25 journaling goals, from one line a day to a full bullet journal

Journaling goals for beginners

Beginner goals make the entry so small that there is no good reason to skip it.

• Write one line a day for 30 days.
• Write 3 sentences in bed every night for 2 weeks.
• Write for 5 minutes with a timer on 20 days out of 30.
• Write an entry 5 days a week for 4 weeks.
• Fill the first 10 pages of a new notebook.

Journaling ideas you can count

These journaling ideas have a number built in, so you know when today's entry is done. Books make good material too: 3 lines after each chapter pairs well with reading goals.

• Write down 3 good things from your day every evening for 21 days.
• Answer one prompt a day from a list of 30 until the list is done.
• Keep a one line a day journal for 365 days.
• Write down one thing you learned each day for a month.
• Fill one page by hand every morning before you look at your phone, for 2 weeks.

Bullet journal goals

A bullet journal is a notebook you lay out yourself in short lists, and its goals are about setting it up and coming back to it.

• Set up a bullet journal and use it every day for one month.
• Draw a new monthly page on the 1st of every month for 6 months.
• Make one page for the year's goals and read it on the 1st of every month.
• Move unfinished tasks to the next day by hand every evening for 2 weeks.
• Fill one whole notebook before you start a new one.

Reflection and review journaling goals

Review goals read back what you wrote. Once a week is enough, and a weekly review is the simplest way to do it.

• Read back the past week's entries every Sunday for 8 weeks.
• Answer the same 3 questions every Sunday for 12 weeks: what went well, what did not, what next.
• Write one page about each month on its last day, for 6 months.
• Write a letter to your future self and seal it to open in one year.
• Write a one page review of your year on 31 December.

Creative journal ideas: sketch, travel and practice logs

A journal can hold more than words. A garden journal says what you sowed and when, the kind of log gardening goals use, and a practice log does the same for music, as in violin goals.

• Draw one small sketch in your journal every day for 30 days.
• Write one entry for every day of your next trip.
• Log what you sowed, planted and picked every week for 12 weeks.
• Log every practice session for 8 weeks: date, minutes and one thing to fix.
• Glue in one ticket, photo or pressed leaf a week for a year.

What is a good journaling goal?

A good journaling goal counts entries, not pages. The entry is the unit: a day you wrote, or a day you did not. One line a day for a year is 365 entries. Three pages a night that you give up after a week is 7.

Small is the point. A review of 35 years of goal research found that specific, hard goals lead to higher performance than being told to do your best. "Journal more" is not specific. "One line every night for 30 nights" is, and with an entry that small, the only hard part is the days.

Be careful about what journaling is said to do. A review of 146 randomized studies, in which people put their thoughts and feelings about personal topics into words, found a positive effect on average, and a small one. Write because you want the record of your days. A journal is not a treatment, and it does not replace help from a doctor or a therapist.

How to track journaling goals

A journal is already a record, so tracking it takes one tick: did you write today? A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often, and that recording it beat keeping it in your head.

Give it time. One study found that a new daily habit took a median of 66 days to become automatic, with a range from 18 to 254, and that missing one day did not undo it. A missed night is one empty line, not the end.

Days written are a day count, the same shape as these 30 day challenge ideas. Pages and sketches are amounts, if you want a second number. A picture that gains one mark for every entry counts the days you wrote, not the ones you missed.

Frequently asked questions

What are some journaling goals examples?

Write one line a day for 30 days. Write down 3 good things every evening for 21 days. Answer one prompt a day until a list of 30 is done. Read back your week every Sunday. Each one has a clear finish.

How do I start journaling as a beginner?

Make the first goal tiny: one line a day for 30 days. Keep the notebook where you will see it at night. Once one line is easy, write more if you like, but keep counting entries, not pages.

What are the benefits of journaling?

A review of 146 studies of people putting personal topics into words found a positive effect on average, and a small one. A journal also leaves you a record of your days. It is not a cure, and it does not replace care from a doctor or therapist.