The main pitfall is trying to make it pretty. If it’s too much work you won’t do it. Give yourself permission to write crooked and sloppy and even in a different notebook because you couldn’t find your main one.

I use an online journal, and it emails me everyday. So I just respond to the email, and it adds to my journal. I’ve been journalling since 2006. I have thousands of entries.

I have two big hurdles. One is that I often don’t have a comfortable place to write. My desk is always messy, I don’t like writing in bed, etc. This one can be resolved with a little planning, it’s annoying but doable and having a place to write really helps with the second and more difficult hurdle:

The second hurdle is that I almost never actually want to write when it actually comes down to doing the actual writing. I’ll clear my desk, set reminders on my phone, buy nice notebooks and pens, have good intentions and then I’ll wake up in the morning, or get home in the evening, and I’ll have to choose between writing and not writing. As of this post, not writing has won most of the contests. The thing that has worked best for me, even though I am far from consistent, is recognizing that I don’t want to write, acknowledging the fact, and then making myself write anyway. Even if all I scribble down is “I don’t want to write, I have nothing to say, I don’t want to do this right now, this is stupid and sucks and why am I writing this drivel in a 35 goddamn dollar notebook” it still counts, and it builds the writing muscle.

I use https://reasonabledeviations.com/2022/04/18/molecular-notes-part-1/

https://reasonabledeviations.com/2022/06/12/molecular-notes-part-2/

I use the Logseq app on my phone and computer and synchronize data using Google drive. Obsidian does the synchronization for you, but costs a small amount if you are averse to costs. I like it because I can organize things organically, using tags, and create pages for topics that I plan on revisiting many times.