How to Keep a Simple Wellbeing Journal

A wellbeing journal is a place to note, briefly and regularly, how your days are going: what you did, how you felt, what helped. It can be three lines on the back of an envelope. This article offers four templates to choose between and is frank about what keeping one can and cannot do.

What a journal is good for, and what the evidence says

The practical uses are modest and real. Notes written on the day are more reliable than memory a fortnight later. A few weeks of entries can show patterns you would not otherwise see, such as which days are always rushed. And a record gives you something concrete to bring to a conversation with a doctor, a manager or a partner.

Claims that journalling improves mental or physical health need more care. A 2025 systematic review in the journal PLOS One looked at 51 studies of positive writing exercises, such as gratitude notes and writing about a hoped-for future, in adults without a diagnosed condition. It found the most consistent benefits for wellbeing and positive feelings such as optimism. Results for stress, anxiety and physical health were mixed. The reviewers rated 32 of the 51 studies as poor quality and none as good, and noted that the studies were largely carried out in Western countries and with university samples.

In short, there are some encouraging findings, from research with real weaknesses. Health services do suggest simple written exercises as self-help: the NHS in England and Ireland’s Health Service Executive both mention noting three things that went well or that you are grateful for at the end of the day. Neither presents it as treatment. A fair way to hold all this: a journal is a tool for organising and noticing. If it also makes you feel better, good. That outcome is not promised.

Four templates

Pick the one that sounds least like homework. Each takes under five minutes.

1. The three-line day

The lightest version. One line each:

• Did: the main thing that filled the day.
• Felt: one or two words.
• Tomorrow: one thing you want to happen.

2. Three things that went well

This is the exercise the NHS and Ireland’s health service describe. At the end of the day, write three things that went well or that you are grateful for. They can be small: a bus that came on time, a good sandwich, a message from a friend. Gratitude writing was one of the two techniques for which the review above found the most consistent results, with the caveats already given.

If a day truly had nothing good in it, write that. The journal is yours and does not need to be cheerful.

3. The daily grid

For people who prefer ticking boxes to writing sentences. Draw a table for the week and fill in one row a day. Choose your own columns; these are common ones.

The numbers are personal shorthand, not a clinical scale, and a low score on one day means little by itself. If sleep is your main interest, a simple sleep diary is a more focused version of the same idea.

4. The weekly review

For people who will not write daily. Once a week, answer four questions:

1. What took most of my time this week?
2. What gave me energy, and what drained it?
3. What did I keep putting off?
4. What is one thing I would change about next week?

The last answer feeds directly into planning; see making a realistic plan for a less rushed week.

Making it easy to keep

The University of Rochester Medical Center, a US academic medical centre, gives straightforward advice on starting: set aside a little time each day, keep pen and paper or a phone to hand, write or draw whatever feels right without worrying about spelling, and remember the journal is private unless you choose to share it.

Some additions from experience of what makes any routine last:

• Fix the time and place. By the kettle in the morning, or on the bedside table at night.
• Set a ceiling, not a minimum. “No more than five minutes” is easier to start than “at least a page”.
• Miss days without ceremony. Carry on from today. Do not fill in the gaps from memory.
• Change template if the first one becomes a chore.

The same approach to starting small is set out in building a small habit.

Reading it back

Once a month, read the entries through and look for repeats, not for single bad days. Useful questions: Which days of the week look alike? What comes before the better days? Is there something I have written “tomorrow” about five times?

Be cautious about cause and effect. If low-mood days follow short nights in your notes, that is a pattern worth noticing and perhaps testing gently, not proof of what causes what.

If you are seeing a health professional, a short summary of the journal can help you describe what has been happening and for how long. How to prepare for a medical appointment explains how to turn notes into a few clear points.

When a journal is not the right tool

Writing does not suit everyone. If going over the day leaves you dwelling on problems and feeling worse, it is fine to switch to a plainer template, such as the grid, or to stop.