I love sending “Thinking of You” emails to friends, slowly walking through my neighborhood and appreciating the foliage, and simply saying, “I’m grateful for this” when I eat, work, and play. These little practices help me keep my problems in perspective, keep me grounded, and encourage me to invest in the people I love.

That being said, I noticed earlier this year that my gratitude was primarily limited to my life outside of work. Sure, I was grateful to have a job, but I was lacking the deep appreciation that I thought would encourage me to connect more with my team members, reflect more regularly on my progress, and, most importantly, stop being so hard on myself for mistakes.

Noticing this, I jumped on the idea of keeping a gratitude journal. Unfortunately, it bored me and made me less grateful. Here’s why.

About a week into keeping my journal, gratitude went from something I wanted to feel and instead became an emotion I needed to document. This might be because I did it too often; according to the Greater Good Center at UC Berkeley, writing in your journal once or twice a week is better than writing each day, as burnout is likely to happen.

I also think it’s because while the idea of a gratitude journal appealed to me, it wasn’t the right solution to the problems I was having.

For example, one major challenge I faced was paying attention to my progress, instead of solely focusing on having big wins. While writing in my journal, I didn’t find myself documenting examples of my growth; instead I wrote about people and moments that made me happy or helped me. Not bad, but not quite what I needed.