Articles · Reflection
The Three-Line Journal
If you've ever bought a beautiful notebook and abandoned it by February, this one's for you.
Journaling has a reputation problem. We picture pages of careful reflection, and when we can't produce them, we stop. So make the job smaller: three lines, once a day, in any notebook you already have.
The three lines
- What happened? One plain fact about the day. "Called my sister." "The car failed its inspection."
- How did it feel? One honest word or phrase. "Relieved." "Annoyed, then fine."
- What did I notice? One small thing you'd otherwise forget. The light in the kitchen, or a kind thing a stranger said.
That's all. It takes about two minutes, and on most days it will feel almost too small to matter.
Why so little?
A short entry is easy to keep up, even on a bad day, and bad days are often the ones most worth writing down. If you find you want to write more, you can. But you never have to, so there's nothing to fall behind on.
The part you notice later
Read back through a month of entries and you may start to see patterns you couldn't see from inside the days. Maybe certain people leave you feeling lighter. Maybe Sunday afternoons are harder than you'd realized. Those are worth knowing, and you didn't have to analyze anything to find them.
If you miss a day
Skip it and write today's three lines. Don't try to catch up, and don't start again on a fresh page to make up for the gap. A journal with holes in it is still a record of a real life.