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 would 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 yourself from a year ago about today?
- Which habit helped you move forward today?
- What did you learn today, big or small?
- What would you want to do differently tomorrow than today?
- When did you say no today, and how did that feel?
- What gave you energy today instead of draining it?
- 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 sitting around 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 stand behind 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, without reading back until you're done. There's no right answer, and no one has to read it. Most people skip the first sentence because it's always the hardest, and just start at 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. Five minutes are always there somewhere, between waking up and the first app. What's missing is an answer to the question of where you start. A blank page asks two things at once: work out what this is about, and then write it down. The first part is the heavy one. You're choosing 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 passed. A prompt takes that choice away. There's a question, you answer it, done. The second thing a prompt does is less obvious: 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, and that's exactly why there are thirty and not a hundred. A longer list only means more choosing, and choosing is what we just took away. What 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're looking at helps most on the days you don't feel like any of it.
Looking back. Questions about what happened, like "which moment of today would you want to hold on to". This is the safest 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 would you want to do differently tomorrow than today." These work better at the start of the day than at the end, because they ask for a decision and not a verdict. On a day when you're tired they turn into a list of reproaches, so skip them then.
Unloading. The questions that stir something up: "which thought kept coming back today", "what were you worried 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, however 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. The point isn't that they make you feel better in the moment. The point is that 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 solves the starting problem. It doesn't solve the sticking problem, and that's the one that actually matters. What does help is meeting the question at the same moment every time, attached to something you already do. After brushing your teeth, with the first coffee, or just before you put your phone on the charger. The moment itself doesn't matter, the attachment does: you're not remembering a new plan, you're hanging it on an existing one. That's how you build a morning routine around it without it turning into a project. Two things to know. The first week costs you nothing, the second one does, and that's normal. And a missed day isn't a failure. Two in a row is the start of stopping, so that's where the line is, not at the first one.
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 remembers nothing once you close the tab. The journal in Bloome's portal saves what you write every day and lets you look back whenever you want. Want to try that, you can through the portal.