Video Journal Prompts: 60 Questions to Talk Through

The best video journal prompts are short, open questions you can answer out loud in a minute or two. Below are 60 of them, grouped by what kind of day you're having, along with a few tips for answering on camera when your mind goes blank.

Prompts matter more for video than for writing. With a notebook you can stare at the page until something comes. With a camera pointed at your face, silence feels awkward fast. Having a question ready before you press record is often the difference between recording and putting it off.

How to use these video journal prompts

Read the prompt once, press record, and answer it as if a friend had asked. Don't script it. A video journal entry isn't a performance, and the unpolished version is the one you'll want to watch later.

A few habits help:

• Choose before you record. Pick tomorrow's prompt tonight so you're not deciding with the camera running.
• Say the prompt out loud first. It gives you an opening line and tells future you what the entry is about.
• Stop when you're done. Thirty seconds is a complete entry. So is ten minutes.

If you're brand new, read how to start a video journal first. It covers timing, privacy and building the habit.

Daily check-in prompts

Use these when you want a quick, repeatable entry. They work on any day, which makes them good defaults.

1. What happened today, and how did it make me feel?
2. What was the best part of today?
3. What took more energy than I expected?
4. What surprised me today?
5. What did I learn, even something small?
6. What am I still thinking about from today?
7. What's one thing I want to remember about today?
8. What's one thing I'd do differently?

Prompts for noticing the good

These are some of the best-studied journaling exercises. In a study led by Martin Seligman, people who wrote down three things that went well each day, and why, for one week reported more happiness and fewer depressive symptoms than a comparison group, and the difference lasted for six months. In separate experiments by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, people who regularly listed things they were grateful for came out ahead of comparison groups on several measures of wellbeing.

Those studies used writing, but the exercise works just as well spoken.

9. What are three things that went well today, and why did they happen?
10. Who made today better, and do they know it?
11. What's something I usually take for granted that I'm glad I have?
12. What made me laugh or smile today?
13. What's a small comfort I enjoyed today?
14. What's going better than it was a month ago?
15. What's something about where I live that I appreciate?
16. What did my body let me do today?

The happy wall in Happy Reasons is built around this idea: a short public post about one thing that made you smile. Your journal entries stay private; happy reasons are the part you choose to share.

Prompts for naming how you feel

Saying a feeling out loud is a small act of processing. In a brain-imaging study led by Matthew Lieberman, labeling the emotion in an image (for example, choosing the word "angry") reduced activity in the amygdala, a region involved in emotional reactions, compared with other ways of responding to the same image.

17. What's the main feeling I've had today? Where did it come from?
18. If my mood today were weather, what would it be?
19. What's one feeling I've been avoiding?
20. What am I anxious about right now, and how likely is it really?
21. When did I feel most like myself today?
22. What drained me today, and what recharged me?
23. What am I proud of that nobody else noticed?
24. What do I need right now that I'm not getting?

Prompts for hard days

On a bad day, a long prompt can feel like homework. Keep these short and give yourself permission to record for less than a minute.

25. What's weighing on me most right now?
26. What's in my control here, and what isn't?
27. What would I say to a friend who was going through this?
28. What's one small thing that would make tomorrow a little easier?
29. What has helped me get through a day like this before?
30. Who could I talk to about this?
31. What am I telling myself about this situation that might not be true?
32. What do I want to remember about getting through today?

Prompt 27 borrows from research on self-distancing. In experiments by Ethan Kross and colleagues, people who talked themselves through a stressful task using their own name or "you," instead of "I," felt less distress and performed better. On camera, try answering hard prompts in the second person: "You've had a rough week, and here's what you did well."

Prompts for growth and goals

These suit weekly entries. Pick a regular day, like Sunday evening, and look at the week as a whole.

33. What went well this week, and what made it work?
34. What's one habit I want to build, and what's the smallest version of it?
35. What did I avoid this week, and why?
36. What's a goal I've outgrown?
37. What did I spend time on that I don't want to repeat?
38. What would make next week a good week?
39. What's a skill I'm slowly getting better at?
40. What's one thing I've changed my mind about recently?

Prompts about the people in your life

41. Who have I been thinking about lately, and why?
42. What's a conversation I keep replaying?
43. Who do I want to spend more time with?
44. What's something I've never told someone that I'd like them to know?
45. How have I shown up for someone this week?
46. What's a relationship that's changed over the last year?
47. Who taught me something I still use?
48. What do I want the people close to me to know about how I'm doing?

Prompts for capturing memories

These are the entries you'll be glad you recorded in five years. They work especially well on video, because your voice, your room and the light outside get saved along with the answer.

49. Give a tour of where I am right now.
50. What does a normal weekday look like for me at the moment?
51. What am I watching, reading or listening to these days?
52. What's my favorite meal right now?
53. What's a small detail about today I'll probably forget?
54. What would I want to tell myself a year from now?
55. What's changed since this time last year?
56. What's a story I always tell, and why does it matter to me?

Prompts for your future self

Imagining a good future is another well-studied exercise. In a study by Laura King, people who wrote about their "best possible future self" for 20 minutes on four consecutive days reported higher wellbeing three weeks later than people who wrote about a neutral topic, and found the exercise far less upsetting than writing about a trauma.

57. Describe my best possible life five years from now, as if it already happened.
58. What do I hope future me has stopped worrying about?
59. What's one decision I'm making now that future me will thank me for?
60. What do I want to be true about my life by the end of this year?

Keep a few prompts you always come back to

You don't need all 60. Pick two or three that fit you and use them as defaults, then dip into the rest when you want variety. Repetition is useful: answers to the same question months apart show you how much you've changed.

If you'd rather not choose at all, Happy Reasons includes prompt journeys, guided sets of prompts you answer one entry at a time, plus multi-day challenges. Some journeys need Pro. For more on whether talking or writing suits you better, read video journal vs written journal, or browse more video journaling guides.