaling out there!

Which one you choose depends on what you want to achieve through this hobby and how your brain works best. Consider the below!

• Stream of consciousness journaling
  The most well-known form of journaling. All you need to do is write whatever comes into your head without editing or censoring. This form of journaling can be good to preserve memories or help problem-solve any worries you might have. Getting your thoughts out of your head and onto a page can sometimes be all you need to free up brain space.
• Junk journaling
  This is a fun way of preserving memories and being creative without the pressure of being productive. Collect pieces of ephemera and create scrapbook-style pages. You can dedicate pages to certain events (e.g. save your receipt and napkin from a coffee date with a friend and turn that into a spread as a record of the day) or you can just stick things at random! It’s a mindfulness activity that helps you do something physical but calming.
• Gratitude journaling
  The definition is in the name! This is a journal for you to write down anything and everything you feel grateful for. No matter how big or small. It’s a place to mediate on positive things and it’s always nice to look back on if you need cheering up.
• Goal-orientated journaling
  This a journaling method with a finish line in mind. An organised journal that is structured in time block (e.g. 90 days) with one to three goals you hope to achieve by the end of the block. You can break the goals down into daily and weekly tasks to keep you on track, and to help you celebrate the wins along the way. This helps big goals feel less overwhelming and allows you to create mini to-do lists to achieve them.
• Book or movie journaling
  Do you love reading books or watching movies? Do you find yourself forgetting things about them? Having a book/film journal can help! You can write whether you liked it or be more analytical (e.g. what was the role of setting? How did the characters develop?) – it’s up to you. No matter what approach you take, it will help your memory as well as your critical thinking skills.
• Commonplace journal
  Have you ever wanted to create your own personal encyclopaedia? This is the journal for you. It’s a place for you delve into your own mini research projects. If you go to a museum and find an artist you like, go home and research them – write it all down in your journal. It helps you develop your research skills all while being a calming self-care activity.
• A mix of them all!
  You could junk journal on one page and writer a goal-orientated entry on another. You could wake up one morning and decide you want to set five pages aside for a bullet journal this month and then follow it up with 15-minutes of stream of consciousness writing. Do what feels right for you!

How do you start?

It can be overwhelming trying to figure out how to start journaling. We’ve listed some of our tips below:

• Start with a few minutes a day! Set aside some time to commit to journaling. Whether it be in the morning with a cup of coffee, or in the evening before you go to sleep. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself!
• Have a journal night with your friends. Get everyone to bring a notebook and a pen and journal together! This can also be a fun activity if you want to start junk journaling because you can share supplies.
• Try a few different types of journaling and see what feels best. Remember it should be something to look forward to – not a chore!
• Use prompts. Journaling is enough! You don’t have to force creativity when you’re getting started. We’ve listed some prompts below to help.

Some prompts to get you started

• What are you most proud of?
• How are you feeling right now?
• What’s a goal that you want to achieve in the next three months and what do you need to do to achieve it?
• What’s a worry you have right now, and what steps can you take to make it better?
• Capture a day this week through ephemera that you’ve collected
• Set-up the month in a bullet journal. Do some research for inspiration and create a spread that suits you!
• Write about the most recent book you read/movie you watched: what did you like or dislike, what was your favourite quote, did you change your mind throughout?
• Research something that interests you and write a page about it with an accompanying image.

We hope this inspires you to consider journaling in whatever form feels best for you. Just enjoy the process and remember; there’s no right or wrong way to journal!