Seasonal prompts
New Year journal prompts: look back, pick one small step
The short answer
Good new year journal prompts come in pairs: one looks back at the year you just had, the other turns it into one small step for January. Answer one pair a night, a line each, at a time you already stop, like plugging in your phone. Keep it that small for a week.
In 30 seconds
- Pair each look-back prompt with a look-ahead twin.
- Read back 12 old entries, one per month, in about 10 minutes.
- Turn one answer into a step small enough for this week.
- Use one January prompt a night for the first seven nights.
December 31st, 11:20 pm. Next door, the fireworks have started forty minutes early, and a fresh notebook is open to a page that starts “This year I will”.
Try a smaller sentence: “This week I will, once.”
The forty journal prompts below are built around it. They look back, then forward, and stop at something you could do by Sunday.
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New year journal prompts for the year you just had
Start with the year, since you were there for all of it. One line per prompt is a complete answer.
The groups follow how a year really goes. Some good bits, some hard ones, and a surprising number of Wednesdays.
The good bits
- What’s one ordinary day from this year you’d happily live again?
- Who made this year easier, maybe without knowing it?
- What did you get a little better at?
- What was the best thing you ate this year, and where were you?
- What’s one thing you said yes to that turned out well?
- What made you laugh so hard you had to sit down?
- What did you do more than once, on purpose, because you liked it?
Hard years have good bits too. And good years have hard ones, so skip any group that doesn’t fit yours.
The hard bits
- What took more out of you than you expected?
- What did you carry this year that you could put down now?
- What’s one thing you’d do differently, said the way a friend would say it?
- What did you stop doing that you miss?
- Who helped on a hard week, and do they know?
- What’s one hard day you got through anyway?
The ordinary bits
- What did most of your Wednesdays look like?
- Where did your free hour usually go?
- What did you buy this year that you used almost every day?
- What’s one habit you kept without really trying?
- Which song, show or book kept turning up?
- What did you start, then drop by March?
- What did you learn by accident?
The ordinary group looks dull. But it’s where the year really happened: the bus you took four hundred times, the lunch you packed half asleep, the show you never finished.
Start there.
Answer the prompt you can finish in one line. The big ones can wait for a slow Sunday.
How to read back a year in 10 minutes
The prompts get easier with evidence. If you kept any record this year, a journal, a planner, even your photos, read a sample first.
Pick 12 entries.
One from each month. Take the first page you land on, with no hunting for the best one.
One quick read.
No editing and no explaining. Read it and move on.
Note what repeats.
Write down three things that turn up more than once: a person, a place, a worry, a meal.
Keep one.
Pick the single repeat you’d like more of next year, and write it at the top of a fresh page.
Twelve entries take about ten minutes, unless one of them mentions a wedding and you go looking for the photos, then the video, then the cousin who filmed it sideways.
It happens.
On paper, open each month somewhere near the middle. No journal at all? The photos from around the 15th of each month do the same job, and they’re more honest about the cake.
One entry per month is a big enough sample. Reading everything turns a 10-minute job into a weekend.
We make an iPhone app for this kind of looking back, so we’re biased here. A pen works just as well.
Whichever way you read, keep the three repeats close. They’re the raw material for the next part.
From prompt to one small step
An answer turns into a plan when it has a size and a day. So take one look-back line, find its twin, and shrink it to one step.
| Look back | Look ahead | First small step, as a line |
|---|---|---|
| “What took most of my time?” | “What do I want more time for?” | “Kept 10 minutes free on Sunday.” |
| “Who did I see least?” | “Who do I want to see more?” | “Sent my cousin a hello.” |
| “What did I start and drop?” | “Which one would I restart small?” | “Played guitar for 2 minutes.” |
| “What made an ordinary day good?” | “How do I get more of those?” | “Wrote down one good thing tonight.” |
| “What did I buy and never use?” | “What do I want to save for?” | “Put $1 in the jar.” |
| “What did I learn?” | “What do I want to learn next?” | “10 minutes of Spanish on Saturday.” |
Look at the third column for a second. Every line is about something you did, so lines about doing are the easiest to write. You were there five minutes ago.
That column is how small goals work too: one step you can see, small enough for a bad week in January.
Size the step for your worst week in January.
Yumemira, the small-steps journal for iPhone, is built around that third column. You pick one goal, like reading or walking, and each day gives you one step sized for today.
- Do the step, then tap Mark done.
- Tap Say how it went while it’s fresh.
- Write the line, like the ones in the table.
On paper, it’s the same move with a pencil. Write the step at the top of January’s first page, do it, then add one line underneath about how it went.
Look-ahead prompts for the new year
The table’s middle column could use more twins, so here are thirteen. They’re smaller than feels serious, so you’ll still like them on the 9th.
Small things to start
- What’s one thing you’d like to do a little of, most days?
- What would the 2-minute version of that look like?
- Which day of your week usually has ten spare minutes?
- What could you leave out the night before, ready to go?
- What would make next December’s look-back fun to read?
- What’s one thing you keep saying “one day” about?
- What’s one thing you’d like to do less of, starting this week?
Some of the best answers here involve other people, so they get a group of their own.
People and places
- Who do you want to see more of this year?
- Who’s one person you could message this week, just to say hello?
- Where’s a place near you that you’ve walked past but never entered?
- What could you cook for someone, even if it’s only toast?
- Who would you like to thank before January ends?
- What could you learn from someone you already know?
If you’d rather start from a ready-made list, these small new year resolutions are sized the same way.
January journal prompts for the first week
The first week of January comes with a lot of advice. These seven prompts are smaller: one per night, from the 1st to the 7th.
One a night, January 1 to 7
- January 1: What’s one thing from last year you want to keep?
- January 2: What’s the smallest version of what you want this year?
- January 3: Where in your day could that small thing fit?
- January 4: What did you do today that you’d like to repeat?
- January 5: Who did you talk to today, and what did they say?
- January 6: What can you leave ready for tomorrow morning?
- January 7: Read the week’s six lines. Which one surprises you?
You don’t need to start on the 1st, though. A first line on the 9th still lands in January.
And the calendar won’t notice.
| If your first day was… | Write something like… |
|---|---|
| Slow and sleepy | “Slept late. Ate leftovers. Good start.” |
| Busy already | “Back at work. One line, as promised.” |
| Completely ordinary | “New year, same mug. Fine by me.” |
| Hopeful | “Got a library card. Week one.” |
| Hard | “Hard start. Writing it down anyway.” |
| A week late | “Starting on the 9th. Still January.” |
Prompt 25 has a longer cousin, if one line feels too short for the occasion: these letter to future self prompts work as a note you open next December.
Back on December 31st, the fireworks next door are nearly done and the page still says “This year I will”. There’s room under it for one more line.
Write “This week I will, once,” and finish the sentence.
Questions people ask
What should I write in my journal for the new year?
Write one look-back line and one look-ahead line, such as “What took most of my time this year?” and “What do I want more time for?” Then add one small step you could do this week, and stop there.
How do you reflect on the past year?
Read a sample, not everything: one entry, photo or calendar page from each month. Write down three things that repeat, then pick one you’d like more of next year. It takes about ten minutes, and a pen is the only tool.
What are good January journal prompts?
Small ones you can answer in a line, like “What’s one thing from last year I want to keep?” or “Where in my day could a small step fit?” One prompt a night for the first week is a good pace.
How do I start a new journal on January 1st?
Write the date and one true line about the day, even if the day was leftovers and a nap. If you start on January 9th instead, write the 9th. A new journal can begin on any date of the year.
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