How to get back into journaling after a break (start again today)

How to get back into journaling without catching up

Coming back can feel like it needs an explanation. Where did April go?

It doesn’t need one. Write about today, and only today. The next entry is simply the next one, whatever date sits above it.

The March page and tonight’s line can sit side by side with nothing between them. Your camera roll does this all the time, with a beach photo from summer sitting right next to a blurry picture of tonight’s dinner.

That’s allowed.

This is the method from how to start journaling, used on a harder night. It’s also what keeps how to daily journal simple on ordinary weeks: one line about one day, then stop.

Tonight’s entry only has to cover tonight.

Your first line back, by how long it’s been

The size of the gap changes your first line a little. Only a little.

Look at the right column. Every item in it makes the first night longer, and a long first night is the one you’ll put off.

Old pages are worth reading. But save them for night three, after two new lines, so the rereading doesn’t replace the writing.

What to do with the empty pages

If your journal has dated pages, the gap is easy to see. A whole run of blank days sits between March and tonight, looking like homework.

You have three fair choices:

• Leave them blank and write on today’s page.
• Write one line across the gap, like “Took a break.”, and carry on.
• Start a new notebook, and keep the old one on the shelf.

Pick one and move on. None of them changes what you write tonight.

Choose whichever gets you to tonight’s line fastest.

On a phone it’s simpler. There are no blank pages, just a jump between two dates in a list.

Three rules for starting again

One line back is a start. These rules are for the nights after it.

1. 1

   No catching up.

   Don’t fill in the months you skipped, not even as a summary. If something from the gap still matters, it’ll turn up in a line about today.

2. 2

   One line for seven days.

   Keep each entry to one line for the first week, even when you’d like more. A long first week makes the notebook heavy enough to put down again.

3. 3

   Same place in your day.

   Tie the line to something you already do daily, like setting tomorrow’s alarm or taking off your work shoes, whatever time that is.

For the first week, stop after one line.

We make Yumemira, the small-steps goal journal for iPhone, so we’re not neutral here. A pen works just as well for all three rules.

The lines worth keeping are often about something you did, so the app starts there. You pick something you want, take one small step a day, and Mira cheers when you tap Mark done.

Then Say how it went lets you add the line while it’s fresh.

And a gap doesn’t undo anything. Days shown up never go down, and rest days are built in.

For plain writing, there’s a journal that asks one question each time you open a new entry. On paper, the same idea works too: water the plant, then write the line about it.

If the one-line rule sounds familiar, it’s close to micro journaling with a seven-day timer on it. In week two, you can write as much as you like.

If you keep stopping and starting

Waiting for a Monday to begin again is a known pattern.

Three Wharton researchers called it the fresh start effect (opens in a new tab). In their data, people started on goals more often right after dates like a new week, a new month or a birthday.

That’s useful to know. But it also means you can wait a long time for the right Monday, while the notebook sits on the shelf under a library book and the pen slowly dries out in the drawer.

Any date at the top of a fresh page can do that job. Tonight’s included.

If the pattern is stop, start, stop, the first thing to check is the size of the line. A line that only fits a good evening will stop on the next bad one.

So on the night after a skip, the smallest line you have is the right one. “Late. Bed.” will do.

Tonight, before you set your alarm, open to the page after 14 March. Write the date and one thing from today.

That’s the text back, and it can be short.