12 Types of Journaling

Goal Achievement Journaling

The purpose of this journal is to help you achieve your goals. But I am sure you guessed that!

Specifically, what you do in it is track your goals, plan out tasks to achieve your goals, take notes on ways to improve and anything else that helps you with your goal. For example, I also take notes on what my spirt guides have to say when I ask questions.

This type of journaling can include: Bullet Journaling, Day planners and Franklin Covey.

Side note on a Bullet Journal. You can use this for more than just tracking goals. Many people use it for calendars, to do lists and more. I recommend you head to YouTube and search for Bullet journal ideas. There will be more than you can ever watch! The Bullet journal is great if you are artistic.

Memory Journaling

This one is also straight forward. You write down what happened so that you have a record of it later.

It can be a broad everyday life events journal. Or you can get as detailed as you want.

For example, details of your travels or memories for each kid. I once had a journal book that was for recording funny things that my son would say. This was great during those toddler years when they are starting to interact and learn our language! (This is it: My Quotable Kid*)

You can get creative on this style of journal and do a scrap book with the journal. Great for if you are artistic.

Not artistic? Not to worry, you can use pre-designed journals. Or keep a written record of your memories. It is all still memory journaling!

Emotional Healing Journal

In this journal you are exploring your emotions around life events. You can explore how you felt about everything from the fight with your partner, to a divorce, loss of a loved one or your kids leaving home.

It can help you process what happened, your emotions tied to it, forgiveness and much more!

There is a lot of research on how beneficial this style is.

This one can be very hard to get used to doing in a way that supports healing. It requires practice in exploring and understanding your emotions. Something we aren’t taught much when we are little!

I have an entire article to help you get started on this one. How to Heal Your Emotions Through Journaling

Personal Development Journal

This journal could be lumped with a goals journal or even the emotional healing journal. But I break it out separately, because developing the entire self is more than just goals and emotions.

For example, you may be focusing on self-discovery, spiritual exploration or mindset development. This is a great journal to keep if you are striving to better yourself. No matter what area you are working on.

Stream of Consciousness Journaling

With this type of journaling there is no purpose other than just letting what wants to come out come out! You open your journal and start writing.  Many writers use this to practice writing. Some people use it to explore problems or blocks. Some use it to connect to a higher source. But it all starts the same. Unplanned writing.

This style has many different names. Including Morning pages, free writing, and channeled writing.

This one is great for first thing in the morning. Your subconscious has been processing things while you sleep. When you start the day with stream of consciousness writing what was processes will come out.

Dream Journaling

In this journal you record all your dreams. Our dreams can have a great many insights into things we need to address in our lives. Entire traditions have been based around understanding our dreams. 

Keep this one right by your bed, so that you can write down the dream immediately upon waking – no matter what time it is.

The Sleep Foundation has a great article on dream journaling if you want to learn more.

Gratitude Journaling

Our gratitude about life has been shown to impact our happiness, and what we bring into our lives. One simple way to shift our attitudes from negative to positive is to keep a gratitude journal. It does not need to be complicated or long. Even just writing down three things a day that you are grateful for will have a big impact.

For more on gratitude journaling check out my video on it.

Meditation Journaling

For me there are two forms of meditation journals. The first is the ideas and insights that come from your meditation. Some of my best ideas and aha moments have come during meditation. I have my journal open and ready by me when I meditate.

The second form for me, is that journaling is a meditation. I will turn on some meditation music and write. This is typically paired with stream of consciousness journaling for me.

Business Journaling

For the small business owner, a great way to track your ideas, create new ones and explore problems is by having a business journal. I have business journals going back fifteen years. I do mind maps, brain storming and problem solving. Best part is if you get an idea, but it is not time for it, just tag it and go back to it later!

Intuition Journaling

This is a great way to build up your intuition and your trust in your intuition. In this journal, you record your intuitive insights and review them for accuracy.

I recommend you record the date, what your intuitive insight was, and if it was accurate. Then while reviewing the information journal about how you got the information, is there a pattern between the right or wrong ones and anything else that feels relevant.

Beliefs Journaling

This journal is based on the book The Four Agreements. Agreements are beliefs and ideas we agree to when we are young. They are the foundation of our limiting beliefs. One great way to start tracking what your agreements are so that you can begin to work on them is to keep a small journal. It does not have to be big enough to work through them but only to track them. I recommend getting the companion book the The Four Agreements* to understand better how to do this.

​Bible Journaling

Bible journaling is a way to process your bible study and pair it with your life. I am not an expert in this area, so I recommend you check out this article from LifeWay to get started. How to Start Bible Journaling

How to Pick What Journaling Style is Right for You

Now that you have an idea on all the different types of journals, let’s look at how to pick the right type for you. But first a couple of notes.

First, remember that you can do more than one. At any given time, I usually have about four or five types going. So, don’t feel like you must pick one and stick to it.

Second, just because you are selecting more than one journal type does not mean you need multiple notebooks.

I have in one journal the following: emotional healing, personal development, stream of consciousness, dream and meditation journal. I do keep separate books for my agreements journal and my business journal.

What is Your Goal for Journaling?

Before you can pick the right type of journaling for you, you must know why you are wanting to start a journal.  If your goal is to remember your travels, then there is no reason to start a personal development journal. Likewise, if you want to work on a goal you are not going to start a travel journal.

Pick your goal and then often the journal is an easy pick.

Not sure how to start jouranling? Check out my article on How to Start Journaling!