You need to start journaling.
“That’s pretty presumptuous of you, Diane!” You may think that right now, and that’s OK. I challenge you to find 45 minutes of free time today and sit through the videos I am about to discuss.
Through journaling you could be happier, healthier, and smarter. That’s not hyperbole. And you could be writing the story of your own life. Not just who you were, or where you are, but crafting your future as well.
Journaling: A Powerful Personal Transformation Tool is a free course on Udemy. It is 42 minutes of video lectures. The course curriculum reads like a table of contents for a whole series of blog posts. This course is loaded with useful takeaways.
I am so incredibly thankful to the instructor, Nisha Sahadevan, for giving us, as one reviewer put it, this gift. This course clarified journaling for me. It taught me what to write, when, and the understanding of why I write. And it inspired me to write more frequently.
How will this course help you? Nisha first addresses something that I was not even really clear about, even though I have been keeping a journal for years (though infrequently).
What is a Journal?
“A journal is a written record of your thoughts, experiences, and observations.”
One key insight from this course is to distinguish between a diary and a journal. Essentially a diary is a record of the day’s events, facts. A journal is a record of your thoughts and feelings; reflections on what the day’s events mean.
This gets to the heart of the matter when you try to start journaling. You have to know what you are trying to accomplish. What data do you want to record? Why?
Listen to your inner monologue. “I want to start a journal.” OK, why? What does a journal mean to me? Question yourself. What else are you not saying to yourself about journaling?
Knowing the differences between diary and journal does not mean you must choose one or the other. Understanding the differences gives you new ways to look at what you are creating. It allows you to derive greater insight about your own internal thoughts and motivations.
Why Should You Journal?
Journaling provides a long list of benefits. Here are just a few.
Expressing your own thoughts and feelings connects you more with your own emotions. That, in turn, improves your emotional intelligence. It helps you connect better with other people. It helps you develop healthier relationships.
Journaling captures and improves your memories. Writing about events in your life, and re-reading them later, are repetitions, which strengthen the memories. The theme of re-reading your journal is reiterated throughout the course. Seeing where you came from, who you were, and learning from yourself are powerful concepts. But it takes time to start seeing these benefits.
Another benefit is improved creativity. As we will see later, writing down your ideas has benefits both now and when you return to read those later. It is reinvesting in your own creativity, nurturing and helping your creative energy and output to grow.
The course covers even more benefits. Improved vocabulary. Increased likelihood of achieving your goals. Improved self-discipline. Self-healing. Reduced stress. Lower anxiety. And more.
From the list in this course alone, it should be clear that keeping a journal will bring a ton of benefits. Is there a catch? Do you have to spend a lot of time writing in your journal? Surprisingly no!
You can spend only a few minutes writing in your journal to gain the benefits, and the next section provides different ways to accomplish that.
5 Journaling Techniques – Ways to Write
The course covers five different techniques for journaling. And remember, you can mix and match different techniques at different times, because this is your journal!
Reflective Journaling to Think Critically About Events in Your Life
Consider a recent event in your life that you want to write about. Answering the following questions is the essence of reflective journaling.
What happened? What did you think about it? At the time, what did you assume you knew, but were wrong? What did you believe? What has changed since the event? Are you different? How can you solve the problem, or improve the situation now?
Free-form Writing to Think Introspectively
When you want to write, but maybe not about a specific event, free-form writing is a tool to help get the words out. Set a timer and start writing. Don’t think. Don’t edit. Don’t self-censor. Don’t judge. Just write. Write. Keep writing until the timer goes off. Exhale.
Free-form writing will help bring clarity, brainstorm ideas, and heal your past.
Proprioceptive Writing to Listen to Your Inner Voice
Like free-form writing, but now you tune-in and listen to your inner voice. You think about your own thoughts. Reflect on the meaning of those thoughts. As you reflect, start writing with the prompt “What do I mean by _____?”
List Making to Develop and See The Many Options Before Us
Each of us is filled with ideas and choices. How do we see beyond the one or two things in front of us to the wider range of possibilities?
Write a list of at least 25 items about the topic, or question, or idea you are thinking about.
Quick Journaling to Get Started The Easy Way
When just getting started, or if you are low on energy, you may want a simple solution to ease you into the habit of journaling, or help you just write something.
A one-sentence journal entry can capture a thought, an idea, a feeling, anything you want to remember from the day’s events.
Even more brief, an Adjective journal describes your day in a single word. Add another adjective for how you want tomorrow to be described at the end of the day.
Journaling Mediums – Deciding The Right Tool For The Job
You have two options for where to keep your journal: on paper, or digitally.
A physical journal is traditional, tactile. You hold it and all the information in it as your own. But it could be lost. Someone could pick it up and read it.
A digital journal has other trade-offs. Lots of software options are available (some specific apps are mentioned in the course). Your data is synchronized across devices and potentially searchable. It can be password protected. But you don’t own the data. It can be lost due to hackers or the company shutting down without warning.
5 Types of Journals – What to Write About
Different purposes for writing, or what to write about, benefit from using different types of journals.
Gratitude Journal
Write about what you are grateful for each day.
One such journal I have kept for a few years is the Five Minute Journal. This format asks you to write three things you are grateful for each day. I do not write in this journal every day. Sometimes I struggle to come up with entries that are meaningful to me. I feel like a phony if I force it and write how I’m grateful for the ink in my pen, or I’m grateful for my breakfast this morning. It feels contrived. But I digress…
Idea Journal
Record your ideas, or they will slip away, like last night’s dream. The ideas might be good. They might be bad. They might be crazy. Record them anyway. The idea journal is how you continue to invest in your creativity. Capturing your ideas helps you remember them. Reading them again later helps fuel more ideas in the future.
Progress Journal
Recording what you do over time helps preserve memories. Reviewing it later helps you see trends. This blurs the line between diary and journal somewhat, but capturing facts about the day’s events does have benefits.
Pro Tip: Have your team keep a progress journal on a project. This brings people together to record their shared experience and benefit collectively!
Learning Journal
Writing down what you learn helps retention, and serves as a reminder about your growth. This is one reason DianeRoseBooks.com exists. And it works. I have learned, retained, and put to use more from the last three online courses I took because I wrote about them for this blog.
You can also write down what you plan to learn. This helps remind us to keep growing. To love life and learning, I say 🙂
Productivity Journal
Unlike a progress journal, where you capture what happened, in a productivity journal, you capture what needs to get done. Goals, projects, and to do lists are common entries.
Getting these things out of your head and into a trusted source improves your clarity and ability to focus.
Basic Journaling Guidelines
Having looked at what to write, how to write, and what tools to use, it is important to take a step back and cover a few overall guidelines about using your journal.
Protect Your Privacy With a Note or Password To Give You Peace of Mind
Of course, writing a note in the front of your journal is no guarantee that nobody will read it. But it does give you peace of mind. Knowing that you actively take steps to protect your privacy will let your mind open up and write honestly.
Begin Each Journaling Session With An Entrance Meditation
Use simple techniques to quiet your mind, get into the moment, and prepare to write. This can be as simple as focusing and taking a few deep breaths. It does not have to be complex or time-consuming.
Date Every Entry
When you return to read journal entries in the future, you will want to know when entries were written. Dates are also useful for tracking how frequently you journal.
Keep Your Journal, Even After It Is Full
Re-read your old journals from time to time. Explore who you were. Remind yourself of where you have been. Your journals are the story of your life. Do not throw that away.
Aside: The book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less recommends reading over your recent journal every 90 days. I include this as part of my quarterly review and planning process.
Start Writing and Keep Writing
Start with a topic, or a prompt when you sit down to write in your journal. Once you start writing, keep going, without editing. This is akin to free-form writing.
Write The Truth
Writing the truth may be hard at first. You may be tempted to self-censor. Or gloss over the difficult reality. Or revise events to seem less significant. Don’t. This is your journal and the one person you cannot fool is yourself.
Write Naturally
Remember that writing in your journal is not an assignment for school. There are no rules or grammar police. Let the ideas flow onto the page, whether in words, pictures, lines, shapes, or any combination of ways you want to express yourself.
Review These Guidelines Frequently
When you are just getting started, it is important to remind yourself about these guidelines. I recommend glancing at this list as part of your entrance meditation.
5 WRITE Steps For Beginners
Are you ready to get started with your journal? Follow these five steps:
- What topic do you want to write about?
- Reflect – “I feel…”, “I want…”
- Investigate your thoughts and feelings; pour out the truth from your mind
- Time yourself – don’t quit too soon
- Exit smart – reread what you wrote and think about it
The Complete Journaling Quickstart Guide
Journaling: A Powerful Personal Transformation Tool packs a ton of information into only 42 minutes of video. I captured four pages of notes! Each section is informative and drives you toward action. No fluff here.
If you journal sometimes and want inspiration to do more, or you’re just getting started, or you’re not sure how to get started, I highly recommend enrolling in the course.
Also feel free to download my handy course guide below, which includes my notes.
Happy Journaling!
