Journaling
Journal prompts
Journal prompts are short questions that give you something to write about. The prompts here are sorted by moment and goal, and many end in something you can count, like hours, so each answer can be checked against the next day.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
Prompt sets
Journal prompts by moment and goal.
Each set below has its own full list of prompts and one real answer shown as hours.
Start here
Journal prompts for any day.
The 10 prompts below work on any day, morning or night. Pick one, and answer it with what actually happened.
Prompts for any day
- 1What did you spend the most time on today, and was that the plan?
- 2Which hour of today would you happily repeat?
- 3What took longer than you expected, and by how much?
- 4Where did the time between waking up and your first real task go?
- 5What did you do today only because it was easy?
- 6How much of today was yours to decide?
- 7What would you cut from today if you lived it again?
- 8What deserves an hour tomorrow that got none today?
- 9What did you notice today that you usually miss?
- 10What are you looking forward to, and when is it on your calendar?
Why counting
Why an answer that ends in a number is worth keeping.
A journal prompt that ends in a number gives an answer you can compare. “How did today feel?” gets a different mood each night. “How long did the evening’s scrolling last?” gets a figure you can watch shrink.
Counting does not replace feelings. It adds the missing half: where the day went. Writing both is called time journaling, and the journal entry examples show what those answers look like.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What are journal prompts?
Journal prompts are short questions that give you something to write about. A prompt removes the blank page: instead of deciding what to write, you answer one question.
How many journal prompts should I answer a day?
One or two prompts a day is enough for most people. Answering one prompt every day builds the habit faster than answering many once a week.
What makes a good journal prompt?
A good journal prompt asks about something that happened and has a clear answer. Prompts that ask "how long" or "when" work well, because the answer can be compared with the next day's.
Can I use journal prompts in an app?
Yes. Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app for iPhone and Android, has daily prompts and lets you make journals with your own prompts. It also turns what you write about your day into hours.
Try it on my day.
Think in Numbers is a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Write or say today in your own words, and see where the hours went. No timers.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.