Journaling
Rose, bud, thorn
Rose, bud, thorn is a quick way to look back on a day in three parts. The rose is something that went well, the thorn is something that was hard, and the bud is something you are looking forward to. You can do it alone in a notebook, at dinner with your family, or with a team at work.
Last updated
Reviewed by Mohammed Raqeeb
The three parts
What is rose, bud, thorn?
Rose, bud, thorn is three short answers about one day. The names come from a rose bush, which has flowers, buds that have not opened yet, and thorns.
| Part | What it is, and an example |
|---|---|
| Rose | Something that went well today.“I finished the report before lunch.” |
| Bud | Something you are looking forward to, or a new idea you want to try.“The hike with Ana on Saturday.” |
| Thorn | Something that was hard today.“I snapped at my sister on the phone.” |
Some people say rose, thorn, bud. The order does not matter. All three together take about five minutes.
Alone
How to do rose, bud, thorn in a notebook
To do rose, bud, thorn alone, you need a notebook and a few minutes before bed.
- Write the date, and then three words: rose, bud, thorn.
- Write one line for each. Say what happened. Write “Dana liked the plan”, not “work was good”.
- Leave a line empty if nothing fits. Some days have no thorn, and some have no rose.
- Read the week back on Sunday. If the same thorn is there on three nights, it is worth doing something about.
Here is one evening’s entry, made up for this page.
Omar’s Tuesday
- Rose
- The meeting I was dreading went fine. Dana liked the plan.
- Bud
- Dinner at my brother’s on Friday.
- Thorn
- I slept badly and was short with people all morning.
To write more than three lines, see reflective journaling. For other things to ask at the end of a day, see the evening journal prompts and these questions to ask yourself.
Try it
Write today’s rose, bud and thorn
The three boxes below are for today’s rose, bud and thorn. Write one line in each, and then copy the entry into your notebook or your notes app.
You do not have to fill all three.
Today’s entry
Today
Nothing yet. Start with the box that is easy today.
This box keeps nothing. Your entry stays on this page until you close or reload the tab, and it is never sent anywhere. Copy it out if you want to keep it.
At dinner
How to do rose, bud, thorn at family dinner
At family dinner, rose, bud, thorn is a game. Each person at the table says their rose, their bud and their thorn, and everyone else listens. The Family Dinner Project, a website about family dinners, calls a version of the game one of its favorites. It says the game is a way to get around the one-word answer to “How was your day?”
Three things help. A grown-up goes first and names a real thorn. Nobody tries to fix a thorn at the table: “that sounds hard” is enough. And anyone may pass. A teacher can run the same game in a circle at the end of a school day. Here is a made-up family of three.
Mom
- Rose
- I got a seat on the train and read my book.
- Bud
- Grandma comes to stay on Sunday.
- Thorn
- My computer broke, and I lost an hour of work.
Maya, who is nine
- Rose
- I scored a goal at recess.
- Bud
- The class trip to the zoo next week.
- Thorn
- I forgot my lunch box.
Noah, who is six
- Rose
- We had pancakes.
- Bud
- My birthday.
- Thorn
- Maya would not let me have the ball.
At work
How to do rose, bud, thorn with a team
With a team, rose, bud, thorn is a short meeting at the end of a week or a project. Each person writes roses, buds and thorns on sticky notes, one thing on each note. At work, a bud is usually a new idea.
The LUMA Institute, which teaches this method to work teams, gives each person three pads of notes in three colors, one color for each part. Give everyone five quiet minutes to write. Put the notes on a wall in three columns and read them together. Then pick one thorn to fix and one bud to try, and write a person’s name and a day next to each. Here are the notes of a made-up team at the end of a week.
Rose
- The new sign-up page went live on Tuesday.
- Priya answered every support email the same day.
Bud
- A customer asked for a monthly plan. We could try one.
- The new hire starts on Monday.
Thorn
- Two people were out sick, so testing was late.
- The Thursday meeting ran an hour over.
Teams that looked back together did better work.
Nobody has tested rose, bud, thorn by name. But there is research on meetings like it, where people look back at what just happened and decide what to do next. One review put together earlier studies of these meetings. On average, the people and teams who held them did about 25 percent better at their work or training than those who did not (Tannenbaum and Cerasoli, 2013).
Where it comes from
Where does rose, bud, thorn come from?
Where rose, bud, thorn first came from is not clear. We could not find a source that names the person who started it, or the year.
Scouts in the United States use it. Scout Life, the youth magazine of Scouting America, tells scouts to look back on a trip through their “roses, buds and thorns”. The LUMA Institute writes that it took its version from the Boy Scouts of America, where scouts are asked to name one good experience, one bad one, and one new goal. Neither page says when the scouts began.
The test
How do you know rose, bud, thorn is working?
The test
One thing you wrote as a bud last week is a rose this week
for two weeks in a row.
A rose and a thorn say how the day felt. They do not say how much of the day each one took.
A good way to see that is to count the hours from what you write or say about your day. Most journaling apps keep the three lines and go no further. They do not show whether the thorn took ten minutes or five hours.
One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in.
You write or say your day in your own words, as it happens or all at once. The app reads what you wrote and counts the hours that went to each part of it: time with people, work, sleep, your phone, and the time you never mentioned (shown as unaccounted). Then it shows those hours over days and weeks. So you can see how many hours went to the things you wrote down as roses this week, and how many to the thorns. Put this week’s bud, like the hike on Saturday, on your to-do list. When your day says it happened, the app ticks it off.
1. You write your day
2. It counts the hours
- Family0m
- Work0m
- Sleep0m
- Unaccounted24h
3. It shows your week
Family this week: 0m
On 6 of 7 days. The gap is the day without it.
An example day and week.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.
Sources
What did we read for this page?
The four sources below are what we read for this page: three web pages in full, and the summary of the review, which is not free to read. The examples are our own.
- The Family Dinner Project (thefamilydinnerproject.org) (read ). Rose and Thorn.
- LUMA Institute (luma-institute.com) (read ). Rose, Thorn, Bud.
- Tannenbaum, S. I. and Cerasoli, C. P. (2013). Do team and individual debriefs enhance performance? A meta-analysis. Human Factors, 55(1), 231 to 245.
- Scout Life, the youth magazine of Scouting America (scoutlife.org) (read ). Use ‘Roses, Buds and Thorns’ To Reflect on Your Outing.
Keep reading.
- LearnAnswers about sleep, habits, study, people and work, in hours.
- Questions to ask yourselfForty questions for the end of a day, the end of a week, before a decision and once a year, and how to answer one of them well.
- Reflective journalingWhat happened, what it meant, what comes next.
- Evening promptsPrompts for the end of the day, from what happened to what tomorrow gets.
- Where did my week go? calculatorEnter a typical day and see your week accounted and unaccounted.
- Time journalingThe method: write or say your day in your own words, then see it as hours.
Questions
Questions people ask.
What is rose, bud, thorn?
Rose, bud, thorn is a quick way to look back on a day in three parts. The rose is something that went well. The thorn is something that was hard. The bud is something you are looking forward to.
What is a bud in rose, bud, thorn?
The bud is something you are looking forward to, like a hike on Saturday. Some groups use the bud for a new idea they want to try. Both are fine.
What are examples of rose, bud, thorn?
An example of a rose is “I finished the report before lunch”. An example of a bud is “the hike with Ana on Saturday”. An example of a thorn is “I snapped at my sister on the phone”.
Can kids do rose, bud, thorn?
Yes. A child who can tell you about their day can do rose, bud, thorn. A grown-up goes first, and anyone may pass. With small children, you can start with only a rose and a thorn.
Is there an app for a daily rose, bud, thorn?
A notebook, or the notes app on your phone, is enough for rose, bud, thorn. If you want an app, look for one that makes three lines quick to write or say, and that shows how much of your day each one took. One app built for this is Think in Numbers, a smart journaling app with time tracking built in. Think in Numbers counts your hours from what you write or say about your day, so you can see how many hours went to the things you wrote down as roses this week.
Try it on my day.
Write today down in your own words, and see where the hours went.
For iPhone and Android. Try it on your own day before you pay.