Your journal will stand as a chronicle of your growth, your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your ambitions, your sorrows, your serendipities.

— Kathleen Adams

Ever since January 1st 2025 I have made a journal entry every single day, no exception. I have currently filled up two full journals and working my way through my third. And the experience of journaling everyday has been a very profound one. It has been more than just a tool to plan my day but a reflection of my own life. The thought that I that I can reread what I did on any ordinary day at any point in the future is a comforting one, an extension of my own memory and taking the stress of my brain to do it for me.

It simply consists of every morning once I’m out of bed of making a new entry, from there I write about anything, mostly what I did yesterday or what I plan to do for today. My language is usually plain and straight to the point, I’m the only one reading it after all. And it’s important to clarify that it is a journal note a notebook, instead of segmented blocks of information or planning the journal reads like a more continuous stream of thoughts. Flowing from one topic to the next.

My journals have covered a wide geographical distance and I have journaled in several different places. London, Paris, Munich, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Bath and Durham are just some of the places which I’ve written down an entry for the day. Even though the handwriting on the page is unchanged from one location to the next, it feels like the pace and mood is different for each location, a reflection of where I’ve been and what my thoughts are on that given day.

There is a substantial body of work that supports expressive writing as beneficial can help with emotional regulation and improvement of wellbeing. Getting your feelings out of your mind and onto another medium is hugely helpful for everyone. It also gives you another ‘viewpoint’ of things, like a spectator and this can help people be more objective in matters related to oneself. The simple feeling of pen on paper can be therapeutic and calm a person's nerves. Consistent writing can strengthen that part of your brain and the daily exposure to it is what helped lead me to start this Substack.

I would try not to worry about the layout and look of a journal. A plethora of youtube videos can be found on ‘how to journal’ with specific colour coding and stationary guides. But the crucial thing is that you simply put pen to paper when you want to and write whatever comes to mind. And over time you can build up a large and detailed repository of your life with depth and reflection. Imagine 20 years in the future being able to look back and see what you did on 15th March 2026 (for example) is something that I find satisfying and I hope that other people can come to realize the benefits of written articulation.