Free Journaling Printable: How to Start a Daily Writing Habit

Hey Mama,

This week’s prompt is one I’ve thought about almost every day for years. Honestly, I’ve asked myself some version of this question long before I ever became a mom—because who hasn’t wanted to go back in time to whisper a few warnings to their younger self? After living through one version of events, it’s impossible not to wonder what could’ve been different if we just knew better, earlier.

If you haven’t downloaded the Burnout Recovery Workbook for Moms yet—what are you even doing? It’s free, it’s thoughtful, and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than therapy. Grab it here and carve out five quiet minutes to scribble your way back to yourself.

In this article:

What advice would I give my younger self before becoming a mom?

Living for Now, Not a Future That Isn’t Yours Yet

Pick Better Partners (Seriously, You Deserved So Much More)

How to Start a Daily Writing Habit

5 Tips to Keep Up a Writing Habit

Benefits of Writing Regularly 

What advice would I give my younger self before becoming a mom?

Listen, sweet baby angel version of me—stop asking other people what to do with your life. Their advice is based on:

• Their regrets,

• Their fears, and

• Their limitations.

None of that belongs to you. Your future is yours alone. Do not chase some bullshit, hand-me-down blueprint of what a woman’s life should look like. Because they don’t tell you: you can do everything “right” and still be miserable. You can check every box, and still feel lost.

So don’t hand over the steering wheel just because someone older, richer, or louder tells you where to go. The best thing you’ll ever do is stop living your life on other people’s agendas and timelines.

Living for Now, Not a Future That Isn’t Yours Yet

I know you’ve never been in a hurry to get married or have a baby—and that’s one of the smartest, most intuitive decisions you’ll ever have. And it was a hard one to stick to, because you’ll spend years listening to other people ask questions about a life you haven’t even decided you want yet.

“What if your husband finds out how many people you’ve slept with?”

“What would your children think of a mom with so many tattoos?”

As if you owe your entire life to some imaginary man or some hypothetical child.

Marriage is hard. Motherhood is harder. Even though you know it’ll be the hardest thing you'll ever do, it’ll still take you out at the knees. And no one tells you about how to survive that first year of marriage and a new baby when you’re sleep-deprived, overstimulated, and trying to parent without a village.

Having a kid in your 30s will be one of the best moves you didn’t even realize you were making. You’ll have a better handle on your mental health, your money, and your mouth.

Pick Better Partners (Seriously, You Deserved So Much More)

And another reason you wait is because deep down, you already know you don’t want to raise a child with the guys you dated in your teens and twenties. Hell, barely the ones in your early thirties. That was never the problem.

The problem was that it didn’t stop you from pouring years of your life—time, energy, money— into them.

• You bailed them out of messes they made themselves.

• You were loyal when they were careless.

• You carried their weight and called it love.

And all the while, you were shrinking yourself just to be chosen. Because that’s what you were taught, wasn’t it? That being wanted—being desirable—was the goal. That your worth lived in how wanted you were, not how well you could choose.

But you were the prize all along.

You didn’t need to be more desirable—you needed to be more discerning. So, forget the cool girlfriend performance. Stop apologizing for being intense, emotional, smart, loud, and honest. One day, you’ll realize you’re not too much. The people you’re with just weren’t enough.

How to Start a Daily Writing Habit

If I could give my younger self one more piece of advice? Start writing every damn day. Not because you want to be a writer, not because it needs to be profound, and definitely not because anyone else is going to read it—but because it will save your sanity.

Daily writing:

• Could’ve kept me more grounded.

• Could’ve helped me stop chasing other people’s ideas of who I should be.

• Would’ve made me listen to my own damn self.

Writing clears the noise. It puts all the chaotic, swirling thoughts in one place so you can stop carrying them around like unpaid emotional labor. You’ll be less reactive. More self-aware. Less likely to waste years on men who “just need time to grow up.” (Spoiler: They need a therapist, not a girlfriend.)

And journaling is one of the few ways I’ve found to keep my own emotional chaos in check—because it’s harder to teach a toddler emotional regulation when you’re still winging it yourself.

5 Tips to Keep Up a Writing Habit

1.     Make it stupid easy. Use a physical journal, a Notes app, the back of a receipt—I don’t care. Just start.

2.     Keep it short. A single sentence counts. You don’t need to pour your soul out every day. Just touch base with yourself.

3.     Anchor it to something. After coffee. Before bed. While the baby naps. Tie it to a habit that’s already in your life.

4.     Don’t make it precious. Grammar, spelling, sentence structure? None of that matters. This isn’t school. This is survival.

5.     Use prompts when you’re stuck. Like the ones in The Burnout Recovery Workbook for Moms—which you should already have downloaded, but I’ll forgive you if you go grab it now.

Benefits of Writing Regularly

According to research published by the National Institutes of Health, expressive writing can boost immunity, reduce stress, and improve overall mental health.

• Better emotional regulation (translation: fewer rage-cleaning episodes).

• Increased self-awareness and confidence in decision-making.

• A deeper understanding of your triggers, your needs, and your patterns.

• The receipts. You’ll have proof of how far you’ve come when you forget.

If I had this habit in my 20s, I would’ve spent way less time untangling other people’s nonsense and way more time listening to me. So don’t wait another decade to get your thoughts down. You’re worth the five minutes.

Research shows that modern moms are expected to be everything at once: fully present, future-focused, working, perfectly composed in public, and—of course—radiantly happy about it all. A two-decade review of motherhood norms confirms what many of us already feel deep down: the bar keeps moving, and it’s exhausting trying to reach it.

That’s where journaling comes in. When everything demands constant attention, a private place to process your thoughts becomes essential. Journaling is one of the few places where you don’t have to filter, explain, or perform. It gives you a quiet corner of your day to reconnect with yourself, figure out what actually matters, and push back against the noise of unrealistic expectations.

When the world keeps moving the goalpost, your journal can help you stay grounded in who you are—not just who you’re told to be.