Journaling is an activity praised by many, but you shouldn’t rely on it to showcase your writing capabilities.

The Problem With Daily Journaling

The more you practice, the better you get. That’s simply how every skill works. And in fact, keeping a journal can massively improve your writing and your overall communication skills.

Unfortunately, most writers struggle when it comes to daily journaling. Here’s how it usually goes: you launch a blog, jot down a bunch of ideas, and swear that “this time” you will be consistent and make daily entries. Fast forward to a week later, a month if that, and you realize that all the motivation you initially had is now gone.

The good thing is, nobody was going to read your blog anyway! And there’s a good reason behind it: it is not curated, probably not very useful, and definitely not fun. Even if you’ve just received a precious life lesson from aunt Lydia, no one wants to go through pages and pages of personal thoughts to read that. Your journal is a spontaneous mess, and if it’s not, you are spending too much time editing and reviewing it.

Yes, You Should Continue Journaling

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you to ditch your journal or close your personal blog. Writing down ideas, events and experiences can be a form of self-care and is proven to be beneficial in more than one way. On a blank page, you can write anything you want, without feeling the pressure of being organized or making things pretty, if you don’t want that.

That’s exactly why I suggest you keep your blog to yourself. It allows you to express yourself freely, without the fear of being judged, and it spares visitors the pain of going through your grocery shopping list to find your best content.

Transform Your Daily Entries Into Useful Lessons

If your daily entries consist of a wonderful mess of creativity, ideas, and ramblings, an organized system can transform them into meaningful pieces of content that showcase your writing expertise. Platforms like Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research — heck, even a notepad app — are perfect for this scope. After every entry, try to summarize your thoughts and add value for your readers. This could be something you learned that day or a solution you found to a problem you had.

You can then publish your curated, organized pieces of content wherever you please. Does this take more time? Yes. But this way, you will refine your editing skills while your readers will gain valuable information without having to skim through recipes and random thoughts.