“Perhaps the biggest myth about journaling is that you need to know how to journal before you can begin.”
There is something interesting about the blank page, it can make a perfectly intelligent person suddenly forget how to form a sentence. What if you’ve simply been carrying around too many myths about what journaling is supposed to look like?
Let’s clear a few of them up.
Myth 1: You Have to Write Every Day
This is probably one of the first things that scares people away from journaling.
You see someone online proudly announcing:
“Day 437 of journaling!”
Meanwhile, you can’t remember the last time you wrote anything longer than a WhatsApp message.
Relax, you don’t have to journal every day.
Daily journaling can be wonderful if it works for you. But journaling isn’t a school attendance register.
You can journal every day.
You can journal three times a week.
You can journal every Sunday.
You can journal whenever something important happens.
You can even disappear for three months and come back.
The important thing is not perfection, it is returning. A journal should support your life, it shouldn’t become another source of guilt.
Myth 2: You Have to Write Pages and Pages
No.
Your journal entry can be ten pages, and it can also be ten words.
For example: “Today was difficult. I survived it. Tomorrow, I try again.”
That’s a journal entry.
So is:
“I saw Mama laughing today and realised I hadn’t heard that laugh in months.”
So is:
“I think I might actually be falling in love.”
So is:
“I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing.”
Sometimes one honest sentence says more than three pages of forced writing. Don’t confuse length with depth.
Myth 3: You Need Beautiful Handwriting
This one is particularly dangerous because social media has convinced us that journaling must look like a stationery advertisement.
You see photographs of perfectly arranged journals, beautiful handwriting, neatly drawn boxes, colour-coded pens, flowers beside the notebook and a cup of coffee conveniently placed at exactly the right angle. Everything looks beautiful.
Meanwhile, your handwriting looks like a pharmacist is trying to escape from a difficult situation. It doesn’t matter as your journal isn’t a handwriting competition. Your future self doesn’t need calligraphy. Your future self needs your thoughts.
Write badly, write quickly, write messily, cross things out, change your mind, draw arrows, underline something three times, use CAPITAL LETTERS when you’re angry and let the journal look like you.
Myth 4: You Need an Expensive Journal
You don’t.
Please don’t spend ₦50,000 on a notebook and then become too frightened to write in it because you don’t want to “spoil” it. A journal is meant to be used. It is supposed to contain ink and it is supposed to become worn. It may eventually have bent corners. Perhaps one day someone spills something on it, that’s okay.
A journal that has been lived in is more valuable than a perfect journal sitting untouched on a shelf. Buy something you enjoy, but don’t allow the beauty of the notebook to intimidate you. The first page does not have to be perfect.
Myth 5: Journaling Is Just Writing About Your Feelings
Not at all.
Your feelings can be part of your journal, but they aren’t the entire thing.
You can journal about:
- Your career.
- Your business.
- Your finances.
- Books you’re reading.
- Places you’ve travelled.
- Food you’ve eaten.
- Ideas you’ve had.
- People you’ve met.
- Family history.
- Your children.
- Your faith.
- Your goals.
- Your mistakes.
- Your achievements.
- Your dreams.
- Your university experience.
- Your NYSC year.
- Your immigration journey.
- The funny thing your child said today.
- The business idea that suddenly appeared while you were stuck in traffic.
Journaling is as broad as your life.
Myth 6: Journaling Is Only for Women
Absolutely not.
This is one myth I would particularly like to see disappear. There is nothing inherently feminine about documenting your thoughts. Men have always recorded their lives.
Soldiers kept journals.
Travelers kept journals.
Scientists kept notebooks.
Entrepreneurs document ideas.
Writers record observations.
Leaders keep private notes.
Fathers record memories for their children.
Young men write about relationships, ambitions, fears and the future.
A journal isn’t feminine, it is human. If you have thoughts, memories, ambitions, questions or experiences, you already have material for a journal. You don’t need permission to write them down.
Myth 7: You Have to Be Deep
This one makes me laugh.
Not every journal entry needs to sound like it belongs in a philosophy textbook.
Sometimes your journal can simply say: “I ate too much rice today.”
That’s fine.
Maybe tomorrow: “I think my boss is beginning to notice my work.”
Also fine.
And perhaps on Saturday: “I am terrified about the future.”
Also fine.
Your journal should be able to contain the ridiculous alongside the profound. Life itself works that way.
You can spend the morning questioning the meaning of existence and the afternoon arguing with someone about who finished the last piece of chicken. Both are part of your life, write both.
Myth 8: You Need to Know What You’re Doing
You don’t.
There is no official journaling qualification. You don’t need a special technique.
You can start with:
“Dear Journal…”
You can write a list.
You can answer a question.
You can describe your day.
You can write a letter.
You can write a memory.
You can write one sentence.
The important thing is beginning. Your style will develop naturally.
Myth 9: You Must Only Write Positive Things
Journaling isn’t Instagram. You don’t have to pretend everything is wonderful.
Some days are terrible.
Some decisions hurt.
Some relationships disappoint you.
Some dreams fail.
Some people leave.
Your journal can hold those truths.
You can write:
“I’m angry.”
“I’m disappointed.”
“I don’t understand why this happened.”
“I’m afraid.”
“I don’t know what to do next.”
That honesty can be incredibly valuable. But there is an important distinction.
Your journal should be a place where you can process difficult experience, not a place where you deliberately keep yourself trapped inside them.
Write the anger.
Then, when you’re ready, explore it.
What happened?
Why did it affect you?
What did you learn?
What do you need?
What happens next?
That is where journaling becomes reflection rather than simply repetition.
Myth 10: You Should Never Read Your Old Entries
Actually, sometimes you absolutely should.
Reading old entries can be surprisingly powerful.
You may discover that something you thought would destroy you eventually passed.
You may realise how much you’ve grown.
You may laugh at your old priorities.
You may rediscover forgotten dreams.
You may remember people who shaped you.
You may discover patterns in your decisions.
And occasionally, you may read something and think:
“Who gave this person permission to be this dramatic?”
Then realise…it was you. That’s okay too. Your old journal isn’t evidence that you were foolish. It is evidence that you were learning.
Myth 11: Someone Will Read It
This fear is particularly understandable.
For many Nigerians, privacy isn’t always taken for granted.
You may have grown up in a home where someone could walk into your room without knocking.
Your siblings know everybody’s business.
Your mother can somehow tell that you’re hiding something simply because you closed your bedroom door.
And the idea of keeping a notebook containing your deepest thoughts can therefore feel risky.
If privacy matters to you, think deliberately about where and how you keep your journal. For physical journals, choose a secure place. For digital journals, understand your device security, passwords, backups and the privacy policies of whatever platform you’re using.
You don’t have to write everything down, and you certainly don’t have to publish your private thoughts. Journaling is yours.
Myth 12: Journaling Will Solve All Your Problems
Let’s not give a notebook supernatural powers.
Journaling can help you understand your thoughts.
It can help you reflect.
It can help you identify patterns.
It can help you organise decisions.
It can help you process experiences.
But it isn’t a magic wand.
Writing: “I want to become financially independent.”
doesn’t automatically make money appear in your account. You still need a plan.
Writing: “I want to become healthier.”
doesn’t replace action.
Writing: “I want to repair this relationship.”
doesn’t replace communication.
The value of journaling is that it can help you see more clearly. What you do with that clarity is still up to you.
Myth 13: You Have to Share Your Journal
You don’t.
Some journals are meant to remain private forever. Others may eventually become family keepsakes.
Some people publish memoirs based on their journals.
Some turn their experiences into books.
Some share selected entries online.
All of these are valid.
But your journal does not owe the internet content. It does not owe your friends an explanation and it does not owe your family access.
It belongs to you, write for yourself first. Decide later what, if anything, you want other people to see.
Myth 14: Your Life Isn’t Interesting Enough
This might be the biggest myth of all.
You’re sitting at home thinking: “What would I even write about?”
Meanwhile, your life is quietly accumulating stories.
- Your first day at university.
- Your first job.
- Your first salary.
- The strange neighbour you grew up with.
- Your grandmother’s recipes.
- The day you moved cities.
- The friend who betrayed you.
- The teacher who believed in you.
- The person you almost married.
- The business you tried to build.
- The trip you couldn’t afford but somehow made happen.
- The child who changed your life.
- The conversation you still remember years later.
- The day you finally realised you had become an adult.
Your life doesn’t have to be dramatic to be meaningful. Sometimes the most powerful stories are hiding inside ordinary days.
Myth 15: Journaling Is About Recording the Past
It can be, but it can also be about creating the future.
You can journal about who you want to become.
Write letters to your future self.
Document your goals.
Record business ideas.
Create personal plans.
Describe the life you’re trying to build.
Ask yourself what you want your future family to know.
A journal can therefore face both directions. It can look backwards and remember, it can look inward and understand, and it can look forward and imagine.
That makes journaling far more powerful than simply keeping a diary of what happened yesterday.
So, What Is Journaling Really?
After removing all the myths, what remains?
Something wonderfully simple. You, a little time, a place to write and the willingness to be honest.
That’s it.
You don’t need perfect handwriting.
You don’t need an expensive notebook.
You don’t need to write every day.
You don’t need to be a writer.
You don’t need to be particularly deep.
You don’t even need to know exactly what you’re doing.
Start where you are.
Write what you know.
Write what you remember.
Write what you’re wondering about.
Write what you’re afraid to say.
Write what made you laugh.
Write what you hope happens next.
The journal will teach you the rest.
And This Is Where Memoir Begins
There is another reason we’re so passionate about encouraging people to journal. Sometimes, years of seemingly ordinary entries reveal something much bigger.
A story.
A journey.
A transformation.
A legacy.
You might begin writing about your first job, then your business, then your family, then a difficult season and then a decision that changed everything.
Eventually, you may look back and realise: There is a story here.
That is where memoir becomes fascinating.
At Naija Diaries, we’re interested not simply in helping people write more, but in helping people recognise the stories hidden inside the lives they’re already living. Our future Memoir Writing Service will explore exactly that territory.
We envision working with people who have lived remarkable, difficult, unusual, inspiring, complicated, or simply deeply meaningful lives and helping them preserve those experiences in carefully crafted memoirs. The objective won’t be to manufacture a dramatic life. It will be to uncover the meaning inside a real one.
Your journal may remain private. Or perhaps one day, it becomes the raw material for a book your children and grandchildren treasure.
You don’t have to decide today, just keep writing.
And That’s Why We Are Building the Journal Collection
If journaling is a conversation with yourself, the journal you choose becomes the space in which that conversation happens. That’s why we’re building a collection of purposeful journals for different seasons of life.
Not every person needs the same journal.
A university student may need something completely different from a new entrepreneur.
A traveller may want somewhere to preserve experiences.
A parent may want to document childhood memories.
A writer may need somewhere to capture characters and ideas.
Someone preparing to relocate may want to document the journey.
Someone simply trying to understand themselves may need nothing more than a quiet reflection journal.
The goal is simple:
Give people beautiful places to put their stories.
Join the Journaling Circle
And if you’ve been reading these articles thinking,
“This sounds lovely, but I know myself. I’ll start and abandon the journal after four days.”
Come and join us. The Journaling Circle is being created for exactly that reason. It’s a community of people learning to pause, write, reflect and continue.
You’ll find weekly prompts, monthly challenges, thought-provoking questions, journaling ideas, encouragement, and, perhaps most importantly, other people who are also trying to make sense of life one page at a time.
You don’t have to be an experienced writer and you don’t have to share your private entries. You simply have to be willing to show up.
One Last Myth
Perhaps we should add one final myth.
Myth 16: “I’ll Start Tomorrow.”
This one is dangerous, because tomorrow is very good at becoming next week, next week becomes next month, and eventually, another year has passed.
So don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take whatever notebook you have, open the notes app on your phone, grab a sheet of paper, write the date and begin.
Your first entry might be brilliant, it might be terrible, it might be three sentences and it might simply say: “I have decided to start journaling.”
That’s enough, because the first page doesn’t need to be impressive, it only needs to exist.
What’s Coming Next?
We’ve now answered three important questions.
What is journaling?
Why should you keep a journal?
How do paper and digital journals compare?
And we’ve cleared away some of the beliefs that make beginning unnecessarily difficult.
Now it’s time to actually begin. In our next article, we’ll tackle the most intimidating moment of all: How to Start Your First Journal.
What should you write on the first page?
Should you introduce yourself?
Should you set goals?
Should you write about your day?
What happens when you stare at the blank page and your mind suddenly becomes completely empty?
We’ll make the beginning simple, because your journal shouldn’t be another thing you are afraid of getting wrong.
Today’s Journal Prompt
Which journaling myth have you secretly believed until now?
Write it down and then challenge it.
Finish this sentence:
“I used to think journaling meant __________, but now I realise __________.”
Then write one more thing:
If you removed every rule you thought journaling had, what would you actually want to write about?
Don’t overthink it. Your answer might just be the beginning of your real journaling journey.