How to Journal When You Don't Like Writing?
written by Ana
posted on Oct 22, 2022
From all over the Internet you’ve been told to start journaling because it can improve your life. The benefits of this writing practice start from managing stress and anxiety to helping you to achieve your goals.
So you are eager to try it out, but here’s a problem – you actually hate writing! What can you do about it?
Although it’s true that keeping a journal entails structured writing, that’s what actually makes it different from stream-of-consciousness writing techniques like Morning Pages, there are other ways to get all the benefits of journaling without writing!
7 Ways to Journal if You Hate Writing
1. Speak out loud if you don’t like writing
Recording your voice can be a great alternative to writing in a journal. It takes less time and you can actually do it as soon as something comes up to your mind when pen and paper are not around.
Just grab your phone and start rambling on about your day! Adri and I do it all the time and send each other audio messages with our ideas on WhatsApp.
It is also easy to come back to and listen to them when you want.
Alternatively, if you want to keep your voice recordings more organised, you can use an audio recording device or a default app on your phone.
If you use iPhone, then you should have the ‘Voice Memos’ app by default on your phone and you can record audio that will be saved here from any Apple device.
If you are on Android, you will have the app called ‘Audio Recorder’ on your phone already or you can install Google’s ‘Recorder’ app that will be synched across your other devices.
There are also recording apps for audio journaling that you can use:
You might be wondering if audio journaling is as effective as writing and I was asking the same question! To find the answer I decided to do an experiment and tried audio journaling for a month to see how it compares to writing in a journal that I have been doing for years. You can check out what I found in this blog post.
2. Instead of writing, let yourself be creative!
If you don’t consider yourself artistic, it doesn’t mean that you can’t get creative. If writing down what’s going on is too boring, you can log in your life through illustrations. Whether you enjoy walking in nature every day or listen to music and want to record how you feel in a moment, a great way is to try drawing.
Many people enjoy the relaxing practice of nature journaling where you draw in response to nature. It can improve your knowledge or various animals and plants as well as calm your mind down while increasing your attention to detail and appreciation of beauty.
A good start would be reading a nature journal story by Jules Woolford where she describes how nature journaling has become an integral part of her life.
If you are fascinated by birds, like to observe them and would like to draw then in your nature journal, but don’t know how, you might want to join a sketch and paint class on Skillshare where you will learn how to draw realistic birds in your nature journal.
3. Journal your life in photos!
Whether you’re a current student or your job revolves around writing all the time, you might not be bothered to write even for 5 minutes in your journal.
And it’s totally fine!
In fact, creative activities can help your brain to cope with emotions.
In recent research by UCL in partnership with BBC Arts, it was found that creative pastime can help us to manage our mood and boost well-being.
Trying out a new creative activity can help you to avoid stress, gives your mind space to reevaluate problems in your life and make plans.
So you can try to capture the moments in your life in pictures and make photo collages and describe in a few words how you felt that day. If you prefer to keep things digitally, you could organise the photos that you took in folders by moments or emotions.
4. Create travel books
If you want to keep a journal but don’t want to write about your thoughts or feelings, a great alternative is to start a travel book. It’s one of the most popular types of journals and helps you not only to learn about yourself but the world around you.
In a travel book, you can glue in your flight tickets, photos of yourself in a new place, maps, postcards from the trip and everything to remind you of all these new experiences.
If you feel like writing anything about it, you could note down some facts about the place and then reflect on your new knowledge.
To get a headstart with the travel journal, you can read this article.
5. Try out scrapbooking journaling
If you think that a picture is worth a thousand words, you can try to combine scrapbooking with journaling and enjoy this fun and creative activity!
That way you can document your memories and mementos not only with words but also by adding your personal touch to it. You can choose a theme and a color palette for the event you want to document in words and then add designs and decorations.
Some people like to scrapbook about each year of their lives or doing it by seasons. I personally like to do a book for my friendships, relationship or university years to see what I have been up to and reflect on how I have changed.
6. You can keep a coloring journal!
A great alternative for anyone who is tired of writing or doesn’t like being confronted by a blank page is to try out a coloring journal. It’s essentially a coloring book with thought-provoking prompts.
Colouring in reflection prompts or filling shapes on a page with color can open up the creative parts of your brain and help you to relax.
There are a ton of coloring journals to choose from, I like ones that have full pictures to color on one side and journaling area on the other side. Some of them also have inspirational quotes.
I got Adriana this Wellbeing Journal for her birthday this year and she LOVES it! It was developed in partnership with Mind, the mental health charity in the UK, so all royalties from the sale of this book are donated to Mind.
7. Get a piece of paper and start doodling!
Does it happen to you sometimes that when you start writing about something, you get bored, and instead of producing sentences you end up drawing patterns or symbols?
That’s known as doodling!
When your attention is occupied or you are thinking about something else, you can let your thoughts and ideas out in a form of visual notes, symbols or words on paper. That can also count as journaling!
Do you like to write in your journal, draw or keep a voice diary? Let us know in the comments section down below!
Want more journaling tips, tricks, and ideas? Follow us on Pinterest!
Happy Journaling:)
With better awareness, better results
A&A
P.S. Save this blog post to Wellbeing and Mindfulness Board on Pinterest so you can always come back to this blog post later!
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