I have a journal that I write in occasionally, and I find it helps my mental state and to work through problems. I started one when I was struggling with insomnia and having trouble falling asleep. Doing a brain dump onto the page helped clear my mind and fall asleep. I was also struggling to be happy and found that trying to write down goals and things I was grateful for was a good exercise. It's fun to look back on past events that became significant, event when they didn't feel like it at the time. I met my current girlfriend during a time when I was writing regularly and it's really cool being able to watch myself fall in love with her.

I am quite bad writing in it regularly now. I will write for a few days and then have a month without touching it. I suppose that's fine but I get more out of it when I write consistently. I just can't seem to work out whether it's better for me to write in the morning or the end of the day. I'm tired and it's too easy to use that as an excuse to not write at night, but the same could be said for the morning.