That’s probably what some of you think when I say I daily journal. Putting down deep dark unfiltered thoughts and secrets that I would never profess to anybody else.
In actuality, that’s not what I do in my journal. My journal acts almost like my daily planner. It has month view for me to see what is going to happen in the upcoming month. Then there are task trackers that helps me keep track of good and bad habits as well as things that are important to me like my weight, blood pressure, and daily cash coming in and out. I also have a daily section that lists what I eat every day for each meals along with how much water I drink.
At the end of every day, I spend some time in the evening filling out what happened that day and how I felt. I fill out all the things that I accomplished or want to keep track of. That was why I was able to make the charts for my blood pressure post. The data was in the past entries of my journal.
I also summarize at the end of the month about what happened the past months. I then talk about the successes and the need improvement points. It helps me to sit and think about how I could make things better for the upcoming month.
At the end of the year, I would wrap up one book with a multi-page summary of what happened during the year and then start a new journal.
The format had evolved through the years. As I mentioned in my gratitude post, I use the Bullet Journal methodology now. I don’t follow it exactly as I don’t keep track of daily tasks on it. I used to but it became too redundant as I mainly keep track in Workflowy on my phone or on the website when I’m on my computers. Previous iterations had me carrying a large blank artist sketchbook with elaborate sections which allow more space to be creative.
I realized I didn’t like carrying with me these huge books wherever I go. Especially when I was traveling every year. I also tried using pocket sized notebooks but found that to be too limiting because of the size. What I’ve settled into are the A5 Dotted journals that purchased from Amazon. I decided to try this one because it gives you more pages and the paper seems to be thicker stock than the Leuchtturm 1917 dotted note books. Those are nice as well but I feel some buy for the name like Moleskine notebooks, which I’ve also bought a few to use through the years.
What I truly enjoy about journaling is that it gets me out of my head when I put things in writing. I allows me to destress as I just write anything and everything if I wanted to. If I really need to destress, I do what is called the Morning Pages which is presented in the book “The Artist Way” by Julia Cameron. Here you just keep writing for a set amount of pages. I forget how many pages but at the end you just throw away the paper. For some reason, when I feel super bummed or stressed, this always does the trick.
In my opinion, people don’t realize how powerful it is to capture a moment in time through writing. When I go back and review my journals, it’s like watching a favorite movie where you are transported there through your memories. You know what was happening at that time and what the outcome from that day you’re reading about but you can look back and learn so much from each entry. It humbles you. It makes you grateful for what happened.
That’s why I highly recommend putting journaling as a good routine. Start small with a gratitude journal and move on from there.
Are you already a daily journal practitioner? What is your methodology? How has it helped you? I would love to hear about how this has helped you in your life.
Featured Photo by Zoran Borojevic on Unsplash
