Journaling for Busy People: Five Minutes and a Few Good Prompts

Most advice about journaling assumes you have a quiet hour, a candle and a lovely notebook. Most people have none of these. They have a few minutes between the school run and the first email, or at the end of a long day when their head is still full.

The good news is that a few minutes is enough to be useful. Journaling is simply writing things down to see them more clearly. You do not need to do it well, and nobody else needs to read it.

Writing and wellbeing: the evidence

The best-known research on writing and wellbeing comes from the psychologist James Pennebaker. In a 1986 study with Sandra Beall, published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, university students wrote for 15 minutes on four consecutive days. Some wrote about traumatic or upsetting experiences; others wrote about trivial topics. In the months that followed, the students who had written about both the facts and the feelings of difficult experiences visited the university health centre less often.

Many studies have followed. Joanne Frattaroli’s 2006 meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin pooled 146 randomised studies and found a positive effect of this kind of writing, but a small one. That is a fair summary of where the evidence sits: writing can help, modestly, for many people. It is not a cure, and it does not replace support when you need it.

Pennebaker and Beall also found that writing about painful experiences could make people feel worse in the short term, even when it helped later. It is worth knowing that before you start. Everyday journaling does not have to go anywhere near that territory.

Make it small enough to keep

The usual reason journaling fails is that it becomes another task you are behind on. A few things help:

• Set a limit, such as five minutes or half a page, and stop there.
• Tie it to something you already do: the first cup of tea, the bus home, just before bed.
• Use whatever is to hand. A notes app works. So does the back of a planner.
• Miss days without guilt. A journal is not a streak to protect.

Prompts for when you have five minutes

Pick one. You do not need to answer all of them, and you do not need to write in full sentences.

For the morning

• What is the one thing that would make today feel worthwhile?
• What am I worried about, and is any of it in my control today?
• Who do I need to be patient with today, including myself?

For the end of the day

• What went better than I expected?
• What drained me, and what gave me energy?
• What did I learn, about the work or about myself?
• What can I leave until tomorrow?

For when your head is full

• Write everything that is on your mind for three minutes, without stopping or organising it. Then circle the one item that matters most.
• If a friend described this situation to me, what would I tell them?
• What would “good enough” look like here?

For a harder week

• What has been hard, in plain words?
• What helped, even a little?
• Who could I talk to about this?

If you prefer something even shorter, the five-minute evening reflection is a simple structured version, and gratitude without forcing it looks at noticing good things without pretending everything is fine.

When writing is not the answer

Some days you will not want to write. That is fine. A walk can do some of the same work of sorting your thoughts, and walking as thinking time explains why.

If you find that writing keeps bringing up distressing memories, or your mood stays low for weeks, talk to your GP. In England you can refer yourself to NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression. If you are in crisis, call 999 or contact Samaritans on 116 123, any time of day.

Further reading

• Frattaroli, J. (2006). Experimental disclosure and its moderators: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(6), 823-865.
• Pennebaker, J. W. and Beall, S. K. (1986). Confronting a traumatic event: toward an understanding of inhibition and disease. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95(3), 274-281.
• Pennebaker, J. W. and Smyth, J. M. (2016). Opening Up by Writing It Down (3rd edition). Guilford Press.
• NHS. NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression. nhs.uk.

Cover image: Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash.