For those rare occasions when your long-time journaling practice starts to feel like another chore, here are ways to energize your writing.

Difficulty Level: average      Time Required: 15 minutes

1. Wider? If most of your entries are angsty, lighten up. Notice pop songs, pets, acquaintances, what's blooming outside your window.
2. Deeper? If your typical entry is newsy and light, push yourself to examine your regrets, worries and ambitions.
3. Try new methods: Make your next entry a list, a dialogue, a letter, a collage. Use questions or quotes. Keep a list of ideas and topics.
4. Try new materials: another kind of notebook, a better pen. Go from paper to computer -- or back again.
5. Experiment with form: Keep an online journal, a sketch journal, an audio journal, a photo journal.
6. Paste in something else you've written lately: email to friends, office memos. What do you want to add?
7. Keep a small journal (or a palmtop) with you. Write a few lines at your desk, on the streetcar, or while you wait.
8. Consider focusing a journal on one aspect of your life: dreams (day or night), career, kids, health, relationships.
9. Read: online journals, memoirs, books on writing. Especially recommended: Kathleen Adams' "Journal to the Self," for its wealth of ideas.
   

1. Give yourself something different to write about: a new book, class, sport, or hobby.
2. It's better to write a few informative or impassioned pages a year than never to write at all.
3. Remember: Journaling isn't flossing. It's okay to take a break.