Not every journal page needs to be about a major life event.
Sometimes the things worth remembering are the things that feel completely ordinary right now.
What you've been eating lately. What's in your bag. A new recipe you tried. Something that's been on your mind. The show you can't stop watching. A random Tuesday that wasn't particularly exciting but was still part of your life.
That's the good stuff too.
If you're looking for something to journal about, start with the life you're already living.
Document What You're Eating
Food can hold a lot of memories.
Maybe you finally made a recipe that everybody liked. You tried a new restaurant. You've been eating the same breakfast every morning for three weeks. Or you found a snack you're currently obsessed with.
Add a photo, recipe, receipt, or piece of packaging to your journal and write a few notes about it.
What did you make?
Would you make it again?
Did you change anything about the recipe?
Who did you eat with?
It doesn't need to become a formal recipe book. You're simply documenting what food looks like in your life right now.
Take Inventory of Your Everyday Stuff
What's in the bag you carry every day?
Empty it out and take a look.
Your wallet, lip balm, charger, snacks, receipts, pens, hand sanitizer, random pieces of paper and whatever else has made its way to the bottom.
Take a photo, make a list, draw the items, or write about why you carry certain things.
It might seem completely ordinary today, but imagine finding that page five years from now.
Journal About What's Taking Up Space in Your Head
Everyday journaling doesn't have to be about what you did.
It can also be about what you're thinking.
What's been bothering you lately?
What have you been avoiding?
What's making you happy?
Is something getting in the way of something you enjoy?
You don't necessarily have to solve anything on the page. Sometimes writing it down is enough to help you see what's actually going on.
And if you do see something you'd like to change, write down one small thing you can do next.
Keep Track of What You're Into Right Now
Your current favorites are part of your story too.
What are you watching?
What song keeps getting played again?
What are you reading?
What are you making?
Where do you keep going?
What are you buying entirely too much of? 😬
Make a list or dedicate a page to whatever has your attention right now.
These kinds of pages are especially fun to rediscover later because our favorites change so much over time.
Save the Little Pieces
Receipts, labels, tickets, packaging, tags, photos and other little pieces of everyday life can help tell the story for you.
You don't need to save everything.
Choose something that reminds you of a moment and add it to the page. Then write whatever you want to remember about it.
A receipt isn't just a receipt anymore when it reminds you of lunch with somebody you love.
Packaging isn't just packaging when it came from the snack you couldn't stop buying that summer.
The meaning comes from the memory attached to it.
Use a Prompt When You Need One
Sometimes you want to journal but don't have a starting point.
That's when a simple question can help.
Try:
What made me smile today?
What's taking up the most space in my head right now?
What am I enjoying lately?
What's something ordinary about my life that I want to remember?
What have I not been making enough time for?
You don't have to answer with a full page. One sentence counts.
Let Your Supplies Start the Page
You don't always have to know what you're going to write before you sit down.
Sometimes a piece of patterned paper, sticker, journaling card, photo, or piece of ephemera gives you the idea.
Pick something you like.
Put it on the page.
Then ask yourself what it makes you think about.
This is also the idea behind the Studio419DC Mini Journaling Kits. Each kit gives you a small collection of coordinated papers and journaling pieces to help you get started without having to pull together all of the supplies yourself.
The page can come first. The words can come afterward.
Ordinary Life Is Still Your Life
It's easy to think you'll start documenting things when something interesting happens.
But years from now, you may not only want to remember the birthdays, vacations and big accomplishments.
You might want to remember what you always kept in your bag.
The meal everybody loved.
What you watched every Thursday night.
The little things you bought.
What you were thinking about.
What made you laugh.
What everyday life looked like before it changed.
You don't have to wait for something important to happen before you put it in your journal.
Sometimes documenting the ordinary is exactly what makes it worth keeping.
What can you journal today?