20 Ways to Journal You May Not Have Thought About (And how they can help your business) | Part One

On Thursday, January 5, 2012, I got back together with a cheating boyfriend and saw three shooting stars during a meteor shower. I spent Tuesday, April 17, 2015 waiting on a phone call that never came. I had to take my partner (not the cheating boyfriend) to the emergency room for an ear infection on August 27, 2019 – also a Tuesday.

To you, these are pretty meaningless anecdotes. But to me, they're evidence of my most sustaining practice. They're bullet points that make up the essence of my everyday. They're me, my story, my memory.

They exist, along with thousands and thousands of other stories, in my journals.

I'm not going to wax poetic why you should journal -- although I really do believe everyone should, and I plan to talk your ear off about that another time.

Instead, I want to talk about two things:

• How to journal when the bullet / art / long-hand journals just don't feel like you, and
• How journaling can help your business.

The ideas that I talk about below are in alphabetical order and are coded with different emojis.

The 📌 indicates that this journaling format is best for basic documentation; these are formats that work well for documenting what you did or what happened on a given day. The 🎨 indicates that the format works well for expressive journaling -- that is, journaling that documents how you feel about a day, event, or experience. Finally, the 💭 indicates that the format works well for reflective journaling; this expands on expressive writing to contemplate and analyze how your feelings, thoughts, and experiences tie into broader patterns and behaviors.

In other words, 📌 is the least "emotionally taxing" form of journaling, 💭 is the most taxing, and 🎨 finds a happy middle. Some formats have multiple emojis, which just means they're flexible in terms of how you approach them.

Jump To:

• ChatGPT 📌🎨
• Collaging🎨
• Discord Server 📌🎨💭
• Fiber Arts 📌🎨
• Five Senses Diary 📌
• Emojis & Iconography 📌🎨
• List-Making 📌🎨
• Mind Maps 💭
• Music Journaling 📌🎨
• Poetry Chains 🎨

ChatGPT 📌🎨

We're starting off a little controversial! I know ChatGPT is not everyone's cup of tea – I have complicated feelings about it myself – but I think it presents some really interesting possibilities for journaling.

One of the major benefits of documenting your life is being able to look back on your past to identify trends, habits, and behaviors that have changed over time. But going back and re-reading old entries, or finding the right data, can be a headache – and emotionally draining.

Instead, imagine you send a quick note in a ChatGPT conversation every day. And, whenever you want data from old entries, you can just ask a question. Check out this example:

How to Do It:

• If you're on the ChatGPT+ plan, set up a custom GPT to act as your personal journal. If you're on the free plan, start a new conversation and let the bot know that you'll be using the chat for journaling. In either case, you'll want to let the bot know what kind of entries you'll be sending and how you want it to respond (e.g, "Respond 'noted' unless I ask a specific question.")
• Whenever you want to, or on a schedule of your choice, send a message in your journal conversation. This can have as much or as little detail as you're comfortable with.
• Once you have a solid collection of entries, or have something specific you want to revisit, prompt the bot for a summary of your entries. You might ask, "How was my week?" or, "What am I struggling with this month?" or, "Based on my entries, what projects should I be working on?"

Considerations:

• This would be very convenient to set up and access across devices.
• You have a built-in system to easily query entries and get feedback / support right in your journal.
• On the other hand, OpenAI may not be the most secure option for sharing private feelings and thoughts. And it isn't particularly future-proof since there isn't any backup or restore functionality.
• It may also be confusing to go back and re-read old entries.

Collaging 🎨

I love collaging in my journal. It's a great way to meditate on your feelings and experiences without having to write everything out by hand. And it can be approached in a ton of ways.

For example, I collage right in my journal with my other entries whenever I feel the urge; I use old magazines and paste the images in with glue, like here:

But other people have journals made entirely from collages and other art projects; if you really enjoy paper ephemera, "junk journaling" might be a good option for you.

And, if you prefer to keep things digital, there are ways to collage online too, including in Canva. That's where I make the digital collages I use on my website and in my newsletter.

How to Do It:

• Decide whether you want to collage with paper or digital images – or both.
• Begin collecting images that resonate with you.
• Put your collection of images together into something new!

Considerations:

• This is a great creative outlet that can exist on its own or complement your writing.
• Collaging can act as a meditative practice; you may find it more calming than longhand journaling.
• It can have a learning curve and upfront costs if you don't already collage.
• These can also be difficult to decipher later; if understanding exactly what you were trying to express in the moment is important to you, this may not be a good option.

Discord Server 📌 🎨 💭

I'm crossing my fingers that non-gamers -- and business owners specifically -- embrace Discord this year. Or a similar app that isn't Slack / Circle / Facebook groups.

To be fair, Discord and Slack have a lot of the same functionality, but I find Discord much easier to navigate. I'm part of several client Slack workspaces, spaces for hobbies, and community spaces, and it's kind of annoying to move between them, especially when you don't have a centralized inbox for DMs. So, while I'm talking about Discord specifically in this section, keep in mind that the same principles apply to other software. (But also, check out Discord if you haven't!)

How to Do It:

• Set up a private server in Discord (or the equivalent in another app).
• Add channels you think would be useful. You might only start with one "Journal" channel, or you might add other channels for different types of notes, or you might have different channels for different timeframes or ways you're feeling (e.g, maybe you have a channel for "happy memories" versus "daily tracking").
• Start writing in your channels!

Considerations:

• This is another super flexible and accessible option. It also offers better organization than other formats, like ChatGPT.
• You can add bots and other tools to your server to make it more robust.
• I'm not sure what the privacy implications are here; I've never heard anything bad necessarily about Discord's security, but I would be wary of putting sensitive and personally identifying information in these channels.
• Although it looks like there may be tools for exporting your server, backups and restores are not features of Discord itself.
• This can become easily overwhelming with too many channels / too much organization.

Fiber Arts 📌 🎨

If you knit or crochet you've likely seen "temperature blankets" popping up on social media for a while; our stitching friends have likely seen things like embroidery journals.

For non-crafters, a temperature blanket is a handmade blanket where each row represents the temperature for the day. For example, if it's 50-70 degrees, the row stitched for today might be blue, but if the temp is 71-90, the row might be yellow. At the end of the year, you have a(n at least) 365-row blanket that shows the weather throughout the year.

This is a form of journaling itself, but you could use a different key. Maybe your blanket has colors representing your mood each day, how you would rate each day, what you did, where you were, what you ate, or who you saw. There are endless possibilities -- if you can categorize something, you can label it, and then you can stitch it!

Meanwhile, embroidery journals are typically projects where one small image is stitched each day. I've seen images like a red cross representing that the person journaling was sick, flowers representing a normal spring day, and planes representing travel. All of the images are stitched onto the same fabric.

How to Do It:

• Pick your craft and layout. Will you be crocheting? Knitting? Embroidering? Macrame? Something else? And what will you be doing for this project? Are you stitching a row a day? A row a week? Embroidering an icon for each month? Cross-stitching a square each day?
• Decide what you're tracking. Are you documenting the temperature? Your feelings? What you did or where you went or who you were with? Are you using this to track a habit? It can be anything!
• Determine your key and get your supplies. If you're doing the same thing every day, like crocheting a row on a blanket, plan your key ahead of time. And, no matter which style of art you'll be working with, you'll likely want to get your supplies up front.

Considerations:

• This is another great way to supplement your writing with a meditative, creative practice.
• You get an awesome piece of art at the end of the year!
• This likely isn't a good option for beginner crafters.
• Supplies can be $$$ and the time involved may make it harder to stay consistent.
• This provides pretty limited context; you'll only know a fact or two about a day (or week, etc.), rather than the full picture of what happened.

Five-Senses Diary 📌

A five-senses diary is what it sounds like; it's a journal where you document what you can See, Smell, Taste, Touch, and Hear, either in the moment or to summarize your day.

For example, a five-senses diary for me in this moment might look like:

👁️ My journal article, the green glow of my PC lights, and a bright sunny day out through the window.

👃🏻 My Cedarwood Blanc candle and knock-off BR 540 perfume.

👅 Warm green tea.

🫳🏻 My fuzzy robe and warm air blowing from the heater.

👂🏻 My cat snoring next to me, the clack of my keyboard, and wind outside.

This doesn't tell you much about me, or how I'm feeling, but it does capture the moment I'm currently in -- sitting here on a chilly day typing out this article.

How to Do It:

• Pick a spot to put it. This can be a physical notebook, a notes app on your phone, or anywhere else you might go to write things down.
• Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Notice the air around you. Open your eyes and take stock of what you're experiencing with your senses.
• Write it down! That simple.

Considerations:

• This is a helpful grounding technique whether used as a journal or not -- it's a great complement to any journaling or mindfulness practice, but also works great on its own.
• Super flexible in terms of where you store your entries.
• Does a fantastic job of easily painting a picture of your current moment.
• Again, doesn't give a lot of context, but if written with enough detail, can act as a good reminder of a certain time and place. In this sense, it also offers more privacy than other forms of journaling.

Emojis & Iconography 📌 🎨

I ended up on a weird side of TikTok a year or two ago. I started seeing videos of young women using a series of emojis (is emoji plural?) to mock-up makeup palettes. Lots of people, including marketing companies, are doing it now, but I thought it was such a neat "We're Girls!" idea that it actually made me look at emojis differently.

Emojis / emoticons / icons all tell a lot about a person! Are you a 😂 person or a 💀 person? A 0_o person or a XD or a <:^) person? Or are you a 🖤🔮🐦‍⬛🌙 person or a ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ person??? (Seriously, send me your icon combos, I have to know!!)

Anyway, all of that led me to think about what an emoji / icon journal might look like. I suppose there are a few different ways you could approach it: use an emoji to represent each important thing that happened, or to summarize how you felt, or the fun things you did that day. Or you could create a combination of emojis that describes the "vibe" of the day. Anything that can be represented through pictures, you could use this for.

For example, my emojis for yesterday would be 🐲🥤🥹 and the day before would have been 😵‍💫💤🩸 (I bet you can figure what that was about, lol).

How to Do It:

• Decide what you want to track each day, or leave it open-ended.
• Decide where you're going to put your journal; I think a notes app on your phone would be the best option for this.
• Create your new icon set each day, or on your preferred schedule.

Considerations:

• Can be more flexible and private than other options, but you don't really have the ability to use this format on paper.
• Extremely fast and easy, looks super cute, and can be harder for snoops to decipher it if they find your journal.
• If you use emojis, you're limited to the emoji library, which may not always have the right options for expressing your feelings.
• Can become difficult for you to decipher, since there isn't much detail offered.

List-Making 📌 🎨

I feel like we don't give non-to-do-lists the credit they deserve, and I don't think that's just the Type A in me talking. I mean, there's a reason so much of our media has turned into listicles, right?

Lists are this strange middle-ground between being finite and infinite. They can take a huge, overwhelming idea and turn it into categories that can grow and grow forever.

If I ask you to write "who you are", it's likely that you'll have absolutely no idea where to start. But if I ask you to make a list of what makes you you, that's a much more manageable starting point. And you can keep adding to it as time goes on. Lists are alive in ways that other types of journals aren't.

How to Do It:

• Make or find a list of lists! There are lots of meta lists on Pinterest, but I actually have a specific starting point I suggest. Alexis Rondeau publishes a digital garden through Obsidian (more on this later if that reads like word-salad to you) and has created a challenge to help others do the same. You don't need to worry about publishing or anything like that, but I highly recommend checking out the initial lists he invites you to create -- they include your most important life events, the things that suck most in your life, and . You can ignore the publishing aspect for now, but the initial lists he recommends creating are an amazing starting point -- they include your most important life events, the most interesting things in your life. Check out more here.
• Find a reliable place to keep your lists, digitally or on paper.
• Pick a list and write it out! Don't feel like you have to "finish" the list; remember that they're living documents that you can always add to, edit, and review.

Considerations:

• Convenient, flexible, simple, and fantastic for beginners.
• There's less pressure to "finish" an entry; lists are alive!

Mind Maps 💭

Mind maps have transformed the way I write and think, and they're my third-most used journaling format outside of longhand writing and prompts.

I start by putting something in the middle of the page. Ideally, this is a question I'm asking, but sometimes it's just a theme. Then I branch out with whatever comes to mind. There's no method to this other than to not think and just write. Sometimes I'll add 20 branches to the central node; sometimes I only need one branch and continue endlessly from there.

Regardless of how I write it out, I almost always arrive at a deeper question or point. The image below is a photo of my actual journal that shows, on this day, I started with the theme "Taming the Chaos". Eventually, I figured out that the underlying question for that theme was, "What do I need?" So I flipped the page and started again, using that as my new center point.

This is another form of stream-of-consciousness writing, but it's organized in such a way that you can follow your mental trail better -- it's much easier to see how you arrived at a certain point.

How to Do It:

• Pick your format (digital or pen-and-paper, although I highly recommend the latter) and add your central node. This will likely be something you're struggling with, trying to process, or a question you're trying to answer.
• As automatically as you can (i.e, not thinking about it), draw lines from your central node to new thoughts. Keep going, connecting as many ideas as you need.
• You'll know you're "done" when the question has been answered or if you have a new theme / question to meditate on. Depending on how much energy you have, you might choose to start a new map with the theme or question as the new central node.

Considerations:

• This will likely be a familiar way for you to work and write, and it's very flexible.
• Can be much faster than longhand stream-of-consciousness writing.
• Helps you get to the root feeling, question, or fear, and let's you trace your thoughts back to the beginning.
• Can take a while to get used to this type of "automatic" writing and may take longer than more simple forms of journaling.
• It will take practice listening to yourself to get to serious "breakthroughs".

Music Journaling 📌 🎨

I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent and say that I can't believe profile songs aren't more of a Thing again. Do I want to be blasted with K-pop every time I go to my sister's Facebook profile? No. But do I wish I could still blast other people with Taking Back Sunday when they visit mine? Yes.

Anyway, profile music and LiveJournal make up the spirit of this journaling method, which is basically to document your day or feelings by picking a song (or multiple) to represent them. I just started doing this -- albeit for a totally different purpose (inspo here) -- by setting up IFTTT to add new saved Spotify tracks to my Google Calendar. But I could also see creating monthly playlists where each day gets its own song, or something similar.

How to Do It:

• Decide on your format or starting point. Will you be doing a song a day? Tracking all the music you listen to? Jotting down the song that's playing when you journal through another format?
• Start saving songs!

Considerations:

• This is another good supplemental practice that's easy to implement.
• Can be hard to stay on top of if you don't listen to music often.
• Fun way to build playlists that take you back to certain moments of your life.
• If you're a musician yourself, there are fun ways to incorporate your own music into this type of journal.

Poetry Chains 🎨

This is such a fun way to exercise creative writing muscles in your journaling practice.

The idea is to write one line of a poem every day. It doesn't have to go on all year; you could write a new poem each week, or month, or just start and stop them as you see fit. Your lines could be specifically about your day, or your day could just influence you're writing style. Think about it: the way you write about happiness on a day where everything goes right will be different than how you write about it on a day where everything goes wrong.

I just started one of these; we'll see how it goes.

How to Do It:

• Decide if your poem(s) will have a format. Are you writing a line each day? Each week? Will you focus on daily events or daily feelings? Are you going to wing it (my approach)?
• Write your first line.
• Put your working draft somewhere you can easily access it.

Considerations:

• Convenient format and a creative exercise that can improve your writing.
• You may not like the final product, which could lead you to judge your journaling and feel discouraged.
• Might try to fit narrative into your line rather than honestly writing a line about your day. (Although that doesn't make it less valuable, just something to keep in mind! Fun exercise either way)

Wrapping Up Part One

Nearly 4K words later, I'm going to let this part of the newsletter come to an end. Next week, I'll send over ten more journaling formats – some you may be familiar with, others might be totally fresh ideas ("reverse journaling", anyone? 👀). We'll wrap up by tying alllll of this back into you and your business.

If you enjoyed this piece, hated it, or just want to fill me in on your own journaling practice, I'd love to hear from you! I'm considering turning this article into a larger training or mini-course; let me know if you're into the idea. You can now leave a comment directly on my posts, or you can always shoot me an email at hello@victoriakay.co.

P.S. If this post made you itch to get started journaling, check out The Rage Writer, a guided journal of 50 prompts for $5.