Find Happiness in Keeping a One-Sentence Journal

by Natalie Shoemaker

Most people (myself included) have started and stopped a journal or a diary quite a few times over the course of their lives. The idea of a personal log sounds romantic, but in our hectic lives, it's hard to sit down and etch out your day in so many words. But what about just one sentence a day?

The suggestion comes via Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project. In her latest podcast on happiness, she suggest people write one sentence a day—think of it as a personal tweet or cliff-notes encompassing the last 24 hours. For those of you that think one sentence a day may be too little to help manage a day full of things, Rubin claims it's just enough. Take it from her, she has been keeping a one day journal for over a decade.

“When I look back on it, you know, years later, like that one sentence really does keep memories vivid.”

Melissa Dahl from NYMag confirms this idea in a recent article. She wrote about how her grandmother keeps a daily journal with just a few lines of text, and she's amazed at how she can flip to a page and remember things with such clarity. Dahl writes:

“Often, when the family is together, she’ll dig out one of her old journals and tell us what she and various other family members were doing on a random day, in, say, 1994. I've always been amazed at how interesting these little moments are in retrospect.”

Rubin believes that reliving these daily moments can help make us happier people, and keeping a one-sentence journal is an accessible way to do that. What's more, it'll make you happier.

“Research suggests writing narratives of your experiences can make you happier.”

Listen to more on Gretchen Rubin's website.

Photo Credit: Rory MacLeod/Flickr