I’ve noticed this interesting tendency where a lot of people focus on the idea of daily journaling whenever they talk about journaling as a whole. There’s a certain YouTuber who made a video on journaling, and he made it seem so important that journaling be done consistently. He talked about how he struggled with consistency in his past attempts to journal, and how he kept starting new journals after giving up on previous ones where he didn’t write for months at a time.

In my opinion, journaling is not something that requires consistency (unlike other habits like working out, for example). There’s no need to beat yourself up for not journaling after a while. There’s no need to force yourself to journal every day or a certain amount of times a week.

When I started out, I was also really focused on the consistency part. I tried to journal every day. But that’s not only unrealistic – it can sometimes be counterproductive. If you force yourself to write when there’s nothing you want to write about in particular, you start to view the task as a chore. Then you associate this negative feeling with the thought of journaling, making it even harder to bring yourself to write.

Over the years, my perspective has shifted to a more comprehensive view of journaling. It’s not about how often you journal, and you especially shouldn’t be forcing yourself to do it. Instead, focus on journaling when there are topics you’re dying to write about – whether it’s an exciting event that happened, a shower thought you had, or something you need to get off your chest. When you do this, you start thinking of journaling not as a duty that needs to get done to meet some sort of writing quota, but instead as a release for your thoughts and a comforting activity of reflection.

Once I started allowing myself to not write all the time – and not feeling guilty about it – I think that’s when I began to get the most value out of journaling. A lot of my older entries start with me apologizing for not writing in a while. But now I understand that it’s not something I need to feel bad about. I’ll write when there’s something I need to say. And it’s okay to not write if I don’t feel like it.

The ironic thing about this new mindset is that I’ve actually been writing more than before. I don’t feel obligated to write, but I find myself naturally thinking of topics that I want to talk about. Since I now have positive feelings associated with journaling, it barely takes any energy to sit and jot some thoughts down.

Journaling isn’t something that needs to be done every day. Instead, you should look to follow your own pace and not set too many expectations for yourself. Make it a comforting activity for yourself, not a chore that needs to be completed.