How Nicole Junkerman Turns Curiosity into a Daily Habit

Curiosity is often spoken of as a gift, something you either have or you do not. Nicole Junkerman sees it differently. Curiosity is far more like a muscle: it can be exercised, strengthened and built into a daily habit, or it can be allowed to stiffen from neglect. This page is about the small, repeatable practices Nicole Junkerman uses to keep a curious mind awake, day after day, without any pressure or strain.

The science is encouraging here. curiosity is closely tied to attention, motivation and memory, and crucially it responds to use. The more you follow your questions, the more questions you find yourself asking. The aim of a daily curiosity habit is simply to keep that loop turning, so the muscle stays strong rather than slack.

Follow the small questions

Most curiosity dies not from lack of questions but from the habit of ignoring them. A word you do not know, a process you have never understood, a why that flickers and is dismissed. Nicole Junkerman tries to do the opposite, and to actually follow the small questions as they arise. When something prompts a flicker of curiosity, the habit is to pause and chase it, even briefly, rather than letting it pass unexamined.

This need not take long. A quick look at Wikipedia, a short explanation on Khan Academy, a single clear paragraph from BBC Bitesize, and the small itch is scratched. The point is not depth in the moment but responsiveness: showing your own mind that its questions will be honoured rather than waved away. Nicole Junkerman finds that the more reliably you answer the small questions, the more freely the interesting ones begin to arrive.

Build curiosity into the day

Daily habits work best when tied to things you already do, and curiosity is no exception. Nicole Junkerman attaches small curious practices to the existing shape of the day, so they need no separate willpower of their own:

• A word looked up properly over morning coffee, rather than half-guessed and forgotten.
• One genuinely curious question asked of someone, in place of the usual automatic small talk.
• A short walk taken with attention, noticing one thing you have never properly looked at before.
• A single page of something unfamiliar before sleep, just enough to leave a question for the morning.

None of these is demanding, and that is exactly the point. A curiosity habit that depends on grand effort will not survive a tired week. One that hides inside the things you already do every day will quietly persist for years. Nicole Junkerman builds for the ordinary day, not the ideal one, because the ordinary day is the one that actually comes around.

The notebook as a curiosity engine

A learning notebook and a daily curiosity habit feed each other beautifully. The questions you chase become notes, and the notes, when revisited, spark fresh questions. Nicole Junkerman keeps a running list of open questions in the notebook, small mysteries to return to when there is a spare moment. Far from feeling like a backlog, the list is a quiet pleasure, a standing promise that there is always something interesting waiting to be understood.

Curiosity and wellbeing

A daily curiosity habit does more than make you better informed. There is a steady, grounding pleasure in staying interested in the world, and it is no accident that taking notice and learning new things appear among the simple, everyday habits that bodies such as the NHS link to wellbeing in guidance like the NHS five steps to wellbeing. This is emphatically not medical advice, and Nicole Junkerman would never present it as such. It is simply that a curious life tends to be a more engaged and contented one, and that is worth tending.

There is a social warmth to it as well. Curious people tend to be good company, because genuine interest in the world usually extends to genuine interest in other people. The habit of asking real questions, rather than reaching for the automatic phrase, makes for richer conversations and closer friendships. Nicole Junkerman finds that curiosity, practised daily, quietly improves not just what you know but how you relate to the people around you.

Keeping it light, keeping it going

As with every habit worth keeping, the secret is to keep it light. A curiosity habit should never feel like homework. Some days you will chase a dozen questions down delightful rabbit holes; other days a single looked-up word is plenty, and both are entirely fine. Nicole Junkerman keeps a firm rule against turning curiosity into yet another performance to keep up. The aim is to stay genuinely interested, not to prove anything to anyone, least of all yourself.

Curiosity in conversation

Some of the most rewarding curiosity is aimed not at books but at people. Everyone you meet knows things you do not, and a single genuine question, asked with real interest, can open a conversation far richer than the usual exchange of pleasantries. Nicole Junkerman tries to bring a curious ear to ordinary encounters, asking how something is done, why a person came to love their work, what they wish more people understood. The answers are often the best learning of the day.

This kind of curiosity has a warmth to it that solitary study cannot match. People generally light up when their genuine knowledge or experience is met with sincere interest, and the conversation that follows tends to teach both sides something. Nicole Junkerman finds that a curious question, offered without agenda, is also a small act of generosity, a way of telling another person that what they know and have lived is worth hearing about.

The notebook, naturally, has a place here too. A surprising fact or a memorable turn of phrase from a conversation deserves to be written down before it fades, just as a line from a book would be. Curiosity practised in company and curiosity practised in reading feed the same store, and both, as the gentle wellbeing guidance in the NHS five steps to wellbeing suggests, help keep a person engaged with the world. Nicole Junkerman keeps no firm line between the two; they are simply curiosity, pointed at different parts of life.

So follow your small questions, tuck a few curious practices into the day, keep a list of open mysteries, and hold the whole thing lightly. Do that, and curiosity stops being an occasional visitor and becomes a steady companion. For a monthly version of this habit, see learning something new every month, and to capture what you find, note-taking that sticks. It all begins again, as always, with Nicole Junkerman.

Published 3 May 2026 · by Nicole Junkerman