"I started an English journal but couldn't keep it up"
"I lost motivation and quit after just 3 days"
"I want to know tips for staying motivated with English journaling!"
For those facing these challenges, this guide explains the main reasons English journals fail and 5 practical tips for maintaining motivation.
Note: While these strategies work for various languages like French, Spanish, and others, this article focuses on English learning as an example.
Main Reasons English Journals Fail
English journaling is a study method that shows results through consistency, but many people struggle to maintain it and give up.
The main reasons are typically these three:
- Not knowing what to write about
- Not feeling any effects
- Lack of external pressure
If you've tried English journaling before, you might recognize these issues. Let's examine each one in detail.
Not Knowing What to Write About
Since journals don't have predetermined topics, you might find yourself wondering "What should I write about?" You may have started enthusiastically for the first few entries, but gradually ran out of ideas and felt stuck. This high degree of freedom in choosing content actually becomes one of the barriers to consistency.
Not Feeling Any Effects
"Not feeling much benefit" is another reason people can't continue English journaling. Strictly speaking, it's not easy to feel effects in a short period. However, there are many cases where people eventually noticed improvement in their English ability when they continued with the right method.
Lack of External Pressure
While English journaling has the advantages of being free and self-paced, it also has the disadvantage of lacking external pressure, making motivation difficult to maintain. Some people are good at steady daily efforts, while others are not.
The fact is, we humans tend to slack off without external pressure and need systems to maintain motivation. Therefore, it's important to devise ways to maintain motivation and continue even without external pressure.
5 Tips for Maintaining Motivation
Next, let's introduce 5 tips for maintaining motivation with English journaling. Use these strategies to manage your learning motivation.
1. Decide Topics in Advance
The first tip is to "decide topics in advance." If you try to decide what to write about after opening your journal, you might find yourself spending time without knowing what to write. Eventually, thinking of topics becomes bothersome and you quit English journaling.
However, by deciding topics beforehand, you can start writing immediately and prevent motivation decline. If you write your journal at night, you could decide the topic in the morning. Or you could decide a week's worth of topics at once. Prepare topics in advance so you can focus only on "writing in English" during your journal time.
2. Write at a Fixed Time Daily
The second tip is to "write at a fixed time every day." While finding spare moments to write is fine, we recommend writing at a fixed time. Ideally, add English journal time to your daily routine like meals or brushing teeth.
If your daily schedule varies, prepare several patterns. At ○ o'clock on day shifts, △ o'clock on night shifts, ◇ o'clock on early shifts. Or using "15 minutes before bed" is also recommended.
3. Post on Social Media
The third tip is to "post on social media." The benefit of posting on social media is creating awareness that someone is looking at your English journal.
While maintaining motivation alone can be difficult, having others cheer you on or acknowledge your efforts can boost your enthusiasm. You might also make English journal companions on social media. Work together with companions to continue your English journaling journey.
4. Use Motivating Notebooks or Apps
The fourth tip is to "use notebooks or apps that boost your motivation." Some might be surprised—"Really, that matters!?"
However, this is surprisingly important and can be a factor that influences your English journal motivation. For example, if you usually cook, wouldn't you feel better cooking in a spacious, easy-to-move kitchen rather than a cramped, cluttered one? If you're a car enthusiast, wouldn't you enjoy driving a car with interior and exterior to your taste rather than driving someone else's unfamiliar car?
Similarly, it's important to use notebooks or apps you like to boost your motivation.
5. Use Correction Services
The fifth and final tip is to "use correction services." In the article "How to Write English Journals Effectively," we mentioned that having your writing corrected is important.
Getting corrections not only helps you notice mistakes, but using correction services has additional benefits. Especially with paid services, you'll feel motivated to work hard since you're paying for it. Even free services offer many benefits—not just error correction, but learning more natural expressions.
It's good to start with free correction services first.
English Journal Topic Examples
Finally, let's introduce 3 example topics for English journals. Whether you've tried journaling before but struggled with topics, or you're starting fresh and want references, try writing about these 3 topics.
- Weather
- Daily events and feelings
- News
Beginner Level: Start with Familiar Topics
Weather
This is a recommended topic for English beginners. You write about the day's weather, but don't end with just one sentence like "It was sunny today."
- It was sunny when I woke up, but became cloudy after noon
- It had been raining since dawn, but stopped when I left work
- It was hotter than yesterday, already feeling like summer
Writing like this shows that even sunny days can differ slightly. To make it easier, you could write about morning and afternoon weather separately. Advanced learners might add "finally" as in "finally stopped when I left work," or change "feeling like summer" to "summer has truly arrived."
Daily Events and Feelings
This topic is recommended for all levels from beginner to advanced. First, reference these specific examples:
- Morning routine activities
- What happened at school or work
- New challenges you tried
- Things you regretted
What's important here is focusing on more than just what you did (actions) or content. Pay attention to the situation, location, time, and how you felt. When you can write considering "when," "where," "who," "what," "why," and "how," your level will definitely improve. It's difficult at first, but gradually work on being conscious of the 5W1H framework.
News
Finally, here's a topic for advanced learners. Summarize the day's news or write your opinions following news themes. Summarizing news becomes practice in summarizing in English, while writing opinions on themes helps develop the ability to express your views logically on given topics. You can find news on various topics through newspapers, TV news, online news, and social media, so it's good to look at news during spare time and decide on topics.
Summary
This article introduced "5 tips for maintaining motivation with English journals."
- Decide topics in advance
- Write at a fixed time daily
- Post on social media
- Use motivating notebooks or apps
- Use correction services
Among these, we especially recommend using correction services. Beginners can use them to build English fundamentals and foundations, while advanced learners can use them to acquire high-level vocabulary and expressions.