How to start a gratitude journal

What a gratitude journal is

A gratitude journal is a place where you write down good things. Large or small: a talk with a friend, a quiet morning, a task that went well.

Hard things stay with you on their own. Good ones slip away faster. Writing them down gives them somewhere to come back to.

1. Pick a moment you already have

Tie the journal to something you do anyway: tea after dinner, the ride home, the minutes before sleep. A moment you already have is easier to keep than a new one.

Paper works. So does an app. Pick whatever you will actually open.

2. Start with one good thing

You do not need a list. Write one good thing from today in a few sentences.

Studies often ask for more: three good things a day, or up to five a week. One is enough to start. You can always write more.

3. Be specific

“My family” says little. “My brother called and we laughed about the old car” says a lot. The detail is what you will want to read a month from now.

Name the person, the place, the sound, the time of day.

4. Write why it was good

This step is easy to skip. Why did that call help? What came of it?

The “why” turns a note into something you understand about your own day. It also shows you what keeps coming back.

5. Find a rhythm you can keep

Daily or weekly, both have been tested. In one study, people wrote every day for a week. In another, people wrote once a week for ten weeks.

Missing a day is not failing. Come back when you are ready and write the next entry.

Six ways to look for good things

When “what was good today?” draws a blank, a narrower question helps. These six exercises each look from a different side.

Noticing. You notice a good thing from the day and name it. The “three good things” exercise asks for three things that went well, every day for at least a week, each with why. In a 2005 study, people who did it were happier a month after that week and still six months later (Seligman et al., 2005 · American Psychologist).
Small things. You pay attention to small things that are easy to miss: a stranger’s gesture, sun on a chilly morning. In a 2003 study, people who kept a gratitude journal weekly for 10 weeks rated their lives better than those writing about hassles (Emmons and McCullough, 2003 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology).
Thanking someone. You direct gratitude at one particular person: what you thank them for and how it affected your life. In a 2023 study, people wrote such letters for a week, only for themselves, and felt more gratitude than people listing their activities (Regan et al., 2023 · Affective Science).
Subtraction. You imagine what would be missing if a good thing were not there. In a 2008 study, people who wrote how a good thing might never have been part of their life felt better than those who wrote that it was bound to happen (Koo et al., 2008 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology).
Savoring. You stay with one detail: a sound, a smell, a view. While something good is happening, you focus on it so the good feeling lasts longer (Hurley and Kwon, 2012 · Journal of Happiness Studies).
Meaning. You write why something was good and what came of it. A 2008 study tested a similar exercise: people wrote about good consequences of an unpleasant event, and the memory of it was less unpleasant for them than for other groups (Watkins et al., 2008 · The Journal of Positive Psychology).

Questions to begin with

A blank page is the hardest part. A ready question removes it. Each of these pages has 14 questions on one theme:

Answer one question per entry. The next one can wait for tomorrow, or for next week.

On paper or in an app

A notebook needs nothing but a pen. An app can hand you the next question when the page is blank, and keep every entry in one place with search.

GratefulMe is one such app, for iPhone. It walks you through paths of 14 questions on one theme, and entries stay on your phone, with no account and no cloud. If you want to see other options side by side, read the comparison of gratitude journal apps for iPhone.