Hello to all of my fellow organizationally-obsessed gals!
Believe it or not, October means we are now in the 4th quarter of 2025. At least for me, this year seems like it's flying by faster than ever before — which makes me feel like it’s all the more necessary to pause, reflect and regroup before we get too deep into the month.
Today, I’m here with a few thought-provoking and introspective journal prompts for you to use as inspo to get the words flowing. Pick and choose your favorites, or better yet, try to work through the ones that you have the most visceral reaction to upon reading — that’s a sign that it might be a topic with some juiciness for you to unpack.
It doesn't matter if you are a seasoned journaling pro or just dipping your toes in for the first time, anyone can reap the benefits of daily journaling habit, even if you only do it for a few minutes each day, and even if you’re not perfectly consistent.
Pssst... Here's a few printable planners I thought you might like!
Before we get to the prompts, here are a few quick journaling ideas that will help you make the most of this great daily habit:
Dive Right in Without Much Thought
Your daily journaling session shouldn’t have any pomp and circumstance or any rigid rules — instead, pour yourself a cup of coffee and just let the words pour out as they come to mind. Allow your thoughts to run wild and don’t worry about how it is structure or editing it whatsoever. In fact, try not to use the backspace button at all — a true brain dump out on to the page is the best strategy to get the pen moving and your thoughts flowing.
You can journal first thing in the morning, or right before you go to bed – or, if you’re like me, go ahead and leave various journal prompt print-outs, pens, and cute notebooks lying around your house. Chances are at some point during the day, motivation will strike, and you can get to it.
Just jot down whatever comes to mind: upcoming plans for the day, some reflections on how the week is going, or anything that might be stressing you out. Journaling can be super therapeutic, as long as you embrace the messiness, and allow yourself to share totally unfiltered thoughts. Remember, nobody else is going to read it.
Use a Printable Calendar as a Visual Roadmap
Like I said earlier, 2025 is flying by seemingly faster than any year before. Maybe it’s because I’ve been keeping so busy this year, or maybe it’s just that I’m getting older 😅
I’d like to go with reason #1, but either way, the beginning of a new month is the perfect opportunity realign focus, and prioritize the things that you may have let slip the month before. I’m a sucker for overdoing it on the New Year’s Resolutions, and so far in 2025, I’ve realized that breaking up my goals month-by-month has been a much more effective strategy at sticking to them.
Physically writing things down onto a printable calendar has been super helpful, as it’s the perfect sidekick to my daily journal. It let me visually digest where we are in the month, how much progress I’ve made on my goals, and what upcoming events or deadlines should be on my radar. I like to keep mine folded up and tucked inside the front cover, and I usually take a quick peek at it every day or two.
Of course, Tidy Plans has an entire collection of cute printable calendar PDFs, which are the perfect way to map out all of your goals — grab your favorite design right here!
Alright, that’s enough yapping from me. Let’s get to the good stuff — here are a few thought-provoking journal prompts for you to work through this month at your leisure.
Five October 2025 Journal Prompts for Self-Reflection
Journal Prompt #1: Identify any habits or behaviors that you find yourself criticizing in others, and reflect if they actually represent aspects of yourself that you suppress. Good ‘ol projection, baby.
Journal Prompt #2: Think back to the goals you set in January. Now that we are in October with less than 25% of the year remaining, write about where you stand with each one of them. Naturally, some goals will have evolved or even be completely irrelevant — that’s totally okay. Is there a single goal you want to refocus on and make one final push before the year end?
Journal Prompt #3: Talk about the three most nourishing things you’ve consumed lately — whether that’s a meal, a movie, or a deep chat with a friend. What made it so tasty? And how can you invite more of this thing into your life on a regular basis?
Journal Prompt #4: Choose one area of your life where you crave a bit more structure, and one area where you’d like to loosen things up. Why is this? What underlying factors are causing this push and pull?
Journal Prompt #5: Describe in specific detail the physical spaces you’ve spent the most time in lately. How does the environment of each one impact your mood, productivity, and creativity? What steps can you take to be more alert when a space is having a negative impact?
Looking for more journal prompts? Check these out!
If you find these journal prompts to be useful, or have anything else you’d like to chat about, I’d love to hear from you. Reach out to me here and I pinky promise I’ll reply back!
Here's to a month of cozying up with your favorite pen and some printables, and allowing your most profound thoughts (and your silliest — those are important too!) to pour out of you.
Happy October, and happy journaling!
