Journaling has many proven and powerful benefits, but if you are new to journaling (or even if you’re not!) then it can be a little overwhelming on just how vast the subject is and how many different journals there are out there. Where do you even start? Whatever your reasons for wanting to journal, there will be a journal to suit you and each one will help you in a slightly different way. We are all very different and unique, so you may find you like to have everything in one place, or maybe having a different journal for each area of your life will be more beneficial as you can keep things separate.

To help, I have selected a few of the most common journals you can find on the market and what you can use them for.

Personal Journal

These are often blank notebooks, either lined or plain paper, so you aren’t restricted to space. This is where you write freely about your day, events, thoughts and feelings and a place to really explore these deeply. A great way to relieve stress, but also to work through anything that comes up for you within the privacy of your journal.

These are also available with pre-printed prompts to get your thoughts flowing, which is great if you find you get a bit of writer’s block and struggle to get started.

Goal Focused Journal

Here you write about your long-term goals and the smaller milestones along the way. You can keep your goals all in one place, they will be easy to review and keep focus on to ensure you keep moving towards them. It’s a fabulous tool to help you highlight any obstacles that may occur and to plan out the actions you need to take to achieve your goals. Often with pre-printed prompts, sections for year, month, week and day targets to break down your goals and steps they are very good for making you commit to taking action, seeing your progression and an incredible motivational tool!

Gratitude Journal

A great starting point for getting into a regular journal habit and for boosting your positivity and mood. You simply write about things you currently feel thankful for in your life. Expressing gratitude on a daily basis has also been proven to boost self-esteem and resilience. You can write a few things in every day that you are grateful for, or even things you are grateful to receive in the future. A great tool to read back on when you need to as it’s fabulous at increasing your mood, because everything in it is so positive about your life.

Dream Journal

A place to record your dreams to help you interpret them if you wish to. Use this journal to make a note of your feelings in your dream, as much detail of the dream as possible and notice if any feelings are lingering when you wake. Dreams don’t have to be profound but trust yourself on what you believe it to be about. It may be your subconscious bringing something that you need to address to your attention, which you could uncover through your writing.

Creative Journal

This is a space for brainstorming and noting things that inspire you. It’s less about working through thoughts and feelings but more a space for a collection of ideas. It’s really useful having all your ideas in one place, so you can refer back to them when you are ready to work on something.

Productivity Journal

These journals are great for helping improve your time management, productivity and track your progress on anything you’re working on. It helps to structure your day, whether at home or work, often with space for appointments, things to do, reminders on new habits you’re cultivating, self-development and other areas you want reminders to focus on each day. You can also use them to review your day from a factual and practical point of view before planning your next day – removing any lingering things you need to remember from your mind so you can relax at the end of the day.

Bullet Journal

These are brilliant for list makers! List of lists type of list makers! You can keep a record of all the things you need to do, or everything you have done in one place. Many people write down bullet pointed sentences, then ideas that flow from there. You can get stickers, doodle ideas and fill with potential ideas on different subjects such as where you want to travel to, books you want to read, ways to make changes in your life, money saving ideas, job promotion or business strategies.

These are just a few of the types of journals available, the list goes on with topics such as affirmations, wellbeing, weight loss, family, travel, art!

If you want to journal about something, the chances are there is a book out there for it, or just grab a new notebook and create your own. Journaling is individual so try different ones to find what works for you.

Whatever type of journal you choose, remember it’s your personal and private journey so leave any bias or judgement out when you write and most importantly, enjoy your writing!

Claire Baker