One Line a Day – Journaling Tips

One Line a Day, it’s a different style of journal. Each page represents one day and has 5 entries (5 years). It has been more than one year since I started this journal and it’s really interesting to see what happened that day and remember small details that you wouldn’t remember otherwise… When 2019 arrives, what will I think when I read the 2015 entries? I bought this diary exactly for this reason, to be able to look back and see different events and feelings through the years.

I don’t remember not having a journal and I always loved to write. I poured all my feelings into it and always felt better after. Unfortunately since I began to work, my journal has been put aside. I still write but not as often as I did before.
I missed reading previous events and thoughts but couldn’t compromise to write in a “real” journal. Seems pretty dumb right? I could just have a regular A5 notebook and write less instead of having this. But no! My brain doesn’t agree! I’d be immediately pressured to write a lot if I had a bigger journal… I’ve problems, but if you do as well, One Line a Day, it’s the perfect solution, write a small paragraph before bed and DONE!

Even though you don’t have to write a lot, writing everyday is not an easy job! I’ve a couple of tips:

1. Create a routine

The easiest way to never forget to write a journal, is to turn into a habit, as brushing your teeth! Brushing your teeth it’s so automatic that you don’t even consider not to do it (obviously you’ve a stronger incentive as you want to have a good oral hygiene!) Write everyday in the same place and at the same time helps a lot. For example, I write everyday before sleep and my journal is on my bedside table so I don’t forget.

2. But when your life makes your routine change, bring your journal or an alternative

When I pass a few days away from home, I bring my journal and I confess, I don’t always remember to write, even carrying it with me. A alarm in my cellphone always works though. If you want to save luggage space for souvenirs, instead of carrying it with you, write on your phone and then copy to your journal when you’re back.

3. Do not let perfectionism ruin your journal

This is super complicated for me, I’m a little bit all or nothing, which means that, if something is not working amazing, I end up giving up. In the end of the year, I missed a couple of days and back then I thought, it’s just a few days I’ll write everything that happened since then at once. Just thinking about it, I would lose my motivation to write. And then 2 months were gone (!!) until in March I decided: I’ll write anyway starting today. To conclude: did you fail for a week? Restart today, don’t look back. Sometimes writing a day or two back doesn’t end up to be too hard, but more than that, it will make this more an obligation and ruin your will to write.

4. If nothing happened during the day, write anyway

There are always those days where nothing different happened, go to work, eat, sleep kinda of days. The idea of this journal is to celebrate the day-to-day not the major events. So write anyway. “I’m grateful for” it’s a good way to start a sentence when you don’t feel you’ve anything to say.

Hope it helps someone else, it has been a good option for me, specially with my lack of time (and mostly patience). I bought it on bookdepository.

There are similar ones with other goals: Mom’s One Line a Day (good memento for the kids), Q&A a Day Journal (question everyday, here you always have what to write about), Our Q and A a Day (similar to the previous one but for a couple, would love to do this with my boyfriend!), there are a bunch of cool alternatives!