8 Simple Ways To Get More Out of Journaling
Go beyond narrating your day.
Don’t dismiss the power of a good journaling session. I took up journaling more than 10 years ago and I never looked back. I’ve navigated many challenging situations in my life with the help of journaling and I learned how to employ different techniques to suit my needs.
Journaling is one of those universal activities, that’s been done for millennia, because it has the capacity to unveil the deepest layers of our being. It can be both exploratory and functional, dreamy or practical.
Famous journals like Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations or the diary of Anne Frank inspired whole generations and taught us about the character of the human condition.
You don’t need to be a famous emperor to benefit from the gifts of journaling. And even if no one’s going to read your writings after you die, it’s still worth while to sustain a journaling practice to help you untangle your thought and get a grip on life.
So here are the journaling techniques that I’ve successfully used over the last 10 years to quiet my mind, bring clarity, design my life (and more).
Mind Dump
Just what it sounds like. Sometimes so many ideas buzz through our head, like an army of mosquitos, but we can’t seem to be able to pin them down. Such a state is characterized by anxiety and that nagging feeling that something is off.
So the best way to gain clarity and improve your mood is to pin those suckers down. As if you were to take a glass for each mosquito and trap it underneath.
It’s a stream of consciousness style of writing that will help you get every nagging thought on paper, so you can focus on addressing (or releasing) every one of them. The structure is not important, it can be a list, bullet points, or a mind map.
I usually find that my “mind dumps” contain tasks, worries, feelings or minor inconveniences.
If you can’t start from scratch, here are some prompts that I’ve found useful:
- What thoughts/worries have been consuming me lately?
- What are some things I’ve been postponing?
- What do I keep forgetting to do?
Morning Pages
This is a technique popularized by writer Julia Cameron. The premise is simple: in the morning, before you do anything else, write by hand 3 pages of your stream of consciousness. As Julia likes to say:
There is no wrong way to do the pages. You simply keep your hand moving across the page.
Very important: don’t re-read what you just wrote. Tear, shred, burn, crumble or throw away your pages after you’re done. The whole purpose of this exercise is to get the words out of your system, so why would you review them? Simply get on with your day.
I’ve used this exercise regularly last year, but I’ve stopped doing it everyday. I only come back to it when I feel there’s a lot playing on my mind. It find it acts like a void that has the ability to absorb all my worries and overthinking and melt them away.
Morning Planning
Different from Morning pages, this type of journaling technique can take many forms.
I think the best use of this exercise is to put everything into perspective, to set the tone for the day and remind you of what’s essential and what’s merely optional.
By being intentional with how you want to spend you day and the expectations you set for yourself, you chances of success will be much higher. If you don’t have time in the morning, you can write these the night before, and review them when you wake up.
Prompts I like to use:
- What do I need to do today?
- What do I want to do today?
- How can I feel more joy today?
- How do I want to be today?
Some other ideas to consider:
- 1 non-negotiable task I will do
- 1 optional task
- The focus of today: business, family, work, health, school, relaxation
- Attitude: assertive, focused, unapologetic, honest, kind
Daily Review
This is a great opportunity to assess the day and get “closure”. It will teach you to pause, reflect and take an objective look at how you spent the last 24h.
Running on autopilot is way too common in today’s world, but taking the time to punctuate our life with moments of contemplation can make all the difference. We can notice common patterns and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves.
This is what I write every evening:
1) Something I should have done, but didn’t do
Example: Finish writing the article on X topic
2) Something I shouldn’t have done, but did
Example: Judged X person for Y behavior
3) Highlight of the day
Example: Eating a delicious meal in my favorite restaurant
4) One small detail that I want to remember
Example: My orchids are in bloom
Feel free to switch it up according to what’s relevant to you.
One Line a Day
Years ago, I bought a 365-page journal where I could write one line a day, every day. It had space for 5 years. It became interesting to compare how my interests changed and how entries from the same day differed from one year to another. Because the space is limited, I would only include the most memorable event of that day or the overall feeling.
I definitely think it’s a worthwhile practice and it will be so satisfying to open that journal years later and be able to get a bird eye view of what you life used to be like in the past.
Life Design
This is the most comprehensive of the exercises, suitable for long term visions, 1 year or more. It can be done any time you need to reexamine your direction in life. There are no doubt a lot of ways to go about this, this is simply how I prefer to approach it.
The purpose of this journaling activity is to determine how you want your life to look like in the next year(s). I found it beneficial to separate this into life areas: such as career, family, social, health, wealth and leisure. Add any other that are relevant to you.
For each, I like to first write about where I am and then where I wish to be.
Example: Health
Where I am: I Rely too much on take out, I don’t always reach my daily steps.
Where I want to be: Introduce more home cooked meals into my diet and find creative ways to move more.
After I finish each life area, I like to focus on the specifics, and write out in detail what an ideal day would look like and then what my life in general would consist of.
Incorporate as much of the Where I wish to be thoughts into this, to see how it all ties together. The more details, the better.
This is not a place to think about goal setting and precise planning. It’s called “life design”, not “life planning”. But of course, in order to make this a reality, you need take into account everything you’ve written here and apply a systematic approach to it, based on goal and small steps.
Dream Journal
By exposing the hidden dream-thoughts, we have confirmed in general that the dream does continue the motivation and interests of waking life, for dream-thoughts are engaged only with what seems to be important and of great interest to us. (Freud)
Dreams are believed to be a portal into our subconscious mind. They can offer a glimpse into the things that are weighing down on your psyche, but which you may be suppressing.
Recurring themes in your dreams can indicate unresolved problems or issues that perhaps need to be addressed. I’ve definitely noticed a correlation between my dreams and what I was going through in my life.
I usually write my dreams after I wake up, right before my morning pages or morning planning.
Workout Journal
I like to keep a record of my workouts, to ensure I keep progressing and diversifying my movement practice.
Sometimes, I am lazy or busy and resort to a YouTube workout video that has done all the work for me (well, at least the programming). But when I have time, I like to design my on exercise routine and I always write it down for future reference.
I include the exercise, sets, reps, rest and weight used. I may also include other important details like: my energy level, how hard was each exercise and whether anything felt off (due to injury etc).
