Do a google search and you will find plenty of information on why journaling is important to to do. Some of the most influential people in the world journal. I tried and failed many times to successfully journal on a regular basis.

That is until I realized that the key is to make it a habit.

Heres a step by step guide to make journaling a habit that will stick:

Step 1 – Set a reminder on your phone. You can use any app for this but I prefer alarmed.

Step 2 – Make a template for your daily journal. As of now I’m using and app called text expander to save my template. I write in an app called Day One. I’ll show you a little more on this below.

Step 3 – Lastly you need to find a peaceful time that you sit undistracted and write.

Let’s break this down a little more:

The alarm is essential to remind you to journal. Think about when you can journal and want to journal and set the reminder to remind you at or a little before that time. This is critical because if you can’t act on the reminder then it doesn’t matter.

Having a good journal template is key so you have some structure to your entries. You can modify it and write free form later on but when starting out I found a template helped me to get down what’s important. And even now I just use the template most of the time .

TextExpander  is a very nice app that works with some apps. You need to check the website to confirm which apps it will work with. You are making what TextExpander calls a snippet. This really can be anything that you type often. Then you make an abbreviation for the snippet. When you are in another app you type the abbreviation and that text will expand into what ever you have saved in the snippet. This is very useful for many different applications.

My journal template is simple and I break it down into 3 areas:

• Reflection
• Action
• Milestones

Under reflection I record what I did and how I felt about the previous day. In the action area I look ahead to the day at hand and think about what I want to accomplish. I like to record milestones that I feel are significant. Not everyday has a milestone mind you and this is a l
different than just reflecting on my previous day.

Lastly you need a quiet place to journal free of distraction. It’s best to coordinate your reminder so that can be in the proper place and have your reminder go off. I like to set mine a little sooner than my normal time to journal so I can prepare to journal.

I’m using Day One right now to journal it meets all my requirements but really you could use most anything to record your thoughts – Evernote, Word etc.

This is what I look for in a journaling app:

Export – You must be able to export you entries in a PDF format. This allows you to archive and search the entires for later reference. If the company that supports the app you are using decides to go in a different direction and stops supporting the app at least you have your entries.

Weather/Time/Date – I like to keep track of this data and most apps have this built in.

Tags – I tag entries especially important ones. Sometimes when doing a yearly review I will go through my tags. I have tags such as lessons learned, think further on and goals.

This has helped me to journal on a regular basis. What do you use to keep you journaling?