1. It encourages you to spend time writing when you might otherwise just “skip it.”
2. You get to practice and spend quality time with yourself simultaneously — it’s such a great use of your time!
3. Yes, you can do it digitally. You can also have an excuse to buy pens and paper, and honestly is there anything more exciting in the entire world than that? (No. No there isn’t.)
4. A journal is a safe space both for working through your ideas and facing the doubts and fears that come along with them.
5. You don’t have to be perfect. You can spell things wrong, write terribly, and pursue your dumbest trains of thought — and no one but you will ever know.
6. Writing helps you keep your emotions and mental health in check. When you’re not at your best, you can’t write your best. Checking in with yourself never hurts.
7. It prevents you from tweeting things you’ll regret. Or it might.
8. You can do whatever you want within the private pages of your journal. You can even use it to organize your life, make plans, and write your way through personal and professional problems you’re struggling with.
9. Journaling reduces stress! As long as you don’t stress about journaling! Why are you stressing about journaling?!
10. Someday when you’ve done great things with your words, you’ll be able to look back at how far you’ve come and what you were thinking about in different points of your journey and say “I’m so glad I never gave up.’
Meg is the creator of Novelty Revisions, dedicated to helping writers put their ideas into words. She is an editor and writer, and a 12-time NaNoWriMo winner. Follow Meg on Twitter for tweets about writing, food, and Star Wars.
Meg Dowell Writes 