There’s a vast body of research on the benefits of journalling: getting your thoughts down on paper helps shift your perspective, so it’s easier to solve problems, process troublesome emotions, or make big decisions.

But it’s easy to get bogged down in technicalities: what should you write? How? And when?

Why not try ‘morning pages’, a technique devised by creativity expert Julia Cameron: as soon as you can after getting up, sit down and write anything at all, until you’ve covered three sides of paper?

This is a tiny habit to create, but covering three sides can make a real difference. But it doesn’t take much thinking about, which is the crucial thing: you do it semi-automatically, before you’ve fully woken, and if you can’t think what to write, that’s fine – just write that!

But keep going – it’s the final page-and-a-half, Cameron writes, that often ‘contains pay dirt’.

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Find out more about why journalling boosts our happiness here, and read five reasons why we should all keep a journal, here!

Photograph: Getty Images