Is it Better to Journal in the Morning or at Night?

Cats

Jan 5

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Welcome to the world of journaling to your hearts content.

Welcome to the wonderful world of journaling. Pat yourself on the back—you’re building a healthy and mindful routine! Practicing journaling has many exciting benefits. But, like all things, timing matters—when you journal matters. So, is it better to journal in the morning or at night? Let’s talk through the pros and cons of both. As we do, I’d like you to remember your personal “why.” What is the outcome that is the most important differentiator as you start to journal and maintain this regular practice?

Morning Journaling vs. Night Journaling

Morning Journaling Writing Pros List

Genius simmers overnight. Journaling in the morning is a transference of the state of your mind from sleep. The book, Why We Sleep discusses that what you do after you wake up can support or undermine the efforts of your brain’s overnight memory work. Since the first 30 mins of the morning are an extension of your REM cycle, journaling right away can help lock in the memories and data your brain has been storing all night. Comparatively, waking up and scrolling on your phone sends your brain into active stimulation overdrive mode and redirects the brain from all that could memory storing to stimulation mode.
Track your dreams down. The key to a dream journal is to write your dreams right when you wake up exactly as you remember them. Do this while in a haze, when your dreams are still a blur of reality, memory, and the subconscious. You’ll gain insight into your subconscious and emotions. Dream journals fuel creativity, bring about self-awareness, and help you process your feelings.
Embrace the flow with morning pages. The morning pages concept was popularized by the Artist’s Way, a popular workbook for reawakening your creativity. The goal of morning pages is to write your thoughts down as they come in any direction, opacity, and reason. No edits! And no rereading what you wrote! If your mind ping pongs to something else randomly, that must get written down. If you have a lull, acknowledge it and write, I’m having a lull. The process of morning pages is quite freeing in its radicalism. It’s an excellent format for those that have held back from journaling because they’re worried they’re not doing it “the right way.” But in this community, we all know there is no “right way.” With morning pages, you can embrace the joy of following your stream of consciousness. It’s intense, curious, and satisfying.
Start the day with gratitude. Writing your gratitude in the morning fosters hope, increases happiness, and improves emotional regulation, among many, many, many more benefits. Wake up and deeply breathe in all the incredible moments around you. Give the new day ahead your appreciation. Then, get comfy, pick up your pen, and write what you’re grateful for. Write away any cantankerous waking-up energy. Write down what you’re grateful for, the big sky picture moments and the little discrete moments of your own world. I like to write down a minimum of three things I am thankful for every morning, from the sweet pup at my feet to the warm cup of coffee filling my nose to the air in my lungs.
Align the day to your goals. Are you a big dreamer with a head full of goals, plans, and ideas? Writing these goals down every morning is extremely powerful in supporting follow-through. When you write your goals consistently, you have a better shot at accomplishing them. People that write down their goals are 1.2-1.4x more likely to accomplish them. It’s a process of external storage and encoding. Encoding, in essence, is when you create a picture and reprocess it by writing it down rather than solely reading something. Your brain encodes this type of thinking differently. When you write down your goals, you hone in on your intentions and align your more significant life motivations with the day-to-day. A practice of morning goal writing narrows your focus and brings a surge of inspiration, clarity, and reflection on the progress you’ve made.
Write in cool spaces. This one is for all my coffee culture people. The writing that flows from my pen is different in the locale of a coffee shop. A benefit of journaling in the morning vs. journaling at night means you can journal in public. There is nothing I like more than taking my journal to the coffee shop on a Sunday, getting a coffee, sitting by the window, and pouring my memories into my journal. I can write for hours when I’m not at home surrounded by my litany of to-dos. I am more open to writing about my work challenges, boy troubles, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences among the safe chatter of the environment. So be it: the buzz of the people around me or the main character energy I possess; it’s bliss.

Morning Journaling Writing Cons List

Journaling can become a daily to-do list. The brain's to-do list can quickly overpower the reflective and creative parts if you don’t strengthen the muscle of resistance. You’re going up against work emails, family life, and social media notifications in the morning. I’m all for writing your to-do list down, but I recommend curbing it during your allotted journaling time. Sometimes, the more pressing something feels, the better it is to take deep breaths, write about something else for a while, and come back to it. The journal is not the place for your to-dos. Instead, give that list another dedicated home. For instance, I keep a small planner where I bullet down five things to do that day. Then, I only open it up after finishing my morning writing.
Morning writing can pass the time too much. Unfortunately, the flow state in the morning can be too distracting! If you are on a heater of thoughts and scribbles, sometimes mornings limit the time you have to see the writing through. So I set a 35 mins timer every day to focus only on writing. And sure, other days are painstaking to write for 35 minutes straight. Sometimes, I find myself unconsciously picking up my phone on those days. Then I remember that I’d dedicated this time to practicing something I value, and I put the phone down. Currently, I’m working on leaving my phone in another room while I write for even more guarantee that I stay focused.
You’re more likely to deprioritize writing in the morning. Writing in the morning is much more dependent on the success of the entire morning routine. Be realistic with the time and capacity of your day. Do you have 30 mins to write in the morning? I don’t say this to castigate but to set you up to be the writer of your dreams. It can be easier to deprioritize morning writing than walking the dog, prepping coffee, or finishing my morning skincare routine. Compared to writing in the evening, there is more room for spontaneity and still time to journal. I’ve worked morning writing into a habit stack which has been a game-changer. But in the morning, if I sleep in, talk to my fiancee, or get distracted by my phone, my window of focused and quiet writing shrinks at an accelerated rate. These distractions are pleasant to indulge in once in a while. I’m not a fan of the guilt trip sometimes associated with tips surrounding rigidity. So, when I have mornings where I “indulge,” I also practice not beating myself up. Life happens, and it’s marvelous.

Evening Journaling Writing Pros

Wind your mind down at the end of your day. Winding down by writing before sleep is incredibly healthy for your sleep cycle. From moment to moment, our days can feel like an endless cycle of putting out fires. When you leave it all there on paper and write down your thoughts, anxieties, the day’s oi veys, the learnings, the wins, processing your feelings, hopes, and dreams is hugely beneficial. The sanctuary-like feeling of being cozy in bed or on the couch, possibly with some tea, and writing, is fantastic for quieting the mind and giving good sleep the best chance it’s got. Moreover, I work from home. Sometimes the days roll into one another in the blink of an eye. Writing at night gives the day a symbolic end. When I journal at night, it signals to my brain the end of the day and all its accompanying thoughts.
Reflect on the day’s events. I’m continuing from the last point but giving it the ol’ double down. I will always advocate for finding the answers you need from within. Journaling is a shortcut to finding the answers. See what stuck with you from the day and question its reason. To any lingering thoughts or wonderment, ask, “why?” Then ask yourself, “Why” again, then ask yourself “Why” one more time to get to the real root of your challenge. There are so many answers to be found through a bit of introspection.
Reflect and answer: “What charged me and what drained me?” and “What went well and what didn’t? And “What did I learn today?: You can learn so much about yourself by how you live through the day. These questions have opened my eyes to what I want more of. In your evening writing, you’ll find answers that, on a more micro level, can support significant changes and improvements. So while writing your goals down is motivating, the truth is your end-of-day reflection on how things actually panned out is the difference in moving you closer to achieving those goals.
Prioritize tomorrow. After all the introspection and reflection, I like to drift off into sleep with my priorities clear. When you journal the night before, inherently, the next day starts to visualize more. I wake up feeling more determined and connected to my aspirations. I take on the day excited and with a new and much more intentional approach.
You’re tuned in to your emotions, aka you’re less stressed. Night journaling is patient. Write down your precious memories, feelings, what, and why. A journal is your space to empty the day. With night journaling, you can say all the little things that might have otherwise chipped away at you in a healthy space. In my journals, I’ve started an entry by being angry or upset and written assuredly about how someone wronged me! Pages on pages of scribbled events and feelings, and then inevitably, the thoughts change. I start to see things from both sides. I see the silver lining of better communication and vulnerability. It’s brutal, but I’m less often in the right than I’d like to think I am. Then the highs and lows get processed in your sleep and are quieter after you wake. Writing those down the same night lets the joy come through.

Get better sleep. All the benefits above lead to better sleep, which we all need.

Evening Journaling Writing Cons

The most significant con I’ve experienced with night journaling is that I can be too exhausted and uninspired actually to write anything meaningful. Still, showing up and writing one page is important for me. Some nights it’s only about that. I scribble about my day with little to no reflection of its effect on me and just do it. That’s the better-case scenario. In other cases, being too tired means skipping my night journaling entirely.

So… is it better to journal in the morning or at night?

And the winner of the journaling in the morning vs. at night debate, for all the marbles…is….!

You!

That’s right; you can’t lose. The timing details are essential for establishing a routine, but everyone’s experience is individual, and honestly, after 21 years of journaling, I’ve dabbled in both. Simultaneously.

I like to do what feels right to me, which is a mix of having my journal on my bedside nightstand for long-winded evening journaling, where I try to write a few pages every night. I also have my gratitude and goals journal near where I enjoy my coffee in the morning. I write a few gratitudes and then some long-term and short-term goals as I start my day.

We all know the mornings can be chaotic, and we’re all more wiped out in the evenings. I encourage you not to fight the natural flow of when you want to write and run with it. You will see the outcomes you’re hoping for in no time. It’s all a matter of consistency. The parameters of the timing challenge, whether journaling in the morning or evening, won’t change. So if these concerns don’t raise any red flags, that’s great.

Try committing to one and then the other each for a week and pay attention. During which time frame do the words extend most naturally from your mind to the paper? You’re looking for the “flow” state of writing and getting lost in words. This moment is going to have the most impact on your life. Enjoy the surge of creativity, gratitude, insight, and increased memory. But, mostly, enjoy a practice that is truly transforming.

Let me know what you think. Have you seen the benefits of writing at one time over another during the day?