The Habit of Journaling

What can we do to remember better the key insights that popped in our mind during the day? How can we save precious moments of victory, joy or gratitude? How to properly evaluate the passing day or plan for tomorrow??In this article I will try to answer all of these questions and even more. Let’s talk about the habit of journaling!????

Is listening more convenient for you than reading? If so, visit?this page?or use a popular podcasting app like?Spotify?or?Apple Podcast.

Introduction

Journaling can mean different things to different people. Maybe when you think about journals you see a teenage girl starting her new entry with the words:

“My Dear Diary! Today I experienced something terrible!”.

Or you go to the other extreme and visualize Marcus Aurelius, Oscar Wilde or Ralph Waldo Emerson writing a brilliant thought that will stay with humankind for generations. In this article I would like to show you that each of us can benefit from some kind of journaling and nowadays you have plenty of forms to choose from.

Why is it so essential?

Every time I have a hard nut to crack, I think “on paper”. Writing words down gives me more clarity, a chance to focus on a specific part of an equation, and to move forward instead of falling into a loop of the same thoughts.

I used this technique in key moments in my life, for example when I was thinking about proposing to my future wife Marta. Whenever I was about to make a serious financial decision, like taking a mortgage or producing 1000 copies of my board game, thinking it through by writing my thoughts, emotions and arguments for both options (“yes” or “no”) helped me to achieve a peace of mind.

Writing can be essential when you want to prepare yourself for the best possible future. At the same time it can give you an abundance of benefits when you analyze the past. As a practitioner of stoicism, at the end of each day I enjoy a moment of self-reflection. I write about my today’s discoveries, successes, and failures; about what made this day special and what I am grateful for. These notes enable me to record my life. They make it possible to revisit a specific day, for example 2nd of June, two years ago. Without them this day would be irretrievably lost.

I am not alone in profiting from journaling. Myriad studies show us the advantages of this activity. It helps us with being more mindful, which indirectly contributes to being happier, sleeping better and staying more focused. Writing your thoughts reduces the stress and helps you combat many negative, disrupting emotions. It will be much easier for you to achieve goals when you not only write them down at the beginning of the journey, but you also document every step you take towards your goal.?

Journaling has countless variations. If you don’t believe that you can benefit from a particular type of journaling - just ignore it. Find the one that will be the best for you.

How can you develop a habit of journaling in your own life? [behaviors]

Let me introduce you to 5 types of journaling that I hold dear.

1. One Sentence Diary

In this simple variant, excellent if you are about to have your first journaling experience, you keep a diary and write a new entry every day. But instead of a long written statement about today's events, your goal is to just write 1 sentence. It could be a great insight that you heard in a podcast, read in a book or you came up on your own. It could be a warning to your future self to avoid a similar terrible mistake that you made today or just the opposite - record of your today’s bravery or brilliance.

Because you have the limit of one sentence the process of writing it down takes less than 1 minute. In other words - you have no excuse not to do it. It is simple, easy and rewarding. You can write down “thought of the day” in your smartphone, just after you heard it / read it - always in the same place, for example in one note in Evernote. If you are old fashioned, you can rewrite it in a physical journal when you go back home. This way you can get the best of both worlds: an electronic note enables you to save precious reflection before it slips your mind and a handwritten note increases its perceived value and allows you to remember it better.??

2. Idea Journal

Is writing in a diary every day (even just 1 sentence) too big commitment for you? Try the Idea Journal instead. This time you aren’t obliged to be systematic. You can write irregularly: one day you can leave 5 entries, and then no more for the rest of the week.

As the name suggests in Idea Journal you write down your ideas. About what? Anything you fancy! If you are an entrepreneur, it could be concepts of new products or innovative marketing strategies. If you work as a salesperson, you can write down new ways to approach your clients or maintain a good relationship with them. If you are a manager, you can record ideas on how to motivate your team more.

3. Goal Journal

This kind of journal can play two different roles: your coach and advisor. When you are working towards your goal often you will experience complications or stumbling blocks. Without any support it is very simple to just give up. But if you have a coach that motivates you, says he believes in you, assures you can make it, it will be definitely easier to stay on track. You can be this coach for yourself.

You can give yourself the support you need and also ideas how to overcome obstacles.

Additional benefit of keeping the Goal Journal is monitoring your progress. If you pay close attention to your goal, you can adapt your strategy to the changing circumstances.

The Goal Journal can also play the role of your advisor. The next time you start working on a similar goal, you can read about your previous struggles.

You can avoid painful mistakes by recalling threats and problems that you experienced before.

Because of that, you can prepare for them in advance and eliminate some of them completely. You may also better estimate how much time, money and other resources you will need and reserve them for this project.

4. Gratitude Journal

Another well-known approach to journaling is about expressing gratitude. Each day you write down at least one thing that you appreciate in your life. It can be something small for example a stranger smiled at you or something big; a VIP of your professional field agreed to meet with you.

What are the advantages of keeping this journal? There is a lot of research about it! Let’s discuss only few of them. Firstly,

you can put positive lenses and see the world in brighter colors.

You will focus more on all the good things that are happening in your life. Even though the ratio of ups and downs will remain the same, you will be under the impression that your life changed for the better. Secondly, you can increase your level of happiness because instead of thinking about what is missing, you will be glad about all the things that you already have.

5. Daily Diary

The most mature or the fullest version of journaling is keeping a daily diary. Each day you set aside from 5 to 15 minutes to write about today. You can do it in the morning, in the form of setting your goals or priorities. You can do it in the evening, summarizing your achievements, failures or capturing interesting events. Or if you are exceptionally ambitious you can use both and write 2 entries per day.?

For me it was helpful to create fixed points in my writing. Each evening in my bed I answer 5 questions:

1. What was the most important thing I did today?

2. What did I learn today?

3. For what I am grateful today?

4. What will I do next time differently than today?

5. What do I want to accomplish tomorrow?

In this way I don't have to wonder what to write about. Questions are straightforward and I can answer them with ease in 5 minutes.?

How can you activate a habit of journaling? [triggers]

Let’s examine different types of the journals.?

The easiest and most effective trigger for both One Sentence Diary and Idea Journal would be:

AFTER I read / hear / come up on my own with an inspiring thought, I’ll IMMEDIATELY write it down in my Diary or on my smartphone.

Another possibility could be: AFTER I go to bed, I’ll IMMEDIATELY open my One Sentence Diary and write down interesting insights or rewrite in the journal saved thoughts from my smartphone.

Depending on how many entries you want to put in your Goal Journal, different triggers will do the trick. If you plan to summarize your work towards your goal only once per week, I suggest finding a fixed day and time, for example: AFTER I have breakfast on Saturday, I’ll IMMEDIATELY write about my progress in achieving my goal.

If you prefer to do it every day - then look for an old habit that you do daily, for example: AFTER I turn on my computer for the first time today, I’ll IMMEDIATELY open my Goal Journal and write about what I accomplished yesterday.

For both Gratitude Journal and Daily Diary I suggest finding a good moment in the evening when we can reflect on the passing day. I could be:

AFTER I eat the last meal of the day, I’ll IMMEDIATELY write in my journal

or AFTER I take a bath/shower in the evening, I’ll IMMEDIATELY save my thoughts in the diary.

How can you reward yourself in the habit of journaling? [rewards]

For me the best possible reward is the instant peace and a sense of preserving something precious. Each time I open my Journal I have this feeling that time stops and the outside world leaves my alone, at least for a couple of minutes. And at the same time I'm glad that I can record my memories, plans or ideas. They won’t dissolve into oblivion because I saved them, by writing them down. Because of that I can go back to them anytime I want - not only this week or month, but even after 20 years. It is like a taste of immortality.

But if writing in your Journal for you is not a reward in itself, then you can think about somethings else, for example: THANKS TO THAT I’ll read the fun previous entries

or THANKS TO THAT I’ll look at a special collection of my photos from my greatest past events.?

The complete formula to the habit of journaling [sentence]

Ok. Let’s see how we can put 5 different sets of puzzles together.

One Sentence Diary: AFTER I go to bed, I’ll IMMEDIATELY open my One Sentence Diary and write down interesting insights. THANKS TO THAT I’ll be glad that I won’t forget about something important to me.

Idea Journal: AFTER I read / hear / come up on my own with an inspiring thought, I’ll IMMEDIATELY write it down in my Journal or on my smartphone. THANKS TO THAT I’ll feel great that I have an ever-growing collection of thought-provoking ideas.

Goal Journal: AFTER I have breakfast on Saturday, I’ll IMMEDIATELY write about my progress in achieving my goal. THANKS TO THAT I’ll feel joy that I am closer to reach it or if there is no progress, that I saved valuable lessons for the future.

Gratitude Journal: AFTER I eat the last meal of the day, I’ll IMMEDIATELY write in my journal about what I am grateful for today. THANK TO THAT I’ll feel more happy, because so many good things are happening in my life.

Daily Diary: AFTER I take a bath/shower in the evening, I’ll IMMEDIATELY save my thoughts in the diary. THANKS TO THAT I’ll look through other entries and read the ones that are the funniest or put me in a positive mood.?

Final words

Keeping a diary in the 21st century is a forgotten art. Despite that it can help you with facing many modern challenges like: handling stress in a better way, being more focused and fully aware of your thoughts and feelings. If one of the journalism forms is not appealing to you, you have a 100 more to choose from. For sure you can find the one that will suit you best. It doesn’t have to be on paper - even a computer or smartphone can do the trick.

Use the insights from this article, understand yourself better and see you next time. May the power of good habits be with you!