Everything You Need to Know

About our 30-Day New Year’s Journaling Project!

Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

To live the questions is to loosen the grip—not on control exactly, but on the belief that I ever held it. Uncertainty is the ground we stand on, and what remains within our reach is attention: the discipline of noticing, the choice to respond with imagination and care.

The 30-day New Year’s Journaling Project is a way for us to enter the year in conversation with our intuition, rather than in battle with white-knuckled resolutions that were never built to hold our whole selves.

To join, become a paid subscriber of the Isolation Journals.

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Paid subscribers will receive:

• 30 days of prompts for reflection and inspiration

• group conversations for gentle accountability

• special guest appearances

• and invitations to special gatherings sprinkled throughout January.

There’s no need to register—paid subscribers will receive everything delivered to their inbox. Just upgrade if you haven’t already!

Invite a friend—

I’m most consistent in a daily practice when I commit to it with friends or family—like with my mom, who’s an incredibly disciplined journaler. Each morning as she’s drinking her tea, she journals in both words and watercolors, and often she’ll send me a photo of her journaling set up as she’s getting started, which always spurs me to the page.

I love that kind of positive peer pressure—­the way we draw energy from each other. Plus it’s just more fun! For the benefits of community and accountability, invite a loved one to join our 30-Day New Year’s Journaling Project alongside you.

To opt out of the daily emails—

Just head to this page in your settings, then toggle the button beside “30-Day New Year’s Project” off (it will turn gray).

Frequently Asked Questions—

How does the 30-Day New Year’s Journaling Project work?

This project includes a special January 1 offering followed by 30 days of prompts. They will arrive in your inbox at 12am ET. As for how to sign up—there’s no special registration. Just make sure you’re a paid subscriber!

Where do I find the prompts?

The daily prompts are archived on our homepage (along with every email we send out). Just head to theisolationjournals.substack.com. The prompt are under the heading “30 Day New Year’s Project.” Please note that on Sundays, the daily prompt is the one in the regular newsletter.

Is there a fee?

Anyone is welcome to join the 30-Day New Year’s Journaling Project by committing to a small creative act each day in January. Paid subscribers will receive daily prompts for inspiration, gentle accountability, ongoing group conversations, and a handful of special events sprinkled throughout the month.

The Isolation Journals is a reader-supported publication ($6/mo or $60/year). However, we do offer scholarships, so if you feel like you’d benefit from this but the paid subscription is out of reach, please email us at suleika@theisolationjournals.com. No explanation needed, no questions asked.

I’m a paid subscriber, but when I try to access the email, it tells me I need to upgrade. What do I do?

It sounds like you might not be signed in to our newsletter platform with the email you used to subscribe. You can check by clicking on this page and seeing if you’re signed in using the email address you used to subscribe.

If you’re not signed in at all, it will prompt you to do so. If you’re signed in using a different email address, you can log out by clicking the hamburger menu in the bottom left corner, choose “sign out,” and then sign back in using the correct address.

I’m not getting the daily emails. What do I do about that?

To ensure you’re receiving all our emails, you can check your notifications settings using the following steps:

1. Go to your manage subscription page by clicking here.

2. Check to see that your notifications for the emails you want, including Sunday Musings (the daily prompt goes out with the newsletter on Sundays) and the 30-Day Journaling Project, are on (meaning they are toggled to blue rather than gray).

What if I’m not a “Creative”?

The beautiful thing about journaling is that it’s for everyone. You don’t need any special skills—just paper and a writing instrument. There’s so much research that demonstrates the mental and physical health benefits of journaling, but I know it’s magic on a personal and experiential level. The journal holds space for everything—the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, the grocery lists and the angsty rants and also moments of pure poetry.

Can I journal on a laptop?

I do think there’s something powerful about writing by hand, but you can journal in any way that makes sense for you—be it on a laptop, on your phone, with a fancy fountain pen or a pencil stub. Choose whatever medium is most inviting and inspiring and makes you want to return.

What if I start late?

It’s fine! I love starting a new challenge on the first of the year, but this project is not about rigid perfectionism. If it’s Day 3, you can either jump in there, or you can start at the beginning. Whatever feels right to you! Again, here’s the archive of prompts: 30-Day New Year’s Project.

What if I miss a day?

There’s a fine line between mustering the discipline to see things through and putting the kind of pressure on yourself that makes you freeze up. If you miss a day, call in some self-compassion. Try to love the lapses. Then just pick it back up.

I want to participate, but I’m short on time and flexibility.

As with all of our challenges, you should tailor this project to meet your needs. If you’re inspired, by all means, let yourself get carried away. But if you’re short on time, or have an inflexible schedule, do what it takes to make it fit.

Setting a page count or a timer for 10 minutes often helps me stick with it. Another trick is to fold it into your routine—to pair it with a non-negotiable. What has worked for me is three pages (obviously choosing the paper size that works for you!) while drinking my coffee. If your non-negotiable is a morning walk, pair it with that—just open your voice memo app and let yourself muse.

How do I connect with the community or share my work?

There’s no pressure to share what you create. But if you want to connect with others, share your work, or just talk about what came up, you can do so in the comments section (just click “Leave a Comment”), in our Facebook group, or on Instagram by tagging @theisolationjournals.

As a reminder, we love seeing your work inspired by the Isolation Journals, but to preserve this as a community space, we request no promotion of outside projects.