It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a writer in possession of a good collection of notebooks must be in want of a way to use them.

I couldn’t help myself.

NOTEBOOKS. I have them, you have them, we all have them. And, thankfully, in this day and age of creativity and Bullet Journaling, there really is an endless way of using these little aesthetically pleasing binded books of blank paper.

When I was little I quite enjoyed journaling. Words have been a special thing to me all my life, and there really is something magical about permanently capturing memories via ink. Now, will I ever read those angsty, cringe-inducing pre-teen/teen diary entries ever again? Maybe never…*shudders* BUT STILL. Journaling is a beautiful thing we humans do, and I love how there is a literal infinite way of saving all our thoughts and memories on the page.

But, alas, as I got older, I began to journal less and less, until I stopped doing it altogether. I eventually came into possession of a laptop, and my days of scribbling via pencil/pen and notebook faded away. A big reason was the HAND CRAMPS. To this day, I can barely write a few sentences without suffering severe hand cramps. Which is a true tragedy. Because there really is something so special and almost…intimate about writing thoughts and memories and stories down on paper. But the typing life became the life for me. (I barely even write letters/cards to friends, which is just shameful…)

The problem though: I wanted to journal. I wanted to have stacks of notebooks of all my silly thoughts and the memories of this one and only life I have been given. But I just kept…not doing it.

Next thing I knew, bullet journal exploded across the internet. And though I was intrigued, and considered giving it a go multiple times, I knew deep down it’d be more a hindrance to me than a help. First of all, my artistic talents are so bad they’re in the negatives. (Seriously, it’s bad.) Secondly, there’s that whole pesky hand cramps business. (And I also eventually discovered Scrivener and now use it as a means to keep up with all my to-do lists and whatnot and I love it with all my heart and soul, buuut that’s a topic for another day.)

Then, one day, my sweet mother, completely unprompted and out of the blue, mentioned an article she had recently read in a magazine. It was about something a lady started called a “one sentence journal”. My mom thought I’d might like to give the article a read. So I did. And it changed everything.

I don’t remember what magazine it was in, what the short little article even said, I just remember the idea of it. It was exactly the type of journaling method that would work for me. And so very soon after reading the article, I took on the same idea.

2021 will be my 10th year keeping it up.

So what even is this little journaling thing?

Introducing…

ONCE SENTENCE JOURNALS

The purpose is right there in the name. It is, quite literally, writing just a single sentence. Talk about an easy way to journal, am I right?

Okay, you probably want a little more information than that.

What is a one sentence journal?

The idea of this journal is to write a single sentence every single day. Which, in reality, takes up all of 20 seconds of my day. And yet the benefits have been invaluable.

Basically, at the end of each day, I sum up the day, or write something specific that happened that day, in a single sentence, with the date at the top of course.

For example, here’s an entry from last month:

– Monday, February 1st, 2021 –
“I officially came off my blogging and Instagram hiatus today and I got such a sweet welcome back from all my precious internet peeps.”

Short and to the point, without much great detail about the whole day, but a great reminder to me of that day when I got so very many dear welcome back comments from all of you! <3

A lot of times it’s just a summary of the day:

– Friday, March 27th, 2020 –
“Finished getting the IG book pics I need for April today and then spent a relaxing evening on the porch with the family.”

I start a new one every single year (or I do now, I don’t think I was quite as organized for the first few years), which has resulted in notebook after notebook of moments to remember from almost every. single. day. going all the way back to February of 2012 when I started my first one. No, they’re not long diary entries expressing everything I did that day and all my thoughts, like I often did when I was much younger. But it is a way to capture quick memories of the day without taking even two whole minutes out of my day.

And more than that, because each entry is so short, it’s so easy to go back to any specific date and see what I wrote about that day. I quite often am trying to remember when something happened and then realize, “Oh wait! I bet I mentioned it in my one sentence journal.” And sure enough I can easily find the exact date of certain events with a quick look-through of a journal.

BUT THERE’S A CATCH.

These aren’t just to log every day of my life, it’s so much more. It’s a challenge. Because since nearly the beginning I made a rule with myself: EVERY ENTRY MUST BE POSITIVE. This may have actually been the original idea I read about in that article. I do believe the article’s author said she uses this method to quickly remember good things that happen to her for each day. And that is definitely something I want to capture as well.

Because here’s the thing, life is hard. The average person lives for 27,375 days, and out of all those days there are going to be difficult ones, possibly more so than happy ones.

But here’s the other thing: There is something good to be found in every. single. day. No matter how hard life is, no matter the sorrows of the day, the moment, the very life you live, there is always joy to be found.

I don’t want to go back through my journals and dwell on the hard things. I want to look back and remember how faithful God is. All the time.

Back in 2016, the day I got word that my lifelong best friend’s eldest sister passed away, my entry said this:

“As I mourn [her] passing today, I’m so, so grateful to God’s blessed gift of eternal life.”

That was one of the hardest days of my entire life, if not the hardest, but I also found such a new realization of what a gift Jesus gave us through His sacrifice and the promise of Heaven. I know she is there, suffering no more, and we will be reunited again. And I wanted to remember that. Always.

At the beginning of this year, I decided to list out blessings that happened from each month of 2020. So I pulled out my 2020 one sentence journal and flipped through it, reading about that crazy year that was 2020. And you know what happened? By the time I got to the last entry, not only did I have 6 full pages filled to the brim with blessings written out, I also realized that 2020 wasn’t such a bad year after all. Ever since that day, I have begun to look at 2020 fondly. If not for my one sentence journal, I don’t think I would have gained that perspective.

It is such an easy way to narrow in on the simple joys of each day, while also giving a big picture of the years as they pass by.

I’ve made it part of my nightly routine and I’ve gotten so used to it at this point, I barely even have to think about it. And yes, I miss some days, but I try my hardest to get in that sentence every single day. Or, if something happened and I missed multiple days or a week, I’ll write out a sentence (or cheat and do two!) about something good about those past few days/week. I never do anything fancy whatsoever. It is quite simply just the date and one sentence, and usually not a well-thought-out, eloquent sentence at that. Just a random scribble of something positive about the day.

These entries are just for me. To remember the moments, to log the joys. To know each and every day is valuable and has blessings. Even if the entry is something as simple as saying I watched a movie with my siblings or that I feel productive because I wrote a blog post that day. All those little things matter. And it was through these one sentence journals that I have come to understand how special every little moment in life truly is.

As a whole, I thought 2020 was the worst year ever. But when I began looking at the small things, the day by day moments and little joys, it was then that I came to discover it wasn’t a bad year after all.

And that is the joy of the one sentence journal. It’s so simple, and yet it challenges me in such an invaluable way.

IN CONCLUSION…

If you’re like me and just don’t want to take the time to write out long diary entries, or the bullet journal craze hasn’t grabbed you, or time and/or hand cramps or any other of the infinite Life Things that keeps us from doing all the things we’d like to do is hindering you, I can’t recommend one sentence journals enough. And as we’re still in the beginnings of 2021 and working on things such as new journals and whatnot, this is a great time to give it a try! (And, you know, it’s a great way to actually use those hoards of notebooks we all have…)

Twenty seconds out of your day can lead to a lifetime of permanently captured moments from these some 27,000 days we’re each given.

Have you ever heard of one sentence journals? Do you keep a journal of any kind? I’d love to hear about it! And what do you think of my method? If you ever start one, I’d LOVE to know!