diff --git a/changelog.d/8040.misc b/changelog.d/8040.misc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a12615139237
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/8040.misc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Change the default log config to reduce disk I/O and storage for new servers.
diff --git a/docs/sample_log_config.yaml b/docs/sample_log_config.yaml
index 1a2739455ef2..403ac005ee48 100644
--- a/docs/sample_log_config.yaml
+++ b/docs/sample_log_config.yaml
@@ -18,13 +18,29 @@ filters:
 
 handlers:
     file:
-        class: logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler
+        class: logging.handlers.TimedRotatingFileHandler
         formatter: precise
         filename: /var/log/matrix-synapse/homeserver.log
-        maxBytes: 104857600
-        backupCount: 10
-        filters: [context]
+        when: midnight
+        backupCount: 3  # Does not include the current log file.
         encoding: utf8
+
+    # Default to buffering writes to log file for efficiency. This means that
+    # will be a delay for INFO/DEBUG logs to get written, but WARNING/ERROR
+    # logs will still be flushed immediately.
+    buffer:
+        class: logging.handlers.MemoryHandler
+        filters: [context]
+        target: file
+        # The capacity is the number of log lines that are buffered before
+        # being written to disk. Increasing this will lead to better
+        # performance, at the expensive of it taking longer for log lines to
+        # be written to disk.
+        capacity: 10
+        flushLevel: 30  # Flush for WARNING logs as well
+
+    # A handler that writes logs to stderr. Unused by default, but can be used
+    # instead of "buffer" and "file" in the logger handlers.
     console:
         class: logging.StreamHandler
         formatter: precise
@@ -36,8 +52,23 @@ loggers:
         # information such as access tokens.
         level: INFO
 
+    twisted:
+        # We send the twisted logging directly to the file handler,
+        # to work around https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/3471
+        # when using "buffer" logger. Use "console" to log to stderr instead.
+        handlers: [file]
+        propagate: false
+
 root:
     level: INFO
-    handlers: [file, console]
+
+    # Write logs to the `buffer` handler, which will buffer them together in memory,
+    # then write them to a file.
+    #
+    # Replace "buffer" with "console" to log to stderr instead. (Note that you'll
+    # also need to update the configuation for the `twisted` logger above, in
+    # this case.)
+    #
+    handlers: [buffer]
 
 disable_existing_loggers: false
diff --git a/synapse/config/logger.py b/synapse/config/logger.py
index dd775a97e884..493e98462d68 100644
--- a/synapse/config/logger.py
+++ b/synapse/config/logger.py
@@ -62,13 +62,29 @@
 
 handlers:
     file:
-        class: logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler
+        class: logging.handlers.TimedRotatingFileHandler
         formatter: precise
         filename: ${log_file}
-        maxBytes: 104857600
-        backupCount: 10
-        filters: [context]
+        when: midnight
+        backupCount: 3  # Does not include the current log file.
         encoding: utf8
+
+    # Default to buffering writes to log file for efficiency. This means that
+    # will be a delay for INFO/DEBUG logs to get written, but WARNING/ERROR
+    # logs will still be flushed immediately.
+    buffer:
+        class: logging.handlers.MemoryHandler
+        filters: [context]
+        target: file
+        # The capacity is the number of log lines that are buffered before
+        # being written to disk. Increasing this will lead to better
+        # performance, at the expensive of it taking longer for log lines to
+        # be written to disk.
+        capacity: 10
+        flushLevel: 30  # Flush for WARNING logs as well
+
+    # A handler that writes logs to stderr. Unused by default, but can be used
+    # instead of "buffer" and "file" in the logger handlers.
     console:
         class: logging.StreamHandler
         formatter: precise
@@ -80,9 +96,24 @@
         # information such as access tokens.
         level: INFO
 
+    twisted:
+        # We send the twisted logging directly to the file handler,
+        # to work around https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/3471
+        # when using "buffer" logger. Use "console" to log to stderr instead.
+        handlers: [file]
+        propagate: false
+
 root:
     level: INFO
-    handlers: [file, console]
+
+    # Write logs to the `buffer` handler, which will buffer them together in memory,
+    # then write them to a file.
+    #
+    # Replace "buffer" with "console" to log to stderr instead. (Note that you'll
+    # also need to update the configuation for the `twisted` logger above, in
+    # this case.)
+    #
+    handlers: [buffer]
 
 disable_existing_loggers: false
 """