Intention Journaling: My Daily, Monthly, + Yearly Process [That I’ve Been Doing For 7+ Years!]

Over the years, I’ve acquired a LOT of journaling processes like…

#1] Loving vs least loving journaling exercise

#2] Category journaling

#3] Sacred hour [incorporated journaling in this!]

#4] The daily check-in

#5] Writing in my Today I Did It Right journal

#6] All the exercises in Katie Daleabout’s “Let It Out” book

But, the one process that I’ve consistently done for 7+ years is intention journaling. I’m going to break everything down for you, so you can implement the practice in your life if you’d like!

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*Before we get started: Buy two journals. One is going to be your “journal for the year” [so for this upcoming year: 2024 journal] — that you’ll only write in every month. The other is going to be your “daily journal” — that you’ll write in as often as you’d like ; ).

2024 Journal:

Intentions For The Year: In the front of the journal, I write down my intentions for the year. The less, the better! I ask myself: What do I really want to focus on this year? This year, I made 6 intentions — from “more open space.. discovering what that this means” to “spending more time in silence… one day of silence each month” to “fostering my friendships.”

Desires List: At the end of the journal, I have what I call a “desires list” — it’s essentially all activities that I want to do [or things that I want to create]… I think of it as a brain dump of desires. They are concrete! I allow myself to dream! Does everything happen that year? Of course not! Here’s the fun part:

  • I add to the list throughout the year
  • I highlight the desire when it’s completed
  • At the end of the year, when I start my next “year of X journal” I transfer only those desires that I’m still curious about!

Books I’ve Read: On the back cover of the journal, I have a list of all the books I’ve read that year!

Monthly Intentions + Reflections: The bulk of the 2024 journal will be filled with monthly intentions + reflections. On the first of each month, I write down my intentions for that month. I used to be extremely specific, but now I’m more loose with it. At the end of the month, I reflect on that month! This involves a few things…

  • Reflecting on the intentions that I set
  • A summary of the month — activities, highs + lows
  • I go through my daily journal + transfer any notes/automatic writing/quotes, etc that I want to save from that month

Daily Journal:

Daily Journal: I write in my daily journal every day, or as much as possible! I don’t have a specific process for journaling. It’s my morning pages, to do list, diary, workout planner, a place I write down quotes, etc.  Once my daily journal is completely filled up, I throw it out! I typically go through 2-3 daily journals a year.

*Something To Note: While I always throw away my daily journal, I’ve kept my 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, + 2023 journal! It’s incredible to see the growth + change that’s occurred. Also! It’s fun to see how some of my desires have shifted, while others have remained constant.

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If you decide to use this journaling process, I’d love to hear how it goes for you!

xx

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