Journaling sounds like one activity, but people who keep a journal for years are often doing quite different things. One person writes three messy pages before breakfast, another writes one line of thanks at night, a third keeps nothing but quotes and dreams. All of them are journaling. The type of journaling you choose decides what you write, how long it takes, and whether the habit survives its first month.
Quick answer
The main types of journaling are daily journaling, freewriting, morning pages, gratitude, reflective prompts, expressive writing, bullet journaling, dream journaling, commonplace books, reading journals, shadow work and art or junk journals. Choose by what you want from it: clearing your head, remembering, planning, processing feelings, or making something.
The 12 types of journaling at a glance
| Type | What you write | Typical time | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily journal | What happened and what you made of it | 5–15 min | Anyone who wants a record |
| Freewriting | Whatever comes, without stopping | 10 min | Overthinkers, writers |
| Morning pages | Three unedited pages, first thing | 20–30 min | Creative work, busy minds |
| Gratitude journal | A few specific good things | 5 min | Low mood, evening routine |
| Reflective / prompt journal | Answers to one question | 10 min | People who freeze at a blank page |
| Expressive writing | A difficult experience, in depth | 15–20 min | Processing a specific event |
| Bullet journal | Tasks, events, notes in bullets | 10 min a day | Planners, list-makers |
| Dream journal | Fragments of last night's dreams | 5 min | Vivid dreamers |
| Commonplace book | Quotes and ideas from elsewhere | As needed | Readers, students |
| Reading journal | Notes and reactions to books | 10 min per book | Readers who forget plots |
| Shadow work journal | Reactions, patterns, projections | 15–20 min | Experienced journalers |
| Art or junk journal | Images, collage, short captions | 20+ min | Visual thinkers |
1. Daily journal
The classic form: a dated entry about the day. It's the closest thing to a diary, with one difference worth knowing, which we cover in diary vs journal: a journal usually adds reflection on top of the record. A good daily entry has three parts, what happened, what you thought about one of those things, and what's still open.
Who it suits: anyone who wants to look back on a year and remember it. It's the default for good reason.
2. Freewriting
Set a timer, usually ten minutes, and write without stopping, correcting or rereading. If nothing comes, write "nothing comes" until something does. The method was popularised by writing teacher Peter Elbow, and it works because it separates producing words from judging them. Our full guide to freewriting covers the variations.
Who it suits: people whose inner editor kills every entry before it starts, and anyone who writes for work.
3. Morning pages and stream of consciousness
Morning pages come from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way (1992): three pages written by hand first thing in the morning, about anything at all, never reread right away. They're a longer, daily form of freewriting. The related literary technique, writing thoughts in the order they arrive, is explained in our piece on stream of consciousness writing.
Who it suits: creative people, and anyone who wakes up with a crowded head. The time cost is real, around 20 to 30 minutes by hand.
4. Gratitude journal
A short list of specific good things. The research-backed version is less frequent and more detailed than most people expect: UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center suggests up to five items, three times a week, with depth over breadth.
Who it suits: people who want a five-minute evening routine, and anyone whose days feel like a list of problems. Our gratitude journal guide explains how to keep it from going stale.
5. Reflective or prompt journal
You answer one question per entry: about a decision, a person, a pattern. Prompts work by narrowing the blank page until the first line is obvious. Start with our self-reflection journal prompts, or the broader list of 120 prompts sorted by mood.
Who it suits: people who sit down willing to write and then can't think what about.
6. Expressive writing
The most studied type of journaling. Participants write about a stressful or emotional experience, exploring both what happened and how they feel about it. A review in Advances in Psychiatric Treatment by Baikie and Wilhelm describes the standard protocol as 15–20 minutes on 3–5 occasions, and the authors discuss its use as a therapeutic tool alongside standard treatment.
A 2022 systematic review of 20 randomised trials in Family Medicine and Community Health found about a 5% greater reduction in symptom scores in journaling groups than in controls, and suggested journaling as an adjunct to evidence-based care rather than a replacement for it. Expressive writing can stir up hard feelings at first. For anything heavier than an ordinary bad week, a licensed therapist is the right partner for this kind of writing.
Who it suits: someone working through a specific event, in short bursts rather than every day.
7. Bullet journal
Ryder Carroll's system turns a notebook into a planner and log in one, using short bullets with symbols for tasks, events and notes. It is the most structured type of journaling on this list. Start with how to start a bullet journal, then browse our bullet journal ideas for spreads.
Who it suits: list-makers who want their to-dos and their reflections in the same place.
8. Dream journal
Kept by the bed and written in the first minutes after waking, because dreams fade fast. Fragments count; a single image is a valid entry. Our dream journal guide covers recall techniques.
Who it suits: vivid dreamers, and anyone curious about recurring themes in their sleep.
9. Commonplace book
A collection of quotes, passages and ideas copied from what you read, hear and watch, usually with a line of your own response. It's one of the oldest types of journals, kept by scholars and writers for centuries. See what a commonplace book is and how to keep one.
Who it suits: readers and students who want to remember ideas, not just finish books.
10. Reading journal
Narrower than a commonplace book: notes on each book, your reactions, favourite lines, and a verdict. Our reading journal ideas are built around actually remembering what you read.
Who it suits: people who read a lot and retain little, which is most of us.
11. Shadow work journal
Based loosely on Carl Jung's idea of the shadow, the parts of yourself you'd rather not see. Entries examine strong reactions, envy, and repeated patterns. It's demanding, so it's best tried once journaling is already a habit. Our shadow work journal guide includes prompts and limits.
Who it suits: experienced journalers who want to go deeper, with support from a therapist for anything painful.
12. Art or junk journal
Images carry the entry: sketches, paint, collage, ticket stubs, envelopes turned into pockets. A junk journal is built from paper that would otherwise be thrown away. Our list of 40 journal ideas includes art journal pages that need no drawing skill.
Who it suits: visual thinkers, and anyone for whom writing paragraphs feels like homework.
Other journaling methods worth knowing
A few more styles that are smaller in scope but useful as add-ons:
- Brain dump: a fast list of every task and worry, to clear your head before sleep or work. See our guide to the brain dump.
- Unsent letters: writing to someone you won't send it to, to say something fully once.
- One line a day: a single sentence per day, often in a five-year format so you see the same date across years.
- Letter to your future self: a once-a-year entry, sealed until a set date.
- Voice journaling: speaking an entry instead of writing it, useful on days typing feels like work.
- 3-3-3 method: three things that happened, three things you felt, three things to carry into tomorrow.
How to choose a type of journaling
Choose by the job you want the journal to do, then check it against the time you actually have.
- To clear your head: freewriting, morning pages or a brain dump.
- To remember your life: a daily journal, one line a day, or an art journal.
- To feel better about ordinary days: a gratitude journal, kept a few times a week.
- To work through something specific: expressive writing in short bursts, with professional support where it's heavy.
- To get organised: a bullet journal.
- To learn from what you read: a commonplace book or reading journal.
Then apply a time check. If you have five minutes, a 20-minute style will last a week. Matching the method to a realistic slot matters more than finding the "right" type.
Combining types without three notebooks
Most people who journal for years end up mixing styles, and the usual failure is having a separate notebook for each. Three journals means three decisions about which one to open, and usually none gets opened.
A simpler structure is one place, split by page. This is how we designed 3 Pages Daily: each day opens to three dated pages. Page one can be a ten-minute freewrite, page two a few lines of gratitude, page three a dream or a reading note when there is one. Voice entries transcribe as you speak in Chrome or Safari 14.1+, which helps on days when a dream or a brain dump is faster said than typed. On iPhone, iPad and Mac, the app keeps entries behind a four-digit passcode, which matters most for expressive writing and shadow work.
Pick one and give it two weeks
Every type of journaling here works for someone, and none works for everyone. Pick the one that matches what you want and the time you have, try it for two weeks, and then adjust. Switching types is normal, and often the sign that the habit is working.
When the type is settled and the page is still blank, our guide to what to write in a journal helps with the actual words.
Eleanor Price
The ordinary parts of life are often the ones most worth remembering, reflecting on, and passing down.
Frequently asked questions
A dream journal is a notebook kept by the bed for writing down dreams as soon as you wake, before they fade. Entries are usually fragments: images, people, places, feelings, written in the present tense. Over weeks, recurring symbols and themes become visible, and regular recording also tends to make dreams easier to remember in the first place.
It's a fixed three-part entry: three things that happened, three things you felt about them, and three things you want to carry into tomorrow. The nine lines give the entry a clear finish, which makes it a good default on days when choosing what to write is itself the obstacle. It works inside almost any type of journal.
Several. Expressive writing, studied by James Pennebaker since the 1980s, asks people to write about difficult experiences for 15 to 20 minutes over a few sessions. Cognitive behavioural therapy uses written thought records, and narrative therapy uses writing to reframe personal stories. In clinical settings journaling supports treatment rather than replacing it, and a licensed professional guides how it's used.
A bullet journal is a notebook system created by designer Ryder Carroll that combines planning and journaling. Entries are written as short bullets marked with symbols for tasks, events and notes, a practice called rapid logging. An index, a future log and monthly spreads organise the notebook, and unfinished tasks are rewritten forward by hand each month.
The main ones are daily journaling, freewriting, morning pages, gratitude journaling, reflective or prompt journaling, expressive writing, bullet journaling, dream journaling, commonplace books, reading journals, shadow work journals and art or junk journals. They differ mostly in what triggers the entry: the day itself, a question, a feeling, a dream, or something you read.
A short daily journal or the 3-3-3 method. Both have a clear structure and a natural end point, so the first entries are easy to finish. Freewriting suits beginners who feel overwhelmed by choice, because the only rule is to keep the pen moving. Specialised styles like shadow work are better tried after a few weeks of regular writing.
Yes, and most long-term journalers do. A common mix is a few minutes of freewriting followed by a gratitude line, with a dream or reading entry added when there is one. Keeping everything in one place, divided by page rather than by notebook, makes a combination easier to sustain than three separate journals.
