5 Things To Do With A Multi-Year Journal

I previously wrote a guide to journaling. Today, I thought it might be fun to talk specifically about a specific kind of journaling, namely multi-year journals.

What are multi-year journals?

You’ve probably seen multi-year journals for sale in various forms. I usually see journals meant to last five years, but you may also see three or ten year variations. The basic premise remains the same regardless of the number of years being covered: there is space for you to write a few lines on a dated page over the course of several years. 

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the say, what does one actually do with one of these journals? Maybe you bought a multi-year journal on a whim or maybe one was gifted to you. Regardless, maybe you’re looking for ideas about what to do with a journal like this. 

If that’s you, here are five ideas of what you can write in your new journal. 

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.

1️⃣ Write a few sentences about your day

This is probably the most obvious suggestion and the one I think most people go with. Still, I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Maybe you’re new to journaling or you’re super busy and the idea of staring at a blank page intimidates you. If you have a smaller space to fill, that might make things feel less overwhelming. 

The downside, of course, is that you have to commit to doing this for multiple years  of your life to this particular notebook. Ok, so you don’t “have” to, but it’s also understandable that you feel like you should fill the notebook you spent money on.

2️⃣ Headline of the day

Choose a news headline that stood out to you and write a few lines about your thoughts on the news item.

As the years go on, it might be interesting to look back at what headlines stood out to you, how the news story developed after you wrote about it, and if your opinion is still the same.

3️⃣ Keep track of the local weather conditions

If science / the weather is something that interests you, this might be a fun thing to do. Maybe you’re the sort of person who would be fascinated to be able to look back and see that on February 17 of one year there was a blizzard that shut the whole town down, but it was unseasonably warm on the same day the next year. Or is this just a me thing? 

4️⃣ Q&A

I know you can buy a Q&A type journal where you get a new question to answer for each day of the year – and then you answer the same question again on the same day for multiple years. If you don’t want to buy a journal this specific, you could always create your own. Questions could be things like “what was the last text message I sent?” or “What is the last dream I remember?” – questions you’d expect to have different answers to over time. 

It might be fun to look back and see how your answers changed from one year to the next.

5️⃣ Gratitude

I’m sure you’ve seen people extolling the benefits of gratitude journaling. If this is something you’re interested in trying, a multi-year journal might be a good place to start. 

My only bit of advice: make sure to include not only what you’re grateful for but why. Be as specific as you can. For example, instead of “I’m grateful for my BFF,” consider “I’ve been dealing with a bad breakup, but I’m super grateful that my BFF came over to cheer me up.” You get the idea.

Have you ever used a multi-year journal? How did you use it?

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read full disclosure for more information.

Updated: Mar 16, 2025 @ 6:21 pm