Do you keep a journal? Is it full of your daily experiences, ideas, and hopes for the future?

You may associate a gender and age to those who keep journals, but journals and diaries are not limited to middle school girls and news reporters. Writing can benefit everyone.

We live in a busy world. There are many demands on our time and we have a parade of distractions when we have a moment to ourselves. However, it is so rewarding to look back on events you’ve recorded. You can devote ten minutes of your day to compose something you will cherish in the future.

You may argue that you do not have ten minutes to spare. You can reduce the time to as little as one minute if your schedule is too hectic.  

Once you have decided to write, you may not have an idea to log, so I have listed some ideas for brief writing sessions.

Dream Journals

 As a teenager, I started a dream journal. It helped me clarify the reason for some of my dreams and I noticed a pattern in my dreams. It seemed that I dreamed about the same church whenever I had an important decision looming before me. 

Keep a pen and notebook in the drawer of your bedside table or on your kitchen table. When you wake, write down the dreams you remember as soon as you open your eyes or during your breakfast. Be certain to write down your dreams as soon as possible, so they don’t fade as the day progresses. 

Memory Journals 

After my first child was born, I began writing letters to her. As I added children to my growing family, I penned journal entries to each of them in their own notebooks. It’s fun to look back at my pregnancies and the days I’ve shared with my children and see our adventures as a family and their individual accomplishments.

Personal Journal 

A personal journal gives accounts of your daily interactions. They can be used to organize your thoughts, record your experiences, and/or provide a way to work through a problem by seeing the conflict and consequences develop over time.

Writing Journal

You may plan to write a book, blog, short story, essay, or novel. You can write about the things that inspire your creativity, jot down ideas, or organize your thoughts to locate a central theme.

Drawing Journal

Perhaps you don’t like to write. Drawing journals can be just as therapeutic and/or descriptive. You can draw a picture of your family camping trip instead of writing about it. You could record your child’s achievements in comic book form instead of detailing them in words.

I encourage people to write about their experiences because I have forgotten so many of mine. It brings a smile to my face when I read a memory I recorded that was lost to my mind.

I hope that you will write about people and events that are special to you. One day, you, or someone close to you, may be glad you took the time to do so.