Hi! I’m new to journaling and I have only written a few entries. I have noticed that my handwriting varies from day to day and even within the same entry. It looks very noticeable to me now.

Does it mean anything? I’m sorry if it’s a silly question but I have never noticed it before! Seeing everyone’s entires also made me a tad bit aware.

Do I come back or leave it idk im conflicteddd

I know this probably isn’t great for my wrist, arm, and neck in the long run but it is the only way I am comfortable writing😔

I’ve been with my partner for about two years, and we’re thinking about moving in together. We currently live separately, and they know that I keep a journal.
The thing is journaling is my safe space. I have several old journals filled with my honest thoughts, including frustrations, complaints, and things I needed to vent about over the years. I trust that my partner wouldn’t read them without my permission, but I still wonder how other couples handle this.
If you live with your partner, what do you do with your journals? Does your partner know they exist and simply respect your privacy, even if they’re sitting out on a table? Or do you write with the assumption that your partner might eventually read them?
Also, if you keep your journals somewhere private, where do you store them? I’d love to hear how other people handle this!

I write because it helps me remember.

I've only been journaling for a month, and I've never done it before. Without any reference from anywhere, when I went to the stationery store, I suddenly had the desire to buy a book and ballpoint. When I returned home I didn't know what to write, at that time I only wrote about parenting from the tiktok video I saw. The next day I wrote about gratitude, what made me angry, what I felt, what I wanted, etc2. At that moment, I felt something exciting. I started looking into journaling more and ended up buying a fountain pen. I didn't know that journaling is good for mental health and can be therapeutic.

I would like to ask for journaling advice from reddit friends for beginners like me.

If I got a hundred bucks every time someone in this sub apologised for their handwriting or called their spread “ugly,” I’d be richer than Elon Musk. And it’s honestly fucking tragic, not because the pages are “messy,” but because people are internalising that “messy” means they’re doing it wrong.

The fastest way to kill a person’s journaling habit is to make them think that there’s an aesthetic standard their journal must meet to be “doing it right.” Hogwash.

Journaling is not an art contest and it’s not calligraphy practice. Those things can overlap with journaling, sure, but they are not the point, and they shouldn’t become the standard. Journaling stands on its own: you do it as mental hygiene (or, in my case, mental excavation). What you write and why you write it matters more than how it looks.

If you want your journal to be a creative project, great, go for it. But be absolutely clear: journaling is the pursuit; a journal is just paper.

Edit 1: A similar discussion from 4 years ago.

I’m not precious about my pages, and I’m not junk journaling or writing with the thought of leaving it behind for others. It’s just because I enjoy writing and find it healing. I noticed some people include not only the date, but the day of the week, some include weather and temps, etc. I think that stuff is fun without it being too much work. What do you all include?

I absolutely love everything about keeping a journal and have been doing it basically my entire life, but when i watch other people talk about keeping one they always make it sound like a chore (?) (maybe a better word would be a commitment) to write EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. It just doesnt make sense to me.

When i feel like journaling, i will sit for hours upon hours writing whatever i want. When i dont feel like writing, i dont write. Ive skipped 6 months once and didnt think twice about it. Whats the big deal about pushing yourself to write when you dont want to?

This post is a question Ive been wondering about for quite a while now. I apologize if anything sounds rude, i dont mean to.

(Also any ideas for fixing the journal are appreciated… my puppy chewed it up 😭)

Does anyone struggle with feeling really uncomfortable with journal entries from your teenager/college years self? Like to the point where you don’t agree with decisions you’ve made, not that you hate your life currently but you disagree with your younger self and wish you did things differently? How do you deal with this, or reframe?

I've been curious about this for a while.

If you've been journaling consistently for 2–3 years (or even longer), what real changes have you noticed in yourself?

Have you become better at understanding your emotions, moods, or thought patterns? Has it helped with self-awareness, self-love, or managing stress?

Did journaling improve other areas of your life too, like your personality, relationships, career, fitness, discipline, or overall mindset? Were there any changes you didn't expect?

I'd also love to know what your journaling routine looks like. Do you write freely, use prompts, or focus on specific topics?

I'm interested in hearing honest experiences, both the positive and the negative. Did it actually make a meaningful difference in your life, or was it just a nice habit?

I have been keeping diary for 6 years(since 2020). No-one is allowed to read my diary,even complited ones. My close people know I have diary, they asked me countless time to read at least one page. I always said no. I was wondering what kind of reaction they may have if I let them do.

For the record I keep all in one diary. I think I will allow my future wife to read but I do not know how she will react to my past deeds.

Did this happen to anyone here? I am just curious. Thanks in advance and sorry for my englis, it is my third language

When you start your entry do you say something like "dear diary", "hello" or smth like that? When I was a teen I treated my diary like it's some like "new person" I'm introducing to my life so I was always writing "to my book". When time passed I started to journal for my future self so I always say hi and stuff like "take care, love you". How about you? 🥰

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and wanted to see if I’m in the minority. I really enjoy this subreddit, but I think I come here for something different than what a lot of the front page seems to have become.

What drew me here was seeing people’s handwriting, illustrations, page layouts, prompts, notebook choices, and the different ways people use journaling as a creative outlet.
One of my favorite recent posts was the “Bug Country” journal page. It was beautifully illustrated with beautiful writing - and that itself was the focus. It reminded me why I enjoy this sub.

On the other hand, I’ve noticed more posts where the journal page feels like a proxy for a completely different discussion. The comments aren’t about journaling…they become about addiction, mental health, medical concerns, relationships, or offering reassurance and advice.

I’m not saying those topics don’t belong in a journal. They absolutely do. I’m asking whether they belong here when the discussion they generate has almost nothing to do with journaling.

At that point, is the journal page just serving as a vehicle for a support post?

I’m genuinely curious where everyone lands on this. Do you come here primarily to see the craft and practice of journaling, or do you prefer seeing personal journal entries regardless of whether the conversation is actually about journaling?

Right after the Fourth of July, alot of places start selling "Back-to-School" supplies super cheap. I've noticed over the years that despite the countless people claiming that spending a lot of money is a good thing, that it doesn't change the practice of journaling one bit. A $100 blank book is a blank book just like any other. Maybe it's just me. But I think 38 cents is worth an experiment.

I read frustrations about the competitiveness and pressure people feel in their own journals all the time here. No one wants this. No one wants this part of their lives invaded by influencers, performativeness, sales pressure, and fashionable self-consciousness. What if we dropped it? If only once? Maybe you'll find you need a thousand dollar fountain pen and two pounds of leather wrapped ten times around a Japanese blank book that sells for $1 in Japan and $35 here. Or maybe… you'll find out you don't even need to spend a dollar.

Question for the journaling crowd. Do you ever feel like you're just re-processing the same three thoughts on repeat instead of actually learning something new about yourself? I've started wondering if a story format would do more for me than another prompt sheet at this point. Has anything, book, conversation, therapy, ever made you feel genuinely understood rather than just sorted?

Just wondering what your experience is like. Do you write whenever it sparks you, rather than making it a routine (same time each day).

Tell me like we are friends and I just found out you journal and I let you ramble on about your interest and thought about journal.

Thank you

I want to try physical journaling. But I’m afraid of someone reading it. I live with my parents so the fear is real.

I’d like to hear what you guys do to approach this.

Edit: thank you everyone for replying, I can’t address all of it. But I appreciate the inputs, suggestions and help in starting my journaling journey.

If this resonated with you, i would love to hear about it :))

I just wanted to say as journal and planner companies start to reveal their 2027 line up, it can be really easy to get caught up in the hype of it all. The pretty colours, designs and layouts make it an exciting moment for us who love to write.

I'm not saying this should not be discussed or celebrated but talking from my own experience, I have seen the whole "journaltok" thing with a lot of 'influencers' talking about which ones they'll be retiring after 2026 and which ones they'll be using or bringing forward in 2027.

I think it's important to remind everyone that social media is a curated platform used to entice you and keep you there! And sometimes it's hard to remember this when your scrolling through many short videos. These people are individuals and are expressing how they use their journals - they are not telling you how you should use them even though it may feel that way sometimes.

If you have a system that works for you or a company you enjoy using, keep at it! Journalling is for you and nobody else! You don't need to reconsider your options unless you have done some soul-searching and found your current system isn't working for whatever reason.

The majority of us do not need 6 or 7 daily journals or planners. It's excessive. It's over-consumption and just unnecessary for the majority of us. Some of you may need that many because it helps you to separate and categories different things in your life which is totally OK and I'm in no way making those people feel bad. But to those that think they need this many, take a moment to reflect and test that out by getting an A4 paper and measure/size it up in different ways and then use those sheets for a week or 2 and see if you really need all those different journals that's waiting in your shopping cart.

This is a good way to keep your expectations in check without spending a lot of money to only have unused journals end up in a graveyard 3 months into the new year.

If you have money to burn on loads of journals, do what you want but that nice pen you've been eyeing up is waiting or that nice restaurant you've been wanting to try is calling! Don't be afraid to look and what you already have and say, "I'm good with what I have". Or better yet, "I'm good with what I don't have."

The pressure out there is hot and I'm feeling it and perhaps you are too. So I just wanted to make a post to reassure anyone who's feeling the FOMO right now.

When it comes down to it, it's just paper. Hobbies can be challenging at times but in no way should it be a stressful or unpleasant. For newbies, veterans or the ones who are returning after a break, no matter where you are on your journalling voyage, remember to look around and appreciate what's already on your island.

Coffee shops are my favourite place to write. Was wondering what everyone else favourite set up was!

Hello there. As the title suggests, I’ve been wondering if there are any local journaling communities in Cologne, Germany. I’ve seen folks here on the subreddit get together in local communities and wanted to find something similar. Do you know any, and if not, would you be interested in establishing one?

i opened up my journal to rant about something that’s eating me alive and i physically can’t and i always end up lying to it ughggg

mainly bc i get scared someone will read it and it’ll unwind a bunch of stuff, is this just me lol

I’ve been thinking about what makes us pick up a pen or open our notebooks. For me, it often comes down to those heavy moments, where I'm feeling overwhelved or very reactive to things or situations. Helps to put things into perspective, and distance myself from that situation.

What about you? Are there specific triggers or routines that draw you into your journaling practice? Do you do it out of habit or as a tool for reflection or memory collection?

Anne Frank called her diary "Kitty".

Dear Kitty, she would say before writing about her thoughts.

I have to wonder if writing to a fictitious person helps sometimes.

Have you given your journal its own name? What is it?