One Word for the Day: The Smallest Journal That Still Tells You Something

Some evenings there is no energy for a journal at all. You are tired in the particular way where even choosing which programme to watch feels like a decision too many. On evenings like that, a page of writing is not going to happen.

One word might. That is the whole idea of this habit, and after a few years of it I think it is the most underrated form of journalling there is.

How it works

Before bed, ask yourself which single word belongs to today. Write it down. Then write one sentence underneath about why that word and not another. That is it. A minute, perhaps two.

The word can be anything. Tired. Crowded. Relief. Rain. Rehearsal. Marmalade. It does not need to be profound and it does not need to be positive. It needs to be the right word, which is a different thing.

The word does not need to be profound. It needs to be the right word, which is a different thing.

Why the sentence matters more than the word

A column of single words on its own is oddly unreadable after a few months. You look at Tuesday the ninth, which says glass, and you have no idea what you meant.

The sentence is what keeps it. Glass, because the meeting felt like everyone was being very careful not to break something. Now you remember the meeting, the person, and the fact that you were right about it.

There is also something useful in having to explain your choice. You often write down the first word that comes, start the sentence, and realise halfway through that the real word was something else. The crossing out is part of the record too.

What a year of words shows you

After a few months, read the words on their own, straight down the page, without the sentences. It is a strange and revealing experience.

• You notice which words keep coming back. For a lot of people it is a word like managing, or waiting.
• You see seasons you did not know you had. A run of short, flat words in November. A cluster of bright ones in May.
• You find the day that turned out to matter, marked by a word that seemed ordinary at the time.
• You start to see which words you reach for, and which ones seem to reach for you.

A few rules that help

• One word, not a phrase. If you cannot choose, that is a sign you have two different days going on, and you should pick the one that will matter in a month.
• No repeating yesterday's word unless it really is the same day again. That in itself is worth noticing.
• Proper nouns are allowed. Sometimes the word for the day is simply a name.
• Missed an evening? Leave it blank rather than guessing the next morning. A blank is honest.
• Start today. Not on the first of January, not on a Monday. A year of words is a year from whenever you start.

Why on paper

You could do this in a notes app, and it would work for about a week. The trouble is that a phone at bedtime is rarely a one-minute visit, and a list of words in an app never gets looked at as a whole.

On paper you see a month of words at a glance, laid out in your own handwriting, which changes on the difficult days in a way no font ever will.

The book

The Word of the Day has 366 entries, two to a page, each with space for the word and room to say why, and a closing look back at the year in words. It is undated, so you can start this evening, and there is room for a leap day.