Start by setting aside a quiet moment to focus on your recent experiences or projects. Use the prompts to guide your thoughts, answering each honestly and in detail to uncover insights you might otherwise miss. Reflect on what went well, what challenges arose, and how you responded to them. Consider patterns or recurring themes that emerge as you write, and explore any emotions connected to these reflections. Take time to identify lessons learned and areas for growth, then think about actionable steps you can take moving forward. Allow yourself to revisit and revise your entries over time, using the journaling process as a dynamic tool for deeper understanding and continuous improvement.

Read more tips on how to start and keep a journaling practice that can guide your wellness and personal growth.

Review-focused journaling turns experience into actionable insight by forcing you to summarize outcomes, identify patterns, and note lessons learned—strengthening metacognition and improving decision-making. Empirical work on expressive writing (Pennebaker) links putting events into words with reduced stress and improved well‑being, while research on retrieval practice and writing-based review (Roediger & Karpicke and related learning science) shows that actively recalling and organizing past information improves memory and learning; goal‑setting and self‑monitoring literature likewise finds that tracking progress in writing increases accountability and goal attainment. The combined effect is clearer priorities, fewer repeated mistakes, and faster, evidence-informed improvement over time.

Learn about the science-backed benefits of journaling along with primary sources.