How to keep up your journal beyond the first few weeks

A new notebook feels like a promise. In the first week you write every evening, with nice pens and a little sticker in the corner. Then a busy week comes along, an evening when you're too tired, and suddenly there are twelve empty pages. Sound familiar? You're not the only one. The good news is that keeping it up has less to do with discipline than you'd think, and more to do with how you set it up.

Why so many people stop after a few weeks

Spend a while around people who journal and you hear the same reasons again and again. Hardly any of them have to do with laziness.

• The bar is set too high. You see other people's beautiful spreads and want the same. But a page like that takes an hour, and you don't have that hour every day.
• Setting it up is already work. If you have to draw a whole month before anything goes in, you're tired before the actual writing starts.
• An empty page feels like failure. After a few missed days you don't dare open the book any more, because you can see the gaps.
• There isn't something to tell every day. Not every Tuesday is special, and then filling a whole page feels forced.
• The book is out of sight. In a bag or a drawer, you simply forget about it.
• You're not quite sure why you're doing it. Without a reason, it's easy to stop as soon as things get a bit hard.

Have a look back through old, half-filled books. What did you enjoy writing, when did you stop, what felt like a chore? That's not proof that you can't do it. It's information about what suits you.

Small habits: three lines or one photo

The biggest step is to make it the smallest. Agree with yourself on something so small that you can manage it even on a bad day.

A few examples:

• three lines: what you did, how you felt, one thing to remember
• one sentence, for example something your child said or what you ate
• stick in one photo or card, with the date next to it
• a list of three things that made you happy
• just a keyword or a little doodle if that's really all you can do

Link it to something you already do every day. After your morning coffee, before you go to sleep, on the train. Keep your journal somewhere you can see it: on your bedside table or lying open on your desk, not in a cupboard.

Also choose a format that fits how much you write. A page a day can feel stifling if you don't write much, because all that white space stares back at you. A weekly layout or a book without pre-printed dates gives you more breathing room. If you write the date yourself, you'll never leave an empty page behind when you skip a day.

A tip from people who've been doing it for years: set up a few pages in advance, say for two weeks. Then you don't have to draw something first every day before you can start. But don't set up the whole book in one go. Your style changes, and then you're stuck with pages you no longer want.

What to do with empty days or missed weeks

Leave them empty. That really is the most important advice. Catching up feels responsible, but if you try to clear a ten-day backlog, you'll spend an evening writing about things that are already hazy. Afterwards the book feels heavier than ever.

Do this instead:

• Just start from today. Write down the date and carry on.
• If you'd still like to mark the gap, write one sentence: ‘Busy weeks, lots of work, not much sleep.’ That's a memory too.
• If something important happened during that time, write down just that.
• Stick a card or receipt from that period in the empty space, without any text.

Empty days are part of real life. When you leaf back through later, you won't see the gaps. You'll see what is there.

Does it have to be every day?

No. Writing every day works well for some people, because it becomes a fixed ritual. For others, it's exactly the rule that makes them give up.

You could also choose:

• a few times a week, on set evenings
• one moment at the weekend when you look back on the week
• writing only when there's something you want to keep

What matters is that you don't stop. Someone who writes three times a week and keeps it up for a year has a much fuller book than someone who wrote every day for a month and then gave up. A journal that's sometimes missing is still a journal that carries on.

If you want to keep track, you can take a quick look back at the end of the week: what went well, what fell by the wayside, what will you take with you into next week? Five minutes is enough.

Decorating as a reward, not an obligation

Stickers, washi tape (decorative paper tape), stamps and a bit of colour make a journal a joy to open. But as soon as decorating becomes a condition for being allowed to write, it turns into a hurdle.

A few ways to keep it light:

• Write first, decorate later. The words are the journal, the rest is extra.
• On a busy day, one sticker is enough to make the page feel finished.
• Stick things in rather than drawing them. A sticker sheet, a strip of tape or a cut-out picture takes seconds.
• Keep a small pouch to hand with tape, stickers and a glue stick, so you don't have to get out your whole stash first.
• Save the bigger sticking sessions for a quiet moment, for example once a week or on a Sunday afternoon.

If you like, pick one colour per month for your pens and tape. That way the book still looks cohesive without you having to think about it every day.

And don't compare yourself with what you see online. That's where the most beautiful pages are, not the ordinary Tuesdays. Your journal doesn't have to be a work of art. It's yours, for you.

Starting again without guilt

Maybe your journal has been sitting untouched for months. Then it's very tempting to buy a new book and start with a clean slate. You can, but you don't have to.

You can also simply carry on in the book you have. Open it at the next empty page, write down the date and begin. If you want to mention it, write one sentence about why you were away. Then carry on as if nothing's happened. Because nothing has.

A few things that help with a fresh start:

• Think again about why you write. To keep memories, to clear your head, to give your children something later on? That reason will help you come back when things get hard again.
• Make the promise smaller than last time. If every day didn't work, try three times a week.
• Try a different format. Perhaps a weekly planner, a small notebook for your bag or, on the contrary, a bigger book with room for sticking things in suits you better.
• Agree on a short trial period, for example two weeks or a month. Then see whether it's working, and adjust it.

Keeping it up doesn't mean you never stop. It means you keep coming back. Every time you open the book again, you've already kept it up.