Journal prompts for beginners are a simple and fun way to get started with any kind of journaling. Whichever type of journaling you’re interested in, whether it’s bujo, traditional journaling, or hand lettering, try these simple and inspiring beginner prompts and ideas to establish a valuable journaling practice today.
Journal Prompts For Beginners
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If you’re completely new to journaling then getting started can feel like a daunting task. With so many different ways to fill the space, that blank first page can be overwhelming.
But overwhelm is almost the opposite of what journaling is supposed to achieve. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way and this post serves as an introduction for anyone who is brand new to the hobby and wants to learn how to make the most of their personal journal.
I remember the first time I opened a crisp new journal, and the initial thrill I felt – quickly followed by wondering where on earth to start.
Your journal should be a private space of comfort, creativity, and most of all – peace.
Now, after a long time and lots of journaling experience, turning to a new blank page is always exhilarating.
The best piece of advice I can give you is simply to take off the pressure.
Remember that nobody else needs to see your journal; it’s your safe space for your private thoughts. And while there’s a lot you can use your journal for, it should always be a place of comfort and peace, where you can allow your creative side to shine.
Trust me when I say, it’s the best thing I’ve done to invest in myself.
What Are the Benefits of Journaling?
As you’ve likely guessed, journaling is a powerful tool with many benefits. Here are a few of my favourites:
- Increasing self-awareness by tapping into the subconscious mind
- Exploring and analysing negative thoughts
- Providing clarity
- Processing difficult emotions
- Practicing gratitude
- Opportunities for calm and reflective time
As you can see, there are many good things to come from journaling and it’s a wonderfully perfect way to enjoy some free self-care!
Guided journal prompts give you that little nudge sometimes required for focus.
But, there’s more!
The above list comprises my own personal favourite reasons that I consider journaling to a valuable tool for taking care of my mental health (the best thing about a journaling routine into a regular habit, in my opinion). But it can also be used to get your creative juices flowing through art journaling and as an organisational tool for increased productivity.
What Are the Benefits of Using Journaling Prompts?
Using daily writing prompts for your journal entries is a great way to remove the overwhelm of a blank page. Guided journal prompts around specific topics give you that little nudge sometimes required for focus.
Because, if you’re anything like me, too many choices can sometimes result in paralysing indecision or writer’s block!
The good news is that using prompts takes away that any fumbling around to find a starting point.
Explore and find what elements of journaling most appeal to you!
Journal prompts are also brilliant for:
- Building confidence
- Focusing on a specific purpose or goal
- A simple way to guide your journaling sessions
- A creative way to spend a set time journaling
- Trying new ways to journal
Different Types of Bujo Prompt Ideas For Beginners
In my daily journaling post, all of the prompts are for written entries, which is where this post differs. Below you’ll find a mixture of prompts for a variety of different types of journals, to help you discover what you most enjoy.
I love to mix it up to keep things fresh!
I hope the variation will provide you with an overview of some of the best easy bullet journal ideas for bujo beginners, while you explore and find what elements of journaling most appeal to you! Perhaps you’ll be drawn to productivity pages, gratitude lists, or for using your journal as a creative outlet (you can get dedicated art journals for this).
I’ve included a selection of:
- Writing prompts
- Doodle prompts
- Other creative journaling ideas
Personally, I love that I can mix up different types of journaling according to my mood, and to keep things fresh! You can choose to use to different journals or the same one for all of your writing and various forms of creativity.
Use the following list of journal prompts as an introduction to traditional journaling methods, as it allows you to explore a variety of journal writing and drawing techniques, with structured guidance for direction and discipline.
Ready? The first thing you’ll need to do is grab yourself a beautiful notebook or dotted journal. Then find somewhere calm and relaxed and let’s get started!
63 Simple Journal Prompts For Beginners
The following prompts are designed with beginner journalers in mind, but are equally perfect to be used by a seasoned journaler:
- Tune into your senses. What can you hear / feel / smell / see right now?
- What’s your earliest memory?
- Where is your happy place? How does it make you feel? Why?
- Learn about the bullet journal method and then create a bullet journal key for your journal.
- What’s the loveliest gift you’ve ever received? Does the person who gave it to you know how meaningful it was?
- What makes you feel most cherished?
- Create a washi tape wardrobe of your favourite tapes.
- Write a bucket list of places you want to visit.
- Create a reverse bucket list of things you’ve achieved that you’re proud of or have wonderful memories of.
- Create a list of things that frighten you but that you want to overcome and accomplish anyway.
- What healthy habit would improve your life? Create a habit tracker to help you implement a daily routine to form the new habit.
- Look out of your window. What do you see? Keep looking. What else can you notice?
- Find a tutorial and practice doodling your favourite flowers.
- What are you most grateful for in your life? Write a list of the things that make your life what it is.
- Create your first weekly spread, sticking to a minimalist theme to keep things simple.
- Which season is your favourite? Write about a favourite memory attached to that time of year.
- Choose a specific theme and draw out a mood tracker for your bullet journal.
- How would you describe your style?
- What are your favorite ways to spend your time?
- Create a grid guide for your journal.
- What is bothering you in your life right now? Go deeper. Why? You’ll know this task is complete if you have an ‘aha!’ realisation that has previously eluded you.
- Thinking about the previous prompt, write a silver linings list, finding reasons that your current challenges are not all bad.
- Write out a selection of positive affirmations to help overcome whatever issue/s you uncovered in the previous two exercises.
- What bad habit would you be happier if you could break? Create a tracker to help you break the habit.
- What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
- Choose a couple of bullet journal fonts you like and practice creating headings with them.
- What skill do you admire in others and wish you could do? Find out about taking a class and if you can afford the time and financial cost, jot down the details and make a commitment to do it.
- Find and write down five positive quotes that you love.
- What are your three most important values? Are you living fully in alignment with them or does anything need to change to bring you peace?
- Find a bullet journal theme you love and practice recreating the doodles.
- What has been your favourite age? Why?
- Create a personal goals page for your journal. It might pertain to relationships, self care, hobbies and skills, or a combination.
- What relationship is missing in your life? How might you be able to fill that gap?
- Write out bullet points of organisational journal pages that would benefit your busy schedule, eg. income and outgoings, meal planning, work schedule. Now find inspiration for these different pages on Pinterest or Instagram and create one of those pages.
- What job did you think you would grow up to do? Are you doing it? If not, what changed?
- Are you happy in your current role (question applies, even if you’re a homemaker)?
- What are the standout events in your life, good and bad? How has each one shaped you?
- How would you describe yourself in a single sentence? How would others describe you? Do they match?
- Create a bullet journal spread for birthdays of those nearest and dearest to you.
- Create another of the productivity pages you brainstormed in number 32.
- Write out a list of bullet journal pages you’d like to create just for fun, eg. reading list, holiday bucket list, current playlist. Now find inspiration for these different pages on Pinterest or Instagram and create one of those pages.
- Write a gratitude list of five things you are thankful for today.
- Create a professional goals and business ideas page for your journal.
- Have a go at creating bounce brush fonts, either using fude pens or by cheating using the tip in our post about fonts! Tip: use pencil in the first place and go over it in pen.
- How are the boundaries in your life? Are there any that may need to be firmer or reinforced?
- Create a monthly spread for next month, with a header, monthly overview calendar, and an inspiring quote.
- What one material thing would you love to treat yourself for, just because? Create a savings tracker and start saving towards it.
- What’s the best way you enjoy your body? How has it served you?
- What’s your life’s ambition?
- How would you like to be remembered?
- Create another of the just-for-fun pages you brainstormed in number 41.
- Get inspired by bullet journaling spreads on Pinterest or Instagram and create a wish list of your favorite pens and journaling supplies to enable you to recreate some of them.
- What are your favorite things to do for stress relief?
- Are you happy? Why?
- What does personal growth or personal development mean to you? How do you / might you incorporate more of it into your daily life?
- What does you perfect self-care ritual look like? How often do you make time for it?
- Find a tutorial and practice creating cute borders for your pages or elements on your journal pages.
- In a movie of your life, who would play you?
- What are your best qualities?
- When did you last belly laugh? What happened?
- What sets your soul on fire?
- Try keeping a dream journal.
- Write out an affirmation promising yourself you will commit to making journaling a daily practice, or at least that you’ll journal on a regular basis. Or create a schedule in your journal for morning pages or an allotted time to write in the evening.
Both writing it down and blocking out a specific time for an activity makes it far more likely that you’ll stick to it.
You may also enjoy these self love journal prompts!
How to Use Journaling Prompts For Beginners
While there’s no right or wrong way to journal, the idea is not to race through and complete as many prompts as possible as quickly as possible, but to be fully engaged with the process.
The most important thing is that you begin.
Try to write more than a single sentence for each prompt to get the most from your journal practice. After your first journal entry, it will become easier each time you sit down to write.
And if journaling is for you, it will organically becoming a ritual you look forward to.
A lot of people like to spend a set time journaling, or you might choose to sit down and answer a certain number of questions, or write about a specific area of your life until you feel you’ve exhausted it. All of these different ways to journal are covered in my post about different journaling techniques.
Ultimately, when it comes to using journal prompts as a beginner, it comes down to preference. The most important thing is that you begin, and hopefully return to writing on a daily basis if you have enough time, as you form a healthy habit of journaling.
Another option I like is using a journal jar. My post about daily activities for journaling explains how you can set one up to encourage you to journal every single day, with a free printable of 99 prompts to help you get started.
Or head to the resources library to find lots more options and journaling printables!
More Journal Ideas For Beginners
If you work through the prompt ideas on this page and find yourself wanting to do more, there are lots of other options for your bullet journal.
Bullet journaling typically includes certain pages, and then lots of others which are entirely optional and customisable according to your specific needs and preferences. You can include any, all, or none of the typical pages, and then as many optional ones as you choose!
The specific pages included if you follow Ryder Carroll’s original vision include:
- An index page (some journals already have page numbers, some you’ll need to write in yourself)
- Bullet journal key
- Monthly spreads
- Weekly spreads
- Daily log
- Future log
Other popular pages include some of those mentioned in the above list, such as:
- Goal setting
- Organisational pages (appointments, meetings, etc)
- Trackers
- Gratitude journal
- Inspirational quotes
- Expressive writing
- Meal planning and favorite recipes
- Chores
- Reading lists
- Brain dump
- Travel journal
- To-do lists
Working through a list like this one is one of the best ways to establish the type of journal you’re most drawn to keeping, and also to help you find your own personal style as you play with different themes.
Ultimately, whether you opt for an elaborate or simple bullet journal, the only way to get started is to take a leap of faith and just have fun with it! So why not open up your journal, and put pen to paper to get started with your journaling journey?