Topic 2 — The ultimate guide to finally start journaling
In my previous article, I wrote about the ‘Why’ of journaling, which drove me to maintain an unbroken 1050+ day streak of having journaled consecutively. That particular ‘Why’ was quite personal to me, and it might not encourage everyone. Today, I want to guide you to the actual ‘How’ of journaling so you can finally pick up the journal and start writing.
I could have given out a list of writing prompts to help people write, but from personal experience, it’s not that simple. The most common responses to asking why someone doesn’t journal are “they don’t have time” or “they don’t know where to start.”
I’m still trying to convince people there is enough time once you start using the time you have.
But I could make this post to help people break down the perceived barriers of entry to journaling. I hope each of you reading this article finds your meaningful prompt from this process of discovery and realisation.
Time is a created thing. To say “I don’t have time” is like saying, “I don’t want to.”
- Lao Tzu
Why should you journal?
Nosce te Ipsum (Know Thyself)
- Temple of Apollo at Delphi
We all find different reasons for journaling. The purest form is for knowing yourself. What you write is for your eyes only. You might choose to share someday some pages of what you write with your partner, parents, or kids. But when you write, it should be bold, audacious & blatant that it’s written for you. You are the target audience. After all, these words will mean a lot more to you than anyone else. That’s something you should remember. Don’t expect others to have tears in their eyes with your narrative of an occurrence only you experienced.
Knowing is the first step on the road to self-growth. Growth is the term I prefer, which seems optimistic compared to improvement or help.
Our minds are littered with thoughts from when we wake up to when we fall asleep. Journaling allows us to declutter our minds. If we can start each day anew, having poured our hearts and thoughts onto the pages of our journal, we’ll elevate ourselves and seize the day.
When we’re feeling low, it helps to have a dose of gratitude wash over us. Knowing we have things to be thankful for works wonders for the restless mind, which is why most journaling experts recommend a gratitude journal. You could write this daily or on those special days when you feel nature is conspiring against you.
An extra benefit most people don’t realise of journaling is that it even makes you a better writer. In the age of social distancing & remote work, written communication has become critical. In 2020 writing with precision is a must-have skill to survive and thrive in this new normal.
How to start?
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now
- Chinese Proverb
While knowing the road is winning half the battle, walking it will take you to the destination. Getting started is the trickiest part. Once you begin writing, the words will flow. You’ll find yourself wondering why you didn’t start earlier.
Below are some specific methods for starting your journey towards self-growth through journaling. I’ll be expanding upon each of these in future posts, but now, I want to introduce them to you. I recommend each of them but pick one that suits you the most and start.
- Morning pages or stream of consciousness writing
Julia Cameron introduced this technique in the book The Artist’s Way.
It involves doing your writing first thing in the morning using a physical pen and paper. The idea is to fill out three full pages of paper by putting down all your thoughts as you feel them. The critical part here is you don’t stop writing to judge your thoughts or even have second thoughts. Write it out as a natural stream of your consciousness. You’ll surprise yourself with how many ideas you wake up to each morning.
Once done, close the book and move on with your day. It would help if you did not dwell on your morning pages or refer to them unless there is a specific idea you want to take out of your journal and work on later.
While you shouldn’t expect any miracles overnight, commit to this process, and see the rewards.
- Writing about what you do, a.k.a Transition Journaling
I learned about Interstitial journaling soon after returning to work after hitting my nadir in August 2019, as detailed in my previous post here. Tony Stubblebine wrote about this on Medium.
I prefer calling this method Transition journaling. It combines the best of a to-do list, journal, and time tracker. Instead of focusing throughout the working day on the To-do list, you plan your day and then focus on actually doing the things you meant to do that day.
Today, all knowledge workers will agree that there are tiny bubbles in the day when you are transitioning. These moments of opportunity could be between meetings, waiting for someone to join the conference call, or when you move from one task to another. All you need to do is jot down simple one-line log entries of what you’ve done and what you’re doing next. This process helps you restore some cognitive bandwidth by putting thoughts on paper. It also enables you to keep track of how effective you are.
Everything requires time. It is the only truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet, most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable, and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time.
- Peter Drucker
I recommend you use your favourite note-taking apps for this. Most apps have a shortcut to insert the current timestamp automatically. You want the note-entering process to be as seamless as possible, so you use it daily.
A regular paper notebook or bullet journal would also work, but it lacks the search feature, which is vital in this method. Transition journaling works best when you do a weekly review. The review tells you how you spent your days and helps you plan for next week.
I saw the immediate benefits of doing this journal. I cut short my procrastination, external interruptions, and bouts of laziness. Let me give you an example of the power of this insightful tactic with a typical journal entry.
Tuesday 23rd June 11:15 am.
Done with the second cup of coffee and email — I need to work on my presentation.
Tuesday 23rd June 11:45 am.
I didn’t end up working on the presentation. I got distracted by browsing my Twitter & Instagram feeds. Maybe tomorrow.
I don’t want to admit to myself that I have failed. I’m sure I won’t be able to face myself for much longer. Words on a screen somehow affect us more than random thoughts in our minds. I might be okay with that entry for two consecutive days, but on the third day, I will write out:
Friday 26th June 1:11 pm.
I am done with my third cup of coffee and email and procrastinating by focusing on cleaning up all the open tabs from this week.
That’s it; no more putting it off. Now I’m going to start working on my presentation.
Friday 26th June 2:26 pm.
Wow. I finished the first draft of my presentation. That wasn’t so difficult, after all. I only needed to get to it. I’m now attacking the sales projections spreadsheet.
- Idea Journal
The most flexible way to start is by creating a journal for ideas. Everyone has ideas. Some are good ideas, some are bad, and most are average ideas. Yet you must write each one down. You never know when a few ordinary ideas might assimilate into a grander one for you to use in life.
A few things will happen after you start an idea journal.
You will read the ideas you’ve written down and expand on them.
You’ll add to the list of ideas.
Or maybe you might be spurred onwards to writing something new and exciting.
Idea Journaling has no rigidity to structure or schedule. Some people need a formal system to be able to journal, while others will appreciate the freeform style.
- Evening pages
A concept derived from morning pages; is a daily recurring method of writing down your thoughts before bed.
The prompts you could use include:
The things you wanted to do that day
The stuff you ended up doing
The tasks you want to achieve tomorrow
The things you are grateful for
The things that upset you
The fears you have
Feel free to add other similar prompts to flesh out the entries more. The key here and everywhere in journaling is honesty with yourself. You also want to keep the answers to these prompts about yourself so you stop blaming others for things that happen in your life.
Evening pages are an excellent way to go to bed with a clean slate.
If you use your mind as a memory bank, the past will repeat itself in cycles. If your mind becomes pure attention, you will know everything that is worth knowing.
- Sadhguru
Helpful hacks
Now we come to the section where I’m going to make life easy for you. If you’ve come this far, I’m sure you want to progress in your goal of journaling in 2020 and beyond. But despite reading everything above, you might still have doubts. Is this journaling business something YOU can do? Anyone can journal; everyone should, but most people don’t. Wouldn’t life be much better if everyone could write down how they felt and learn to tune into their feelings? What if people knew the power of mere words that no other human being might ever read? Mental health professionals might find themselves short of business.
Here are some helpful hacks to aid your process:
- Simple words — People assume journal entries are like Hemingway’s masterpieces. No, they’re not. Remember, you are writing for yourself. You don’t need to use spell checkers, Thesauruses, or Grammarly because no one else will judge you. Use simple words and short sentences to get comfortable writing.
- Mindful moments — Often, in the hustle of our day-to-day lives, we can’t always take out the time to write. While it’s best to schedule this writing time, you often end up with a single thought on the go. You don’t have the time or energy to flesh out an entire monograph on the concept. Instead of pushing these thoughts away, you must embrace them for what they are. I call these Mindful moments. I have a separate journal especially meant for such one or three-line entries. I never expand on them later — trusting myself to remember the context, and often I do. The key is to capture the essence of the moment and write.
- Be honest — You are writing for yourself. Why would you want to lie to yourself? If it makes you feel better, then go ahead by all means. You might fantasise and write down that you earned a million dollars today. But if you’re looking for real growth towards real goals, wouldn’t it be better to acknowledge you need to work on your dream business plan? You could write down that you’re happy you fell in love today. But wouldn’t it be enriching if you write down that you need to build up the confidence to ask out the person you found interesting at the coffee shop? The key is, to be honest with yourself.
- Write — What about the day you feel stuck and don’t know what to write? That’s the day you should open your journal (book/app — the medium doesn’t matter) and write down why you feel stuck. You will see how fast you get unstuck.
- Don’t look back — If you feel like you are struggling with journaling, you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself by demanding a higher quality journal entry or meaningful insights every time. It doesn’t have to be so fantastic. Tell yourself that you won’t read your journal entries unless you’ve written for thirty days or have a hundred entries logged. Once you hit a particular milestone, you may look back and see how your writing may have improved or see a thought pattern emerge.
- Use images — Sometimes, no words are necessary for how you feel. That’s when ideas come in handy. Instead of uploading to Instagram or Facebook for the world, how about adding a picture for yourself? Add photos of your kids, pets, partner, or house regularly. Your journal will soon become a private photo gallery for you to browse. If you can add captions or a few sentences to each picture to give it some context, the journaling experience becomes more enjoyable.
In conclusion : Begin writing
If you don’t have 10 minutes, you don’t have a life.
- Tony Robbins
I’ve written enough above.
Now it’s your turn to start journaling.
Don’t try for fancy or complicated.
Just get started.
Next time I’ll cover the art of building successful habits to help you continue long-term journaling.
