A mistake I made when I first started journaling was believing that journal entries were meant to be long, prosaic pieces of literature that tackled (and found solutions for) all the biggest problems in life.
Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but I genuinely did think they were meant to be long. I’d write pages and pages and eventually burn out because the thought of committing to that much writing just became too much.
What if I told you you could start the day clear, focused and with a strategy for tackling challenges, with a simple 5-minute morning journaling habit?
You don’t need to set aside hours, or write award-worthy prose, you just need 5 minutes, a notepad and pen and a commitment to show up for yourself.
In this article, I’ll be looking at the benefits of journaling in the morning, how to get started with just 5 minutes per day and sharing some prompts to get you started.
Got 5 minutes? Then let’s get to it.
Why morning journaling works
I’ll be completely honest here, I personally journal in the evening. I have a young child, so the mornings tend to be chaotic and loud, and I like the more reflective nature of journaling at the end of the day. With that said though, journaling is a tool for you and you alone, so if morning writing better suits you and your situation, then go for it! There are actually a lot of benefits to journaling in the morning.
Firstly, it helps you set the tone for your entire day. How soon after waking up are you immediately barraged by noise? Social media, news, emails, notifications, family, demands. From the second our eyes open we’re in reactive mode. Journaling helps put us in proactive mode. It is a chance to check in with yourself, establish the plan for the day and reaffirm your values and core beliefs. Morning journaling is a powerful way to set yourself up for success.
Secondly, it clarifies our thought process and helps focus us on the tasks at hand. There’s a lot to be said for starting the day with a sharpened level of focus and clarified priorities. It allows us to address any concerns, worries or challenges head on and start the day with a renewed sense of vigor.
Finally, I often find that journaling in the morning has a tendency to be more forward thinking than journaling in the evening. You can still reflect on the previous day, of course, but it just seems to lend itself to goal setting, writing out to-do lists, prioritising and strategising, which is a great way of setting yourself up intentionally for the day ahead.
Over time, journaling for just five minutes a day can create a powerful foundation of clarity, resilience, and intentional living.
The barriers most men face (and how to overcome them)
It can be easy to make excuses that mean you never start or soon quit your journaling habit, but by addressing those excuses early and simplifying the process, you can reduce the barriers to entry.
“I don’t have time.”
You can start a journal with just five minutes a day. If you have time to scroll on your phone or make coffee, then you have time to journal. A big way that people fail when trying to develop new habits, is they aim to add the habit into their already full lives, thinking “I’ll make time.” Or, “I’ll just do it instead of ‘x’”. Don’t fall into this trap – there is a reason you do the things you do, even if your morning routine is just sitting and watching the television before work, it is because you enjoy it and want to do it. Your time is full, you can’t ‘make time’. To start something new, you will have to give something up. Be upfront and honest with yourself about this and you won’t end up trying to cram everything in. And remember, this is just 5 minutes a day!
“I don’t know what to write.”
A very common issue when starting out with journaling is not knowing what to write. Facing that blank page can be intimidating, and we can put pressure on ourselves that whatever we write has to be deep and insightful. Many times I’ve imagined future generations studying my journals like those of Marcus Aurelius, at which point the pressure seems a bit too much.
Don’t worry, you aren’t being judged. There’s no reward for the deepest, most insightful or best written journal. Future generations will not be finding eternally resonating insights into the human condition in the pages of my journal. When you don’t know what to write, there are lots of techniques that can give you a starting point. You can use a prompt, make a list, write a one-line gratitude entry or free-write about whatever is in your head and then explore it. For more tips, check out my post, ‘What do you write when journaling?’
“I can’t stay consistent.”
Consistency is difficult when you’re trying to establish any new habit. I would highly recommend reading ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear if you’re looking to start a new habit, but something to think about is; consistency isn’t about willpower, it’s about systems. Forming a consistent habit doesn’t need to be a way of proving that you have complete control over mind and body. You don’t need to be regimented and punitive if you ‘fail’ – in fact, that will just make you more likely to want to quit in the long term. Instead, building a habit is about lowering the friction. If you want to journal in the morning, then put your journal somewhere you can’t avoid it the night before. Set it up at the kitchen table with a pen and a timer. Implement what James Clear calls ‘habit stacking’ and do your journal entry straight after you’ve made your morning coffee. Make writing in your journal as easy as possible, and the habit will stick.
How to start a 5-minute morning journaling habit
Starting your morning journaling habit couldn’t be easier, and as long as you’ve got somewhere to write your daily entry, you’re all set!
Step 1: Pick your tools
You don’t need a lot to start journaling. If you’re going analogue, then a notepad and pen is all you need to get started. If you’re going digital then you need a note-taking app or digital journaling app. Once you’ve got your tools gathered, get them set out the night before you start so it’s easy in the morning to just pick them up and get straight into it.
Step 2: Choose a simple structure
Journal types that lend themselves to fast entries include goal journals, gratitude journals, bullet journals, one-sentence a day journals and free-writing journals. However you decide to structure your journal, you can also use prompts to help quickly get into writing, so you don’t spend your limited time trying to come up with a topic! Check out my post on how to structure a personal journal.
Step 3: Set a trigger
If you’re trying to build a consistent, daily habit, then building in triggers is going to be really useful. Set your journaling space up the night before, somewhere you know you’re going to be (Kitchen table, side table next to your bed, on the cistern of the toilet!). Try and habit stack it with something you already do, eg. I’ll journal straight after I get in from the gym, or as I drink my morning coffee, or just before I watch the morning news, or before I turn on my phone. Set a notification or leave sticky notes on the bathroom mirror. Make it harder to avoid doing it than it is to just do it!
Step 4: Keep it short and honest
You’ve got 5 minutes, so don’t spend it worrying about grammar or painstakingly forging the perfect sentence. Write honestly and truthfully, whether it’s long-form or short-form or bullet points. Some days you might fill a whole page, other days you might just write a sentence. What matters is, you keep showing up.
5 Prompts you can use today
If you’re stuck on what to write or you want to get into writing quickly, then consider these short prompts to guide you. You can use one a day or you can try and answer all of them, or you can use them to spark ideas for other questions you want to consider. There’s no right or wrong way to do this:
- What’s one thing I’m grateful for this morning?
- What’s my main intention for today?
- What challenge might I face today, and how will I handle it?
- What would make today a “win” for me?
- One thing I’m proud of from yesterday is…
How to stay consistent
Now that you know how to get started, the next step is how to stick with it. Consistency is hard, but hard work is rewarding, so try some of these tips if you feel like you’re struggling.
- Track your streak. Austin Kleon frequently shares his 100 day, ‘Practice more, suck less’ challenge which is a great, simple and visual way to track your streak. The simple system uses 100 boxes, and all you have to do is put a cross in the box every day that you do the thing you’ve committed to. Once you start, the only goal is to not break the chain of crosses for at least 100 days. This powerful visual reminder can serve as an easy boost to motivation and encourage us to keep going, even when we don’t want to.
- Celebrate small wins. Take the time to acknowledge your accomplishments. Made your first journal entry? That’s brilliant! Wrote a daily entry consistently for a full week? Amazing! Don’t make the habit feel like a punishment (I have to do ‘x’ amount of days or else I’ve failed, I have to write ‘x’ amount of lines or it’s not worth it, I’m going to get up at 5am to start journaling), but instead, frequently reward yourself for the small accomplishments – they soon add up into the big things.
- Remember the purpose. It’s an overused metaphor, but journaling is like the mind’s equivalent of the gym. And just like the gym, there will be days you don’t want to do what you know is good for you, because it’s hard and you’re tired, and you’d rather do what is easy or what comes naturally. It’s at this point you have to do it anyway! At some point with any new habit – it becomes not about motivation or ‘wanting’ to do it. It becomes about purpose. Why are you doing it? You started journaling for a reason. To better yourself. To be more creative. To improve your relationships. Whatever it was, remember that reason and keep it at the forefront of your mind. It’s that ‘why’ that will keep you going long after motivation has vanished.
5 minutes that can change everything
A 5 minute daily journaling habit is a great place to start. It’s a low but consistent commitment that gives you enough time to benefit from all the good stuff journaling can offer. Clarity of self, clarity of purpose, improved confidence and resilience, better organisation, improved relationships and many, many others.
More than that though, it’s about making a commitment to show up for yourself, live your life more intentionally and step into each day with purpose.
Dave Bawden is the founder of This Journaling Journey, where he helps people (especially men) use journaling to rewrite their personal myths, reconnect with meaning, and define success on their own terms. He writes at the intersection of self-authorship, narrative identity, and everyday philosophy.
