The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living

I came across The Daily Stoic in Barnes and Noble one Saturday near the end of December 2017. I looked through it and liked what I saw but realized that I could not afford the hefty price tag, so I looked it up on Amazon and saw a better price, especially on my retirement budget. As I read the beginning, I realized the power of the thought provoking questions. Journals are usually blank and ready for the writer's thoughts and words. But The Daily Stoic provides the questions which forces the writer in a direction probably far different from what the writer may have intended. The questions are made for reflection and then further reflection again in the evening.

I am thoroughly enjoying the reflective questions that The Daily Stoic provides. Sometimes, I can answer the questions right away and other times I may write "I'll get back to this one" so that I can reflect on it as I don't always have an immediate answer. I have written all of this to encourage others to give this book a try. It is 365 days of thoughts and reflections that are not always comfortable to face, but I think it is worth it.

I have written in a journal most of my life. In grade school, I called it my diary, listing my favorite things and the names of my friends and vacation spots. In high school, I wrote about my feelings (mostly who I was mad at or in love with). In college, my literature prof instructed us to keep a journal on our readings, a great way to interact with the text. After college, I wrote to try to make sense of my life: what I do, and more importantly, why I do what I do! My journal has become, in many ways, my best friend, my confidante, my therapist, my muse … my Voice.

I’ve recently discovered journal prompts in online journal/blog communities, exploring a more structured and deliberate way of writing about my experiences. I've worked with these on and off for a little while now, but for some reason, nothing has really taken hold. The prompts are like "Describe the time when you first fell in love" or "What is the most valuable object you've inherited?" I mean, get it, they are meant to prompt you to just start writing with the idea that at some point, you will write about what's really important to you. But those prompts seem superficial and are often uninspiring. Because what is important to me is figuring out why I do/think/feel the way I do, how predictable those actions/thoughts/feelings are, how those actions/thoughts/feelings have changed over time, and how I should act and decide things right now and going forward.

I have been reading The Daily Stoic this past year. When I got the promotional material for The Daily Stoic Journal, and checked out the sample pages, I ordered it immediately. The few questions that I read in the sample resonated, and on November 19, upon receiving my book in the mail, responded to the question: "Will I accept the situation and still fight to do and be good?" I created a Word document on my laptop and named it "A Stoic Journal 2017-2018." I typed out the question and starting typing a response. In 20 minutes I had written just under 1000 words, describing a challenging period of my life when I felt I was being intimidated and accused of wrongdoing. I had written (complained) about this unwanted situation previously, but this prompt helped me to write about it in a focused way that made a lesson out of it for me, encouraging me to look for how I fought to do and be good in spite of being wrongfully accused. It helped me to accept what I had been through and that it actually was an opportunity to learn something new about myself and make me stronger. I have responded to the journal prompts in The Daily Stoic Journal almost every day since and it's my goal to continue throughout the year.

If you are interested in learning more about yourself and the lessons that you can teach yourself through your own life experiences, I highly recommend this practice!

My knowledge regarding Stoicism is minimal, but I have slowly grown extremely interested with the subject. This book/journal is the perfect way of taking away weekly lessons of the stoics while also implementing the practice of journaling both in the morning and the evening (just like the stoics all those years ago). The quality is wonderful, but I was not expecting anything less as Ryan Holiday has consistently claimed the throne of a modern-day stoic!

I purchased this book 6 years ago. I'm not good at regular daily journaling but this book is great for when I go through phases of wanting to express and explore. It gets my mind thinking on how to live a better life. And I don't have to spend hours - or too many minutes even - doing it! I can pick it up and just jot down a few thoughts on the topic of the day.

I've read Ryan Holiday's books on Stoicism and several of his articles on Medium. Those readings convinced me that journaling was an important part of living a life of continual living and building character. I did not think I needed to buy this journal to do so. Boy, was I wrong. My journaling was all over the place and filled with the same complaints over and over again while I got nowhere closer to what I wanted out of journaling. I've had this journal for about a week now, and what a difference it has made. Each day I now sit down in the morning with focused purpose, prompted by the book, and in just a few minutes make more progress in my personal growth and development of character than in those endless pages of aimless writing I used to do. I still keep a journal for free wanderings now and again, just for the fun of it, but this journal has made a huge difference in a short period of time. I'm sorry I waited so long. It is well organized, focused, encouraging, and extremely helpful. There is also room for evening reflections that allow me to see how focused I've been during the day and if I've made progress in my actions. That has been invaluable.

Yes, it's called The Daily Stoic Journal, and it is centered on Stoic philosophy, but I don't see how it is limited in any way to Stoicism. It's a journal that helps put into practice the wisdom of the ages for living the best life possible, and helping to bring the best actions we are capable of doing into our life.

One year later, I'm changing my review from two stars to four stars. Here's why.

My original review (retained below) was based on superficial stuff. But here's what matters: looking back at my journal entries over the past year, I am enormously thankful for the prompts from this book. I have explored more important ideas, more deeply, than in a lifetime of unprompted journaling. I've pulled a great deal of wisdom from my life experience, thanks to exploring ideas through the lens of stoicism.

I do stand by my original advice, though. Bye this book for the prompts, but use your favorite blank book for your actual journaling.

-----------original review------------

For anyone who follows The Daily Stoic or who simply wants Stoic ideas combined with thoughtful journaling prompts, the content here is fantastic.

My problem is the book itself, printed on cheap, fibrous paper that's no good for journaling with most any pen I enjoy writing with (and since the cheap paper is so grey, pencil looks muddled in the page, too).

Similarly, the thick hardback binding is the opposite of a lay-flat journal, which makes it hard to write in, and the constrained space for writing is only good for the briefest thoughts and tiniest handwriting.

(Small thing, but it also bugs me that Ryan Holiday often describes this on his podcast as "a question in the morning and a question in the evening," when it is really one question per day.)

The obvious solution is to do your journaling in your own favorite journal.

There are so many other things this book could have been... ...a great journal with quality paper and more flexible writing space ....a much smaller book (just reflections and prompts without all the blank pages, with the expectation of BYO journal) ...a more interesting product that packages the prompts as physical bookmarks or stickers or something else you combine with your favorite journal ... Or even a digital product (a download, daily email or text prompts, etc)

This is a great journal, especially if you are just starting your reflection journey!

I've been using mine for about 3-4 months now and have enjoyed the experience. It's stand alone with no need for the companion book, but some of the prompts may just seem a little bit out of nowhere without it. That's not a bad thing though! It just makes you reflect more.

Each week starts with a small blurb and a few quotes. Unfortunately, at least for 2024 the book doesn't line up the weeks to well. MYbe because it was a leap year? I don't know, but that's the only thing that messes up the flow. Very minor.

I highly recommend 👌

So I’ll start with the good parts - this is a great idea to guide and document your reflections. It also serves as a form of journaling (something I’ve been meaning to do as well)! I’m glad I got it and am happy with it… overall

The reason for the low rating - it is overpriced. The paper used is extremely cheap - the typical softcover pulp paper. It makes the book lightweight but for $29 cover price, it really should have some nicer quality paper. There is very little content and it comes from other sources. So why is it priced more than most hardcover books? It isn’t archival quality velum paper. The pages are split between days so they saved pages by giving you less room to write. Maybe it’s inflation or maybe it’s just my opinion but $30 is the price of a nice quality hardcover book with good content and photos. An 80% empty book with pulp paper shouldn’t be that much. I also noticed the pages aren’t even numbered. Might be trivial to some people but from a cost perspective, it saved the publisher money. So this should have cost just a little more than what a blank journal cost. Anyways that’s why it’s 3 stars! I’ll get out of the weeds!

I added photos so you can see what you get (when I ordered it there wasn’t a good example so I bought it somewhat blindly):

• A bound ribbon to bookmark where you are.
• A one-page weekly summary. -A daily reflection/idea to guide your thoughts. -An empty page split into thirds with lines to jot down morning and evening reflections. -The pages are about 8.25” x 5” inches with 10 empty lines for each reflection. So you end up with two daily questions on some pages. The second question’s answer for that day will end up on the next page. If I was going to point another area for improvement that would be it. Make each page a day/question and improve the paper quality. Then it might be worth the high price.

Overall it’s a great idea but could use minor improvements or a lower price.