Journaling Can Help Your Life as Mom

The practice of recording your thoughts, or journaling, can help you solve problems, be more self-aware, and provide clarity. Keeping a journal can be a great way to grow as a woman and as a mom.

The book, Be Your Future Self Now, emphasizes the importance of journaling, especially when it comes to framing and understanding your past:

Everyone has a plan until life punches them in the face. Whatever punches life gives to you, your past is just a story. Whatever story you choose for your past enormously impacts your present and your future. When you frame the past negatively, your goals become reactive to and based on your past. Your goals become short term and avoidance-oriented, where you try escaping the pain of the present. When reactive, life happens to you, rather than for you. When reactive, you feel the victim to what life has done to you….What happened to you doesn’t matter as much as what story you decide to tell yourself about what happened. What happened to you doesn’t matter as much as what emotions you feel about what happened.

Be Your Future Self Now by Benjamin Hardy

Journaling can help you process the past in a way that helps you in both the present and the future. We win or we learn, right?

I always think better on paper as it helps me process things. And since I love to write, journaling has been a helpful tool for me as a wife and mother. I do some of my best praying and problem solving in my journal.

I may not journal every day, but I find that when it’s a regular habit, my life feels more evenly keeled and I feel more comfortable in my own skin.

Planner journaling – I may not be a fan of the bullet journal, but I do like the concept of combining planning and journaling into one space. This is what I’ve done with the Print & Go Planner, turning it into a combination, really, of all three methods, including plans, records of things that really happened, and mementos of the events.

Here’s a picture of one of my planner pages – turned journal/scrapbook. While this is digital — you know how I love digital planning! — the same can be done with a paper planner.

How to Get Started

While folks may spend/waste a lot of time fiddling with the form of journaling, it’s really quite easy. Just start writing.

• If you start with a blank book or spiral school notebook, you can switch it from prose to bullet (or vice versa) halfway through if that’s what works for you.
• If you want more structure, start with the Print & Go Planner as it has journaling options built into it.

Don’t overthink it. Just choose one and start writing.

What to Write

If you’re not already in a journaling habit, you may be wondering what to write. When I taught high school English and later homeschooling my own kids, I would set the timer for 10-20 minutes and ask the kids to write whatever came to mind.

Eventually, your brain will take over your writer’s block and the words will likely flow. However, if you’re wanting some journal prompts, I’ve got you covered.

Get a free download of journal prompts when you subscribe to the Life as Mom newsletter. Just drop your email address in the form and you’ll get instant access to our HUGE library of free resources.

Again, don’t overthink it. You can write a stream-of-consciousness kind of vibe or simply write down what you’re grateful for each day.

How to Make Journaling a Habit

That’s all well and good, Jessica. But, how do I keep doing this? I’ve started and stopped several times. I have ten almost-blank books in a cupboard!

I hear ya, my friend. Until you can experience the value of something, it’s hard to make it a habit. And if it’s not a habit, you may not ever see the value of journaling.

So let’s take a page from James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, and build a journaling habit:

Clear did a lot of research on what helps people build better habits and he narrowed it down to four main ideas: make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. What does this look like for journaling?

Make it obvious.

Make your journal, whatever form you choose, obvious to you. How could you go about your day and not miss the opportunity to spend at least 10 minutes journaling?

This could mean that you:

• Find a place for your journal where you can’t miss seeing it.
• Create a timer on your phone or watch to remind you to journal at a certain time each day.
• Pair journaling with another habit that you already do on a regular basis, like drinking coffee or reading the news.
• Add journaling to your time budget each week.

I find that starting my day with Bible study and journaling/planning sets a great tone for my day. When I can, I’ll add a session before bedtime to record highlights of the day and things I’m grateful for.

Make it attractive.

Aesthetics are an obvious method here to help you start as well as keep a journaling habit. Choosing a pretty blank book, a fun set of stickers, or pens you love can make the physical process appealing.

But, attractive can apply to more than just the visual. You might also:

• Remind yourself of the benefits of journaling.
• Listen to your favorite music or sit in a comfy chair by the pool or by the fire, weather depending.
• Gamify the process by tracking the days you journal in an app, like Streaks.

Make it easy.

Make it easy to journal. It’s not rocket science. You don’t have to write a 100-page volume! A few notes each day can be enough to begin the habit. Allow yourself as much or as little time as you like.

Other ways to make it easy:

• Set a timer for 5 minutes and write until the timer is up.
• Create a template of journal prompts and just answer the questions each day. Tsh Oxenreider has a great book for this.
• Commit to 1-2 paragraphs or even a page per day.

Make it satisfying.

While you may not want to reread the words Past You has written — oh the cringe! — if you look at your past words as evidence of your growth as a person, it can be incredibly satisfying.

If you’re not growing, you’re dying. Marking your growth as a woman, wife, and mother through journaling is a great way to know you’re alive.

Other ways to make journaling satisfying?

• Track your progress and reward yourself.
• Choose a new blank book to look forward to. Peter Pauper Press has some gorgeous ones!
• Schedule a date with yourself each month or quarter to reread your journal entries — make a fun drink and enjoy the moment remembering the daze.

Journaling can be good for you in so many ways. It’s a great way to record the milestones in your life as mom as well as to help you think and process how you want to grow and how far you’ve already come.

This post was originally published on November 8, 2008. It has been updated for content and clarity.

To Help You Grow