Bullet Journal Gratitude Log For Happiness In Your Life

Today I’ll show you how to bring more light and happiness to your life with a gratitude log in your Bullet Journal.

The gratitude log is probably my favorite Bullet Journal page idea, it helps me a lot with mental health and many other things. In this post, I’ll try to help you do the same.

Let me be honest here – I don’t always keep up with my gratitude log.

If you flip through my 2018-2020 journals, you’ll see that even though I do have a gratitude log every month, I don’t necessarily fill it out every day.

It’s not like it’s a big deal – actually the whole beauty of the Bullet Journal is that you can use it in any way you want.

BUT! It did make me realize that I wasn’t using this excellent tool to its fullest. For me, it became just one more thing to fill out at the end of the day, like a habit tracker if you will.

Until one day I was thinking about a friend of mine and how it can be difficult to talk to that friend sometimes because everything and everything annoys her. There is always something wrong with things around her.

I was thinking about how I wish she saw more beauty in the world when it hit me – I might as well be thinking about myself!

How often did I find myself being unhappy with things around me and starting the conversation by complaining about yet another thing that went wrong, instead of seeing everything that is right?

This really was a huge hit for me, I saw myself as a bitter and negative person and realized that I’m not doing my best to improve.

So I reevaluated the things I want to change myself and as always, started using my journal to help me.

One of the most powerful tools you can use in your Bullet Journal to cultivate positive thinking is a gratitude log.

So today I want to share with you what is a gratitude log, how it can help you (and how it helped me), and what are the different ways you can create a gratitude log in your Bullet Journal.

There is also a free printable gratitude log in the Resources Vault.

If you’re not part of Planning Mashers yet, be sure to sign up at the end of the post and get your access.

At the end of the post, I also collected lots of different gratitude log Bullet Journal spreads, so be sure to scroll down and find some inspiration there.

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What Is A Gratitude Log

A gratitude log is a collection in your Bullet Journal where on a daily basis you write something that you’re grateful for.

It’s very simple, right? Just end each day with a pen and your journal and spend 5 minutes writing down something good that happens.

At the same time, this little action will bring you some incredible results, if you do it right.

So be sure to scroll down and read my tips on how to use a gratitude log so it never becomes just one more meaningless habit to do at the end of the day.

Benefits Of Keeping A Gratitude Log

Now let’s look through some of those magical benefits I mentioned above.

I know some of these might sound a bit far-fetched, but believe me when I say – it’s all true and it all works.

I’ve been using the gratitude log in my Bullet Journal for years, and it’s definitely one of the important pages that helped me to recover from some serious mental health troubles.

So keep an open mind and don’t dismiss anything; give it a try and see for yourself first.

Use a gratitude log to live in the present

First and foremost, a gratitude log will help you to be more present.

Did you ever think about us never actually living in the present? All our thoughts are occupied by our past plans for a better future.

Let’s be honest here – we so rarely take time to enjoy this moment right now! And this moment right now is what life is all about. Keep living in the past or the future and life will walk by.

Spending each day with a gratitude log will allow you to appreciate more the things that happen to you right now and to be more mindful of where you are in life.

Gratitude log to be more positive

You could have a wonderful day, and then some little thing happens that annoys you and suddenly it feels like the entire day was not a good one.

Our mind is constructed in a way that we tend to give more meaning to the negative things and forget all the good things.

Having a gratitude log will help you always remember those little good things that happen and in turn to start seeing life in a more positive way.

A gratitude log helps improve mental health

By creating a more positive outlook, you’re also working on eliminating negative emotions, or at least giving them less power over you.

This in turn will lead you to better mental health, better sleep, and even better physical health.

If you ever needed an example of one little thing done every day changing your life – a gratitude log is it!

Use a gratitude log to improve relationships

This is a big one!

Being a more positive person will help you a lot in building new relationships and improving existing ones.

Moreover, as you fill out your gratitude log and learn to be, well, more grateful for things and people around you, you will also start to appreciate more the things people do for you.

One extra smile or a thank you can go a very long way in building relationships. Everyone likes being appreciated and believe me it will come back to you twice fold.

A gratitude log helps with self-esteem

This is the one benefit I didn’t expect to get from this, but it definitely was a pleasant surprise.

Since a gratitude log helps you to see and appreciate all the wonderful things that you have in your life, it also leads to you spending less time comparing yourself to others.

As a result, you get less negative emotions like envy and you’re feeling much better about yourself and where you are in your life => better self-esteem.

How To Use A Gratitude Log

Hopefully, by now you’re utterly convinced that you just have to try using a gratitude log in your Bullet Journal!

Before you rush and jump in, let me share with you some tips to make sure you use it to the best of its ability and not just to complete one more task per day.

Write in it each day

Consistency is the key when it comes to a gratitude log. So be sure to write something down each day.

It really only takes a few minutes but will be absolutely worth it.

You can even think of your gratitude in advance while folding laundry or doing dishes, just make sure you remember and write it down later during the day.

Be mindful

This really is the most important thing about having a gratitude log.

If you just sit down, write something and forget about it the next moment – don’t expect any changes to happen.

When you write your daily gratitude – be sure you think about it and consider why you’re writing it.

When my husband cooked borsh and I wrote it in my gratitude log – it had incredible meaning, I was grateful for the food of my childhood, for the wonderful memories it brought to me, for my amazing grandma who was always so sweet to me and who I really miss.

Put the meaning behind your gratitude, don’t allow it to be just an empty statement of something good that happened.

The other day I wrote how happy I am to not be cold anymore, now that we are visiting the family. Back in our house, I have to wear 3 sweaters, while here I walk in a T- shirt and shorts.

This helps me to understand how lucky I am to have what I have.

Reflect

This isn’t a necessary thing to do per se, but I find it pretty useful to look back at my gratitude log and reflect on all the wonderful things that happened and that I have.

It can be an especially powerful tool to cheer up on some dark days and remind yourself how wonderful life is and how many things you have to be grateful for.

What To Write In A Gratitude Log

I know we talked about it and said you can write one thing you’re grateful for each day.

But sometimes you need an extra kick to get started, so here are a few things and a few questions you might ask yourself when sitting down to write your gratitudes.

I’m sure once you use these and find your own perfect way to do it – it will come to you so very easy!

• Something good that happened to you
• Something good happening you witnessed
• Something that made you smile
• Something that made this day better than yesterday
• Something that was a pleasant surprise
• Little things you love around you
• People in your life that make it better

If you want some more ideas, be sure to check my post 15 Fantastic Daily Gratitude Journal Prompts.

Types Of Gratitude Logs

If you’re convinced and ready to start using gratitude logs, here are a few ways you can go about it.

A word a day

We all know how powerful words can be, and sometimes just one word can mean so much.

Try expressing your daily gratitude with just one word a day. 

This also will look super fun at the end of the month, especially if you try out different colors and different lettering styles every day.

A line a day

This is probably my favorite way to do a gratitude log – writing one (or two) lines a day. It allows me to add maybe more than just one thing. 

One line is enough to express it all but not too much so it ends up being a journaling entry.

Calendar style

You can also create another calendar for the month, but this time use each daily box for entry to your gratitude log. 

You can write one word, or a whole sentence there, depending on what you feel like.

Doodles

One of my favorite ways to have a gratitude log- by doodling things I’m grateful for.

This will not only have all the effects of the gratitude log but will also help you to get a bit more creative each day.

Plus it’s a very fun spread to look back at.

Gratitude Journals

Before I share with you tons of Bullet Journal gratitude log spreads, I thought I’d add here some other journals you can use.

Maybe you want to commit to a gratitude log on a whole new level so you challenged yourself to fill out a gratitude journal for an entire year.

Or maybe you don’t actually Bullet Journal (give it a try! I have a Beginner’s Guide To Bullet Journaling to get you started).

So here are some gratitude journals that you can use to help you get all the benefits of this practice.

And if this doesn’t work for you either, you can always use it as a small notebook idea, that way you have less space to feel pressure over, and it’s a fun way to put your journal collection to use.

Bullet Journal Gratitude Log Ideas

Finally, we are here and these are some absolutely amazing gratitude logs that I found from creators all over Instagram.

I’m sure among all these, you can find the one that fits your style and your journaling needs.

Simple one line a day spread, but a lot of interest is added here by just coloring in every second line.

I also find that when you already have every day mapped out it helps to stay motivated and stay consistent with the daily use of gratitude.

I always love what Erin does and how creative she is with her themes.

This shows in this spread how cool this header looks.

Isabel is a true artist so I always try to include her spreads here.

But don’t get scared or intimidated – you don’t have to be that artistic if you don’t want to.

A word a day is a good way to play around with different lettering styles.

I love all these ideas, and I love this format because it makes you think double when you need to sum up all the joys of one day in just one word.

Isn’t the black and white style absolutely stunning! And an excellent decoration for this spread is the handwriting.

if you want to work on your handwriting by the way check my post 9 Simple Tricks To Improve Your handwriting.

A cool mix of a doodle a day and a word a day.

Really makes me wanna go back to this format in my journal.

A beautiful way to incorporate Fall colors into your Bullet Journal.

I’m also loving the effect of a white pen on top of black – this is probably my favorite way to add some interest to my headers and such.

This white gel pen is definitely my top choice for this effect if you’re looking to try it in your journal as well.

I love this offset effect, it really adds so much to the page.

I actually use this as an effect for the lettering, for example in this September Bullet Journal setup.

I love how exquisite the blue porcelain drawings are.

Granted probably if you write your gratitudes in English this might not b enough to write a sentence a day, but maybe if you do a word a day.

I just can’t get enough of Jess’s gratitude logs and the beautiful fonts.

In this one, I love how all the words are written differently but in the same color.

Another example of one word s day, which seems to be one of my favorite formats.

In this case, it’s completely in black and white, and I think it makes it look very different from all the previous examples.

I had to include this spread, it’s so pretty! Plus, I definitely have a weak spot for using kraft paper in your journal.

If you’re also in love with kraft paper ideas, be sure to check my post Kraft Paper Bullet Journal Inspirations.

A cool idea for a gratitude log – just create a calendar monthly log and write your daily gratitudes inside.

This spread shows that even if you don’t have much space, you still can have enough to write your gratitude.

I’m usually not even a fan of yellow, but this page just looks so happy!

Jess really inspired me so in my current gratitude log I’ll actually be using the same format.

If you want to have a word-a-day gratitude log but without fancy lettering – this is a great example of how you can do it.

I imagine it’s also a great way to practice your handwriting.

This gratitude log is just for half a month, but still isn’t it super cute?

I really like the idea of using color on some lines, it helps for the gratitude log to look more filled even before you write things down. I should probably try to do it myself as well next time.

This handwriting is goal! I’m in love.

And It’s great to have more space for your gratitudes; some days you just need to write more.

I had a similar gratitude log with a design in the middle, and it’s really fun to fill it out. Definitely give it a try!

A bit unrelated, but I’m also loving the patterns used to fill out that habit tracker.

It’s a beautiful spread, and I love how it’s divided. Will be really fun to see it after the pen.

And if you want to learn how to create such pretty floral headers check my post How To Draw Flowers In Your Bullet Journal.

Considering how much joy you can get from your gratitude log, I think it’s a pretty clever idea to make it look like the sun.

It might get a bit difficult to fill it out; you’d need to turn in your journal to do that for some days. But in my opinion, it’s totally worth it.

Such an excellent idea for a gratitude spread! 

I feel like this is the one you just make once, not a log you fill out every day.

It’s still a great help in seeing the positive sides of your life, and maybe this is the approach you need if you’re not ready to commit to writing something down every day.

I like how much freedom this gratitude log gives you. 

As you can see some days, it was just one word, other days entire sentences. I like when you have a choice depending on how your day goes.

This looks absolutely incredible, with the illustrations and all.

To me this is more of a journaling page than a gratitude log, I’m not really used to writing so much for my daily gratitudes.

But it just shows you – your journal your rules, you do whatever works best for you.

Another delightful gratitude log, and I love that even the dates are written in two colors – really adds a feeling of variety to the spread.

It actually might be a good idea if you have an A5 journal to maybe use 2 pages for your gratitude log. That way you’ll have more space to write.

I love the colors here and the creativity of changing the name to positivity log.

It’s also very helpful to have prompts like these, especially if you’re just starting and not sure what to write in your gratitude log.

This is the cutest idea ever, I love these mini doodles.

And it’s a groovy idea to use different colors for your gratitudes, that way, the page looks even more positive and shiny.

If you need more space but also not as much as two pages – this is an excellent idea. You can fill out the space you don’t need with some doodles.

And I’m quite sure she used stencils to create these decorative elements, making it a very fast and easy to set up page.

Nicole always has the cutest way of creating things, and the gratitude log is no exception.

I’m really loving the mix of doodles and lettering here. It makes it visual but still very clear.

Loving this free-flowing format and mix of doodles and lettering.

Lately, I’ve been more and more obsessed with the idea of letting things play out and changing it up depending on how you feel that day. For me, it started from having a plan-as-I-go weekly spread, and now I’m inspired to try that in my gratitude log as well.

Free Printable Gratitude Log

Don’t forget that we have a free printable gratitude log in the Resources Vault!

You can find it there in the section “Other Pages”, it’s available for 30 and 31 days.

If you never used printables in your Bullet Journal before – check post How To Use Printables in Your Bullet Journal for detailed step-by-step instructions.

Don’t have your access yet? Join Planning Mashers in the signup form below, and you can get a gratitude log and tons of other amazing printables from our Resources Vault!

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Have you ever used a gratitude log? How did it work for you?

Share with us your experiences in the comments!

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And remember: Keep Bullet Journaling, and Don’t Be A Blob.