30 journal prompts, one for every day of the month
No list to scroll through. Today you get today's prompt, and tomorrow the next one. If you'd rather first know what journaling actually is, start there.
Today's prompt
All thirty
- What are you grateful for today, even if it's small?
- What did you do today that no one else saw?
- Which moment from today do you want to hold on to?
- What took the most energy today, and was it worth it?
- Who are you thinking about today, and why?
- What did you put off today, and what would happen if you just let it sit?
- When did you feel most like yourself today?
- What would you tell the you of a year ago about today?
- Which habit helped you move forward today?
- What did you learn today, big or small?
- What do you want to do differently tomorrow?
- When did you say no today, and how did that feel?
- What gave you energy today?
- Which thought kept coming back today?
- What did you buy, eat or do today purely because it felt good?
- What would you have wanted someone to say to you today?
- When did you feel most relaxed today?
- What did you finally finish today that had been waiting far too long?
- What did you worry about today that won't matter in a week?
- What was harder today than you expected?
- Who helped you today, even if you didn't ask?
- What would you want to remember from this week?
- When did you really laugh today?
- What are you taking from today into tomorrow?
- Which choice from today will you still be happy with in a month?
- What did you avoid today, and what made that hard?
- What would you like to celebrate about today, even if it's small?
- When did you feel least at ease today, and why?
- What do you want to do again this month, and why haven't you yet?
- What are you proud of when you look back on today?
What to do with a prompt
Pick one prompt a day and write for five to ten minutes. Don't read it back until you're done. There's no right answer, and no one has to read it. The first sentence is always the hardest, so feel free to skip it and start with the second. That works just as well.
Why a prompt works and a blank page doesn't
Almost nobody stops journaling because there's no time. You always have five minutes somewhere, between waking up and the first app. What's missing is a place to start. A blank page asks two things at once: work out what it's about, and then write it down. The first part is the heavy one. You're stuck between yesterday's argument, the mess at work and the fact that you slept badly, and by the time you've chosen, the moment has gone. A prompt takes that choice away. There's a question, you answer it, and you're done. A prompt does one more thing, and it's easier to miss: it decides how deep you go. "How was your day" gets you a list. "What did you do today that nobody else saw" gets you something that surprises you. The thirty questions above were chosen with that difference in mind. That's also why there are thirty and not a hundred. A longer list only means more choosing, and we just took the choosing away. There's one thing a prompt doesn't fix: that you stop opening it on day nine. No question helps with that, only a fixed moment.
Four kinds of prompts, and when to pick which
All thirty questions above fall into four kinds. Knowing which kind you've got helps most on days when you don't feel like any of it.
Looking back. Questions about what happened, like "which moment from today do you want to hold on to". This is the easiest kind and the best one to start with, because you don't have to come up with anything, only remember. Works best at the end of the day.
Looking ahead. "What do you want to do differently tomorrow." These work better at the start of the day than at the end. They ask you to decide something, and in the evening that easily turns into judging yourself. On a day when you're tired they become a list of things you blame yourself for, so skip them then.
Unloading. The questions that stir something up: "which thought kept coming back today", "what did you worry about that won't matter in a week". These are the most useful and the least pleasant. Take no more than a couple a week, or journaling becomes something you dread.
Gratitude. "What are you grateful for today, even if it's small." These have a bad name because they fit on a fridge magnet, and yet they're the questions people page back to months later. They won't always make you feel better in the moment. But three months from now you'll read that in a week you remember as awful, there was still something every single day.
If one day you genuinely don't know which to pick, take one from the first kind. Looking back asks the least of you.
Writing at a fixed moment
A prompt helps you start. It doesn't help you keep going, and that's the part that really matters. What does help is meeting the question at the same moment every time, tied to something you already do. After brushing your teeth, with your first coffee, or just before you put your phone on charge. Which moment doesn't matter, the link does: you don't have to remember a new plan, you hang it on something you already do. That's how you build a morning routine around it without it turning into a project. Two things to know. The first week is easy, the second takes effort, and that's normal. And a missed day isn't a failure. Miss two in a row and you're starting to stop, so that's where the line is.
Frequently asked questions
What do you write in a journal?
What happened that day and what you made of it, in your own words. There's no form it has to take: full sentences are fine, loose words too. Most people write about something small and concrete and get to the bigger thing that way. A prompt gives you that small start.
How long should you journal?
Five to ten minutes at a time is enough, and longer isn't better. A half-hour session feels good the first time and is exactly why you skip it the next day. Set a timer if you need to and stop when it goes off, even mid-sentence.
Do you have to journal every day?
No. Every day is easier to keep up than three times a week, because you don't have to decide whether today counts. But a missed day means nothing. The next day, just take that day's prompt and not yesterday's: catching up turns journaling into a backlog.
What is the difference between a journal and a diary?
In practice not much, and the words get used interchangeably. If there is a difference, it's this: a diary records what happened, a journal is meant to teach you something. Hence the questions. You can keep a diary without ever reading it back; with a journal, reading back is the point.
How to start your journal digitally
This page remembers nothing
This page forgets everything once you close the tab. The journal in Bloome's portal saves what you write every day, and you can look back whenever you like. Want to try it? You can do that in the portal.