Best Guided Journals

The benefits of journaling are clear: peace of mind, improved mental health, focus, and productivity.

But what do you do when you don’t know what to write or where to start? A blank journal page can be pretty intimidating, right?

Enter: Guided Journals

Guided journals are full of prompts, structure, and direction – perfect for those not sure where to start or, like me, often overwhelmed by 150 blank pages.

Every guided journal has different benefits. Some are focused on helping you reach goals while others are aimed at improving your productivity. Some help you become more creative and others are intended to make you more mindful.

The Best Guided Journals of 2020

Best for Achieving Goals: The Best Self Journal

The Best Self Journal has exploded onto the journal scene in recent years. It’s expertly crafted (“backed by both science and psychology”) to help you prioritize goals, achieve what matters, and well, become your best self. It’s beautifully structured to help you accomplish the most important things in your life.

Best Thing About It: I’ve used this journal for two 13 week rounds, and two things stand out: First, the science and psychology around their goal setting structure is brilliant. A master class in goal setting. Second, the structure. It’s perfectly structured for everything you need in a daily journal: gratitude, goals, reflections, calendar, and a small section for free-form drawing or doodling. This guided journal is the real deal – especially for those ready to check off some serious goals.

Best for Building Habits: Morning Sidekick Journal

The Morning Sidekick Journal is the perfect guided journal for owning your mornings and building a habit of waking up early. Own the morning and win the day, right? Each morning, it guides you through helpful content, planning your morning, and visualizing your day.

Best Thing About It: My favorite thing about the Morning Sidekick is the daily content. Each day is full of expert tips, actionable strategies, daily challenges, affirmations, links to awesome videos, podcasts, and more – all around building habits that last. It also helps you set metrics to track your progress and keeps up with streaks to build momentum.

Best for Growing Gratitude: The Five Minute Journal

The Five Minute Journal is the easiest way to start your day on the right foot. Its daily prompts include: gratitude, prioritizing your day, 3 amazing things, inspiring quotes, daily affirmation, end of day self reflection. There’s a reason it’s one of the best sellers across the web.

Best Thing About It: My favorite thing about the Morning Sidekick is the consistent structure, and the fact that it truly only takes five minutes each morning. It’s no doubt one of the best guided journals on the market for daily reflection, gratitude, and productivity.

Best for Self Reflection: One Line a Day

One Line a Day is a FIVE YEAR journal of – you guessed it – one line a day. Each page asks one question and contains 5 lines for answering year after year, allowing you to reflect on change and progress. No need to spend an hour each day reflecting, just a few sentences will do the trick.

Best Thing About It: I think the best thing about the One Line a Day journal is the fact that you get to watch yourself change and make progress over time. The next best thing is that it’s the perfect journal for someone who can’t seem to get into journaling. One line a day makes it super approachable and really easy to develop the habit.

Best for Self Discovery: All About Me Journal

The All About Me journal has been on the market for over twenty years now. It’s a timeless classic – but it has been updated in the last few years. The journal literally guides you all the way through your life. Each page is a checklist, question, or set of questions about you. If you’re on a self discovery or self actualization journey – or you’d just like to document your life to look back on one day – this journal is for you.

Best Thing About It: I love how thorough this journal is. The book really does cover EVERYTHING about you. From likes and dislikes to views and beliefs and from values and principles to experiences and memories. It has it all.

Best for Growing Positivity: Getting to Good Guided Journal

Getting to Good is a “road map to feeling better, happier, and more present with proven-effective therapeutic exercises and journaling prompts.” It will help you let go of bad thoughts, increase positivity, and live a more joy-filled life.

Best Thing About It: It has some unique prompts – one is a weekly review of the best thing that happened in each day. A close second is the fact that the creator is a PhD. She knows her stuff.

Best for the Realist: The Zen as F*ck Journal

This journal is hilarious. Ever felt thrown off by all the zen, quite meditation, and koom-ba-yah of journaling? This journal is probably for you. Monica Sweeney shoots you straight. And curses. A lot. Each day looks a little different, with some pages dedicated to coloring unicorns and others full of nothing so you can get out what you need.

Best Thing About It: The best thing about this journal is really plan: it cuts through a lot of the sh*t of the self care industry. The second best thing is the variety. I don’t think any two days are the same. I think the unpredictability is a really great way to start your day.

Guided Journal Honorable Mentions

There are a few journals that didn’t quite make our cut, but we wanted to include them nonetheless. Here are our honorable mentions:

• The Q&A Journal
• One Question a Day
• Present, Not Perfect
• Two Minute Mornings

How to Choose Your Guided Journal

The best journal for you ultimately depends on what area of your life you’d like to improve. Want to get more done or become more organized? Want to improve mindfulness and make gratitude a habit? Want to become more creative?

Consider your journaling goals. If you don’t need all the guidance, you may be better served by a blank journal for writing. Or if you’re focused on gratitude, check out these awesome gratitude journals. And if you want to be more organized, try bullet journaling.

Any of the above will improve your life. Pick one out that works for you and is in your price range. And the best of luck to you on your journaling journey!