Hello hello, writers and readers! If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you might know that I’m a fervent journal-er. I’ve been journaling every night since spring 2017, and I’ve loved it enough to keep the practice going.

And over the years, I’ve tried three core types of journaling:

1. bullet journaling
2. daily log journaling
3. deep thought journaling

These are what we’re going to go over today!

This list is my own personal experience with these types of journaling, and all the following pictures are from my own journals.

1. BULLET JOURNALING

Bullet journaling is trending right now, so I’m willing to bet you’ve at least heard of it. It’s an artsy way, even for non-artists, to organize and design their journals.

WHAT I LIKED:

I enjoyed bullet journaling for the artistic side of it. I didn’t go all-out like some do, but I liked making layouts and monthly cover pages in my regular journal. I also had a mood-tracker for several months, and once I went as far as a habit-tracker.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

I wasn’t a fan of the time it took to design the layouts. It isn’t something I would realistically do daily, or even weekly. I fell out of the habit once I got busier, and didn’t have much of a desire to pick it up again.

SHOULD YOU TRY IT?

If you’re artistic, or feel the need to organize your habits, I would recommend bullet journaling to you. To get started, I suggest doing a Pinterest search for, “bullet journal layout,” or, “bullet journal ideas.”

3. DAILY LOG JOURNALING

Daily log journaling is exactly how it sounds: you write about the events of your day.

WHAT I LIKED:

It was fast and simple. Usually I opened with, “today was [emotion],” then a list of things I did that day that corresponded with that emotion.

It was also great to look back on old journaling pages to see what I was up to back then; it was like looking through a photo album.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

It wasn’t beneficial. The point of journaling is to improve your own mental wellbeing, and this “today was good” style of journaling wasn’t fulfilling in any way.

SHOULD YOU TRY IT?

If you decide to try this type of journaling, please try to do it better than I did! I recommend combining it with one of the other types in this list; otherwise, it wouldn’t be fulfilling to you.

3. DEEP JOURNALING

Deep journaling is the most beneficial to your mental health. You write about your feelings and problems with honesty, and through putting it all on the page, it shifts things into perspective.

WHAT I LIKED:

This has been, so far, my favorite. I like it because it helps me process my feelings, something that’s otherwise difficult for me, as well as uncovers emotions that I might have been subconsciously covering. It also pairs well with prayer!

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

It takes a big longer to pour your feelings on a page than it does to write about your day; but honestly, I don’t mind the extra time. It’s worth it. Overall, there isn’t much I dislike about deep journaling.

SHOULD YOU TRY IT?

Yes! Yes! Yes! I 100% recommend this type of journaling to everyone.

If you decide to try it, here’s a list of prompts that help me if I can’t figure out what to write about:

OVERALL?

As a whole, my personal favorite type of journaling listed here is deep journaling. But don’t knock the others just based on my opinion: if one, or all, of these sound interesting to you, go for it! It takes some trial and error.

Journaling isn’t a perfect activity. Odds are, no matter what you write, you’ll probably look back in a few years and cringe. Which is okay: that just means you’ve grown.

Have you tried any of these? What were your thoughts? Share below!

As always: happy writing.