You don’t need a book to keep a journal. A pen and a page will do. But the right book can hand you a method that fits, a reason to keep going or proof that people have been doing this for centuries.
The best-known books about journaling are Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way (morning pages), Ryder Carroll’s The Bullet Journal Method, Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, Kathleen Adams’s Journal to the Self and Pennebaker and Smyth’s Opening Up by Writing It Down. Real diaries, from Marcus Aurelius to Samuel Pepys, are worth reading too. Below are 13, each with what it teaches and one exercise to try.
Find your book
What do you want from journaling?
- Pick a goal to see the books that fit.
Quick takeaways
- For a method, start with The Bullet Journal Method or Journal to the Self.
- For creativity, The Artist’s Way and Writing Down the Bones are the classics.
- For the science, Opening Up by Writing It Down explains expressive writing research.
- Real diaries show what journaling looks like over years, not weeks.
- Every card has one small exercise, so you can try the idea before reading the book.
Which books teach you a journaling method?
The Bullet Journal Method teaches Ryder Carroll’s notebook system for planning and logging. The New Diary and At a Journal Workshop teach older, more reflective methods, including written dialogues and Ira Progoff’s sectioned Intensive Journal. Pick by what you want the journal to do.
The Bullet Journal Method
The book behind the bullet journal. Carroll explains his analog system of short bulleted entries, logs and an index, and the thinking behind it: using a notebook to decide what deserves your time.
Try this from itLog today in bullets only: a dot for each task, a circle for each event, a dash for each note.
The New Diary
An early guide to using a diary for self-guidance and creativity. Rainer covers techniques such as free-intuitive writing and written dialogues, and connects diary-keeping with therapy, art and life writing. Easier to find secondhand or in a library.
Try this from itWrite a short dialogue between you and a decision you keep putting off. Let the decision answer back.
At a Journal Workshop
The guide to Progoff’s Intensive Journal method: a binder divided into sections for different parts of your life, with structured exercises including written dialogues. Revised in 1992.
Try this from itList the “stepping stones” of your life so far: eight to twelve moments, one line each, in order.
Which journaling books help with creativity?
The Artist’s Way is built on morning pages and weekly artist dates. Writing Down the Bones treats timed, unedited writing as a daily practice. Bird by Bird is about writing in general, but its habits (short assignments, rough first drafts, index cards for ideas) work in any journal.
The Artist’s Way
A 12-week course for getting unblocked, built on two habits: morning pages (three longhand pages of stream-of-consciousness writing every day) and the artist date (a weekly solo outing to feed your creativity).
Try this from itTomorrow morning, before your phone, fill three pages by hand with whatever is in your head.
About the book: Penguin Random HouseHow to do morning pages →
Writing Down the Bones
Short essays on “writing practice”: timed, free-flowing writing treated as a discipline, much like Zen meditation. A 30th-anniversary edition came out in 2016.
Try this from itSet a timer for ten minutes and write without stopping, crossing out or rereading.
Bird by Bird
A book about writing rather than journaling, but full of habits journal-keepers use: short assignments, permission to write bad first drafts and carrying index cards to catch ideas. The title comes from her father’s advice to take a big task “bird by bird.”
Try this from itWrite only what you can see through one small frame: one room, one moment, one conversation.
Which books are about journaling for mental health?
Journal to the Self teaches journal therapy techniques for self-understanding, written by a psychotherapist. Opening Up by Writing It Down explains the research on expressive writing (writing about deeply felt experiences for short sessions) and how to try it. Neither replaces professional support.
Journal to the Self
A step-by-step introduction to journal therapy with 22 techniques, from lists and clustering to unsent letters and dialogues. Adams is a psychotherapist who has run journal workshops since 1985. Still in print.
Try this from itWrite a “list of 100” on one question, such as things that make you feel calm. Speed matters more than quality.
Opening Up by Writing It Down
The research on expressive writing, written for general readers: what happens when people write about deeply felt experiences for short sessions, and how to do it yourself. It grew from Pennebaker’s 1990 book Opening Up. He also wrote a guided journal, Writing to Heal (2004).
Try this from itFor 15 minutes, write about something that’s been on your mind, including how you feel about it and why.
If you’re going through something hard, a journal can sit alongside support from people, not instead of it.
Which real journals and diaries are worth reading?
Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, Anne Frank’s diary, Virginia Woolf’s A Writer’s Diary and the diary of Samuel Pepys show what a journal becomes when someone keeps it for years. Meditations and Pepys are free online. Earle Havens’s short history covers the commonplace book, the quote-collecting notebook.
Meditations
A Roman emperor’s private notebook of reminders to himself, probably never meant for publication: what’s in your control, how to treat people, how to face hardship. Free in the public domain.
Try this from itWrite three reminders to yourself for tomorrow, in the second person: “You will…”
About the book: Project Gutenberg (George Long translation)Stoic quotes to journal on →
The Diary of a Young Girl
The diary Anne Frank kept in hiding in Amsterdam from June 1942 to August 1944, first published in Dutch in 1947. The Definitive Edition (1995) restored passages left out of earlier editions.
Try this from itWrite an entry addressed to someone, the way Anne wrote to “Kitty.”
A Writer’s Diary
Extracts from Woolf’s diaries about her writing and reading, selected by her husband after her death. A close look at a writer using a diary to think through her work.
Try this from itWrite about what you’re working on right now, as if nobody else will ever read it.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys
Nearly ten years of daily entries in shorthand by a London naval official, covering the plague, the Great Fire and his own daily life. He stopped because he feared it was harming his eyesight. Free online, one entry a day.
Try this from itWrite today’s entry with the details a stranger in 300 years would find strange.
Commonplace Books: A History of Manuscripts and Printed Books from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century
A short scholarly history of the commonplace book, from ancient writers to W. H. Auden, published by Yale’s Beinecke Library alongside an exhibition. Likely to be a library or secondhand find.
Try this from itCopy out one passage you read today under a one-word heading.
About the book: Beinecke LibraryHow to keep a commonplace book →
How do you choose a book about journaling?
Choose by what you want the journal to do: organize your days, unblock your creativity, work through something, or understand the research. Then try the exercise on its card for a week before buying. If the exercise sticks, the book will probably suit you.
- Try before you buy. Every card above has one exercise from the book’s approach.
- Check the library. Several of these are older books, so look there before buying.
- Read one method at a time. Mixing morning pages, bullet journaling and Progoff in one week is a lot.
- Real diaries count. Reading one can do more for a stalled habit than another how-to book.
Journaling book questions
What is the most famous book about journaling?
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron is probably the best known, because it introduced morning pages. The Bullet Journal Method is the best-known book about planning in a notebook.
Is there a book about the science of journaling?
Yes. Opening Up by Writing It Down, by James Pennebaker and Joshua Smyth, explains the research on expressive writing for general readers.
What should I read if I want to start journaling but don’t know how?
Journal to the Self by Kathleen Adams walks through 22 techniques step by step. If you want a system for tasks and plans too, try The Bullet Journal Method.
Are any of these books free?
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is in the public domain and free on Project Gutenberg. The diary of Samuel Pepys is free online at pepysdiary.com, one entry a day.
Do I need a special notebook to follow these books?
No. Any notebook works for all of them. The Intensive Journal method uses a binder with sections, but you can start with a plain notebook.
Otis Fenn
Otis covers planning methods, notebooks, pens and apps, so you don't buy three of each. Otis is a pen name Mike writes under. About our writers
