Meeting professional and personal goals means knowing what those goals are — and the New Year is the perfect time to figure those out. Your intentions may come when you’re in the shower, on a walk, or right before you sleep. Sometimes these whispers need a nudge to become priorities in your day-to-day life.
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Journal prompts can be useful tools to reflect on the past and set specific intentions to move ahead in the new year. You can either reflect on some of these prompts by writing them in a journal, or even talking them over with a friend.
If you’re looking to break in your brand new journal, use these journal prompts to help with self-discovery, anxiety, healing, and reviewing the year, as well as questions to help teens:
Journaling Prompts for Self-Discovery
Self-discovery often requires time to reflect. Near the end of December, I reflect on choosing a word of the year, as opposed to setting resolutions. Choosing one word is a way to prompt me into self-discovery on how I want to set the tone for the next 12 months. In years past, I’ve chosen compassion, laughter, pause, and let go. Here are some of the ways prompts can help you arrive at your word of the year:
To help the self-discovery process, you don’t necessarily need to rely on a word of the year. You can ask general questions to dive deeper into your self-discovery journey. Psych Central offers some questions on how to approach this process:
Journaling Prompts for Anxiety
Research shows that to help alleviate stress and anxiety, journaling can lessen intrusive thoughts. In a study, participants who journaled for seven weeks found that consistently writing thoughts in a notebook or journal helped with anxiety. Confused on where to start? There are some recommendations on what to ask, according to The Good Body.
Journaling Prompts for Healing
Healing requires time to process all of the emotions — it will likely feel uncomfortable, but it also likely means you’re involved in helping yourself get better. Silk and Sonder offers some questions that may be helpful in your healing:
Journaling Prompts for Reviewing the Year
As you enter into a new year, it makes sense to review how you spent the last 12 months, from what you did right to where you may improve in the upcoming months. The questions can be broad or as specific as you like. Renowned therapist and author Nedra Tawab recommends that you ask these questions:
Journaling Prompts for Teens
Journaling is beneficial for adults, but can also be a useful strategy for teens. Teens are likely going through so many ups and downs in their adolescence — feelings that arise from social media, navigating relationship issues, and working through managing school work, friends, and extracurricular activities. If they practice journaling in their formative years, it can be something they carry with them in adulthood.
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I’ve always favored paper planners. Despite all of the planning and productivity apps that I’ve tried in its place, a paper planner has always reigned supreme. Aside from my feelings, there are plenty of compelling reasons to adopt paper planners. They cut down on screen time, they help you remember things better (writing by hand not only is better for committing things to memory, it’s also mindful practice), and they make it easier to focus, since you don’t have to silence notifications on your paper planner. And science aside, it’s just more fun than your Google Calendar.
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As a lover of paper planners, here are three of my absolute favorites that I recommend to keep you on track this year.
I bought Adam J. Kurtz’s Unsolicited Advice planner for the first time in 2020, in the height of the doom and gloom year. There’s a lot to love about the planner aside from the unsolicited advice, my favorite feature being that it’s part calendar and part journal. There are built-in prompts each month to reflect on how you’re doing overall. One that I appreciate is the “recurring theme” section so I can see I’ve made no progress in my goals to, say, put away my laundry in a timely manner this year. The planner includes traditional important dates like the first night of Hanukkah, as well as lesser known important days like Nov. 18th, aka “Married to a Scorpio Support Day.” Each planner also comes with a few sheets of adorable, endearing, and funny stickers.
If you already look to the stars for guidance, you’ll appreciate this planetary-focused Astro Planner from Chani Nicholas. This planner includes a lot more than calendar pages and zodiac phases — it’s full of rituals, reflections, exercises, and more. As someone who will never be able to memorize their birth chart, I particularly appreciate the customizable chart wheel. There’s also a similarly useful reference table of the signs, houses, and planets. Any planner that makes extra space to organize your thoughts is a good one if you ask me, so the additional space dedicated to planning, intention-setting, and dream journaling is essential. Plus, there are activity prompts for each significant astrological event, such as New and Full Moons, solstices and equinoxes, lunar and solar eclipses, and more.
The Bullet Journal is more a planning method than a planner itself — you can make one out of any notebook. It has all the essential components of a planner, but it’s a lot more malleable. The “BuJo” has sections for daily to-dos, monthly or weekly calendars, notes that track your mental and physical health, and a record of both short-term and long-term goals. My favorite part of using a bullet journal is that it has a built in system for dealing with to-do list items, especially ones that end up rolling over from the previous week or month.
While there are plenty of expensive wellness practices being touted by “influencers” on social media, some of the most beneficial ones are actually free (think: walking outside and getting eight hours of sleep). One of our favorites is journaling, which allows people of all interests and personality types to express themselves and find balance in their lives anytime, anywhere. From what journaling actually is to its benefits and tips for how to get started, we’re here to help you make this highly beneficial practice a healthy habit in no time.
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thoughts, and experiences in whatever form or fashion they choose. There is no specific format to follow or style of writing required. Instead, journaling is about processing one’s emotions or pursuing personal development. Although becoming a better writer isn’t the primary goal of journaling, that may happen along the way if it becomes habitual!
You may be surprised to learn that incorporating a regular journaling practice is associated with numerous physical and mental health benefits. A 2005 study published by the University of Cambridge found that participants who practiced expressive writing—through the form of journaling—self-reported health outcomes such as fewer stress-related doctor visits, improved immune, lung, and liver function; reduced blood pressure; and a greater feeling of psychological well-being. The participants also reported improved performance at work and greater confidence in social situations.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) journaling could help give us a better understanding of who we are and what we want to achieve. Journaling could also help determine strengths and weaknesses, clarify thoughts and feelings, solve problems, and even recognize successes. Plus, journaling may help identify and manage stress, something we could all use in our mental health toolkits.
We asked Chesbrough “Chesie” Roberts, MS, ADC, LPC, founder and principal therapist at CLR Counseling Group in Birmingham, Alabama, about some tips for aspiring journalers (for personal use).
There’s no “right” time to practice journaling.
Robert’s biggest advice is to play up your strengths in order to turn journaling into a habit you’ll actually stick to. While some people are great at waking up early with a cup of coffee to reflect on life, Roberts recognizes that may not be realistic for everyone . Whether you’re a night owl or early bird, there’s no specific time or way to journal that’s better than any other.
Start your day with a list of simple questions.
“I give my clients a very simple daily ‘good things’ question list to answer at the end of each day, ” says Roberts. She asks her clients to post this list of self-esteem building questions somewhere that can be easily seen each morning and at least one other time during the day, such as on the fridge. From there, her clients can reflect deeper through journaling, whether it’s upon waking, during lunch, or before going to sleep. To stimulate your writing habit, try starting with a daily list of questions built around your personal goals, whether that’s building confidence, dealing with anxiety, or simply being more present in your daily life.
Reflect with gratitude journaling.
If you’re looking for some structure to help you stick to a journaling practice, consider trying a gratitude journal to help build your positivity in mere minutes a day.
Organize your thoughts with bullet journaling.
Busy bees may benefit from starting off with bullet journaling, which can help you stick to any personal goals such as building up your fitness and health or developing stronger relationships in your work and social circles.
“I have found that we don’t have to journal these eloquent paragraphs reflecting on our lives with a perfect notebook and fancy pen for success,” says Roberts. Simply grab a journal, pick up a set of pens or pencils, and get to writing!
Earlier this year, I wrote about how my urge to donate to Goodwill was something I was fighting as I got older. I had realized that my distaste for holding onto mementos meant I wasn’t able to reminisce in the same way that, for example, my girlfriend does when she opens a mislabeled box in her closet and out comes a diploma, family photos, an old driver’s license, and more. I consider myself a sentimental person; however, during my various moves of the last decade, I haven’t made a point of keeping things because they didn’t matter in the moment.
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But in writing this article and receiving the feedback I did, I’ve realized that an item that doesn’t feel like it matters now might matter a whole lot later on. One of the comments that stuck out the most to me on my article was from a reader who appreciated how I wrote about emotional attachment to objects. “Usually people acknowledge it and then promptly tell you to get over it, scan the item, and move on,” this reader wrote, then shared that they were going to help their mother begin artifacting her possessions and, in doing so, discover the memories and stories attached to those pieces. I love that the story I wrote made someone feel heard and perhaps even more inspired to learn more about their family tree.
As it turns out, my experience resonated with many people. The piece was the most-commented-on post in Apartment Therapy’s Lifestyle section this year, and second-most-commented-on post on Apartment Therapy’s website overall for 2022. I’m thrilled by that; chatting with more than 120 other readers in the comments section of the article helped me learn the stories of readers’ personal “clutter” and how they feel about it. It was eye-opening for me to find out how many people are left with the objects of their past loved ones and, though it can be a burden for some, how the process of going through the items can be its own type of closure.
Of course, there is definitely a fine line when it comes to holding onto things. Living in a 200-square-foot apartment, I’m adamant that I feel like there’s space to breathe between the stacks of books and tchotchkes, that I have room to stretch among the thrifted furniture and newly purchased rocker (thank you, Facebook Marketplace). At the same time, I now make sure my desire for space and ease doesn’t lead me to a one-in-one-out rule.
My home has become less empty recently — a stack of letters from my girlfriend sits in a thrifted basket, while I’ve used a frame to house a book of stamps she gifted me and two inspirational cards — but each object feels like it has earned its spot. After all, it really isn’t the items that make the home, but the home that invites in the items.
Charli Penn is the Executive Lifestyle Director at Apartment Therapy and an award-winning journalist, editor and Webby-nominated former podcast host who writes in the name and praise of all things good living (and loving!). She thoroughly enjoys photography, 90s R&B, and all things gold accents. When she’s not curled up at home spending quality time with her husband and their two small dogs, you’ll find her traveling, redecorating (again), perusing a Home Goods aisle or planning an impromptu theme party for family and friends.
