Journaling as an activity has passed through generations. People have used journaling for a variety of reasons. Some use it just to write down their daily-life anecdotes, and some use it to consolidate their complex thoughts. Journaling is a potent tool, and it comes with plentiful benefits. We daily encounter loads and loads of information- but how much of it are we able to retain. Learning happens more when we actively engage with our ideas than just passively consuming information.
If with the time you have realized that organizing and planning your thoughts/ schedules/ ideas in your head is not doing the trick, then you may just consider journaling to increase your productivity.
Why it Matters?
- It can help you feel content in life: Research says that people who practice journaling are more ‘mindful’. Being mindful, in turn, helps you stay grounded and feel content.
- Lowers down on Chaos: The more you get acquainted with the entire inner self and your fears. The more you will be able to clutter down your thoughts and bring down the chaos.
- Process your thoughts better: If you choose not to acknowledge feelings that are inside you, they tend to grow, especially if they are negative. Journaling sheds light on your thoughts, making them shrink.
- Good for mental health: There are extensive researches to back this fact that journaling is helpful for your mental well-being. It makes you acknowledge your thoughts as is, enables you to analyze, and then make you informed to take calculated action.
- Great tool for prioritizing: Penning things down, what you want, or need to do ensure that you are not missing on something important. It is a great place to capture and prioritize things.
The How-To Guide for Journaling
Following are the step to step guide to help you get started
1. Set a goal or objective before writing the journal
Always have a #1 Goal that you are working towards before you start writing your journal. Identify that one thing; could be your #1 Life-Goal, or your annual goal or even quarterly goal, it doesn’t matter. Even as a daily exercise of journaling make sure that the goal you are working on is the first thing you write on the top. It calibrates your mind and orient even the smallest things (of your daily life) towards that bigger goal.
When you are confronting your #1 goal on a daily basis, every single day, you keep it at the forefront of your mind. It helps you to stay focused and productive towards achieving goals. It also acts as a fuel to keep you motivated on a daily basis and prevent you from procrastinating.
2. Identify 1-3 targets or intentions for the day
Now that you have an overarching (#1) goal set in place, you have to be consistent with what you do on a daily basis. Daily targets and intentions help you gauge your progress towards the bigger goal. Sometimes we have a goal set far in the future, and then we leave ourselves on ‘Auto-pilot’. Instead of merely operating on autopilot, having daily target forces you work consciously and deliberately towards it.
Also, it gives you better clarity. When you work on autopilot and often end up wasting a lot of time. Working on less important things and tasks instead (this is called Productive Procrastination). They feel productive, but they are not. Their lack of clarity leads to low productivity and slow progress.
3. Write what you learn
It is imperative to write down the lessons you have learned. This is the step where you introspect and reflect on what all things went well and what all things didn’t fair the way you expected it to. Those who skip reflection, fail to improve and, therefore, stay in the same place without growing. By merely introspecting and finding ways to improve can save you from hassles of days, weeks, and even months.
4. Mention your “Wins”
In this step, you may ‘brag’ about yourself and write down all the wins of the day. This is as important as any other step, if not more so. You always can not have a huge celebration for everything, but you must celebrate your little wins while writing your journal.
A lot of people have major issues with their confidence and struggle with their self-worth because they always have their eyes on what they haven’t achieved yet. When you write positive things about your day in a journal, you simply just don’t gain more confidence but also you get into a more productive state of mind to act from.
5. Thoughts and Ideas
Always remember to not use your brain just as a storage device. Your brain is there to do creative tasks, generate ideas, solve problems, and reflect on your behavior. Therefore, it is of utmost importance you keep your mind uncluttered at all moments. you should always write whatever pops up in your head in your journal so that you can think clearly, process your ideas and be more focused.