Your daily prompts for November 2024: Simple pleasures

New month, new theme 🙂 In November your journal prompts are about proactively noticing and appreciating the simple pleasures in your life, particularly in the season we’re in. I hope that delving into these brings joy.

A few things to remember:

• Some of the prompts are lighthearted and playful, and others encourage you to take a bit of a deeper dive — but it’s entirely up to you how long you’d like to spend on each. They’re designed for you to be able to take as much or as little time as you like.

• Likewise, it’s completely up to you whether you’d like to complete the journals prompt everyday or just pick and choose the ones that speak to you the most. There are enough here for you to do one a day, of course (and I personally love journaling every morning!) but if that feels unrealistic or pressured for you, then please don’t feel that you have to. Even journaling a couple of times a week can bring amazing benefits to your wellbeing and mindset, so I want you to approach this in a way that feels good for you.

• Most of the prompts here are designed for you to explore with writing, unless otherwise stated. But please feel free to adapt them if you’d rather draw or collage or use any other creative techniques!

• Tip — each time you want to get to these prompts you can log in to the Members area and head to this page (I’d recommended bookmarking it for quick access) or if you’d like to be able to access them offline, you could copy & paste all the prompts and save them in your notes app on your phone, or print them out on a piece of paper at the start of the month. Your choice, of course!

Lastly, I’m here to support you so please just send me an email on hannah@journalforjoy.co.uk if you have any questions at any point.

Let’s go ☺️✍️

The prompts

1. What would you like this November to be about? Choose a word of the month and write it down in your journal. Take up a full page in your journal, if you like, and spend a few minutes illustrating your word and decorating your page.

2. What’s something that you get to enjoy in this season that you can’t/don’t in other seasons?

3. How can you savour simple joys this week? Brainstorm ideas for ways that you can make the most of the little things.

4. Find a pretty fallen leaf and stick it in your journal (or sketch it).

5. Sit on a bench near where you live. Put your phone (and journal!) down and take a few minutes to observe what’s going on around you. Write about what you noticed.

6. Are there any areas of your life where you’re craving more simplicity?

7. Recall a happy autumn memory. Do a quick sketch of the memory in your journal. Is there a way that you can recreate a bit of this autumn magic in the coming weeks? 

8. Write or draw something in your journal inspired by today’s weather. 

9. Write a bucket list of things you’d like to enjoy or experience before the autumn season is over.

10. My favourite thing to do on a Sunday morning is _____________.

11. What is one simple pleasure that you get to experience today that you did not get to experience in the past?

12. Think about a time when you shared a simple pleasure with a friend – perhaps a chat over coffee and cake, or watching a funny film together at the cinema. Whatever comes to mind, write about the experience, recalling all of the little details that you can remember about the moment.

13. What’s your favourite autumn tradition or ritual? Why do you enjoy it?

14. Close your eyes and think about something you feel truly grateful to have in your life. Sit with the feeling of gratitude for a few moments and notice where you feel it in your body. Write down anything you noticed.

15.  Draw a picture of the last tasty meal that you ate!

16. My favourite song right now is ________________.
My favourite TV show right now is _________________.
My favourite food right now is ________________.

17. Draw a series of shapes or blobs on your page and colour them in with shades of autumn. 

18. Write down your top 5 favourite free activities to do near where you live. You could go a step further and plan a day out doing them all with a friend!

19. Describe the feeling of rain on your skin.

20. What’s your favourite time of day at the moment and why?

21. Go for a walk and look for tiny, beautiful things in nature - a small pebble, a shell, an insect or a flower, for example. Record your findings in your journal. It’s up to you whether you’d like to use words, drawings or photography. 

22. What are 3 lessons that you can learn from nature in autumn?

23. Illustrate the simple pleasures you’ve experienced this week with a collection of doodles! Fill your page with as many as you can.

24. What’s a smell that brings you joy or happiness? Write about it!

25. ______________ always cheers me up when I need it.

26. If you could wave a magic wand and choose one simple pleasure that you get to experience every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?

27. Draw a thought bubble on your page. Write a positive thought for today inside it.

28. Whatever you eat next, take the time to savour it slowly and pay close attention to all five of your senses. Then make a list of everything you noticed under five headings in your journal – sight, sound, smell, touch and taste. 

29. Write about something ordinary you’ve experienced today that you feel grateful for. 

30. Make a list of all the good things that happened this November, big or small.