Dear Diary: Giving your diary entry some structure

Our journals are used for a variety of things and one of them is a diary. While some people find it easier to just write away with whatever comes to them first, others prefer to have a structure to help them stay on track and keep their diary/journal organised. 

In this blog we will be giving you a few tips on how you can keep a structured and well-organised diary, with dates and sections on each page. You can even make different sections or chapters of the thoughts and feelings on the day of entry. This will break your diary into smaller parts, much like a book. You can create short or long “chapters” in the diary.

Before you start to create your diary, you need to decide whether you are going to give it an overall topic or if you will be labelling each entry with a topic. For example, you may start a food diary. This may benefit you if you are a food lover or blogger. Likewise, if you love to travel you can create a travel diary, there are so many different options out there. After choosing the right topic for your diary you can start writing, even if this topic is “however i’m feeling in the moment”.

Here are some tips to help you structure your diary entry:

• Topic – As mentioned above, having a topic will help you to stay focussed, especially if you have started a diary to follow symptoms or track food and so on. Again, this may not work for you and it could be the reason you stop writing, if that’s the case, follow the route in which you add a topic heading for each entry so you will be able to see with a glance what each entry is about.
• Date your entries – Your diary is going to be something you can cherish forever, so mentioning the date of each entry will be helpful. Doing so will let you know when you have made any particular entry. This will be helpful when you look back, especially if you are looking for something specifically. 
• Write Naturally – The best thing about diary writing is that you can write the things you love, it is entirely personal to you. You can write about yourself, your friends and family, or you can use it as a tracker; symptoms, food, mood, the list can go on. Let it be a benefit to you, your diary shouldn’t be or feel like a burden.
• The Reality – You don't want to be writing lies or things that you don`t do, your diary should be a safe place where you are able to completely relax and be 100% honest. Writing about the real you is the best thing and it doesn't matter if you have a bad habit or something “strange” about you. If you write the truth about yourself then you are also able to figure out how you can improve on those bad habits and start the journey of ridding yourself of them.
• Be Friendly – They say that just writing your diary entry as if you are writing or explaining things to a friend, makes it a lot easier and flow more freely. It will be a lot easier like this. Also, if you are not really someone who enjoys writing page after page of writing you can also add bullet points and maybe write 1 or 2 sentences explaining them. Whatever works for you.
• Re-read – Reflection is a great way to see how you have progressed, re-reading your diary entries can help you understand how you have started to move away from bad habits and made a start on new ones. It is also great to look back at old diaries to see how your writing has improved and whether your style has changed.
• Keep up with Writing – You may want to start writing, but sticking to a writing habit is not always easy, it can sometimes be a little complicated. Try to write a little bit every day. Try to write at least 200 words about your topic, when starting you could write about anything which you are passionate about.

• Write about your daily experience
• Write diary entry if are in love
• Write a diary entry if your heart is broken
• Write a diary entry about your hobbies
• Write a diary entry about your family
• Write a diary entry about your dog