Different Types Of Journaling: Everything You Need To Know
Types Of Journaling | Journaling For Self Improvement | Journaling For Mental Health | Journaling For Creativity
Growing up, I always loved the idea of keeping a journal, but I would quickly get bored or writing about my day and I wasn’t sure what else to do. Fast forward to now, and I’ve grown to realise that there are many types of journaling styles, and you don’t even have to stick to one type of journaling technique within the same journal.
If you’re interested in starting a journal but want some inspiration on what kind of journaling you want to do, read on to learn about the different types of journaling and what they’re good for below.
Different Types Of Journaling Techniques
There are almost endless things people can choose to journal about, and just as many journaling styles people do. With so many journaling types to play with, it can be difficult to know where to start.
These are some popular journaling techniques you can try.
Bullet journaling
Bullet journaling is a type of journaling aimed at improving organisation. Each bullet journal is completely unique, as its up to the individual to design the pages to suit their needs - most people use plain or grid paper and draw templates that track the different areas they need.
Common themes people include in their bullet journals are:
To do lists
Daily and weekly schedule
Habit tracking
Mood tracking
Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash
One of the biggest benefits of bullet journaling is that it can help with organisation and productivity. It’s also a creative outlet and many people find designing their bullet journal relaxing.
Diary writing
Diary writing is a type of journaling where people record what’s happened in their day, including experiences, thoughts, and emotions - this is often what people think of when they think of journaling.
Reflective journaling
Similarly to diary writing, a reflective journal is used to write down experiences, thoughts, and emotions. However, the purpose of reflective journey is to reflect and analyse on these, rather than simply record them down.
Reflective journaling can be a useful tool to improve self-awareness and problem solving and can help you to understand and improve negative thoughts.
Gratitude journaling
Gratitude journaling involves writing down the things you are grateful for, whether that’s things that happened on a specific day or wider aspects of your life. Gratitude journaling can help to promote a more positive outlook on life, increase happiness, and improve mindfulness.
Our guided daily gratitude journal is a great beginner tool for practicing gratitude.
Art journaling
Art journaling is a visual type of journaling that can involve any type of art form, with or without written words. Some people may use art forms to illustrate the experiences and thoughts they’ve written about, others may prefer to draw or paint different themes, or simply use a art journal to commit to creating each day.
Benefits of art journaling include improving creativity and self-expression. It also provides a place to create art without the pressure of being perfect.
Junk journaling
Junk journaling is a way to record down experiences and thoughts using materials from your day, for example bus tickets or food wrappers. Visually, junk journaling is similar to scrapbooking but the scraps used are more sentimental.
Learn more about junk journaling, including the benefits and how to start, here.
Stream of consciousness journaling
Stream of consciousness journaling involves writing down whatever comes to mind, with no structure or guidance – you write down your thoughts as you think them. Some people can find this type of journaling challenging to begin with, but practicing stream of consciousness writing can help with processing emotions, enhancing creativity, mindfulness, and self awareness.
Manifestation journaling
A manifestation journal is a place to record your goals and desires with the intention of attracting them. Manifestation journaling helps you to visualise the things you want in life and follows the laws of attraction principles to help you to achieve these dreams.
Learn more about manifestation journaling here, and check out our daily guided manifestation journal here.
Health and wellbeing journaling
Health and wellbeing journaling involves recording down different aspects of your health and wellbeing, for example mood, food, fitness, sleep, or habit tracking. Some people record these all together in a single journal, while others may have individual journals specifically for different aspects.
Types Of Journaling For Self Improvement
All types of journaling can help with self-improvement, but these techniques are geared towards this:
Reflective journaling
Manifestation journaling
Bullet journaling
Health and wellbeing journaling
Types Of Journaling For Mental Health
Journaling can be a great tool for improving mental health, and all journaling types can help with this. Some journaling techniques which lend themselves mental health well are:
Reflective journaling
Gratitude journaling
Bullet journaling
Stream of consciousness journaling
Types Of Journaling For Improving Creativity
All journaling techniques can help with creativity, but art journaling, junk journaling, and stream of consciousness journaling in particular are a great way to enhance creativity.
Not sure which type of journaling to get started with? Our daily positivity journal includes different journal elements including habit and mood tracking, reflection, gratitude, and intention setting.
