The simplest of habits can have an insanely huge impact on your life. So, building the right ones is important. But what simple task done on a regular basis can have such a huge impact? Journaling, that’s what.
It has been used by many successful people throughout history. From creatives like Leonardo da Vinci to politicians like Winston Churchill. The art of journaling provides an opportunity to explore and expand on your thoughts and ideas. Whether you are dealing with the possibility of imminent invasion or trying to conceive a way to fly, journaling gives your brain an opportunity to unload and examine.
Jim Rohn says, “If you’re serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured, and unique individual, keep a journal.”
So, can I build the habit? And should you try as well?
Journaling for me always brings thoughts of writing about your holidays and travel. Though it includes a lot more than that. You can write about your feelings, your weekly to-dos or your current project, if it involves reflecting or exploring something relevant to your life, then it’s journaling. Some versions of journaling are gratitude, emotional release , bullet and interstitial journaling.
Gratitude journaling involves writing down a selection of things you are grateful for. It is often recommended you write three but can be more. The aim of this is to increase your appreciation of your life and to think about the small things in life.
Emotional release journaling is writing about your emotional responses to situations throughout your day. This offers a great way to release emotion that you might otherwise bottle up and helps you understand your emotions better.
Bullet journaling is a form of a to-do list that involves planning your daily activities, goals and even collecting memories. This is a popular choice among the personal development community and entrepreneurs as it focuses on productivity, getting stuff done and ticking boxes.
Interstitial journaling is a form of productivity journaling. During your day, anytime you stop and move from one task to another, simple stop and write about what you just did and what you are about to do. The benefit of this form of journaling is that it helps your brain stop thinking about the first task and move onto the next. When you multitask and swap between one task to another and then back again, your brain experiences a lag where it is still thinking about the last problem.
Having tried and failed at journaling a number of times throughout my life, I was mindful to adjust my technique this time around. For this attempt I decided to use a two-book method which involves always having a Field Notes 48-page memo book on me at all times and then a classic Moleskin notebook at home.
As for the writing. Well I decided to not restrict myself to any specific type of writing. I do however restrict what I write in each notebook.
My Field Notes notebook, I write a weekly habit list at the start of the week along with a to do list of other tasks I aim to get down that week. Then each day I write any short notes I want to remember. This can include my feelings about a situation, a project idea or a quote from a book I read.
Then at the end of each day I expand on any notes I have by writing into my Moleskin. This allows me to collect and expand ideas with more writing space. My Moleskin therefore has a mix between pages on blog post ideas, goal planning, project plans, emotional release writing and memories writing.
So how should you start journaling? Start by having a think about what it is you want to journal about and why? Having a strong why is important and you will find is a foundational feature for most habits. You might be about to go traveling and want to collect your daily adventures. Thus, you might choose to use just one notebook and only write in it once a day. For others you might have recently gone through a break up and want to try emotional release writing. You therefore could try a two-notebook method collect situations throughout the day with a brief feeling you had and then elaborate on those moments into a bigger notebook at the end of the day.
At the end of the day, just experiment. Try writing about different things as they interest you. My main suggestion I would have for anyone that does want to start journaling is to always have at notepad within reach. You never know when you might feel like writing something down. I have found the habit is built a lot easier if you don’t restrict writing to a set time of day and instead allow yourself to write at any moment. Habits are built through repetition. So, make sure you don’t let yourself go more than 2 days without writing some of your thoughts.
Go out and write. Let your writing capture your own imagination.
www.verywellmind.com/the-benefits-of-journaling-for-stress-management-3144611
www.artofmanliness.com/articles/jumpstart-your-journaling-a-31-day-challenge
medium.com/thrive-global/start-journaling-54ea2edb104
www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/6-ways-journaling-will-change-your-life.html
advice.shinetext.com/articles/heres-how-to-actually-make-journaling-a-habit/
medium.com/thrive-global/start-journaling-54ea2edb104
medium.com/better-humans/replace-your-to-do-list-with-interstitial-journaling-to-increase-productivity-4e43109d15ef