How Do You Journal?

Welcome to another post in my 200 Crappy Words Project! Today I’m playing around with journalling!
Do you journal currently? If so, what’s working for you?
If not, can I recommend the Productivity Planner and the 5 Minute Journal from Intelligent Change?
I was turned on to these at the beginning of the year after reading a Tim Ferris post (and here’s a cool video!) saying he found the Five Minute Journal to be incredibly helpful! And I totally want to be like Tim, so I ordered my own straight away!
I’ve been using them now for several months and they have, in fact, been very helpful! They have helped me identify some patterns of behavior that I’d like to adjust (Less wine and chocolate; sad but true. Blood sugar, y’all!) and more productivity, profitability, and peace (stay tuned for an Elite Group Coaching offering focused on this in a few months)!
The challenge that I find with these wonderful tools is that as a minimalist I really dislike having to have a thing. You know, like this actual notebook that needs to travel with me and then I need to make space for in my life and on my bookshelf… #firstworldproblems #thestruggleisreal
Of course, it is kind of nice to have a record of your life and might be fun to flip through these pages again in 5–10 years to see how much I’ve grown but I am still really drawn to the idea of being able to get these same benefits and insights in a digital format.
Now, I have heard that Intelligent Change has a smartphone app for the Five Minute Journal, if that is your cup of tea but I wanted to combine the Productivity Planner and the Five Minute Journal and keep them in an Evernote File and so I created the following template below.
I also modified it to answer yesterdays questions first thing in the morning because I don’t know about you but I NEVER come back at night to do this again. So, doing it all in one shot, once a day works for me. You do you. ;)
3 Amazing Things that Happened yesterday…
How could I have made yesterday even better?
Yesterdays Productivity Score:
I am grateful for…
What would make today great?
Daily affirmations. I am …
If this was the only thing I did today, I’d be satisfied:
Completion of these things will make today even better:
And for an example, here’s a copy of today’s entry.
3 Amazing Things that Happened yesterday…
- Got the garage door installed
- Got all the CNI podcasts uploaded and scheduled
- Had a really great Chinese dinner with Joel
How could I have made yesterday even better?
- More sleep/rest
- Less stress/pressure
- More money/security
Yesterdays Productivity Score: strong 7, profitability 5, peace 3
I am grateful for… our new bed and a good nights sleep. The hurricane that will force everyone and everything to slow down and rest for the weekend. #harvey
What would make today great? Peace. Restoration. Finish my CNI projects before sabbatical.
Daily affirmations. I am … succeeding consistently!
If this was the only thing I did today, I’d be satisfied: Write blog posts. Mine and CNI’s.
Completion of these things will make today even better: a fun and mental palate cleansing Zumba hour and a fun relationship affirming dinner with friends (reservations at 7:30 pm at August E’s!)
