By Intelligent Change 16 minutes read. Keeping a journal is a great way to document and improve different aspects of your life. From tracking your personal growth and self-improvement to recording your finances, there are many types of journals that can help you reach your goals. In this article, we'll explore 11 types of journals that can help you become a better version of yourself.
The free-flowing thought diary is a great way to express yourself and tell yourself things you may not have said before. You can use any blank notebook for this type of journaling. If you want to track your personal growth and self-improvement, consider starting a self-improvement journal. Have a section for each area of your life you want to focus on (health, wellness, confidence, self-esteem, career, finance, etc.).
Add a habit tracker so you can track and review your progress. One of the most popular journaling methods is the bullet journal. Thanks to social networks, this type of journal has skyrocketed into one of the main creative media outlets shared on Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr. You've probably seen one of these images at some point.
They are usually on a dotted or blank page and look like a planner with cute doodles. A bullet journal serves as a self-made planner, but you can add much more if you want. Others like to use stickers or found objects, such as magazine clippings, to add a touch of style to their bullet journal. Maybe writing down your thoughts isn't for you. After all, we are not all good at expressing our thoughts on paper or have a legible handwriting.
If that's the case, you might want to try video recording, a method that could be one of the best therapeutic devices you've ever used. After all, we all feel better when we let off steam with someone, right? Well, the daily video combines that ventilation session with a diary outing. Listography lets you go at your own pace, while The 52 Lists Project challenges you to do one a week during the year. The questions range from “List the ways you can clean up your life for spring in the second” to “List the bad things you did as a child in the first.” In The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (one of my favorite twelve-week exercises), she assigns “pages in the morning, three pages first thing each morning of what you want to write, flow of consciousness style. Even if all you have to say is “I don't know what to say, over and over again, you have to fill three pages. It also requires that you don't revisit the pages until after the course has finished.
As a journaling style, write three pages each morning and revisit them depending on the season to reflect, or even just let them be. The morning pages are similar but slightly different. Originating from the book The Artist's Way, this method of keeping a diary is designed to help artists and creative souls. But it can really help anyone, because we all need a “creative recovery”, according to author Julia Cameron. The method is to sit down with your favorite notebook and pen each morning and write three pages of whatever you have in mind.
This is your current of conscience. By making a type of journal format called Morning Pages, the goal is to identify and decide if you want to address the negativity that limits your creativity. If you haven't heard of bullet journals yet, it's likely that soon they will be everywhere. This third type of journal is one of the most popular journal structures of the last five years. It was originally designed by Ryder Carroll to help “people with multiple laptops” simplify their lives. There are millions of suggestions online and on social media that you can follow to set up your journal initially.
In addition, there are more and more journal companies presenting their own versions of journals with pre-designed bullet points. We often think that keeping a journal is like writing down the daily events of our lives, and that is one kind of journal. But did you know that there are many other types of journals? Here are 11 types of journals you can use to improve and document different aspects of your life:
- Free-flowing thought diary
- Self-improvement journal
- Bullet journal
- Video recording
- Listography
- The 52 Lists Project
- Morning Pages
- Travel diary
- Health diary
- Financial diary
- Long-distance relationship diary
Conclusion
Keeping a journal is an excellent way to document different aspects of your life while improving yourself in various ways.From tracking personal growth and self-improvement with self-improvement journals; recording finances with financial diaries; or sending back and forth long-distance relationship diaries; there are many types available for different purposes.
Takeaway
- Free-flowing thought diaries are great for expressing yourself.
- Bullet journals are popular creative media outlets shared on social networks.
- Video recording is an excellent therapeutic device.
- The 52 Lists Project challenges users with weekly questions.
- Morning Pages help identify negativity limiting creativity.
