Have you ever felt like your head was too full? Have you ever told strangers about your worries without realizing what you were doing? Do you have problems sleeping at night? Are you an overthinker?

I identify with all of these things, and what has helped me deal with them the most has been keeping a journal. Most people think its silly or a waste of time to write your thoughts down, or else the immediate “Dear Diary” cliché comes to mind. Here are the five main reasons why I think keeping a diary is worth your time:

1. You don’t have to begin with “Dear Diary” and you don’t have to write everything down or write every day.

Write what you feel like writing, when you feel like writing. What works best for me is to write when my head feels too full or I can’t stop thinking about something.

2. Writing things down may give you new insight into a particular situation.

Whether this is because you are able to see the whole situation in one place, or because you are forced to place events in some order when you write them down and this allows you to see how the situation evolved into the problem you are dealing with.

3. When I write things down, I overthink less.

Whether its because writing gives me the illusion that I am doing something proactive, or due to the fact that if I wrote something down I can physically see how I thought it through and so don’t have to keep going in circles, I just know that it helps.

4. It helps me sleep.

I have a lot of insomnia, and I have heard numerous tips to deal with this, but I found that what works best for me is to write things down whenever I can’t sleep. Even if nothing eventful happened, I start narrating my day and something comes up for me to write about, and this is often what is keeping me from sleeping.

5. It will help me in the future.

You are able to read your diaries in the future and remember exactly how something made you feel or what you thought about a particular situation.